By Emma Quayle
Almost 28 years after taking her Year 12 homework with her to the "Save the Bulldogs" rally at Whitten Oval, Kylie Watson-Wheeler has been appointed the club's new vice-president.
Watson-Wheeler, entering her second term on the Bulldogs' board, won the nomination of her fellow directors following the retirement late last year of the long-serving Sue Alberti.
Kylie Watson-Wheeler: the new vice-president at the Western Bulldogs. Credit: Darrian Traynor
Alberti stepped aside after 12 years as a director last December, with her dual dream of a Dogs premiership and the advent of a national women's competition finally realised.
Watson-Wheeler's appointment comes at a time the club has a unique challenge on its hands, to capitalise as best it can on the Bulldogs' first grand final win since 1954.
The Dogs have already signed more than 30,000 members and are confident they will break the 50,000 mark for the first time, while merchandise sales are at never-before-seen levels.
However, Watson-Wheeler said the club's intention was to use the premiership success to bolster its relationship with its local community by strengthening various programs.
The Bulldogs have made a long-term commitment to play games in Ballarat and have plans to boost the Sons of the West men's health and Whitten Project youth leadership programs both there and more locally.
Watson-Wheeler, a vice-president and managing director at Disney with a background in marketing, said the club was determined to stay true to its down-to-earth reputation while making the most of its success.
"We want to stay humble and we want to still be known as a hard-working and down-to-earth club. The difference is that we're no longer a success-starved club," said Watson-Wheeler.
"There are things that come from that in a business sense, in terms of how many fans we have, how many members we have and the amount of sponsorship support we've been able to find.
"All those things are of course important, but one of the things that's always been more important to us is the role of our club in the community and what we mean to people in the west.
"As well as delivering on those business objectives that we have, the premiership positions us so well to be able to provide more, engage more and give back more to our community.
"We're thinking, 'how do we evolve and change and grow' while remaining true to our roots, because remaining authentic is really important.
"I think in some ways our club and our fans are trying to reconcile those two things."
Watson-Wheeler grew up part of a Bulldogs family, sat on the asphalt at the "Save the Bulldogs" rally studying for her Year 12 exams and can remember feeling simultaneously proud of her club's supporters and fearful of what might happen to the club.
She took her young son and daughter to the grand final last year.
"That rally stands out as a key moment in my life and my family's life, and I said to my son the night before the grand final, 'embrace this moment'," she said.
"I said to him: 'This is something I've waited for my whole life'. I wanted him to understand the gravitas of it.
"Whether he did or not is another story but I wanted him to understand what I hoped he would see and know that it was something special."
She said taking over from Alberti, who received a standing ovation from fans at Saturday's first women's game, was an honour.