To celebrate the 30-year anniversary of the famous Footscray Fightback campaign of 1989, Bulldogs fans voted on the most significant moments for the Club over the last 30 years.
#1: 2016 AFL Premiership triumph
The number one moment of the Western Bulldogs' last 30 years, as voted by the fans, was one that many thought they would never witness.
Certainly, winning an AFL premiership was nowhere near the forefront of the minds of those who gave their all to save the Club back in 1989.
And in the ensuing years, many thought it was a moment that would elude them forever.
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Heartbreaking narrow Preliminary Final losses in 1997 and 2009, along with three more defeats in the corresponding encounters of 1992, 1998 and 2010, left Bulldogs fans and members feeling that ‘our time will never come’.
Even following the appointment of Luke Beveridge as coach and Bob Murphy as captain, another heartbreaker in the 2015 Elimination Final against Adelaide had fans thinking the Dogs were doomed to a fate of perennial AFL bridesmaids.
But 2016 changed everyone's mood and outlook. Having broken hoodoo after hoodoo (failing to win a final interstate, failing to win a final against Hawthorn, seven consecutive Preliminary Final losses) through the month of September, fans approached the Grand Final with a new-found "We can win this!" sense of optimism.
Meanwhile 'Bevo' and the Bulldogs players had well and truly embraced the "Why not us?" mantra they'd adopted several weeks earlier.
It took an epic battle with the Sydney Swans (who gave every last ounce they had) — with heroic efforts from many, including 'JJ', 'Bonti', Liam Picken, Tom Boyd and others (no one will ever forget the pivotal last-quarter efforts of Dale Morris and Shane Biggs) — before the Grand Final siren sounded with the ball in Toby McLean's hands and the Bulldogs 21 points clear.
McLean capped off the game with a minor score and then it dawned on all that the moment so many believed would never come had truly arrived.
The Western Bulldogs were AFL premiers. Sixty-two years of heartache were washed away with tears of euphoria.
The Club that would have been consigned to history, if not for the efforts of those who cared enough to save it 27 years earlier, was the number one team in the land.
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THE FIGHTBACK 30:
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MOMENTS 11-15
MOMENTS 16-20
MOMENTS 21-25
MOMENTS 26-30
