Introducing Leigh

My name is Leigh, i’m 33 and have been a doggies supporter all my live. I grew up in the west of Melbourne loving footy and would go to the then western oval with my uncle every home game.

Some of my best memories as a kid growing up was with my uncle going to the footy, some bad ones as well (1997) but mainly good. There were differently times that I thought did I make the right choice as a kid following the dogs, always being asked by the other kids, when did we win our last premiership ?  They have broken my heart many times after filling it with so much hope over the years, as the great Eric Cantona said. “You can change your wife, your politics, your religion, but never, never can you change your favourite football team.”

So in 2016 when we finally got over the line in a prelim final in a cracking game against the Giants. ( up yours GWS) it was my uncle who i rang first, the emotion that spilled out at the moment was uncontrollable as I stood outside Whitten Oval in the rain thanking my uncle for all the years of following the dogs, because on that night all the pain of the prelims past went away. Thinking about that night still gives me joy.

It’s fair to say that i didn’t want to spend grand final day with anyone else but my uncle who for all those years took me to the footy week in week out, we were lucky enough to get tickets on what became the most special day.

I have never, and never will change my Football team, because for all the heart break and pain following your team gives you over the years, as a dog supporter there have been many. that one moment when you know your team is going to win the premiership, that is the moment when all the pain just goes away. Now for the first time in my life I can now ask, When did you’re team win it’s last flag?

Why a Bulldogs win is good for footy.

As the 2021 AFL grand final is only two days away, the Western Bulldogs are the team that, if they do win, will have the most impact on the future of Aussie Rules and the participation rate once community sports resume, this is because of one player, Bailey Smith.

The AFL is at an exciting stage in attracting and engaging the next generations of consumers; international sports such as the NBA and NFL are so accessible in the digital world fighting for market share. Gen Z (born mid-to-late) is born mid-to-late 90-early2010s) will soon become the largest cohort of consumers.

The participation rate of Aussie rules has been steadily declining from 3.4% in 2005 to 2.7% in 2020 (AusPlay, 2020), with Aussie Rules at 9.4% of children aged 0-14 who participated in sports-related activities (AusPlay, 2020). Furthermore, 47% of Gen Z are not sports fans, with 40% never watching sport, shifting from traditional sports-watching habits to online content, with teens following athletes first. 

Beaupre, Alfaro-Barrantes & Jacobs (2020) suggest that athletes have an incredible potential to influence behaviour, as followers feel a part of their “circle” and become a trusted peer relationship. Enter Bailey Smith, the 20-year-old lighting up the final’s series for his Western Bulldogs with sublime performances and his goal celebrations that just add to what is brand Bailey. If he already isn’t the hottest marketable footballer going around, he soon will be if he and his team are successful on Saturday night.

Bazlenka has an Instagram following of 271k; to put that into context, The Dees, Max Gawn, Christian Petracca and Jake Lever have a combined following of 271k.

Now, in terms of who wins on Saturday night, the Dees would be a fantastic and worthy winner, but in terms of growth in the game from Gen Z as both participants and consumers, a Bulldogs win will go a long way in helping increase those numbers as we have seen with many kids replicating Smith’s Ice vein celebrations.  

Reference

Beaupre, J. G., Alfaro-Barrantes, P., & Jacobs, B. (2020). Professional Athletes and Gen Z: A Commentary on Social Media Influence During the COVID-19 Pandemic. The Journal of social media in Society, 9(2), 381-392.

SportAus (2020) Participation Trends in Australia.    

https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiM2Y2MzBjYWEtYmQ3YS00ZDI4LWFkMDgtNzUzMGI3ZWIyOTg4IiwidCI6IjhkMmUwZjRjLTU1ZjItNGNiMS04ZWU3LWRhNWRkM2ZmMzYwMCJ9

SportAus (2020), The Sport and Physical Activity Landscape.

https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiZjJkNzA5MmEtZTJmNy00NGRjLWJiNWUtNTljNTVhYmU2MGZlIiwidCI6IjhkMmUwZjRjLTU1ZjItNGNiMS04ZWU3LWRhNWRkM2ZmMzYwMCJ9

Brennan’s back big time

The AFLW was here, finally after so much work from so many people, season 2017 was built up to be something special. The AFL and VFL sides only month earlier both  won the premiership, it was a good time to be a bulldog. So when you are selected to be the face of the Bulldogs team, named captain and just being the main avenue to goal, and season 2017 doesn’t go to plan you get pissed off. Due to injury Katie Brennan just had to watch on not being able to help out her teammates, her girls.

Following Katie on social media during the off season you could see just how determined she was to get back, bigger, faster, stronger. Seeing posts from the KB performance centre to the fresh food that she puts into her body to fuel herself, you can tell that Katie doesn’t leave any stone unturned to just get better.

When season 2018 came around and she got her chance to lead her girls out at VUWO again she would be ready, boy oh boy she didn’t disappoint. Brennan would lead strong all day, kick 3 goals including the matches first and the dogs would get the win in front of a packed VUWO crowd. The one thing I took away from katie’s performance was her 2nd goal, just that image of our captain in the number 3 jumper owning the moment like the greats who have worn the number 3 in our history.

I see a lot of Chris Grant in Katie and imagine that’s what it would’ve been like watching EJ back in the day, just how much love she has for the club, the jumper, the history and most importantly, her girls.  

One crazy plan.

This is the radical plan to stop teams resting players in the last round, stop tanking, have interest from all parts of the ladder and have games during the pre finals bye. 
The top 6 sides get the week off, yes the dogs won the flag from 7th in 2016, they did win 15 games though. That would have them 2nd now.
7-10 play a wild card weekend during the pre finals bye. 
11-18 go into a draft lotto for the for the first 4 picks, with the draft starting at pick 5. 
This creates excitement from all parts of the ladder and gives meaning into late season games. 
Look at this weekend, dogs will want to win to get a wild card spot, port swans and dees will want a top 6 spot and finishing last doesn’t guarantee pick 1, so building a winning culture will be important for the lions and north. 
The reason we got a pre finals bye is because teams rested players in round 23, this system gives the top teams a rest without jeopardising the integrity of the final round. 
Having a wild card weekend during the bye weekend, gives sides around that 7-12 spot hope in the last part of the season. It also allows for meaningful games during that break, we can still have the legends game on a Friday night with the Saturday being left for the wild card games, let’s make this an event. 
Teams are spending way too long down near the bottom, getting deeper into debt, while getting a top 3 pick is great, this isn’t the NBA, one top pick isn’t going to change a side near the bottom much. Best case scenario for a side who finishes last is pick 1 and pick 5, helping them get of the bottom fastest and helping their bottom line. 
Now this plan isn’t going to fix everything, but I think it fixes a lot of stuff and makes every game mean something, it also gives fans in every part of the ladder hope, hope is all we need to keep us excited for what could be. 

Stick fat

In 2014 when Ryan Griffen walked, Cooney and Higgins were on their way out and Macca wasn’t going to last, there were a lot of people who said they weren’t going to buy their memberships in 2015, that they were fed up with the club. 

I had a go at a few people around that time, telling them to piss right off and not come back if that was their attitude. Football club more than ever need people to stick fat when things aren’t going well, as I said to those people, how do you expect us to improve if people jump ship when we are down. 

The two years that followed was an amazing ride as we climbed Everest, something that every fan could not have imagined, being lucky enough to be there on Grand Final day it was the best day of my life. 

Now 8 months later I find myself disgusted with some of our fans, on the weekend I seen so many fans leaving early, are you kidding me? This group Gave us the ultimate less than 12 months ago and you can’t sit through a couple of bad weeks? Give me a spell. 

This more than ever is the time we need to stick fat because we can’t go backwards like we have in the past if we want to sustain our off field Success and stability. 

Why We hate GWS

Back in the Giants 1st or 2nd season they were telling our boys that we have a poor history and we have no hope in this game and should fold. Are you kidding me ? these little 18-19 year old smart arses telling guys like Matty Boyd and Gia that we have no future, that we should fold. these smart arses who have been around all for 5 minutes have no idea about history or pride in a club.

Like most lifelong bulldogs fan, i mean real generational fans, I’ve spent most of my life in the western suburbs, we are a very working class supporter base, a lot of welfare and never a lot of help. So when we do good at work, or pay off some debt or buy a house we are proud of that achievement, looking at it the other way when one of us is in trouble we rally around each other and look out for one another.

It a lot like that supporting the Western Bulldogs, We are not a proud club because of the amount premiership we have won, we are are proud club because we have had to fight and fight and fight for everything we have, and we are still here fighting.

It’s a lot like the families on welfare or low income who struggle week to week all year just to keep a roof over their family’s head, or food or clothes on their back, when it comes their kids birthday they go all out just to make that day so special, for one day they feel like nothing else matters.

That’s what’s like following the dogs, i mean we have struggled year in year out to attract many good players, in the 70’s having to sell what good players we had just to keep the lights on. so when a day like keeping Carlton goal less for 3 quarters or kelvin Templeton kicks 15 or when one of our champions plays 300 games, we make sure to celebrate and make it all so special.

So when I here stories about young little smart arses who have no idea about history, what it’s like for a club to almost fold in 1989 or Merge in 1996. This is the reason why so many Dogs, if not all fans really do hate GWS with a Passion.

Historically we don’t have any Revelries, because the are forged from big finals and grand finals, that says more about our history than anything, yet we look at the Giants, who are given everything, money, draft picks, the best kids, the world. All this at a time when we had a 10 million dollar debt, all this money wasted on a club that no one cares about, when we could be debt free.

If this wasn’t enough for Dogs fans to hate the Giants from day one, they stole our up and coming star, our local kid, our next captain Cal Ward, then in 2014 our then captain walked out on us for GWS. Even before our two clubs could play Finals, this revelry was at fever pitch.

Then that great night September 24 2016, 10k doggies went up, the Giants playing their first Prelim final at home were booed as they came on to the ground, those smart arse little kids were still smart arses, giving lip. How satisfying was it when stringer ran into F50 and kicked the ball to Dickson knowing that we had just beaten the AFL’s golden child. I could just imagine EJ walking the boundary that night, just Sticking it right up em.