For the Western Bulldogs this Friday night’s game against Carlton comes only a couple of days shy of the 40th anniversary of one of the Dogs’ greatest victories over the Blues. In Footscray’s Round 1 match of 1985, the Bulldogs travelled to Princes Park and dominated. After an even first term, the Dogs added 14 goals to eight over the next two quarters to lead by 37 points at the final change, easing down to win by 30.
The match showcased the potent forward line that would take the Bulldogs within a couple of kicks of the 1985 Grand Final. Simon Beasley kicked nine of the Dogs 22 goals, with small forward Les Bamblett kicking two. Bamblett would prove to be the perfect foil for Beasley that season. While Beasley claimed the Coleman Medal and finished the year with 105 goals, Bamblett kicked 51 of his own. Footscray’s final score of 22.10.142 in that match remains a Bulldogs record against Carlton.
At the other end of the ground that day was a first-gamer named Brad Hardie. The WA recruit was a revelation, creating numerous counter-attacks, something almost unheard of from a back pocket player back then. Hardie’s first-up effort impressed the umpires, and he earned three Brownlow votes on debut. By season’s end, the Brownlow Medal was hanging around his neck.
Friday night’s match will be the Dogs’ only home-and-away fixture against the Blues this year. With each side playing 23 games in an 18-team competition that’s hardly a revelation, but it might surprise some fans to learn that the two sides only met once in each of Footscray’s first five seasons in the VFL (1925-29).
One of those five encounters delivered the Bulldogs’ first-ever win against Carlton, a one-point win in a thriller at Princes Park in 1928. Three years later Footscray repeated the feat at the same venue, pipping the Blues by four points.
Amazingly, the Dogs did not record a home win against Carlton until 1940 (although the two sides drew at Western – now Mission Whitten – Oval in 1935). Trailing by 16 points at three-quarter time, Footscray dominated the final term to win by 10 points.
Both sides missed the top four that season, Carlton finishing fifth and the Dogs sixth, but over the next nine seasons, the teams played a remarkable game of ‘finals tag-team’.
From 1941 to 1949, Carlton played finals five times and Footscray four, but not once did they do so in the same season. Even more remarkably, the ‘tag-team’ played out in alternate seasons over the entire nine-year period. Here’s who made it to September in each of those years: 1941 Carlton, 1942 Footscray, 1943 Carlton, 1944 Footscray, 1945 Carlton, 1946 Footscray, 1947 Carlton, 1948 Footscray, 1949 Carlton.
That remarkable period incorporated the first instance of the Bulldogs defeating Carlton twice in the same season. In 1944, Footscray defeated the Blues by three points (86-83) at Western Oval and by a point (89-88) at Princes Park later in the season.
In another strange twist, the Dogs repeated the dose seven years later, with the margins reversed. Footscray won by three points at home in Round 2, 1951, and by one point at Princes Park 11 weeks later.
Even in years the club has struggled on the field, the Bulldogs have been able to record some fine victories against Carlton. The Dogs have defeated Carlton three times in Blues premiership seasons – by 9 points in 1945, 32 points in 1968 and 10 points in 1970.
Not all of the great Bulldogs wins over Carlton have necessarily involved sparkling, skilful football. One of the most memorable came on a miserable June day in 1991. On a waterlogged Western Oval with rain falling for most of the afternoon, Footscray came within a Bulldog’s whisker of holding the Blues goalless for the entire match. With only a minute left on the clock, the Dogs led 8.9 to Carlton’s 0.10 when the umpire awarded a free kick against Steve MacPherson. From the free, Carlton’s Mark Arceri kicked what proved to the Blues’ only major of the afternoon.
Had the free not been paid, Carlton would have recorded the League’s first goalless match since Richmond registered 0.8 in 1961. No team has had a goalless match since.
As disappointed as ‘Super’ MacPherson was at not being able to keep Carlton goal-free that day, that match did provide a positive omen for the Bulldogs – although no one knew it at the time. The Blues final score of 1.10.16 matches the date the Western Bulldogs finally broke through for a second premiership – October 1, 2016!
The Bulldogs and Blues have had many encounters to remember, but somehow over the course of 100 VFL/AFL seasons, the clubs have never faced off in a final. The aforementioned decade of ‘finals tag-team’ in the 1940s goes some way towards explaining that anomaly, but it is remarkable nonetheless, especially when considering the teams have made finals in the same season 10 times – in 1938, 1976, 1985, 1994, 1995, 1999, 2000, 2009, 2010 and 2024.
Could 2025 be the year?
For the record, the Bulldogs have also never met Richmond in a final. Other than the Gold Coast Suns (yet to play in finals), the Dogs have met every other current side in the AFL at least once in a final.
Luke Beveridge’s time at Whitten Oval has delivered the Dogs’ best-ever era against Carlton. Bevo’s Bulldogs have beaten the Blues in nine of 12 games, including a record five wins in a row from 2015 to 2018. The Dogs will be looking to make it 10 from 13 this Friday.
