To celebrate the 30-year anniversary of the famous Footscray Fightback campaign of 1989, Bulldogs fans have voted on the most significant moments for the Club over the last 30 years.
Today, westernbulldogs.com.au reveals moment 8.
The Bulldogs will take on Melbourne in Round 17 on a day dedicated to the Fightback – a time which saw an extraordinary fan uprising save the Club from a merger with Fitzroy.
On July 14, Footscray will take on Casey in the VFL, followed by the AFL game at Marvel Stadium.
VIEW THE ORIGINAL LIST OF 30 MOMENTS
8. Games record breakers. Hawkins, Grant then Johnson break club career games record.
When the great Ted Whitten played his 321st and final match in 1970, he set a VFL/AFL games record (surpassing Essendon great Dick Reynold's total of 320) that many thought would stand for a long time. In fact, writing in his Herald newspaper column at the time, Richmond's star centreman Billy Barrott went as far as to say to EJ, "I am going to stick my neck out now and say your number of games record will never be broken".
Billy wasn't quite on the mark, but Ted's 321 games did stand as a Footscray/Western Bulldogs club record for more than two decades. Fittingly, when the day finally did come in 1994, it was another Braybrook boy, Doug Hawkins, who took over the mantle, and EJ was on hand prior to the match to wish Dougie all the best.
In front of nearly 24,000 adoring fans at Western Oval (soon to become Whitten Oval in EJ's honour) Dougie did Ted proud, collecting 23 touches as the Dogs pulled away from Geelong in the final term to mark the occasion with a 28-point win. (Interestingly, another young Bulldog, 23-year-old Luke Beveridge also had 23 touches and kicked a goal that day.)
Whitten had joked that Hawkins should retire at the 320-game mark as he had, but Ted was in fact very proud to see the club record broken by a fellow loyal, lovable, larrikin Bulldog.
Hawkins went on to play 329 games for the Dogs and another dozen years elapsed before another favourite son surpassed it. The Western Bulldogs celebrated Chris Grant's 330th AFL match with a comfortable 22-point win over Richmond at the home of footy, the MCG in 2006.
Grant eventually took his career games total to 341, but his record stood for less than two years. Not that he would have minded when it was broken — it was his great mate Brad Johnson who took the title from him in 2009. As Dougie had 15 years earlier, 'Johnno' also collected 23 disposals as the Dogs defeated Fremantle by 31 points.
Of course, footy is about 'team', not about individual accolades and records, but each time these games records were broken, they stood as great reminders of the importance of team and club. All four of these players had resisted overtures from other clubs prior to breaking the Bulldogs games record, demonstrating a loyalty that earned the fans love and praise.
The milestones of Hawkins, Grant and Johnson were also important for the fans themselves, particularly after having gone through dark days prior to the Fightback of 1989 and with the lack of premiership success that had stretched back to 1954.
Appropriately, the three records were broken at three very important venues, the Bulldogs' original and still spiritual home Whitten Oval (Hawkins), the home of footy, the MCG (Grant) and the Dogs' current game-day home, Marvel Stadium (Johnson). Even better, all three records were marked by Bulldogs victories, allowing Hawkins, Grant and Johnson and all Doggies' fans to celebrate with winning grins.
THE FIGHTBACK 30 SO FAR:
MOMENT 9
MOMENT 10
MOMENTS 11-15
MOMENTS 16-20
MOMENTS 21-25
MOMENTS 26-30
