If you feel a little strange as a Bulldogs fan heading into the MCG this evening for the Dogs’ Round 1 season-opener against Melbourne, you probably won't be alone.

The Dogs playing a stand-alone season-opening match is new territory for the club, and games on Wednesday are rare, too. In fact, the Dogs have played just one previous match for premiership points on a Wednesday.

That match came in 1990, when Footscray took Carlton on at Princes Park in an Anzac Day clash. The Dogs overcame a half-time deficit to beat the Blues by 27 points that day, with a couple of very familiar names — Liberatore (Tony) and Wallis (Steve) — featuring in the Brownlow votes.

But perhaps what gives the Dogs' Round 1 opening match its most unfamiliar aspect is the opponent, Melbourne. So long is it since the Dogs and Dees crossed paths in the opening round of a season, that a Round 1 clash against Fitzroy — not part of the league for more than a quarter of a century — is a more recent phenomenon!

To find a Round 1 meeting of the Dogs and Demons we need to go all the way back to 1979, when the Dees pipped Footscray at the MCG. Featuring in the hoops that day were Kelvin Templeton, who kicked five goals, and an 18-year-old up-and-comer named Doug Hawkins, playing his 19th VFL match.

The Bulldogs and Melbourne have met in Round 1 on just one other occasion, in 1975, also at the MCG.

Forty-three years is quite a long time, but the Dogs have an even longer Round 1 opponent ‘drought’. If you are struggling to recall the last time the Bulldogs played Hawthorn in Round 1, you have good reason.

The Bulldogs and Hawks last met in the opening round all the way back in 1962! That match, like tonight’s against Melbourne, was a Grand Final rematch, the Dogs having been vanquished by the Hawks in the 1961 decider after going to the long break with an eight-point lead, just as they did last year.

In a good omen for the Dogs in Round 1, 2022, Footscray won that opening round encounter in 1962, defeating their '61 Grand Final opponents by 33 points.

At the other end of the Round 1 scale, the Bulldogs' most common opening round opponents since joining the league in 1925 have been Essendon (14 times) and Collingwood (12). In the AFL era (1990 onwards), the Dogs have met Collingwood the most times in Round 1 (seven), followed by Adelaide (five) and West Coast (four).

There are two sides the Dogs are yet to meet in Round 1 — Gold Coast and Port Adelaide.

Superstitious Dogs' fans looking for positive omens can comfort themselves in the knowledge that the Bulldogs have (a) never lost a match for premiership points on a Wednesday (one match, one win!), and (b) have a 100% winning record in Round 1 matches played in the year after making a Grand Final!  The Dogs won their first-round matches in 1955 (against Collingwood), 1962 (Hawthorn) and 2017 (Collingwood again).