";s:4:"text";s:5065:"Sid, the club's previous real-life mascot, officially retired his club jumper at Etihad Stadium on 6 May 2017 and was given a lap of honour for his seven years of service to the Western Bulldogs.In 2014, the Bulldogs accepted an offer from comedian and supporter Danny McGinlay to write the messages that appear on the club's banners.
The club reverted to Footscray a few years later. The Western Bulldogs Official App is your one stop shop for all your latest team News, Videos, Player Profiles, Scores and … The club played its home matches at the Western Oval, located in the inner-western Melbourne suburb of Footscray, from 1884 until 1997 (except for a brief period at nearby Yarraville Oval, from 1941 to 1943). The muzzle looks cruel and menacing. "Footscray went by a variety of nicknames during the VFA years, including the Bone Mill Fellows, the Saltwater Lads, and, most popularly, the Tricolours, in reference to the club guernsey.The E. J. Whitten Stand at Whitten Oval, the club's training base and administrative headquarters
After muddling its way through a disappointing decade, having to sell many of its key players to survive, the Bulldogs would endure another tumultuous decade in the 1980s.
Between 1938 and 1951, Footscray failed to win any finals matches, losing all six of its semi-final appearances.
In 1978, Kelvin Templeton became the first Bulldogs player to kick 100 goals in a season, including a club record of 15.9 in Round 13 against St Kilda. After the 1924 season, the club challenged the premiers of the VFL, Essendon, to a charity match, otherwise known as the Championship of Victoria, for the benefit of opera singer Dame Nellie Melba's Limbless Soldiers' Appeal.In 1919, there were nine clubs competing in the VFL, due to the return of all the foundation teams plus Richmond after World War I, as well as University Football Club deciding not to rejoin the VFL. In the final round of the home-and-away season, the Bulldogs needed to defeat Collingwood by more than 22 points to reclaim third place on the ladder.
Former Richmond star George Bayliss had the honour of kicking Footscray's first VFL goal, and although they ended up losing by nine points against an experienced league side, they earned great respect.
On this day he played his 330th game, breaking Doug Hawkins' previous record of 329 games. From 1990 to 2014, it was in a blue circle. The Bulldogs lost their preliminary final match against reigning premiers Geelong.
The athletic program’s primary logo in its current form was introduced in 1998. After a bit of a dip in form including losses to Collingwood, St Kilda and West Coast, the Bulldogs rebounded with an 18-point win against Brisbane at The Gabba.
Logo Review: Western Bulldogs. Since 1999 the Bulldogs have used the football shaped mark with the hinted blue, white and red hoops underneath the white silhouetted Bulldog profile. The Western Bulldogs play their home games at Etihad Stadium, located in Melbourne's Docklands area Scott Wynd capped a magnificent year with the Brownlow Medal, while Chris Grant and Simon Atkins also had outstanding seasons. On the night of 9 January 1925, a committee meeting of the VFL, chaired by Reg Hunt of Carlton, decided to expand the league from nine clubs to twelve. The 1924 premiership would be Footscray's last in the VFA.
Another premiership followed in 1913. Whitten was famous for his inventive and lightning-fast Footscray failed to capitalise on their premiership success, falling off in the latter part of the decade and finishing with their first wooden spoon in 1959.
It was completed by a large inscription, “Butler Bulldogs” in the same color. That victory secured the Bulldogs a place in the finals for the fourth consecutive year. The main stars of the decade included 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. The Bulldogs lost 9 of their first 12 games, including 7 from 8 games between Rounds 5 and 12.
He later cited the stress of captaincy as his reason for nearly giving up the game altogether.Many predicted the Bulldogs to struggle in 2015 after losing over 700 games of experience during the off-season, and those feelings were further strengthened when Tom Liberatore, the reigning Charles Sutton Medallist, went down with a rupture to his anterior cruciate ligament in the NAB Challenge match against Richmond.The Bulldogs fought through numerous injuries in 2016 to finish 7th in the home and away season.
In 1978, Kelvin Templeton became the first Bulldogs player to kick 100 goals in a season, including a club record of 15.9 in Round 13 against St Kilda.