When the 2016 premiership flag is unfurled at Etihad Stadium on Friday, 31 March, some iconic Bulldogs will be on hand to mark the occasion.
Today’s ICON profile: Irene Chatfield
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The depth of Irene Chatfield's love of the Western Bulldogs can be measured in many ways, but perhaps the most visible indicator is the scarf she wears every weekend during footy season as she heads along to see her treasured team in action.
Knitted by a friend almost four decades ago, Chatfield's scarf has taken on larger-than-life proportions in the years since, as she has added to it badges of her favourite players.
"My scarf was made by a really dear friend called Rhonda in 1978, Chatfield remembered.
“It went down to my knees. I started putting my badges on it and over the years as I got more badges it started stretching, and it's gone right down to my ankles now!’
Chatfield is well known to all of the Bulldogs faithful as the face of the campaign that saved the club in 1989. The Bulldogs had been given an ultimatum by the then VFL to either merge with Fitzroy or fold completely.
Both options were too terrible to contemplate for many fans, including Chatfield, who helped kick off the campaign to save Footscray as a club in its own right by calling into radio 3AW and pleading for fellow Doggies' fans to join the fight.
"They can't do that, not to us", she said to talkback host Neil Mitchell at the time.
Chatfield attended the famous 'fightback' rally at Whitten Oval in October of that year, where her obvious passion for the cause came under the notice of current Bulldog president and then CEO Dennis Galimberti, who sent an official to speak to her.
Chatfield recalls the official saying, "Those gentlemen in suits want to talk to you." Chatfield was initially concerned that she was about to be admonished for making too much of a public fuss.
Instead, she was asked a favour.
"They asked if I would stand up for the club."
History records that Chatfield, with the backing of Gordon, Galimberti and others, took the VFL to court to seek a 'stay of execution', which was granted. Over the following fortnight fans of the Bulldogs - and of other clubs, too - generously raised the $2 million dollars required to satisfy the VFL's licensing requirements, and the club was saved.
Irene Chatfield's passion for the club has not diminished since then, and last October she was granted her greatest wish - that her mother Evelyn Butler, now in her 90s, see the Bulldogs win an AFL premiership.
It was through her mum that Chatfield gained her love of the Bulldogs.
"We moved to Altona when I was two. The lady next door said to my mum, 'If you live in Altona you have to be a Footscray supporter.' My sister and I followed in her footsteps."
With her dream at last fulfilled, Chatfield sees bright times ahead for the Western Bulldogs, and is calling for all Doggies fans to jump on board.
"We ended up with 40,000 members [in 2016]. I want to double it this year. I want to be higher than Collingwood because our club deserves it after all the hardships its been through."
