Western Bulldogs
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The Western Bulldogs, formerly known as the Footscray Football Club or The Bulldogs is an Australian Football League (AFL) club based at the Whitten Oval in western suburban Melbourne, Australia, drawing its supporter base from this traditionally poor, industrial, and less leafy part of Melbourne. Virtually since its founding, it has been one of the league's less successful clubs, both in terms of on-field success and off-field resources.
It has won only one premiership, in 1954.
This success was in no small part due to two champions of the club- Charlie Sutton the wiley and tough Captain/Coach and the clubs and one of Australian Rules' best ever players, Ted Whitten. Charlie claims to have invented the modern play on style of football- run, handball, run, kick. While Teddy Whitten has been the source of more arguments on who is the greatest player than any other to grace the fields of Australian Rules Football.
Both before and after 1954 the club struggled to make the final '4' however it almost always managed to hold itself a few games above the 'cellar dwellers' on the ladder.
It had players of both quality and character such as Charlie and Ted, later Gary Dempsey the heroic ruckman who was badly burnt in bushfires in 1967 but managed to take out the games top individual award the 'Brownlow' in 1975. Or Dougie Hawkins the rogish lad as much at home with a beer as taking on the likes of 'Dipper' on the outer wing of the Western (Whitten) Oval. Even Simon 'the Pieman' Beasley a deadly accurate Full Forward and stockbroker who broke the image of blue collar players at the club. (He's now a bookmaker- not so different from a stockbroker!)
In the dim distant past (1900 to 1925) the club won a string of premierships in the VFA, but after the mightiest clubs had broken away and formed the VFL, the forerunner of the AFL.
Under tightly focussed management by club president David Smorgon, driven coaching by Terry Wallace, and the on-field leadership of Chris Grant and Tony Liberatore, the club had a relatively successful period through the mid- to late 1990s, making the finals from 1997 to 2000. However, without a premiership win, the club's future as ever looks on a knife's edge. After a 'quiet' period under former coach Peter Rohde, the Bulldogs are looking to a brighter future with the appointment of Rodney 'Rocket' Eade as coach in 2005.
Brownlow Medal Winners
- Allan Hopkins (1930)
- Norman Ware (1941)
- Peter Box (1956)
- John Schultz (1960)
- Gary Dempsey (1975)
- Kelvin Templeton (1980)
- Brad Hardie (1985)
- Tony Liberatore (1990)
- Scott Wynd (1992)
Team of the Century
In May 2002, the club announced a team of the greatest players from the last century.
| Backs: | Charlie Sutton | Herb Henderson | John Schultz |
| Half Backs: | Wally Donald | Ted Whitten Senior (captain) | John Jillard |
| Centres: | Harry Hickey | Allan Hopkins | Doug Hawkins (vice-captain) |
| Half Forwards: | Alby Morrison | Kelvin Templeton | Chris Grant |
| Forwards: | Jack Collins | Simon Beasley | George Bisset |
| Followers: | Gary Dempsey | Scott West | Brian Royal |
| Interchange: | Jim Gallagher | Arthur Olliver | Brad Johnson |
| Norm Ware | Tony Liberatore | Scott Wynd | |
| Coach: | Charlie Sutton |
External link
- Official Website of the Western Bulldogs Football Club (http://westernbulldogs.com.au/)