Western Bulldogs
The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray. The club competes in the Australian Football League, the sport's premier competition.
Originally named the Footscray Football Club the club cites a foundation year of 1877, and it adopted the name of the local borough. The club won nine premierships in the Victorian Football Association before gaining admission to the Victorian Football League in 1925. The club has won two VFL/AFL premierships, in 1954 and 2016 and was runner-up in 1961 and 2021.
The club has developed a strong support base to the west of the city, traditionally a working-class area. Docklands Stadium, in the city's inner-west, has served as the club's home ground since 2000, while its headquarters and training facilities are at its traditional home ground, the Whitten Oval. The club also plays home games at Mars Stadium in the city of Ballarat west of Melbourne. The Western Bulldogs guernsey features two thick horizontal hoops—one red and one white—on a royal blue background. Fourteen players from the club are members of the Australian Football Hall of Fame, including inaugural inductee and Legend Ted Whitten. Marcus Bontempelli and Luke Beveridge serve as the club's current captain and head coach respectively.
At the end of 1996, as part of a broader rebranding scheme, the club changed its name from Footscray to Western Bulldogs. The club has fielded a side in AFL Women's since the competition's 2017 inception, winning a premiership in 2018, and also has a reserves side in the Victorian Football League and VFL Women's League.
History
1877–1880s: Origins
Newspapers record Australian rules football being played in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray in the mid-1870s, with several teams playing in and being called Footscray. The area's main football ground was located between Napier, Bunbury and Hyde Streets in Lower Footscray. A stronger club named Footscray emerged in the area during the late 1870s. However, there are few historical records and no records of its formation. No definitive documented connection has been established between the early clubs and the modern club. As such some club historians believe this club was established in 1876 though the official date is cited as 1877. Both dates of formation have been challenged by historians. Early matches were not played against any of the large Melbourne clubs and Footscray was thus classified as a "junior" club, playing mostly against teams from nearby Williamstown.1880s–1924: VFA years and Championship of Victoria
Club administration also consolidated in the 1890s: industrialist and civic leader James Cuming was elected Footscray's first president in 1895 and remained in office until his death in 1911, overseeing the club's early growth in the VFA era.Initially the club played at the Northern Reserve, also known as the Market Reserve located between Barkly Street and Geelong Road. In 1880, the club changed its name to the Prince Imperials in honour of Napoléon, Prince Imperial, the heir to French throne, who had recently died in battle. The club was initially based in a park in Lower Footscray. The name change coincided with a lack of support and players, with a meeting to discuss the future of the club held in June 1881. The members present voted to continue the club, although player availability continued to be an issue, with club chairman Charlie Lovett claiming in his memoirs that the name had left many not knowing that they were a club from Footscray. The club would revert to Footscray in April 1882, adopting the name of the local borough during the annual general meeting. The club began using the Western Oval and in 1886 was granted permanent use of the Western Oval by the City of Footscray. Footscray gained admission to the Victorian Football Association after amalgamating with the Footscray Cricket Club to form a senior football club. The club tended to struggle over the next decade, occupying the lower rungs of the VFA ladder.
The club began to improve after the VFL breakaway of 1896, finishing on top of the VFA ladder in 1898, 1899 and 1900. As no finals were played, Footscray were declared premiers. The club played in and won its first finals match in 1903, against, the minor premiers, but lost the follow-up finals match to. After losing to West Melbourne in the 1906 VFA Grand Final, the club won its first premiership by defeating Brunswick in 1908. Another premiership followed in 1913.
The club entered two years of recess during World War I and returned in 1918. Still rebuilding, the club won the wooden spoon. From bottom to top in one year, 1919 saw the club win the premiership, and again in 1920. The club went back-to-back in 1923 and 1924.
File:Con McCarthy 1923.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Con McCarthy captained the club to VFA premierships in 1923 and 1924, as well as a victory in the 1924 Championship of Victoria.
The 1924 premiership would be Footscray's last in the VFA. After the 1924 season, the club challenged the premiers of the VFL, Essendon, to a charity match, otherwise known as the Championship of Victoria, for the benefit of opera singer Dame Nellie Melba's Limbless Soldiers' Appeal. Footscray recorded an upset victory, winning by 28 points. The win was a significant factor in Footscray gaining admission to the VFL.
1925–1940s: Joining the VFL
In 1919, there were nine clubs competing in the VFL, due to the return of all the foundation teams plus Richmond after World War I, as well as University Football Club deciding not to rejoin the VFL. This caused one team to be idle every Saturday and the VFL was keen to do away with this bye each week. On the night of 9 January 1925, a committee meeting of the VFL, chaired by Reg Hunt of Carlton, decided to expand the league from nine clubs to twelve. It was decided in the meeting to admit Footscray, along with two other VFA clubs, and.Footscray played their first VFL match against on Saturday 2 May at the Brunswick Street Oval in front of 28,000 spectators. Former star George Bayliss had the honour of kicking Footscray's first VFL goal, and although they ended up losing by nine points against an experienced league side, they earned great respect. Future Brownlow medallist Allan Hopkins was regarded as Footscray's best player that day. The following week, playing their first VFL home game at the Western Oval against a strong team, the Tricolours recorded their first VFL victory by 10 points in front of 25,000 spectators with a strong team effort.
Footscray adapted relatively quickly to the standard of VFL football despite losing some of their VFA stars, and by 1928 were already a contender for the finals, missing only on percentage in 1931. Though they slipped to eleventh place in 1930, 1935 and 1937, in 1938 they became the first of the new clubs to reach the finals. They fell back drastically in 1939, but played better during the war-torn 1940s, winning their first nine games in 1946.
1950–1954: First VFL flag
Between 1938 and 1951, Footscray failed to win any finals matches, losing all six of its semi-final appearances. In 1953, however, the club set a record by conceding only 959 points in the home-and-away season due to a powerful defence featuring Dave Bryden, Wally Donald, Herb Henderson and Jim Gallagher. Footscray finally won its first semi-final, against Essendon, but lost the preliminary final to, a key factor being the absence of star full-forward Jack Collins, who had been suspended for four matches at the end of the home-and-away season.The Bulldogs went into the 1954 VFL season as premiership contenders. However, the season did not start well with losses and, both of which finished in the bottom four the previous season. In the following two matches, against and, the club returned to form with Jack Collins booting eight and nine goals respectively to help propel the Bulldogs to victory. In Round 7 against at Glenferrie Oval, Footscray, led by Don Ross after Whitten injured his shoulder, came from 23 points down at the last break to kick seven goals and win by nine points. With Richmond upsetting at Victoria Park that same day, the Bulldogs went to the top of the ladder, where they would stay until Round 11, when they lost to Collingwood by ten points in a top-of-the-ladder clash at Victoria Park. Took out their first VFL premiership, beating Geelong and then in the 1954 VFL Grand Final.
1955–1960s: Gradual decline
Footscray failed to capitalise on their premiership success, falling off in the latter part of the decade and finishing with their first wooden spoon in 1959.The 1960s started promisingly, with the club bouncing back to reach the 1961 Grand Final, where they faced who were in their first Grand Final. This was the first VFL Grand Final not to feature any of the foundation teams. In front of over 107,000 spectators, the Bulldogs worked their way to an eight-point lead at half-time, but were clearly struggling with the physicality of their hardened opponents. Rover Merv Hobbs recalled eight players needing first aid, while ruckman John Schultz remembered: The selectors looked around and could see we were in a bad way. In those days, strange to realise, we didn't hydrate. We were told not to drink too much in case we got cramps. We just ran out of legs. And Hawthorn were brutal. They made every contest a physical clash. They wore us down. In the second half, the Hawks, led by centreman Brendan Edwards, pulled away from the tiring Bulldogs, kicking ten goals to two to take out their first VFL premiership. This was followed by winning the 1963 and 1964 night premierships, although this success was not transferred into the season proper. The rest of the decade was a bleak era for the club, particularly between 1965 and 1969, when they finished in the bottom three every year.