1985 Bulldogs team

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RedWhite&Blue

Premiership Player
Jul 21, 2005
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Vic
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Western Bulldogs
The past players group at the bulldogs are holding a function at Marvel stadium during Round 1 v Collingwood to celebrate the 1985 Bulldogs team...
All our favourites will be there including Chocco, Hawk, Wallis, Beasley, Edmund, Kennedy, Ford, Groenewagon... the list goes on with one of the highlights being that it will be the first time Malthous and Hardie have been in the same room since Hardie left the club after the infamous jumper waving episode...
This team was what I grew up with so every player is very special to me. Thought it was worth a thread to discuss.
 
Best forward line we ever had. Beasley 100+, Bamblett 50+, McPherson, Royal, Edmond and Buhagiar all 30+. ( imagine Templeton pre knee in that side) Hawk at his best, Wallis, MacLean and Choco young guns, Purser in the ruck, Foster and Kennedy two tough key defenders with Sewell as a swingman and Hardie a Brownlow. Just a consistent CHF and a couple of medium defenders away from premiership. Probably the most talented side I’ve seen in RWB. AND then it all ended so abruptly - the story of our club that the current mob are trying to change.


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1985 (The Team) Game by Game:

Stephen Wallis
Brian Cordy
Brad Hardie
Doug Hawkins
Allen Daniels
Robert Groenewegen
Neil Cordy
Tony Buhagiar
Stephen Macpherson
Brian Royal
Simon Beasley
Les Bamblett
Peter Foster
Rick Kennedy
Mick Egan
Michael Ford
Andrew Purser
Michael McLean
Ian Williams
Jim Sewell

Jim Edmond

- N/C -

- N/C -

Phil Maylin
Rod Macpherson
Darren Baxter

- N/C -

Graeme Cordy

- N/C -

Zeno Tzatzaris

Emmett Dunne

Alister Ford

- N/C -

- N/C -

- N/C -

-N/C -

Neil Peart

Mark Kellett
Angelo Petraglia

- N/C -

- N/C -

- N/C -

- N/C -

- N/C-

QF - N/C -

SF - N/C -

PF - N/C -

Ladder 2nd, 16 x Wins, 6 x Losses, 120.85%
 
-1985- (More stats and facts, to help you sleep at night.)

Simon Beasley: 172 Kicks, 105 Goals, 41 Behinds.

Mr Kicks: Brian Royal 466
Mr Handballs: Doug Hawkins 182
Mr Disposals: Stephen Wallis 622
Mr Marks: Stephen Wallis 178
Mr Goals: Simon Beasley 105
Mr Behinds: Simon Beasley 41
Mr Frees For: Andrew Purser 64
Mr Frees Against: Andrew Purser 66
Mr Hit Outs: Andrew Purser 402
 
Remember him using Dunstall as a surfboard in the prelim. Would get a few weeks for that today. Was a great leader and has done very well for himself in the business world after football.

He'd get life for most of the stuff he did then, lol!! :tearsofjoy:
 
Apart from the finals it was the best Dogs year for me - just about every week we broke some sort of scoring record and I loved watching Beasley play and of course the great Peter Foster, hell the whole team was great.
 
-1985- (More stats and facts, to help you sleep at night.)

Simon Beasley: 172 Kicks, 105 Goals, 41 Behinds.

Mr Kicks: Brian Royal 466
Mr Handballs: Doug Hawkins 182
Mr Disposals: Stephen Wallis 622
Mr Marks: Stephen Wallis 178
Mr Goals: Simon Beasley 105
Mr Behinds: Simon Beasley 41
Mr Frees For: Andrew Purser 64
Mr Frees Against: Andrew Purser 66
Mr Hit Outs: Andrew Purser 402

Mr Coleman: Simon Beasley
Mr Brownlow: Brad Hardie
Mr Sutton: Doug Hawkins
 

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The teams of the 80’s but more particularly the 1985 team was largely responsible for igniting the passion I have for the Dogs.

Loved that era loved the style of jumper and everything Bulldogs in that period when games were played Saturday afternoons at the suburban grounds before it became about the $
 
The teams of the 80’s but more particularly the 1985 team was largely responsible for igniting the passion I have for the Dogs.

Loved that era loved the style of jumper and everything Bulldogs in that period when games were played Saturday afternoons at the suburban grounds before it became about the $

Me too. Even moreso because I started to follow the dogs in the mid-to-late seventies. As a young, impressionable primary school kid, 1978-82 were pretty lean. We fielded some ordinary teams and got belted most weeks. When Templeton and Dunstan left at the end of '82, I didn't think we'd win a game for five years! But some shrewd recruiting actually set us up for a relatively enjoyable few seasons. I think we won ten games in 1983 - which was awesome - and we had new heroes in Choco Royal, Andrew Purser, Steve Wallis and a few others. 1985 was just sublime. We didn't win the ultimate, but it is my favourite year - besides 2016.
 
Me too. Even moreso because I started to follow the dogs in the mid-to-late seventies. As a young, impressionable primary school kid, 1978-82 were pretty lean. We fielded some ordinary teams and got belted most weeks. When Templeton and Dunstan left at the end of '82, I didn't think we'd win a game for five years! But some shrewd recruiting actually set us up for a relatively enjoyable few seasons. I think we won ten games in 1983 - which was awesome - and we had new heroes in Choco Royal, Andrew Purser, Steve Wallis and a few others. 1985 was just sublime. We didn't win the ultimate, but it is my favourite year - besides 2016.
It was very good recruiting for the 83 season and I reckon Bluey Hampshire did a fantastic job as coach and deserves a lot of credit. RIP Bluey.
 
Apart from the finals it was the best Dogs year for me - just about every week we broke some sort of scoring record and I loved watching Beasley play and of course the great Peter Foster, hell the whole team was great.
Fossie was a star, with unbelievable courage. I remember he broke his jaw that year, came back a couple of weeks later, marked everything and was BOG. I saw him just after he retired in a strip club in Russell St. I congratulated him on his career and he seemed like a rippa bloke.
 
Been a fan for a very long time and seen many many Bulldogs games the Bulldogs 85 team was the best Bulldog side I have ever seen Also the 1985 Essendon V Footscray game at the Western Oval was the second best AFL game I have ever seen
 
Speaking of Andrew Purser, it may not have been that year but around that time Sam Newman was ruck coach. He went over to Pursers place for dinner and Pursers parents were there, visiting from WA. Newman brought a video with him on ruck play(he thought it was on ruck play). When the video came up it was Newmans mate, Fred Cook starring in his own pr0n movie. Fred had taped over the original video Newman had. Pursers parents looked on in horror and left the room extremely quickly.
 
Footscray/Western Bulldogs: (The Wonder Years) 1965 to infinity and beyond.

1985: 2nd, 16 x Wins, 6 x Losses
1992: 2nd, 16 x Wins, 6 x Losses
1994: 4th, 13 x Wins, 9 x Losses
1997: 3rd, 14 x Wins, 8 x Losses
1998: 2nd, 15 x Wins, 7 x Losses
1999: 4th, 15 x Wins, 6 x Losses, 1 x Draw
2008: 3rd, 15 x Wins, 6 x Losses, 1 x Draw
2009: 3rd, 15 x Wins, 7 x Losses
2010: 4th, 14 x Wins, 8 x Losses

2016: 7th, 15 x Wins, 7 x Losses

So the legacy that is the Western Bulldogs started in the urine soaked outer of the Western Oval in 1985, so
now you have proof right in front of your eyes that although we finished 7th in 2016 it was not a normal 7th
placed year. We had 12 x 7th place finishes since 1965 and not one of those years yielded a better win/loss
ratio than 12 x Wins and 10 x Losses just like 2019. There is a huge difference between 2016 and all the
other years we finished 7th on the ladder some of which were before the top eight even existed.
 
1985 was a fun year.

Great bunch of players we had.

Hawkins, Royal, Beasley, Bamblett, Hardie, Purser, Edmond, MacPherson, Wallis.

Personal highlights:

- We played Essendon at the Western Oval in late April for top spot and beat them. A packed Western Oval, toof the table clash and also the weather was unbelievably warm for late April - like 30 degrees.

- We won against Carlton at Princes Park and Collingwood at Victoria Park, two teams and two ground that were graveyards for us in those days

- Beating Hawthorn (and it was that 80’s Hawthorn side - the one with superstars in virtually every line, that made the Grand Final every year) in a sludge fest at the Western Oval

- Although the first final against the Hawks was a disaster, the excitement of being in the finals beforehand was amazing. Families, including mine, who’d never seen us in the finals were beside themselves.

- Beating norf in the semi final and Beasley notching up is 100th goal

- The prelim against Hawthorn was a classic match. Although it was heartbreaking to lose, it was amazing being there and for brief moments in the game it looked like we would pull it off.


A pity that in the one year in the 80’s we had a great side we were up against the 2 best and most brutal sides of that era in Essendon and Hawthorn. Bastards.
 
Reading these posts reminds of some my days at the Whitten oval which dates back to the 1960's. I remember 1985 especially when we belted the bombers. Another memory that season was a red head guy who stood near me drinking all day yelling you scumbag towards the umpire and the opposition players, he was loud very loud. Does anyone else recall him? If you watched games on the steps between the Whitten and Gent stands he was hard to miss.
 
Fossie was a star, with unbelievable courage. I remember he broke his jaw that year, came back a couple of weeks later, marked everything and was BOG. I saw him just after he retired in a strip club in Russell St. I congratulated him on his career and he seemed like a rippa bloke.

Was either of you working there?! 😀
 
85 was a great year, even getting to WO each week at about 4am to line up for finals’ tickets for three weeks in a row. I actually got handed mine by Gary Merrington one week, as he was an official at the time. Also got on Ch7 news lining up.
I don’t know what Malthouse was thinking playing Neil Peart though, he was slow - and no better than Groena at chf. Also, not bagging Templeton, but he and Beasley never would have worked in the same forward line, 82 showed that. Dunstall and Brereton largely complimented each other, Simon and Kelvin would have got in each other’s way.
 

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