As the Club looks back on 100 years in the VFL/AFL, Andrew Gigacz provides some historical context to this weekend’s match-up against the Roos.
The Western Bulldogs will appropriately open the 2025 season against North Melbourne. Along with the Dogs, the Kangaroos (and Hawthorn) are this year celebrating 100 years as VFL/AFL clubs. The Dogs have had a successful run against North Melbourne in recent seasons, and are undefeated against the Roos this decade. The current seven-game win streak is a club record against North.
Those seven wins have included the Bulldogs' two biggest wins over the Shinboners. The 128-point victory in the 2021 Good Friday match is the club's biggest against all opposition in its century in the VFL/AFL. That match will long be remembered for Josh Bruce's 10-goal haul, the biggest by a Dog since Simon Beasley bagged 10 against Brisbane in 1987.
Last year the Bulldogs almost cracked 'the ton' again, defeating the Kangas by 96 points at Marvel Stadium in Round 23. The Dogs ran riot after quarter time, with young gun Sam Darcy kicking seven goals, while Adam Treloar racked up 33 disposals and Marcus Bontempelli and Joel Freijah each collected 29.
However, the Bulldogs have not had great success in Round 1 encounters with North, falling short in 1963, 1966, 1968 and 1978.
A couple of those first-round matches did unearth some future Bulldog champions. Although the Dogs were well beaten by North in the opening round of 1963, two future stars made their debuts that afternoon. 'Wee' Georgie Bisset played the first of his 166 games for Footscray that day, and in fact kicked three of the Dogs' five goals.
Bisset went on to be the Dogs' leading goalkicker that season, and he repeated the feat in 1964, 1967, 1969 and 1970. In 1969 he won the club's best and fairest, and was unlucky not to win the Brownlow Medal that year, finishing one vote behind the winner, Fitzroy's Kevin Murray.
Also playing his first game that afternoon in 1963 was David Darcy. The father of Luke and grandfather of Sam went on to give Footscray 133 games of fine service in the ruck before he crossed the South Australian border in 1972 to complete his senior football career with South Adelaide.
Fifteen years after Bisset and Darcy debuted, a 17-year-old kid from Braybrook ran onto Western Oval for his first senior VFL match. His name was Doug Hawkins. The Dogs were soundly beaten that day, but 'Dougie' kicked a goal and held his place in the team.
Over the next 17 seasons Hawkins delighted Doggies' fans with his midfield magic and wing-side witchcraft. He won the Charles Sutton Medal in 1985, a year in which the Dogs came within a whisker of a Grand Final berth, and was the club's leading goalkicker in 1991. Hawkins also captained the Dogs from 1990 to 1993. He was inducted into the Bulldogs Hall of Fame in 2010, and deservedly elevated to 'Legend' status in 2014.
FUN FACT: Can you remember the last time the Bulldogs faced Hawthorn in the opening round of a V/AFL season? If you can’t, you’re forgiven, because the Dogs and Hawks have not faced off in Round 1 since 1962! In a rematch of the 1961 Grand Final, the Bulldogs turned the tables on the Hawks that day, winning by 33 points, with captain-coach Ted Whitten playing a starring role and kicking four goals. The 63-year Round 1 Bulldogs-Hawks opening round ‘drought’ is the longest for any pairing of VFL/AFL clubs.
