THE BULLDOG TRAGICIAN BLOG
  • The Bulldog Tragician Blog
  • Blog posts
    • 2016 finals collection
  • The Bulldog Tragician Blog
  • Blog posts
    • 2016 finals collection

Happy 2015 and a new way to subscribe

9/1/2015

2 Comments

 
Happy New Year. May we all Be More Bulldog. (If that's actually possible.)

Of course, not much seems to have happened for us Bulldogs' fans in the 2014 off-season. Very much business as usual; our club's activities have all been quite straightforward, mundane, boringly uneventful, avoiding publicity, media frenzies or any hint of chaos. A smooth-sailing ship gliding through calm waters.

For the keen observer such as myself, however, it hasn't escaped my attention that there have been in fact some quite significant changes around the club. There are, for example, a few new numbers being worn by the players, which will be disconcerting for a while. Young Toby McLean, who will be wearing number 16, will certainly be chuffed to see how many kids have adopted him as their new hero. I'm fully expecting Toby to do great honour to the beloved guernsey, which if I recall rightly was last worn by cult hero and master of the delicate baulk and clever sidestep. He of the explosive pace and uncanny skills. I speak, of course, of the one and only Matthew Croft. 

Zaine Cordy has bravely donned the seemingly-cursed number 12 and will join his brother Ayce. Together I see them playing integral roles in our single-minded assault on the ultimate prize, the holy grail - Most Bizarre Names in the AFL. 

If we fall short of that pinnacle, we can always console ourselves with a red-hot go at the First Name/Last Name Confusion Award. With Easton Wood, Fletcher Roberts and Bailey Dale out on the field, our stocks are as healthy as they've been since the glory days of Huntley Kingster (sorry, make that Kingsley Hunter).

There's a new guy in number 17 too. I haven't heard much about him as yet - he's had a low key start, pretty much flown under the radar. I believe he may be a distant cousin of Matthew Boyd, but that's mere speculation at this stage.

The cheer-squad are painstakingly working on their banners, over-writing the names Terry Wallace, Peter Rhode, Rodney Eade and Brendan McCartney with that of Luke Beveridge in  'Our Mastermind' signs. Dozens of sub-editors are celebrating potential puns involving our new coach, stockpiling them for just the right occasion. I'm envisaging opening the sports section to 'Flat Beveridge wonders where the fizz went', or perhaps 'Hot Beveridge more than a match for Buckley's stale Pies', or for the truly starry-eyed among us: 'Beveridge mix tastes truly sweet in premiership victory.'

Meanwhile, the postal service delivers me my annual parcel. Like thousands of others I tear off the wrapping and look over the harbinger of another year, another season:  new scarves, caps, lanyards and membership cards that pronounce us - whether ominously or optimistically, it's often hard to say - 'A Bulldog for Life.'

Sign up, sign up...

Many of you have taken the time to subscribe to this blog. Bless you. However the blog subscription management system I was using was as unreliable and erratic in its performance as a Western Bulldogs kick-in strategy. 

So I am adopting a new subscription system. If you wish to continue to receive my blog posts in 2015, you will now need to sign up here. 

(Over the next month I will de-activate the previous system, once I'm sure that the new one really does deliver better, and will send out one more reminder before I do.)

Please sign up!

Sustenance over the pre-season wilderness

In October 2013, in the throes of my restless adaptation to the non-footy season, I wrote a blog post about this strange twilight period. It's pertinent as we now find ourselves again adrift between seasons, mourning the end of another unsuccessful year and unsure how much to hope for in the upcoming one. I identified a curious phenomenon known as Post Seasonal Affective Disorder (often shortened to the Post SADs), as the true footy die-hard comes to terms with the absence of our addictive fix of despair, disappointment and just occasionally magic and jubilation. While we no longer have Shaun Higgins and Tom Williams to tantalise us with glimpses of 'best ever fitness' and 'training the house down', other aspects still ring unfortunately true, and as a community service, I suggest you re-visit the blog. (If needed, seek immediate assistance). Read it again here


2 Comments
David Cassells
11/1/2015 12:52:55 am

Hah! Another fine installment. I'm sure Toby will continue the prestige of Crofty's number 16 :)

Reply
Neil Anderson
13/1/2015 04:34:56 am

No.16 for me was David Thorpe Footscray 1965-73 ( thanks to my Christmas present book Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers) and also being so old I remembered him running around in No.16...when you were only startin' to go to kindergarten.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    subscribe to

    ​this blog

    About the Bulldog Tragician

    The Tragician blog began in 2013 as a way of recording what it is like to barrack for a perennially unsuccessful team - the AFL team, the Western Bulldogs.

    The team, based in Melbourne's west, had only won one premiership, back in 1954, and had only made one grand final since then.

    The Tragician blog explored all the other reasons - family, belonging, history and a
    sense of place - that makes even unsuccessful clubs dear to the hearts of their fans.

    ​However, an unexpected twist awaited the long-suffering Tragician: the Bulldogs pulled off an extraordinary fairytale premiership in 2016.

    The story of the unexpected and emotional triumph was captured in weekly blogs and later collated in the book: 'The Mighty West' by the Tragician Blog author Kerrie Soraghan.


    ​Go to BlackInc books to order


    Picture
    subscribe now

    Categories

    All
    2016 Finals
    2016 Season
    2017
    2018
    2019
    2020
    2020 Season
    2021
    2022
    Adam Treloar
    Bob Murphy
    Clay Smith
    Cody Weightman
    Cordy
    Daniel Cross
    Easton Wood
    Jackson Macrae
    Jake 'The Lair' Stringer
    Jamarrah
    Liam Picken
    Libba Sisters
    Luke Beveridge
    Marcus Bontempelli
    Mitch Wallis
    Season 2013
    Tom Boyd
    Tom Liberatore
    Vs Adelaide Crows
    Vs Collingwood
    Vs Essendon
    Vs Fremantle
    Vs Geelong
    Vs GWS
    Vs Hawthorn
    Vs North Melb
    Vs St Kilda
    Vs Sydney
    Vs West Coast Eagles

    Tweets by @Bulldogstragic

    Archives

    September 2022
    August 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    September 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    December 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    November 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    January 2015
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.