Relive the 2016 premiership series
The book 'The Mighty West' written by Kerrie Soraghan ('The Bulldog Tragician') is a collation of blogs written in 2015 and 2016, as the Western Bulldogs stunned the footy world with a rise from obscurity to a fairytale premiership.
It looked back at the many years of disappointment and heartache that fans of this perennially unsuccessful club had experienced in its history. 'The Mighty West' also reflected on the many other reasons that fans continue to support a club through hard times: family, a sense of history and place, and an intangible sense of belonging and connection.
The book captured the sense of cautious hope and excitement that with the arrival of 'Bevo Our Saviour', and the emergence of a new group who seemed undaunted by the dismal record of failure and under-achievement, this might just, finally, be different. The collection of stories about the four epic finals is available below.
It looked back at the many years of disappointment and heartache that fans of this perennially unsuccessful club had experienced in its history. 'The Mighty West' also reflected on the many other reasons that fans continue to support a club through hard times: family, a sense of history and place, and an intangible sense of belonging and connection.
The book captured the sense of cautious hope and excitement that with the arrival of 'Bevo Our Saviour', and the emergence of a new group who seemed undaunted by the dismal record of failure and under-achievement, this might just, finally, be different. The collection of stories about the four epic finals is available below.
"This story is our story" Underdogs, injury-riddled, playing a red hot team in a knockout final at their fortress in Perth. Only "Our Boys" believed a win was possible.
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"I notice for the first time a sound has been slowly building. The Dogs' fans are small in number. Now their roar reverberates around the stadium.
It feels like we have been waiting for this win forever.
Relive: This story is our story
It feels like we have been waiting for this win forever.
Relive: This story is our story
"The Daydream Believers" It's a monster crowd. The Three-Peaters are accustomed to this atmosphere, the big game aura. But only two other Footscray/Western Bulldogs teams have played in front of crowds bigger than this. The '54 premiers, of course. And the '61 grand finalists.
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" I'm wondering about the impact of all the sorrowful Bulldogs' tales, the missed opportunities, the what-ifs. Culture, someone once said, is about 'the stories we tell ourselves.' For the players to smash their way through that culture, our stories of heartache and disappointment - the very glue that binds the fans to our club - must become, to them, as remote and irrelevant as the sepia photos of the first ever Footscray team, the Prince Imperials in the 1880s..."
Relive: The Daydream Believers
Relive: The Daydream Believers
"Why not us?" "We know we have to, somehow, do whatever it takes... to be there when our Dogs take on the Orange Clad Acronyms.
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"We’ve watched our Bulldogs through interminable dreary seasons. Seasons when we won only just one game. Seasons where we were the butt of jokes and ridicule, where ten goal losses were wildly celebrated as a major step forward. Tough times when we had to rattle tins, knock on doors and dig deep, just to keep a Footscray Football Club team out on the field.
"We simply had to be there...
An epic road trip. A heartstopping victory.
Relive: The blog about the preliminary final vs GWS (The Orange-clad Acronyms)
"We simply had to be there...
An epic road trip. A heartstopping victory.
Relive: The blog about the preliminary final vs GWS (The Orange-clad Acronyms)
"We were the force. And the force was with us"A 62-year premiership drought broken at last.
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"Our tale, our quest, are the very definition of 'quixotic.' I know because I looked it up in the dictionary:
"Caught up in the romance of noble deeds and the pursuit of unreachable goals; idealistic without regard to practicality.
Relive the 2016 premiership blog
"Caught up in the romance of noble deeds and the pursuit of unreachable goals; idealistic without regard to practicality.
Relive the 2016 premiership blog