Introduction

“Starker this is FNWB-
We don’t doggie, doggie, doggie, woof, woof, woof here!”

Footscray Not Western Bulldogs stands for the re-introduction of  Footscray  as the name of the Australian Football League team now known as the Western Bulldogs. This is the primary cause and FNWB will only be satisfied when the club is called Footscray again. This means that the scoreboard at all grounds will say Footscray, the newspapers and all written, verbal and electronic communications will refer to our club as Footscray.  They term Western Bulldogs will no longer apply any more, it will be consigned to the history books.

The club has since October 1996 been known as the Footscray Football Club trading as Western Bulldogs. However all mention of the club has been decreed by those in charge that we must now be  Western Bulldogs, at the expense of Footscray.  The situation for over 100 years prior to 1996 is that the club was the Footscray Football Club.  An unelected new executive came to power at the end of the 1996 season and this new group banished our name, achieving this change without notifying the members and without a referendum of Footscray Football club members which was the correct requirement to effect such a sweeping change of this sort.

FNWB is about the Footscray Football Club and fights relentlessly and unswervingly for the ending of the era of Western Bulldogs and the reintroduction of the Footscray name. There are no compromises or deals from FNWB about the Footscray name- the club must returns in whole as Footscray.

Anyone who parrots these lemming views below-

(1) “I don’t know what all the fuss is about because the club is still really Footscray-  because officially it says  The Footscray Football Club trading as the Western Bulldogs”

(2) ” It is not going to change back, any anyway who cares, will reverting back to Footscray mean the doggies will win a Premiership?

should save themselves their precious time by not bothering to read this website any further. Why?

Because you cannot comprehend or will not understand the point of this issue.  FNWB doesn’t care that we are that long winded legal name– FNWB fights for Footscray- it doesn’t want some trading name on the scoreboard, newspapers, football records – we want the name Footscray returned to its rightful place- on the front foot for everyone to see, not hidden away like some obscure and little known skeleton in the cupboard.

and

FNWB doesn’t care that you think – ‘why bother and it won’t change back’ and also ‘will reverting back it make us win this long awaited Premiership?’ because 14 years of Western Bulldogs hasn’t seen the doggies win a Grand Final let alone a Premiership, so your not speaking with any authority on the success front. Western Bulldogs hasn’t brought one Premiership on the field. Then there is the appalling crowd of 39,000 for the second final this year between Western Bulldogs and the Sydney Swans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on a Saturday evening. There would have been at the very best no more than 19,000 ‘Western’ fans in attendance- for a finals match- hardly evidence that the ‘Western Suburbs/Region is passionate about the club that changed its name to ‘Western Bulldogs’ because Footscray ‘limited the brand’!

FNWB is not connected to the Western Bulldogs, it is a Footscray fans website created for the interests of Footscray supporters where ever they may reside. We are not officially linked to the ‘Western Bulldogs’ and we will never kow tow or give up the ghost to those running the club whilst the name remains Western Bulldogs. However  come any game day the indifference is put to one side as FNWB stands 100% behind the 18 men on the ground wearing the red, white and blue colours.   Our mission is to fight for Footscray off the field  but also still support the boys on the paddock.

THE MISSION

The main issue is our name, however other claims are as follows.

(1) Re-introducing the old pre 1975 Footscray uniform, in particular the guernsey with the red and white bands. Together with returning the old style tricoloured socks to the playing kit

(2) Recognising that the Footscray Football Club existed before 1925 when we changed competitions from the old V.F.A in 1924 to the then V.F.L in 1925

(3) Debunking all  myths and stereotypes (90% of which are wrong) about the Footscray home ground, Footscray players, Footscray supporters and Footscray’s history.

The present Guernsey looks childish, it is inappropriate for a club playing in the country’s premier sporting competition to be wearing a ‘kindergarten like smock’ as its jumper. What the Footscray Football Club wore prior to 1975 was excellent and the 1975-1996 uniform was outstanding also.  Yet FNWB champions the pre-1975 guernsey above all others. The 1975-1996 jumper was indeed a very good one and FNWB wouldn’t be too upset should it return on match days, but the 1974 jumper is the best of them. That banded jumper needs to replace the “Yawning Cat’ like guernsey that we have been wearing since 1997.

Combine this with re-introducing the old style socks. Pictured here is our sock design from the mid 1970’s. The socks contain a better spread of our three colours. The current hose (that is the old word for socks) is preferable to the all blue of the 1980’s&1990’s(I thought that looked terrible), but I would prefer the 1976 style.

Another task is to see the re-introduction of the more traditional Bulldog emblem. Footscray Not Western Bulldogs requests that the ‘Bulldog Statant’ bulldog featured below to be re-introduced and the incumbent design (which is also pictured below) discarded along with the name Western Bulldogs. The current Bulldogs emblem has a strong similarity with the Holden insignia, the aerial view of a golf course or an annoyed cat eagerly awaiting a tin of whiskas.

The Bulldog Statant to the left is an excellent portrayal of what our Bulldog emblem should be. It is fantastic, as a child I always looked at it with great pride and explains why it is featured so prominently throughout. Please dump the yawning cat on the right and re-commission the Bulldog Statant on the left.

Thanks to Rob Meredith for these pictures. I recommend his website to all football fans and if you go to the Links of FNWB you will find it. This site provides team Guernseys from the past and the present. So if you would like to know what the Northern Blues, Eastern Magpies etc wore back in 1906 or 1954 then make sure you visit ‘Mero’s Jumper Madness’

WE HAVE EXISTED AS A CLUB PRIOR TO 1925

The recognition that the Footscray Football Club was formed in the 1880’s and not 1925 as so many would appear to believe. This oversight is not necessarily a criticism of the current Western Bulldogs board, as this has been a concern for many years prior to 1996. The Premiers and Placegetters chapter is organised in a way as to indicate that our club was alive and kicking way back in the 1880’s. The format describes the final four in the competition that we played in.

The Victorian Football League era of 1897 till 1924 has not been recorded here, as Footscray didn’t play in the VFL during those years. The 1897-1924 VFL competition means precisely nothing to us, just as those years would also be of only academic interest to Hawthorn and North Melbourne. Richmond was still in the Victorian Football Association up to 1908, so the VFL seasons from 1897-1907 would not be important to them. As this website is at pains to point out, we have won 10 Premierships rather than the one that most people believe. Other clubs could and should recognise their VFA Premierships alongside their post 1896 flags. So in reality Richmond have won 12 flags and Collingwood 15 titles. The same logic applies to all other Victorian teams that won a VFA Premiership during their time in that competition.

I often wonder why teams refrain from including their VFA Premierships alongside their VFL and AFL triumphs? It would seem that the world commenced in 1897.

Maybe there is a historic precedent here as the last of England’s monarchs with the name Edward was Edward VIII. The much documented Edward the Eighth, the king who abdicated the throne in 1936 for Mrs Simpson. Yet he was not the eighth Edward to rule England, he was indeed the eleventh! There were three kings before the Battle of Hastings who were Edward’s. They were

Edward the Elder 899-924
Edward the Martyr 975-978
Edward the Confessor 1042- 1066

The successor to Edward the Confessor was Harold who was killed at the Battle of Hastings in October 1066. So Edward VIII should really be Edward X1. For some reason the numbering of Kings therefore commences after the Norman Conquest, it seems that the pre-Battle of Hastings monarchs are not worth recording, which I have always felt was strange. One of England’s most celebrated rulers was Alfred the Great who reigned as one of the Saxon kings from 871-879 Alfred often remembering for burning the cakes. Therefore should a future King be an Alfred, he would be Alfred I rather than Alfred the second? The same would apply with Harold, as there is yet to be a Harold since 1066, though the next Harold (assuming there will be another one) should be a Harold the third. However by following precedent the next Harold would be Harold1.

So 1897 in Victoria football is our reflection of 1066 in England and it appears that we want pre-1897 to be completely disregarded.

It is not my place to campaign for other Victorian clubs although I have made some suggestions. Nonetheless I am pushing for our history prior to 1925 to be given proper acknowledgement. Why are we so indifferent to that period? We won 9 premierships in that time yes nine! What is the point of pretending it never happened? Then again the post 1996 administration would like to pretend that Footscray was never our name anyway, so if we can disown our name, which was as recent as 1996, then 1924 and before is somewhat easier to conveniently forget.