Which Western Bulldog has the best fairytale story of the Grand Final?
THERE are too many fantastic Grand Final stories in the Bulldogs team to single any one out. So here are all of them in one place.
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IT’S the battlers from the western suburbs of Melbourne versus the Bondi billionaires (well, one at least).
Sydney is seeking redemption for its defeat in the 2014 Grand Final — two years after it won a premiership.
The Western Bulldogs don’t even have a Grand Final defeat to atone for unless you go back to 1961, when none of the current list was born.
The Dogs aren’t all scrappers — No. 4 draft pick Marcus Bontempelli is pure silk and there’s the explosive if unpredictable Jake Stringer. And Tom Boyd is on a reasonable pay packet.
But most of the Bulldogs players are not household names and there are great stories running down the list. Here are some of our favourites.
CLAY SMITH
As if fighting back from three knee reconstructions — in 2013, 14 and 15 — wasn’t enough, one of Smith’s best friends died last Monday. He doesn’t exactly have a textbook kicking action, but Smith rose to the occasion at Spotless Stadium with four goals. “Footy does wonders. I’ve been through some dark times but it’s all worth it. We’re going to a Grand Final next week,” he told Channel 7 after the game.
CALEB DANIEL
The shortest player in the AFL was overlooked by pretty much every other club because of his size. But his sure-hands and quick mind have been crucial to the Dogs’ run to the Grand Final. Daniel’s mum asked him to wear a helmet in under-8s because she was “pretty nervous about my lack of height and the fact that opponents’ elbows kept hitting me in the head”.
He will wear the same helmet on the MCG on Saturday: “I haven’t changed it yet,” he said earlier this year. “I’ve probably had a massive head from the age of seven through to now, it’s the same size I guess.”
MATTHEW BOYD AND DALE MORRIS
The heartbreak kids of 2008-10 are the elder statesmen of the youngest team in the finals. Boyd (34) and Morris (33) played in three losing preliminary finals (Liam Picken also played in the 2009 and 2010 prelims). “It was a bit of heartbreak, those years,” Morris said on Channel 7’s AFL GameDay on Sunday. “This time around the belief in the group is just phenomenal. It’s hard to compare, we’re just excited to be in the big dance.” Boyd said simply: “It doesn’t feel real.”
SHANE BIGGS
The running defender from East Ringwood was traded by the Swans after six games in three seasons, and has blossomed at half-back under Luke Beveridge. Might have a point to prove against his old side.
JOEL HAMLING
Another Dog making the most of his second chance at AFL level. From remote Cable Beach — just down the road from Broome, WA — Hamling was recruited by Geelong but struggled to break into the star-studded backline and was delisted at the end of 2014 without playing a game. He joined the Bulldogs for nothing as a free agent.
Hamling wasn’t a walk-up start at the Dogs either, but has got his chance with injuries to players like Bob Murphy and Marcus Adams — and has grabbed it, doing jobs on Josh Kennedy and Cyril Rioli in the finals. “We’re just a group of guys who just want to go out there and play hard each week and we love our fans and love the club,” Hamling says.
ZAINE CORDY
There isn’t much meat on the son of former Footscray defender Brian Cordy, who played in the Dogs’ losing 1985 preliminary final side. Played his first game this year in Round 19 and has held his spot through the finals, playing mainly defensive roles but bobbed up with two crucial goals yesterday.
LUKE DAHLHAUS
Another huge tick for the Dogs’ recruiting department. Snapped up as a rookie in 2010, Dahlhaus started his career hoping to establish himself in Williamstown’s senior team. After blitzing the VFL reserves he was quickly promoted and made his AFL debut in Round 1 the next year. He was originally best known for his dreadlocks, now he’s one of the most damaging midfield-forwards in the competition.
TORY DICKSON
The 28-year-old was almost lost to the AFL. He didn’t play in the TAC Cup and was on Frankston’s VFL list before returning the suburbs to play for Noble Park, where he booted 112 goals in 2010. The next year he decided to give the top level one more crack, driving from Beaconsfield — where he helped his dad build prisons — to Bendigo to play for the now defunct VFL club Bendigo Bombers.
Essendon liked what they saw but the Bulldogs got in first, selecting the mature-age forward with pick 57 in the 2011 draft. He has since kicked 135 goals — including four yesterday — in 78 games. “It’s a magnificent result, it really is,” Noble Park coach Mick Fogarty said on draft night. “He decided to have one more crack at it and it’s paid off. Everyone at Noble Park is really rapt for him.”
JOSH DUNKLEY
Nominated the Swans as his preferred destination under the father-son rule but the Swans passed on him at last year’s draft, opting not to match the Bulldogs’ bid of pick 25. Son of Andrew, who played 217 games for the Swans including the losing 1996 Grand Final.
JASON JOHANNISEN
Could be the first South African-born player to appear in a Grand Final. He was born in Johannesburg and moved to Perth with his family at age eight after his parents Eldrick (a lift mechanic) and Sonya (an accountant) fell in love with the city while visiting family. A promising rugby union player as a junior, his cousin suggested he try Aussie rules at age 11. Dogs recruiter Simon Dalrymple took a gamble on him at pick 39 in the 2011 rookie draft. He took a while to find his feet but his dash was crucial to the Bulldogs’ prelim final win.
TOM LIBERATORE
Son of Tony, who may have been the happiest man in Australia yesterday. Libba Sr won a Brownlow Medal but epitomised the battling Bulldog spirit, standing just 163cm, and the Dogs’ preliminary finals agony after kicking what he still believes was the matchwinning goal in the 1997 prelim against Adelaide. The goal ump didn’t see it that way and the Crows won by two points. Now his son has a chance to go one better.
BOB MURPHY
Heart and soul of the Dogs who sadly won’t be on the field on Saturday after wrecking his knee in Round 3.
Pride only scratches at the surface.
— Bob Murphy (@BobMurphy02) September 24, 2016
Our team... Our club!
Brothers and sisters of Footscray, pick up your dancing shoes!
LUKE BEVERIDGE
Transformed a football club on and off the field after arriving when the Dogs were in full-blown crisis mode at the end of 2014 — incredibly just two years ago. A battler on the field who played 118 games for three clubs — Melbourne, Footscray and St Kilda — and proved his coaching credentials leading the St Bede’s Mentone Tigers to the C, B and A-grade premierships in consecutive seasons from 2006-08.
To be fair, a couple of Swans qualify for the fairytale club too.
BEN McGLYNN
The unlucky one in the recent dominance of Sydney and Hawthorn. Traded from the Hawks after 2009, he missed Sydney’s 2012 flag after hurting his hamstring in the first week of finals, then played in the Swans’ losing GF team in 2014. Third time lucky?
ALIIR ALIIR
Hard to top this one. Born in a Kenyan refugee camp, where he played soccer with a balloon wrapped in rags, after his family fled war-torn Sudan. He moved to Australia at age eight and earned a mentioned by PM Malcolm Turnbull in a speech at the United Nations last week. Battling a knee injury to take his place on Grand Final day, but fair to say he has overcome his share of adversity before.
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