Western Bulldogs revert back to Footscray for one night, 28 years on Rick Kennedy says name change has been a success
The Dogs will revert back to Footscray for one-night-only this week, yet the face of the original name change Rick Kennedy tells SHANNON GILL that the move to the Western Bulldogs remains the right call.
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In the wild west of 1980s footy Rick Kennedy was the Bulldogs’ take-no-prisoners sheriff, a feared full back who took on all the stars.
Anyone who could go toe-to-toe with Tony Lockett and live to tell the tale is one tough hombre, yet perhaps his toughest footy match-ups came off the field.
When a new board led by David Smorgon swept through Footscray Football Club in 1996 Kennedy became its football figurehead. So when they moved to replace the Footscray name with ‘Western Bulldogs’, to many he was the public face of blasphemy.
“With some people, my relationship moved from one of a favoured ex-player to ‘not favoured’, to put it in a polite way, ” Kennedy tells CODE Sports.
“There were lots of those moments throughout the six months … it was not good”
This week the Dogs will revert back to the Footscray name for the first since that summer of turmoil in 1996-97, 28 years ago.
While the name change is a one-night-only tribute for the 70th anniversary of its iconic 1954 premiership, there will be many who argue the Footscray name should be permanent.
Kennedy himself admits he lapses into old habits with the ‘Scray too.
“To be honest, I often call them Footscray, because that’s who I played with. Sometimes I have to pull myself up,” he says.
Yet he’s adamant that the change was the right thing to do then, and remains that now.
“The thinking was that we needed to align ourselves with the western suburbs because that’s who we represented. In the old days, when I first went to play with the Bulldogs, everyone shopped in Footscray, everyone went to Footscray”
“Then all the shopping centres were built in Werribee and at High Point and people didn’t necessarily go to Footscray anymore. So new people didn’t associate with Footscray as we did back in the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s.”
Officially the Dogs posted a $2 million dollar loss in 1996, but the new board found the outlook more bleak.
“You think back to the middle of the 90s and that was a reasonable amount of money for a club to lose. To say it was precarious would be an understatement.”
At a time when the western suburbs were growing far beyond Footscray, the club was shrinking.
The name change itself was the brainchild of fellow director Trevor Flett, the intention was to harness the whole region.
At the time Kennedy told the Herald Sun “now we’ve got Werribee, Hoppers (Crossing), Sunbury, Melton, the place has been expanded, it’s a western region.”
The board had several meetings at the club to explain and ‘sell’ the change to the rusted on members.
To many, Kennedy and his crew removing Footscray was akin to killing Bambi.
He remembers at one meeting being accosted by a supporter who he’d been close to as a player.
“He said ‘you’re doing the wrong thing Rick’ and he started ripping into me,” Kennedy recalls.
The supporter thought that recruiting “a couple of good players” would turn the club around. Kennedy asked him how much that would cost, “half a million” was the reply.
“I said ‘your idea is fantastic, but we ain’t got the dough, and you ain’t got a solution to that, but what you’re doing is you’re bagging our solution to try and help the club move forward.”
Kennedy had to restrain himself from treating him like he did full forwards at the Western Oval.
“I said ‘I understand you’re passionate and you’re emotional, but in a minute I’m going to end up grabbing you by the throat and pushing against that wall because you’re talking nonsense.”
Another time at a golf day to lure new sponsors, a group of fans vocally opposed the ‘Western Bulldogs’ pitch.
“I reached into my pocket and pulled my keys out and I said ‘there you go, there’s the keys to the club. We’ll support you, take them. Because we don’t really want to do this either, we just think it’s the best way forward.’
Suffice to say, the offer was not taken up.
All these years on, the Footscray argument is still held by many fans.
Yet in the meantime that western region has expanded all the way to Ballarat where the Dogs play games each season.
“We had to attach ourselves to the whole of the west because that’s where we needed to draw our supporter base from and have the young kids wearing the red, white and blue.”
“I understand that’s what people were used to, they’re passionate about it and it’s fantastic. But sometimes you have to make pragmatic decisions for the benefit of the club and its future.”
Since the change the Dogs have played finals in 14 of the 27 completed seasons, including that magical second premiership in 2016. The 27 seasons prior only saw six finals appearances for just two September wins, let alone any flags.
And while a name doesn’t earn wins, the club gradually became a financial stable entity after the switch.
“If you ask someone in Hoppers Crossing whether they relate to Footscray or Western Bulldogs today, I think they’d say ‘Western Bulldogs,” Kennedy says.
“I think it’s a pretty good brand and the board made a very good decision in hindsight.”
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Originally published as Western Bulldogs revert back to Footscray for one night, 28 years on Rick Kennedy says name change has been a success
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