AFL finals 2019: Where were the young Dogs when the club won the 2016 premiership?
Where were they then? The Western Bulldogs have undergone plenty of change since the 2016 flag, so just where were the pups when the club broke a 62-year drought on that history-making day?
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There are plenty of new Dogs hoping to get up to some old tricks — from 2016 — in this year’s finals series.
As they gear up to face GWS, Sam Edmund speaks to four new Western Bulldogs stars who watched on four years ago as the Sons of the West won beat Sydney to win the premiership.
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‘MY NAME WAS BRIAN MCGEE’
Ed Richards had his mate put the bet on.
It’s Grand Final day, 2016. Richards really likes Jason Johannisen for the Norm Smith Medal, but there’s a problem.
He’s only 17.
“One of my mates, he’s a bit of a man child. He had a full beard,” Richards recalled.
“It was like Brian McGee (a fake name Homer Simpson used when he was 17).
“So I had money on ‘JJ’ that day. I think I won $85 or something.”
This is a “where were they then” look at the new breed of Bulldogs powering the club’s first finals assault since that magical day in 2016.
So rapid has the rate of change been at the Whitten Oval in the three years since, only eight premiership players will line up in today’s Dogs team to take on Greater Western Sydney in an elimination final.
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For all the criticisms levelled at Luke Beveridge’s Bulldogs for supposedly falling off the cliff in the wake of that drought-breaking flag, this has been a side in transition.
Three years on, the names and faces are different, but there’s a familiar sense of destiny surrounding this club.
In 2016 Richards was playing school footy for Carey Grammar and despite his strong Collingwood links — his grandfather is Ron Richards and his great uncle is Lou Richards — he was drawn to dashing Dogs defender, Johannisen.
“I always liked him, being a half-backer when I was playing that position at that age,” Richards said.
“I was at a mate’s house watching that Grand Final and I was in awe. That game was just great to watch.
“It was pretty surreal coming to the club a year later and joining a Melbourne-based club was great for me.
“I still live at home now so it’s very easy and joining a club that had success so soon before I got there, I knew I was going to be in good hands.”
THE YOUNG PRODIGY
Aaron Naughton took his seat in the Great Southern Stand on the 50m line at the city end of the MCG.
The rangy West Australian had taken part in the Under-17 Futures game that morning.
The man who will today play a vital role in the Dogs finding an avenue to goal was a 16-year-old Collingwood fan with stars in his eyes three years ago.
“I got invited to play in that game and part of the deal was a ticket and we all sat together. It was the first Grand Final I’d been to and we were right where Zaine Cordy kicked the Dogs’ first goal,” Naughton said.
“I was one of many people that day jumping on the Bulldogs bandwagon. The footy they played that finals series was pretty remarkable so I was definitely barracking for the Dogs that day.”
Naughton would come to learn first-hand the rusted-on passion of the Dogs faithful, but the reaction in the outer to that 2016 Grand Final has stayed with him.
“I can still remember after the game, just the Dogs fans singing the theme song for the next hour or so as the players walked their lap,” he said.
“You could tell how much passion the supporters had for their team.”
Twelve months later, Naughton’s name was read out at the national draft as the Dogs’ first pick — No. 9 overall. Richards followed him at pick 16.
LIPINSKI: THE DIEHARD
Naughton would walk into Whitten Oval and soon meet Patrick Lipinski.
Lipinksi sat above him in the Great Southern Stand on Grand Final day beside his parents Margaret and Richard as a diehard Western Bulldogs supporter.
The Lipinski’s drove in from Eltham and sat on Level 3.
“Mum and dad paid a lot of money for the tickets. It was an unreal experience just to be there,” Lipinski said.
“JJ kicked this goal in the last quarter that didn’t count. They called it touched on the line, but he kicked it from 60m and it was just so loud.
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“Tom Boyd’s goal in the last quarter from the square after Dale Morris tackled Buddy was pretty amazing. There were so many moments.
“As a young Dogs supporter you never thought you’d see a premiership.”
Lipinski was 18 and about to get drafted via the Northern Knights. The Bulldogs had interviewed him a few weeks earlier.
“When I was at the game it didn’t even enter my mind that I’d be playing with the same blokes the very next year,” he said.
“But eight weeks later I was here and it was like, ‘Wow, I was just a fan’. I couldn’t believe it, to be honest.”
The Dogs swooped with pick 28 in the national draft less than two months after the Grand Final.
“You just want to get drafted to anyone, but to stay in Victoria and play for the club you supported was awesome,” he said.
BITTERSWEET FOR BAILEY
Below Lipinski and above Naughton, Bailey Dale looked on from Level 2 with mixed emotions.
Dale has kicked 20 goals from his last six games this season, but rewind three years and he cut something of a frustrated figure after a 2016 season in which he’d stagnated.
Dale had played 10 games in 2015, but only four in 2016 and none since Round 8.
While rapt for his AFL teammates, a VFL premiership a week earlier had only served to heighten the feeling that he was missing out.
“All the VFL guys played in the Grand Final the week before, celebrated that and went and watched the guys the next week on the ‘G,” Dale said.
“Obviously it sucked a little bit not being out there, but I was also so happy for the guys that their hard work had paid off and the whole club had that success because it’s not easy to win a flag.
“We obviously celebrated it all together. It was a whole club effort.”
So much so that when the final siren sounded inside a raucous MCG in 2016, Dale was enveloped by the pandemonium.
“I wasn’t even playing and I was still getting congratulated for winning,” he said.
“It was kind of weird, but at the game you just got lost in the emotion of it all. The rooms were absolutely buzzing and there were a lot of tears.
“We came back to the Whitten Oval the next day and the whole ground was packed. It was pretty crazy and those images stick in your mind and hopefully you can one day create that for yourself.”
THE ENVIOUS DOCKER
Hayden Crozier had been on leave for a month.
The then-Fremantle defender had flown home to Rowville to visit family and friends after a season that yielded only four wins for the Dockers.
Crozier will play the first final of his career against the Giants this afternoon. In 2016 he watched on in amazement from the couch with a couple of mates.
“The boys were getting a little bit carried away, especially towards the end when they knew the Dogs were going to win it. I think everyone in Melbourne was on-board,” Crozier said.
“It was an unbelievable year from the Doggies. No one picked them to go that far, but momentum is a funny thing in footy.
“Even looking from the outside you could see the belief they all had in each other and all the coaches were driving that at the club and that run of footy they had for four weeks was just incredible.”
It was something that left an impression on Crozier.
Western Bulldogs premiership defender Joel Hamling joined Fremantle in the exchange period immediately following the Grand Final and in their only season together — 2017 — Crozier picked Hamling’s brain.
“When I was looking to leave Fremantle I spoke to Joel a bit about it. He really loved it here and said the boys were extremely close and the bond between the players and coaches was incredible,” he said.
“And the moment I walked through the door I‘ve been welcomed with open arms.
“It’s like no one really hates the Dogs. Obviously I’ve come from Perth where there’s that really strong rivalry between Fremantle and West Coast and if you’re not one, you’re the other.
“But there’s that underdog mentality here and with the struggles they’ve had keeping the club afloat, there’s that real community feel about it.”
Originally published as AFL finals 2019: Where were the young Dogs when the club won the 2016 premiership?
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