Irene Chatfield

[Derek Zoolander]

This woman has done amazing things for the Bulldogs over the years, and deserves her very own thread. After all, she's been there longer than any player or coach and her 89 efforts are constantly brought up as they should be.

I got to thinking though...

Is Irene Chatfield the Bulldog Mother Superior?

 

[Fossie 32]

This woman has done amazing things for the Bulldogs over the years, and deserves her very own thread. After all, she's been there longer than any player or coach and her 89 efforts are constantly brought up as they should be.

I got to thinking though...

Is Irene Chatfield the Bulldog Mother Superior?

Too true! Irene is a legend - don't know what the club have done to honour her so far but she deserves some major acknowledgement.

 

[Bulldog1954]

Pretty sure at one point we made her the number 1 ticket holder

 

[C.E.Lovett]

Straight out of 'Unleashed'. A book that I'm sure most of you have.

Irene Chatfield
Irene Chatfield was born in Fitzroy. A Footscray supporter from the age of five. she had become a staunch member of the 'Save the Dogs' Committee. On Monday night, 2 October. she was watching Channel 10, when Eddie Maguire announced news of the merger. '1 can't let this happen to our club.' she thought. Within days she found herself the public face of the Fightback campaign and quickly became highly adept at handling the media.
Her own commitment to the club mirrors that of so many other supporters:

We're battlers. The Footscray Football Club has always been battlers. We believe they'll make it one day like we will.

WE nearly made it in '85, but we just missed out. In '86, '87, '88 it disheartened them. In '89, so many supporters were dropping off and we were losing badly. When it came to the crunch the VFL did us a favour. It made us sit up ... We've got a different atmosphere around our club.

The supporters of Footscray are willing to work around the ground for nothing. They're willing to put a bit of backbone into it.
​

Irene Chatfield was considered as a 'people's voice' for inclusion on the post-Fightback Footscray Board, and would probably have been a popular choice for president in 1989.

However, she also was only too aware that the high powered business mechanics of today’s football were probably best dealt with by others and deferred to their expertise.

She still believes passionately that, 'A lot of clubs are not doing right by their grassroots supporters, and that the supporters' voice should be heard in the boardroom as well as in the outer.

 

[C.E.Lovett]

Mother Superior - no I don't think so, was she otherwise religious?

What about 'Matriarch'.

Probably should erect a statue to her, put her head on stamps and coins and give her a state funeral when she passes away.

We probably had a Patriarch in James Cumming many years ago, gave all of the boys a gold coin when they won a grand final.

I wonder if this new guy, the truckie millionaire guy, Barry Hall, I think. I wonder what he is going to do for us?

 

[Kennel Master]

Straight out of 'Unleashed'. A book that I'm sure most of you have.

Irene Chatfield
Irene Chatfield was born in Fitzroy. A Footscray supporter from the age of five. she had become a staunch member of the 'Save the Dogs' Committee. On Monday night, 2 October. she was watching Channel 10, when Eddie Maguire announced news of the merger. '1 can't let this happen to our club.' she thought. Within days she found herself the public face of the Fightback campaign and quickly became highly adept at handling the media.
Her own commitment to the club mirrors that of so many other supporters:



Irene Chatfield was considered as a 'people's voice' for inclusion on the post-Fightback Footscray Board, and would probably have been a popular choice for president in 1989.

However, she also was only too aware that the high powered business mechanics of today’s football were probably best dealt with by others and deferred to their expertise.

She still believes passionately that, 'A lot of clubs are not doing right by their grassroots supporters, and that the supporters' voice should be heard in the boardroom as well as in the outer.

Great post Lovett.

It's stories like this that make you proud to be a Dogs Supporter.

 

[C.E.Lovett]

This is from one of Doug Hawkins' Books - 'Hawkins my story'.

Dennis Giamberti, Alan Dalton, Kerrie Gordon and our own Joan D'arc Irene Chatfield.