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The Western Bulldogs, formerly known, and occasionally still referred to, as the '''Footscray Football Club''', is an Australian Football League (AFL) club based at the Whitten Oval in Footscray , an inner western suburb of Melbourne . The club draws its supporter base from this traditionally working class area and plays its home matches at the Telstra Dome in Melbourne Docklands , also in the city's inner west. Historically one of the League's less successful clubs, both in terms of on-field success and off-field resources, the club has taken significant steps to all but eliminate this stigma. The Club has had stable sponsorship and consistently strengthening membership figures (28,725 members in 2007). The Whitten Oval is also undergoing a $20m redevelopment {Link without Title} - set to make its headquarters and training facility among the best in the League. The Club is finding increasing popularity within the Football community for its highly skilful and attacking style of play - a style that saw it reach the 2006 semi-finals. However, despite many commentators and observers suggesting the Bulldogs were in a position to win the 2007 Premiership {Link without Title} , the Club performed well below expectations, ending the 2007 season in 13th place. CLUB HISTORY Footscray was relatively late in joining the Victorian Football League (VFL), the predecessor of the AFL. It did so in 1925 as the "Footscray Football Club", at the same time as Hawthorn and North Melbourne , all three coming from the Victorian Football Association (VFA). Footscray, also known as the Prince Imperials from 1880-1882, played in the junior division of the VFA before joining the senior division of the VFA in 1886 . Following the famed break away of 1896 , during which the stronger VFA clubs formed the VFL, the tricolours (as they were known during this period) became a force in the VFA. The club went on to win 9 premierships between 1898 and 1924 . This included a Hattrick from 1898 to 1900 and 4 premierships between 1919 and 1924. The 1924 premiership would be Footscray's last in the VFA. The club played against the then premiers of the VFL, Essendon , to be proclaimed the "champion of Victoria". In what was an upset win, amongst rumours of bribes to the Essendon players to "play dead", Footscray won the match comfortably and this ushered in an invitation to join the VFL the following season. {Link without Title} Footscray adapted realtively quickly to the standard of VFL football, and by 1928 were already a contender for the finals, missing only on percentage in 1931. Though they slipped to eleventh in 1930, 1935 and 1937, the following year they became the first of the new clubs to reach the finals. They fell back drastically in 1939, but during the war-torn 1940s were more consistent than ever, winning their first nine games in 1946. In this period, Footscray failed to ''win'' in finals, losing six first semis between 1938 and 1951. In 1953, however, they set a record of conceding only 959 points in the home and home games due to a powerful defence featuring Wally Donald , Herb Henderson and Jim Gallagher . They finally won the first semi against Essendon , and the following year took out their only premiership, beating Geelong and then Melbourne in the grand final. This success was in no small part due to two champions of the club - Charlie Sutton the wily and tough Captain/Coach at the time, and Ted Whitten , otherwise known as 'Mr Football', one of Australian Rules' best ever players. Charlie claims to have invented the modern play-on style of football - run, handball, run, kick. Teddy Whitten has been the source of more arguments than any other on who is the greatest player to grace the fields of Australian rules football. Footscray fell off in the late 1950s, finishing with their first wooden spoon in 1959, but bounced back to reach the 1961 Grand Final where they were easily beaten by Hawthorn . The 1960s, however, proved a bleak era for the club, for between 1965 and 1969 they finished in the bottom three every year. The 1970s were relatively better but the club still could not win a final - and by decade's end they were back near the bottom. a rebuilding from 1983 saw them rise to second position in 1985 before an astonishing loss to St. Kilda in the last round put paid to premiership aspirations. The club has had players of both quality and character such as Charlie and Ted, and later Gary Dempsey , the heroic Ruckman who was badly burnt in Lara bushfire of January 1969 but managed to take out the game's top individual award, the Brownlow Medal in 1975. Or Doug Hawkins , the roguish lad as much at home with a beer as taking on the likes of ' Dipper ' on the outer wing of the Western Oval - the Doug Hawkins Wing. Even Simon 'the Pieman' Beasley , a deadly accurate Full-forward and Stockbroker who broke the image of blue collar players at the club. The late 1990s Under tightly focussed management by club president David Smorgon , driven coaching by Terry Wallace , and the on-field leadership of Chris Grant (who narrowly missed a Brownlow Medal in 1996 and 1997) 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 looked on a knife's edge. During Smorgon's term, the club was renamed from Footscray to ''Western Bulldogs'' and moved from the Whitten Oval, first to Princes park (1997-99), to the Telstra Dome for the 2000 season. After Bulldogs legend E.J. Whitten died, a memorial statue was erected at the Whitten Oval in his honour. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS 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. Improvement was immediate with the Bulldogs winning 11 games and finishing 9th on the ladder in 2005, just missing out on the finals by 1/2 a game. Missing the finals dealt a blow to both players and supporters of the team as hot late season form saw the team being considered real premiership contenders, even though a finals berth had not been secured. In 2006, the Bulldogs continued to play well despite a disastrous run of Injuries throughout the year; with 5 players having to have knee reconstructions, including captain Luke Darcy and a list of other major injuries to key players. Despite this setback, the Bulldogs finished the 22-round home and away season with 13 wins (see 2006 AFL Season ), making the finals for the first time since 2000. They won their elimination final against Collingwood in front of 84,000 at the MCG and reached the semi-finals before being defeated by eventual Premiers the West Coast Eagles at Subiaco Oval. Many commentators and fans expect the Club to be genuine Premiership contenders in the near future. (See Current AFL ladder ) On the 5th of August 2006, Chris Grant broke the Western Bulldogs record for the most senior AFL/VFL games at the club. On this day he played his 330th game, breaking Doug Hawkins' previous record of 329 games. Looking for new markets, the club had played one game every year at the S.C.G. in Sydney and one ''home'' game each year at Marrara Oval in Darwin . On August 16 , 2006 , the league announced that the Bulldogs' Sydney "home" game would be played at Manuka Oval , Canberra (the country's capital) as of 2007, for the next three years. MEMBERSHIP BASE Since the 1990s the Western Bulldogs have struggled for membership and financially, avoiding folding or merging with another club through heavy subsidisation from the AFL as part of a competitive balance fund. However, in 2006 the Bulldogs broke their membership record. The bulldogs reached their target of 26,000 members only two minutes before the official closing time for all AFL memberships, which was at 5pm on Friday the 30th of June, after starting the day needing 140 new members to achieve the landmark. The landmark looked promising as The Western Bulldogs began the 2007 season as AFL premiership favourite, just ahead of the ill disciplined Eagles {Link without Title} The Bulldogs ended up having a disappointing season though, failing to make the finals. &2 following finals matches INDIVIDUAL AWARDS Best And Fairest :See Charles Sutton Medal Brownlow Medal winners
Not Eligible, due to suspension
Leigh Matthews Trophy winners
Coleman Medal winners
CURRENT SQUAD AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME PLAYERS TEAM OF THE CENTURY In May 2002 , the club announced a team of the greatest players from the last century. CLUB JUMPER
SEE ALSO BANNERS Historically, the club has allowed supporters to mount banners with groups of supporters getting together to produce and pay for them. The slogans on the banners included:
EXTERNAL LINKS
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