Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon has paid tribute to the long-suffering fans who have stuck by the club through thick and thin.
The Bulldogs have endured their fair share of turmoil – from the failed merger in 1989 and the depths of despair in 1996 when the movie documentary Year of the Dogs came out, to the more recent trade requests of club captain Ryan Griffen and Brownlow medallist Adam Cooney and departure of former coach Brendan McCartney.
On the field, it has been a case of three decades of near misses – seven losing preliminary finals are a lot for anyone to handle.
The supporters have ridden the bumps and been rewarded for their loyalty with a long-awaited premiership – their first since 1954, secured in their first decider since the loss of 1961.
“This is a club whose members and fans have gone through since 1961 without seeing its team in a grand final,” Gordon said.
“Many of them despaired that the day would never come. They’ve seen year after year where other teams’ fans got to see their team in a grand final.
“They believed, maybe despaired, that was something that was never going to happen to them.”
The Bulldogs are proud to have done it their own way.
They celebrated with great finals wins over West Coast Eagles, Hawthorn and GWS Giants in the lead-up to the big dance.
Some felt the emotion was over the top, but not Gordon.
“For us the joy and elation of [the win over GWS] last week in Sydney was something really special,” he said.
“There was the Eagles win in Perth – no one really expected us to win. There was the game against the Hawks with 88,000 people here on a Friday night. We’ve got that much respect for Hawthorn as a team, but to come back from four goals down and take them out – those are the things that you celebrate.
“There’s a few experts around who say you need to keep a lid on it and do these things in a particular way like they [Hawthorn] do – but we’re not them, we’re us.
“It doesn’t mean the next day that we don’t knuckle down.”
Gordon looks back to late 2014 as the turning point for the Bulldogs.
avoid a physical challenge from Sydney’s Callum Mills. Picture Adam Stafford/AFL Media/Getty Images
The arrival of new coach Luke Beveridge, the brave trade of Griffen for youngster Tom Boyd and the appointment of Bob Murphy as captain ushered in a new era. In particular, the Beveridge and Murphy coach-captain relationship set the club on the right path.
“For me, I look at the arrival of this man, Luke Beveridge, to our club and the synergy and the bond that he found with his captain,” Gordon said.
“Murph, as you know, is a complex guy – he’s a deeply introspective guy … he may not have always wanted to take that leadership position, but he told me in October, 2014, that this was his team and he really wanted to work.
“Several months later, he made a comment in the media that while he liked all of his coaches, he believes this guy was the guy he was born to be coached by.
“The combination of these two guys is greater than the sum of the parts.”
The Western Bulldogs’ fans celebrated long and hard into Saturday night and then on into Sunday.
The party will continue at a sold out Charlie Sutton Medal count tonight (October 5) at the Crown Palladium.
“Spirit, courage, never say die, the relentless attitude … I think everyone in the club can take some credit for that,” Gordon said.
“Fifty-five years of never quite believing whether the day would come – and today this day has come.
“The unadulterated joy – not just for Bulldogs fans, but for all fans who might’ve believed that their turn would never come … this day has kind of changed everything.”
