FFC's Stolen Generation.

[bulldogs1]

I was speaking to my son the other day about how fortunate he is to have tasted some success as a supporter since he has begun following them, if not the ultimate success.

He is 19. and been following the Dogs since about 1988. Since then, and particularly since 1992, the club has been a regular finals participant, and really should have won at least one premiership.

Now, I have had the same conversation with my father, who can remember the celebrations in Barkly St and the town hall in 1954, and at least one other GF appearance (1961). Tough for him since then, but he can go to his grave with the memory of Charlie Sutton holding the premiership cup aloft.

Now, to me, and other 30 and 40-somethings, the FFC's equivalent of Football's Stolen Generation. Taken from our cribs at a young age, and indoctrinated when we knew no better. We lived through the tough times of the 60s, when Teddy was all we had to cheer for, a brief couple of elim final appearances in the 70s, and then a period of 10 or so years when to win 4 in a year was a step forward. Brief success with Mick, teasing us with a Prelim final and agonising exit (so close to 1997 it's scary!), and then another few years of gloom before our resurgence in the 1990s.

We the FFC's stolen generation demand an apology, in the form of a Premiership Cup, NOW!

P.S. No disrespect meant to the original inhabitants of this great country. :(

[Top Dog]

He is 19. and been following the Dogs since about 1988. Since then, and particularly since 1992, the club has been a regular finals participant, and really should have won at least one premiership.

I geuss im in the same boat as your son only a tad younger :o but with you 100% on the Premiership statement :D

[sigscotty]

I am 20 and hear these lamentations from my father and aunty ad nauseum. We will lose a game and if i show displeasure: "you think they're bad now? You shoulda seen em..."

Bloody annoying!!!

[bulldogs1]

Are you saying I sound like your father???!!!

When I was young, we lived in a shoebox in the middle of the road ....... LOL.

Originally posted by sigscotty
I am 20 and hear these lamentations from my father and aunty ad nauseum. We will lose a game and if i show displeasure: "you think they're bad now? You shoulda seen em..."

Bloody annoying!!!

[sigscotty]

Originally posted by bulldogs1
Are you saying I sound like your father???!!!




Well yes actually! LOL. :p

[Captain Sensible]

Know exactly where you are coming from mate.

I was given a choice when I was a kid-follow the dogs or starve to death. I can remember the stories that my Uncles and Father about following the dogs and it sounded great. I still see my cousins at the footy and we are starting to think we got short changed. Still Nil Desperadum.

BTW B1, LUXURY-we dreamed of a shoebox. :D

[Chicago1]

Originally posted by bulldogs1
.
Brief success with Mick, teasing us with a Prelim final and agonising exit (so close to 1997 it's scary!)

Darn Brad Hardie! He let Lethal get away with murder that last quarter. If only he would have stuck to him like glue........ First time I ever wept at the footy..... the next time PF97..... the last 19/3/00 - my last match - a loss to the Lions at Colonial.

I guess I'm kind of like you, B1. I remember the dark days of the late '70s and early '80s. I went to Sydney five times, spent over $2000 and never saw us win at the SCG! I remember vividly the team running out onto the ground at the MCG in our first final in '85. Remember the result? It was the start of mostly heartbreaking finals appearances.

Our success in the '90s seemed too strange to be true! But then again..... that PF '97! :(

Hmmm...... maybe next year............ :D

[Captain Sensible]

That Qualifying final in '85 was plain scary. I have never seen a side as ruthless as Hawthorn was that day.

It was a miracle that we got so close two weeks later. A lot of people bag Hardie for his efforts in the last quarter, but does anyone remember Bamblett(what a player) running into an open goal and Steve MacPherson giving away a stupid free kick then a stupid 50 metre penalty to give Hawthorn an easy goal. Time on in the last quarter and instead of hitting the front we are almost two goals behind.


BTW talking about crying at the footy. In 1981 Melbourne won one game and we won two. Melbournes' win was against us at the Western Oval with R. Flower taking a screamer in the goal square and kicking the winner just before the end of the game. Well me and my mate were still standing there stunned about 15 minutes after the game finished when I heard someone choking back tears. It was my mate and he turned and looked at me and said "I'm not crying-I've just got some dirt in my eye" If I remember rightly I had some in my eye too. :D

[Olmy]

FFC will definitely win the premiership this year. The Fitzroy Reds haven't lost a game all season. :D

[Waltzing Woof Biscuit]

Guys,

I have some dirt in my eye as I type this...

Somewhere out there is a Hawthorn-supporting private school ponce who has the honour of being the person who has most crap*ed me off during a footy game. 1985 prelim, I was sitting behind the goals at the small scoreboard end with a Hawk friend. The ponce was sitting a row in front, and slagged off at my precious Doggies from go to woe. I can still hear his whiney little voice when Matthews finally sunk us - "pith of Foothscray, ya finished, ya weak, ya gone." In that defining moment, I sensed the emptiness of what seemed like a thousand winless seasons. It was if it was ordaned. Reading from the gospels, "And it shall come to pass that no Footscray supporter shall ever suppeth from the cup of victory, but shall be forever vanquished. Beware of false hope." I prayed then that the Hawthorn ponse would have his left testicle slowly eaten away by mutant termites, and I still delight in every Hawthorn defeat.

And wouldn't it give you the absolute Loretta Swits to have somebody bag you after a Footscray loss, especially when that person would go to perhaps one match in five years (ie. to a Grand Final corporate function) and wouldn't even listen to their own team on the radio? GRRRR - damn dirt in the eye!!

But when we do win the flag, we are destined to experience an orgasmic euphoria which will be the biggest bender known to civilized man (that obviously disqualifies Collingwood supporters). Crikey, I know some Carlton and Essendon supporters who admit that they don't really get that excited when their team wins a Premiership!! WHAT????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can only pity them. Perhaps in a strange and twisted way, we are the lucky ones. Let's face it, even a reserves victory is enough to warm our hearts and get us through the week. Not that we should settle for that - not for one blo*dy nano-second!! (Actually, the video of the 1988 reserves premiership still gets an airing in my household. Even at that level, I could scarcely comprehend success).

BTW, if any of you ever run into a weedy, bespectacled 32 year old Hawthorn supporter with a lisp and a pronounced limp on his left side, be sure that at least one Footscray supporter out there has had their prayers answered. :D

[bulldogs1]

Seems as though if you were old enough to attend, you were there, going by the response to my remark about the 1985 prelim final. I sure hope the boys do it for Granty today, WWF, and that you can let rip at a few worthy souls. Your pain is quite deep, I can feel it, LOL.

Originally posted by Waltzing Woof Biscuit
Guys,

I have some dirt in my eye as I type this...

Somewhere out there is a Hawthorn-supporting private school ponce who has the honour of being the person who has most crap*ed me off during a footy game. 1985 prelim, I was sitting behind the goals at the small scoreboard end with a Hawk friend. The ponce was sitting a row in front, and slagged off at my precious Doggies from go to woe. I can still hear his whiney little voice when Matthews finally sunk us - "pith of Foothscray, ya finished, ya weak, ya gone." In that defining moment, I sensed the emptiness of what seemed like a thousand winless seasons. It was if it was ordaned. Reading from the gospels, "And it shall come to pass that no Footscray supporter shall ever suppeth from the cup of victory, but shall be forever vanquished. Beware of false hope." I prayed then that the Hawthorn ponse would have his left testicle slowly eaten away by mutant termites, and I still delight in every Hawthorn defeat.

And wouldn't it give you the absolute Loretta Swits to have somebody bag you after a Footscray loss, especially when that person would go to perhaps one match in five years (ie. to a Grand Final corporate function) and wouldn't even listen to their own team on the radio? GRRRR - damn dirt in the eye!!

But when we do win the flag, we are destined to experience an orgasmic euphoria which will be the biggest bender known to civilized man (that obviously disqualifies Collingwood supporters). Crikey, I know some Carlton and Essendon supporters who admit that they don't really get that excited when their team wins a Premiership!! WHAT????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can only pity them. Perhaps in a strange and twisted way, we are the lucky ones. Let's face it, even a reserves victory is enough to warm our hearts and get us through the week. Not that we should settle for that - not for one blo*dy nano-second!! (Actually, the video of the 1988 reserves premiership still gets an airing in my household. Even at that level, I could scarcely comprehend success).

BTW, if any of you ever run into a weedy, bespectacled 32 year old Hawthorn supporter with a lisp and a pronounced limp on his left side, be sure that at least one Footscray supporter out there has had their prayers answered. :D

[Dogs_R_Us]

Originally posted by Waltzing Woof Biscuit

But when we do win the flag, we are destined to experience an orgasmic euphoria which will be the biggest bender known to civilized man.

Could we please make it soon? I feel the finger of mortality beckoning...... :(

[bulldogs1]

I hope today's win goes some way to making up for that twit, WWB.

By the way, I reckon I saw about 6 Hawks supporters being escorted from the ground (and weren't our supporters giving them heaps!) from my seat in the Ponsford stand.

Originally posted by Waltzing Woof Biscuit
Guys,

I have some dirt in my eye as I type this...

Somewhere out there is a Hawthorn-supporting private school ponce who has the honour of being the person who has most crap*ed me off during a footy game. 1985 prelim, I was sitting behind the goals at the small scoreboard end with a Hawk friend. The ponce was sitting a row in front, and slagged off at my precious Doggies from go to woe. I can still hear his whiney little voice when Matthews finally sunk us - "pith of Foothscray, ya finished, ya weak, ya gone." In that defining moment, I sensed the emptiness of what seemed like a thousand winless seasons. It was if it was ordaned. Reading from the gospels, "And it shall come to pass that no Footscray supporter shall ever suppeth from the cup of victory, but shall be forever vanquished. Beware of false hope." I prayed then that the Hawthorn ponse would have his left testicle slowly eaten away by mutant termites, and I still delight in every Hawthorn defeat.

And wouldn't it give you the absolute Loretta Swits to have somebody bag you after a Footscray loss, especially when that person would go to perhaps one match in five years (ie. to a Grand Final corporate function) and wouldn't even listen to their own team on the radio? GRRRR - damn dirt in the eye!!

But when we do win the flag, we are destined to experience an orgasmic euphoria which will be the biggest bender known to civilized man (that obviously disqualifies Collingwood supporters). Crikey, I know some Carlton and Essendon supporters who admit that they don't really get that excited when their team wins a Premiership!! WHAT????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can only pity them. Perhaps in a strange and twisted way, we are the lucky ones. Let's face it, even a reserves victory is enough to warm our hearts and get us through the week. Not that we should settle for that - not for one blo*dy nano-second!! (Actually, the video of the 1988 reserves premiership still gets an airing in my household. Even at that level, I could scarcely comprehend success).

BTW, if any of you ever run into a weedy, bespectacled 32 year old Hawthorn supporter with a lisp and a pronounced limp on his left side, be sure that at least one Footscray supporter out there has had their prayers answered. :D

[Top Dog]

.By the way, I reckon I saw about 6 Hawks supporters being escorted from the ground (and weren't our supporters giving them heaps!) from my seat in the Ponsford stand.

LOL i saw it all Bulldogs1 haha :D. That was so good in the ponsord, the funniest thing was when this short lady with no teeth got up and tried to hit this guy, she threw about 10snaps none-hit and then she got kiked out to the chant of "bulldogs...bulldog" ringing around the ponsford :D There was fights and scuffles left right and centre.

PS: Did you see the big fight? where the guy was down the stairs? I didnt but saw the guy who hit him(3 of his mates helped him onto 1) and he tried to start me on the way to the toilet at 1/2 time :rolleyes:

[sigscotty]

Originally posted by Waltzing Woof Biscuit
Guys,

Perhaps in a strange and twisted way, we are the lucky ones. Let's face it, even a reserves victory is enough to warm our hearts and get us through the week. Not that we should settle for that - not for one blo*dy nano-second!! (Actually, the video of the 1988 reserves premiership still gets an airing in my household. Even at that level, I could scarcely comprehend success).



We are the lucky ones. No other team will ever be able to derive the same happiness that we will when we finally take our rightful place at the top of the football world!!!!! 88 and 94 reserves video's are an intergral part of my collection.

[Jawest]

I would love a grand final just as much as the rest of you guys.

But sometimes, I just enjoy winning,as at primary school, I was laughed at each week as my team didnt win. However, boy was I happy in 1985, when I actually got to wear my eastcoast bulldogs jumper, and my leg warmers(mm nice look) to school each monday morning after a victory.

Just imagine if we get into a grand final, we will be the happiest people on earth!!

[K9-54]

Yes Jawest, I too remember 1985 fondly. I was very disappointed that we didn't win the Prelim, but after the Qualifying, I went into the game with more hope than expectation. What made it a memorable year for me was that we were a serious contender for the first time in my life. And at that point I was 22 years old and had been to around 300 matches. We had snuck into the finals twice in the 70s but got bundled out in the Elimination finals. So the 1st Semi Final against North in 85 was my first experience of a finals win.

As a 38 yo now, and assuming we survive long enough, I just hope I survive long enough to experience that party at Whitten Oval when our day finally arrives.