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: Chris Grant
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When Chris Grant arrived at Whitten Oval late in 1989 it was to a club in turmoil.
In fact Grant could have been forgiven for wondering if he would ever play a match of AFL football for the Bulldogs, with the revelation on his arrival that the club was in merger talks with Fitzroy and unlikely to survive as a club in its own right.
History of course shows that the merger crisis was averted and Chris Grant was part of a new-look Footscray line-up that took the field at Whitten Oval against St Kilda in round 1, 1990.
Just 17 years old on debut, Grant kicked two goals lining up at full forward in a loss to the Saints, and retained his place in the side. The following week, a road trip to Sydney saw the Bulldogs thrash Sydney by 62 points. Grant kicked four goals and from that moment, rarely looked back.
By season's end, Grant - despite being dropped to the reserves late in the year as his young body struggled with the rigours of a long AFL season - had amassed 51 goals in 20 matches to become the youngest player in AFL history to top 50 goals in a season. That record stands to this day.
In the two and a half decades since, Grant has more often than not been the face of the rebirth, resurgence and rise of the Western Bulldogs from an also-ran club that few players were interested in joining, to the reigning AFL premiers in 2017.
As a player between 1990 and 2007, Grant achieved more than most AFL players could dream of in a career that spanned 341 matches, a club record (later broken by Brad Johnson).
Centre-half forward or centre-half back, in either position Grant excelled with his sublime marking and ground level skills. He was desperately unlucky not to win a Brownlow Medal, finishing only one vote behind winners Michael Voss and James Hird in 1996, and polled the most votes in 1997, only to be denied the award as the result of a one-match suspension handed out for what most viewed as a very minor indiscretion.
But Grant rarely displayed any public disappointment at those near misses because he was, above all, a team player, one who shunned the chance of a big pay increase when he turned down an offer to join Port Adelaide at the end of 1996.
Grant's stellar playing career saw him win the Charlie Sutton Medal as best and fairest in 1994 and 1996, named All Australian in 1997, 1998, and 1999, and captain the club from 2000 to 2004. In 2012 his achievements were recognised when he was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.
After hanging up the boots at the end of the 2007 season, Grant later returned to serve the club in a variety of positions, including as a board member and in June 2016 became the Director of Football.
