Next to Ted Whitten’s number three Guernsey, the number six carries great historical weight at the Western Bulldogs.

Think Charlie Sutton, George Bisset and Brad Johnson.

It was a burden that was almost too much for a young Luke Dahlhaus to bare when Johnson offered it to him at the beginning of his third season.

“To be honest, I was a little bit hesitant at the time to take the six,” he says during the next episode of BulldogsTV’s Guardians of the Guernsey alongside 364-game hero Johnson. 

“I didn’t think I really deserved it. 

“To have a bloke like you (Johnson) play in it before me, and myself only having played not even 50 games at the time; but it was an opportunity you can’t really pass up.”

It’s a weight that Johnson himself felt when he moved from the number 33 to six in the early stages of his career.

“It’s a great number for the Club in terms of how Charlie succeeded in it, Johnson said. 

“I think that’s the most significant part of the number, for us, in that he’s the only ever premiership captain to wear that, and coach, of course, at the same time.

“That’s where I was lucky, in some ways, in that I was able to build a great relationship with Charlie.  

“When they knocked down the change rooms, I got the number six locker, the old one, and Charlie signed it.”

Johnson says that he didn’t hesitate to hand the jumper to the young Dahlhaus, although there was one stipulation:

“You had the dread’s… I think I told you to cut your hair, that’s about the only thing that goes with wearing the number!”  

A long standing tradition at the Dogs is the presence of a Club legend in the rooms pre-match.  In Johnson’s time it was Sutton, nowadays it is John Schultz.

“It gives you a buzz to shake their hand knowing that they’ve worn the colours, and you’re doing the same thing, you pull it over your head, Johnson said. 

“You feel a bit stronger when you put the jumper on.  

“It’s pretty special.”