Dogs to remember the 1989 fightback

My goal now is to be there at Marvel for Round 17.
As of today it looks like a goer. I called Ticketmaster and the gentleman I talked to said that I can book an accessible ticket Sunday morning if I'm feeling well enough to go. Every day is different for me. I also will have to rely on reasonable weather. I have to have my walker near me so I can make a quick trip or two or three to the men's when I have to, so I'll have to be close to one. If I am able to make the game I might try to get a seat on Level 2 as long as it's not too costly since it will probably be the only game I'll be going to this year. I plan on wearing my 2019 member's scarf and my old faithful scarf that I bought prior to the first match in 1990 after I returned from Perth. I'm going to wear my Cubs World Series Champions 2016 baseball cap as I did two years ago and the one game I got to last year. I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high, but I'm counting down the sleeps until Sunday. I guess I'll have to have my lucky meal at Marvel. I wonder if Uber Eats delivers there? :D
 

D Mitchell

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[QUOTE="Freshwater, post: 61747156, member: 158167"
.....n Bulldog era in 1997. Bring back..[/QUOTE]

Nightmare era. That jumper was so bad I'm close to giving thanks that we didn't win the Flag.
 
How does everyone feel about the Fightback now? I guess a lot of people on here were too young to remember it or not born then.
For me, pretty confronting to look back on how close we came to losing the club, great efforts by all who helped save it and shitfull efforts by the AwFL to try to kill it off and the dodgy tactics they used.
It's a great thing the club are commemorating the Fightback.

#bemoreBulldog
 

hoianbulldog

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The 1997 onwards 'Western Bulldogs' long sleeve jumper had plain blue sleeves. Prior to this, the long sleeved 'Footscray Bulldogs' guernsey had the red and white bands.

The white 'borders' on the Fightback guernsey are too thin when compared to the original IMO. Probably won't bother most but it doesn't look quite right to me...
Wasnt there a time when the white hoops were seperated from the red hoop? Or us memory failing me.
 

hoianbulldog

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Terry Wheeler needs to be acknowledged when talking about that period. He managed to get us to a prelim in 3 years. That period was crucial in justifying our survival and maintaining supporter numbers, we had to be competitive. Chucking players out of airplanes seemed to do the trick.


Of course we were bust again a few years later and the Smorgon era began.

Its been an interesting journey, that's for sure.
 
How does everyone feel about the Fightback now? I guess a lot of people on here were too young to remember it or not born then.
For me, pretty confronting to look back on how close we came to losing the club, great efforts by all who helped save it and s**tfull efforts by the AwFL to try to kill it off and the dodgy tactics they used.
It's a great thing the club are commemorating the Fightback.

#bemoreBulldog
Naturally I'm very grateful the club was saved. However IMO the VFL/AFL stuffed up the transition to a national comp. It tried to do it by stealth and by picking off the stragglers in a cowardly fashion. It underestimated the stragglers!!

It had booted South Melbourne up to Sydney and had started Adelaide and West Coast so by 1989 so it was a comp of 14 teams (with Brisbane starting in 1990) but it was still massively weighted to Victorian clubs and Victoria is still over-represented to this day.

Leaving aside club loyalties and traditions and taking a truly national perspective (yes, it's a highly debatable point) here is what it should have done:
  • No Vic club remains intact except Geelong and then only because they are outside Melbourne.
  • The following mergers of Melbourne-based clubs take place, leaving 5 clubs + Geelong in Victoria:
    • Footscray-Essendon
    • Hawthorn-StKilda
    • Carlton-North
    • Richmond-Melbourne
    • Collingwood-Fitzroy
  • The benefit of having all Vic clubs merge is you lose hardly any of the local support as long as the mergers are done on an equitable basis. Pity the poor South Melbourne and Fitzroy supporters whose teams were cast into the wilderness. Some followed their interstate reincarnation (Sydney or Brisbane) and some switched to other Vic clubs but it was never the same for most of them.
  • New clubs to be set up as follows
    • WA (2) - West Coast +1 (Freo)
    • SA (2) - Adelaide + 1 (Port)
    • NSW (2) - Sydney + 1 (GWS)
    • Qld (2) - Brisbane + 1 (Cairns/NQ)
    • Tas (1) - Hobart or Tasmania
    • ACT (1) - Canberra
  • Total of 16 clubs - although there would be a case for making it only 14 by leaving out Canberra and Cairns. With 14 clubs you could run a true H&A comp of 26 rounds + finals. No unbalanced draws.
Anyway that's all hypothetical now. We've been given our second (and third) chance and we're already vindicated with the 2016 flag. We're a well run club these days thanks to Smorgon and Gordon and we're not going away any time soon.

Go Dogs.
 

AjsGuns

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Can someone help me out -
I decided to go with a group and utilised the offer of $19 tickets for level 2. Anyway I ordered them via "eticket mobile delivery" apparently I'm supposed to have a QR code? but all I get on the app/account is a message saying "THIS IS NOT YOUR TICKET"? Does the QR code come later or something?

I've called ticketmaster, 20 min call then they hanged up on me when they took me off hold and every time I try to get through I get "line busy" ugh. Should of just gone in my normal membership.
 
Dec 21, 2005
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Can someone help me out -
I decided to go with a group and utilised the offer of $19 tickets for level 2. Anyway I ordered them via "eticket mobile delivery" apparently I'm supposed to have a QR code? but all I get on the app/account is a message saying "THIS IS NOT YOUR TICKET"? Does the QR code come later or something?

I've called ticketmaster, 20 min call then they hanged up on me when they took me off hold and every time I try to get through I get "line busy" ugh. Should of just gone in my normal membership.
Not sure, but after listening to Reply All, I'll never scan a QR code.
 

worbod

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Did anybody read the article in the Herald-Sun yesterday? They included a black and white photo of some supporters during a fightback rally. The guy with the pudding-bowl haircut has been a fanatic in the crowd at matches for many years since. Out of curiosity, does anyone know his name? I haven't noticed him in the crowd in recent years when watching on the telly, but he is one of those easily identified non-footballing Bulldogs people, just like our doctor Gary Zimmerman.

img127.jpg
 
Did anybody read the article in the Herald-Sun yesterday? They included a black and white photo of some supporters during a fightback rally. The guy with the pudding-bowl haircut has been a fanatic in the crowd at matches for many years since. Out of curiosity, does anyone know his name? I haven't noticed him in the crowd in recent years when watching on the telly, but he is one of those easily identified non-footballing Bulldogs people, just like our doctor Gary Zimmerman.


[/QUOTE
That's David Porter. He was in the cheer squad for years until the club changed it.
I saw him at the vfl match we played against Geelong at the Whitten Oval a few week ago.
 
Last edited:

Leon

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Terry Wheeler needs to be acknowledged when talking about that period. He managed to get us to a prelim in 3 years. That period was crucial in justifying our survival and maintaining supporter numbers, we had to be competitive. Chucking players out of airplanes seemed to do the trick.


Of course we were bust again a few years later and the Smorgon era began.

Its been an interesting journey, that's for sure.




Wheeler’s 1992 season with us was one of my favourite seasons supporting the club (2016 aside obviously)

A young Chris Grant, Danny Del-Re killing it at full forward, Glenn Coleman at Centre Half Forward, Brian Royal in the forward pocket, Scott Wynd’s Brownlow, Libba Snr and Atkins in the middle. Good times.


Re: the fight back, I was there at the rally with all my family and it was incredible. Raw emotion and passion.

Forever grateful to all organisers and driving forces behind it who’ve already mentioned in this thread and every supporter who gave till it hurt.

It’s also fitting that in the two most important games in our history since then - the 2016 Prelim and Grand Final - our score ended up being 89.

Go the scraggers.
 

Spiritof82

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Did anybody read the article in the Herald-Sun yesterday? They included a black and white photo of some supporters during a fightback rally. The guy with the pudding-bowl haircut has been a fanatic in the crowd at matches for many years since. Out of curiosity, does anyone know his name? I haven't noticed him in the crowd in recent years when watching on the telly, but he is one of those easily identified non-footballing Bulldogs people, just like our doctor Gary Zimmerman.

View attachment 707286

A lot of us knew him as Rex
 

Freshwater

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Did anybody read the article in the Herald-Sun yesterday? They included a black and white photo of some supporters during a fightback rally. The guy with the pudding-bowl haircut has been a fanatic in the crowd at matches for many years since. Out of curiosity, does anyone know his name? I haven't noticed him in the crowd in recent years when watching on the telly, but he is one of those easily identified non-footballing Bulldogs people, just like our doctor Gary Zimmerman.

View attachment 707286
I was in the cheer squad in 1985 and we knew him as ‘big Dave’. I don’t know him at all. He was in the Brad Hardie, Swan Lager ad and was featured a lot as an iconic fan back then. He asked a mate of mine for a sip of his Coke once, and my mate didn’t see another drop! He just loved the Dogs.
 

Yojimbo

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One of my junior clubs sang a version of the Fitzroy song, I lived in the Fitzroy zone and they used to
shout us free games at VFL park when they played there and I was coached by Leon Harris when he
was with the VFL and did school visits. It pays to keep in mind that there is more than one side to
our amazing survival story, one of my most vivid memories is when Doug Hawkins played for
Fitzroy and had the letters EJ marked on his hand in texta, that was very emotional for me.
 

Freshwater

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One of my junior clubs sang a version of the Fitzroy song, I lived in the Fitzroy zone and they used to
shout us free games at VFL park when they played there and I was coached by Leon Harris when he
was with the VFL and did school visits. It pays to keep in mind that there is more than one side to
our amazing survival story, one of my most vivid memories is when Doug Hawkins played for
Fitzroy and had the letters EJ marked on his hand in texta, that was very emotional for me.
When Fitzroy died, us or North maybe could have incorporated their history, to some degree with ours? Instead of taking it to Brisbane? Their FFC symbol was/is iconic and would have suited our initials. The end result for us has worked out great but there were still many tough times thoughout those 30 years.
 

Draft Pick

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I was in the cheer squad in 1985 and we knew him as ‘big Dave’. I don’t know him at all. He was in the Brad Hardie, Swan Lager ad and was featured a lot as an iconic fan back then. He asked a mate of mine for a sip of his Coke once, and my mate didn’t see another drop! He just loved the Dogs.
If you were in the cheer squad in 85 you may still have some Eastcoast Jeans memorabilia?

I seem to remember the cheer squad had these white cowboy hats that they all wore that year.

It seemed strange at the time. Am I remembering correctly ?
 

dogzrule

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Did anybody read the article in the Herald-Sun yesterday? They included a black and white photo of some supporters during a fightback rally. The guy with the pudding-bowl haircut has been a fanatic in the crowd at matches for many years since. Out of curiosity, does anyone know his name? I haven't noticed him in the crowd in recent years when watching on the telly, but he is one of those easily identified non-footballing Bulldogs people, just like our doctor Gary Zimmerman.

View attachment 707286

It’s David Porter, think he run the cheer squad for a while. Not sure what become of him


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Freshwater

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If you were in the cheer squad in 85 you may still have some Eastcoast Jeans memorabilia?

I seem to remember the cheer squad had these white cowboy hats that they all wore that year.

It seemed strange at the time. Am I remembering correctly ?
No, but as a 13 year old I had a much
loved white eastcoast bulldogs windcheater, I wore it everywhere.
 
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