The Western Bulldogs are a beautifully tragic reminder of AFL football before league bosses took the game on an imperialistic frontier mission to expand.
I saw the Bulldogs’ unique remaining link to Melbourne’s multicultural working class west in late August when their VFL side the Footscray Bulldogs defeated local rivals and former VFA powerhouse Williamstown Seagulls at the Whitten Oval in a qualifying final.
It was a rare scene from yesteryear; the roads of Footscray were jammed with cars illegally parked while nearby Barkly and Nicholson Streets were dominated by people eating and drinking in the club’s red, white and blue after the game.
The unusually packed suburban ground was filled for the local derby by Bulldogs AFL fans who were desperate for their reserve side to bring success to a club that has not won a premiership since 1954.
With the greatest of respect to those fans and the Footscray side who won that day (and the VFL Premiership a few weeks later), the joy this reserve level victory brought them was a sad reminder of how unsuccessful they’ve been.
Even more sombre are this week’s developments – in the space of 24 hours their captain Ryan Griffen requested a trade to Greater Werstern Sydney and as a result coach Brendan McCartney resigned.
If the VFL victory highlighted the club’s lack of success, the discomfort at the club this week and throughout the off-season suggest there is still a way to wait before things improve.
After three seasons in charge of a Bulldogs side rebuilding post-preliminary final berths in 2008, 2009 and 2010, the overriding feeling was that McCartney was the right man to take a talented young group with a few senior heads to success. He was seen as an expert mentor to younger players with a a personable character and a selfless work ethic. Perhaps most importantly, McCarthy was believed to have the support of the club’s senior players.
This off-season that perception started to change as Shaun Higgins moved to North Melbourne while Jason Tutt, Will Minson and Adam Cooney are likely to follow him out.
When Griffen requested a trade to GWS on Thursday, speculation rose that McCartney had lost senior Bulldogs, with long standing communication issues brought to a head by scathing post-season player reviews. That was confirmed with his resignation the next day.
The suggestion is that for Griffen to want out, something was vitally wrong, particularly because the Bulldogs captain is not the type of player to cause upset within the club – and media specualtion outside it.
Losing a coach, captain and possibly another senior player like Cooney is tough for the Bulldogs but the compensation or a trade for Griffen from GWS will surely be enticing, especially if it is homesick Victorian Jeremy Cameron.
This and a new coach who players hopefully want to work for may put the club on a better path but it remains to be seen how they will cope in a competition that seems to be going the way of powerful clubs and expansion franchises.
It’s concerning in itself that Griffen seems to be sick of his club’s mediocrity and now seeks to follow his former talented team-mates Callan Ward and Jarrod Harbrow to expansion sides the Giants and Gold Coast.
The Western Bulldogs don’t have the financial backing and pool of talent the new sides received through AFL concessions, nor do they have the supporter base that brings riches to bigger Melbourne and interstate clubs.
What they do have is exceptional young talent such as Tom Liberatore, Marcus Bontempelli and Luke Dalhaus. Liberatore has arguably already made himself one of the competition’s best midfielders, playing for the club he supported as a child by virtue of his Brownlow Medal-winning father Tony.
With everyone waiting for GWS and Gold Coast to explode into maturity and the expected sustained excellence of teams like Hawthorn, Fremantle, Sydney and Port Adelaide, how will the Bulldogs evolve from such a low point in their history?
We saw the elation of South Sydney in their NRL triumph recently; imagine if that were replicated out in Melbourne’s west. It’s fantastic the Bulldogs remain so closely in tune with the area of Melbourne where they were created, especially in an ever-expanding and commercially driven competition. But is it possible for a team with a significantly smaller base and means than many other sides to be successful in a time like this? Nostalgic sensibilities certainly hope so.
