The Western Bulldogs Best 20 Games: 15-11

The Footscray/Western Bulldogs Football Club will play their 2000th V/AFL game this Saturday against Hawthorn at UTAS Stadium and as such the team at The Salty Bulldog believes it would be quite fitting to celebrate the milestone by ranking the 20 best games in the club’s history.

In our previous 1999 games, the Bulldogs have had 907 wins, 22 draws, and 1070 losses for an overall winning percentage of 45.4%.

The Bulldogs are the last of the Victorian clubs to reach the milestone after taking 96 years, three months, and 13 days to reach our 2000th match.

In the second edition of our top 20 games, The Salty Bulldog will be revealing the games ranked 15th through to 11th with the remaining matches to follow through the rest of the week in the leadup to the game.

15) Round 2, 1955, Western Oval

Footscray 16.16.112 def Richmond 12.9.81

After securing the club's maiden Premiership against the Melbourne Demons a year earlier the Footscray Football Club started off its 1955 campaign with a victory over Collingwood at Victoria Park by 56 points.

But its round two clash against Richmond carried a fair bit of significance seeing as the side would play its first home game of the season and unfurl its 1954 Premiership Flag in front of its faithful fanbase.

As if to make a statement to its home crowd of 33,753 people, Footscray came out guns blazing slamming seven first-quarter goals whilst holding the Tigers goalless to build a 45 point margin at the first change.

The day would continue to get better for Footscray with star key forward and Premiership hero Jack Collins kicking eight goals as they lead by 57 points going into the final quarter before Richmond added some respectability on the scoreboard to see the Dogs record a 31-point victory and start the season 2-0.

Hopefully, a third Flag will soon join the 1954 and 2016 ones quite shortly.

14) Elimination Final, 2016, Subiaco

West Coast Eagles 7.10 52 def by Western Bulldogs 14.15.99

It was supposed to be a fait accompli.

The West Coast Eagles - a side that stormed into the finals in red hot form, kicking goals for fun, and hosting the final on its home patch; a ground that it was virtually unbeatable at.

And then there was the Western Bulldogs, a side that limped into September off the back of season-ending injuries to several stars. Some underdone players were rushed back for the match, and were returning to the same venue that they fell to lowly Fremantle to just two weeks earlier.

Yet, by the final siren, it was the visitors who comprehensively dominated proceedings. There were no real standouts, although Liam Picken laid down the marker for an extraordinary finals series. The Bulldogs won every quarter and completely outplayed West Coast in a September upset that stunned absolutely everyone.

This game was the catalyst for the success we enjoyed in 2016. It’s ironic, therefore, that said success has ultimately resulted in this being the forgotten final. But its importance and its quality sees it comfortably in the Top 20.

13) Semi-Final, 2016, Melbourne Cricket Ground

Hawthorn 12.12.84 def by Western Bulldogs 16.11.107

Comedian Will Anderson said we were going to "reverse the curse of 61 in 2016" if we were to do the unthinkable and slay a giant of the modern football era in the Hawthorn Football Club.

From 1961 onwards, the paths of each club had taken very different turns. One who was ready to become the next big thing in football fell away while the other moved past the previous 36 years of disappointment and assumed the mantle of the most successful football club of the next 50 years.

There no doubt were plenty of nerves going into the game for players and fans but there still was a scent of optimism saying "why not us?"

This mantra looked dead and buried as the Hawks leaped out to a 22-point lead in the latter stages of the second quarter and seemed to have control of the game before a stirring burst from the Dogs kept them in the hunt in the shadows of halftime.

The third quarter saw just one goal kicked to either team up until the 15-minute mark but you could sense something was building from our end and that we were ready to light it up.

Much like earlier that season in round three, the Bulldogs ran the Hawks off their feet in the third quarter but only this time there would be no let-up. The Dogs were toying with the Hawks and blew the game open with six consecutive goals including three in five minutes to Toby McLean, Jake Stringer, and Marcus Bontempelli to establish a 26-point lead at three-quarter time.

Was this really happening? That question was answered in emphatic fashion as Tory Dickson and Liam Picken put the fanbase in bliss as the margin blew out to 43 points.

We witnessed magic in the most beautiful of ways right before our very eyes.

In front of 87,823 people (which was our largest crowd since the 1961 Grand Final - until two weeks later) the Western Bulldogs had ended the three-peat champions bid for a fourth consecutive premiership and returned to the preliminary finals for the first time since 2010.

It gave the Bulldogs faithful a real belief that a Grand Final berth and premiership success truly might be just around the corner.

The Western Bulldogs celebrate post siren following their victory over Hawthorn. Source: Herald Sun

12) Elimination Final, 2006, Melbourne Cricket Ground

Collingwood 11.14.80 def by Western Bulldogs 18.13.121

At what was the time the highest ever recorded crowd for an Elimination Final (2011 Elimination - Carlton v Essendon broke the record), the Western Bulldogs defeated the Collingwood Magpies by 41 points in front of 84,284 people at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

After a raft of injuries throughout the course of the season and a mixture of veteran stars that was supported by rising but raw talent, there were questions on whether the Dogs would be able to overcome such an occasion and not be overawed against a side that featured 16 players from the 2002 and 2003 AFL Grand Finals.

Except no one told the Western Bulldogs that their finals campaign was meant to end on Sunday, September 10th. Trailing by three goals early in the first quarter the Dogs eventually settled before consolidating its momentum with four of the next five goals till halftime. From there the Dogs faithful would enjoy one of the best quarters in Bulldogs history as we held Collingwood goalless while kicking six ourselves to establish a commanding 45-point lead at the final change.

To go through the motions as a 10-year-old kid attending his first final, that last quarter was something special.

It was the Bulldogs' first finals victory since they defeated the West Coast Eagles in 1998 at the MCG on September 6th by 70 points. It was a long time between drinks (2926 days/ 8 years and 4 days) and the Bulldogs faithful celebrated immensely as they would progress to the second week of the finals and extend Club legend Rohan Smith's career, allowing him to reach game 300 alongside Scott West who too reached the same milestone.

11) Round 13, 1978, Western Oval

Footscray 33.15.213 def St Kilda 16.10.106

As an opposition side, you would consider yourselves a pretty good chance of a win if, pre-game, you were told you’d be kicking 106 points for the match.

There aren’t many teams that lose after kicking such a score, but even if you did lose, you wouldn’t expect the margin to be too significant. Certainly, you wouldn’t be expecting to front the media in the post-match presser trying to explain a 107-point loss.

But that’s how outrageous this game was.

In a game that broke all sorts of records, Footscray stormed the St Kilda defence, reaching 15 goals before halftime. But they were far from done.

A staggering 18 goals in the second half, with 12 coming in the final term, absolutely blew the Saints out of the water. The final score of 33.15.213 was a league record at the time, and remains the Bulldog’s highest league score to date. In terms of a combined score, with 319 points score in the match, it’s the 14th highest of all time.

But the headline act was Kelvin Templeton. With an almost unheard of tally of 15.9, it’s the most goals ever kicked by a Bulldog in a game, it’s a record for the most scores registered by a player in a game, and with Ian Dunstan’s meagre haul of only seven goals, it’s the most number of goals that two teammates have combined for in a game. It truly was a once-in-a-lifetime afternoon

Kelvin Templeton lines up for yet another goal in that memorable afternoon against St Kilda in 1978. Source: Western Bulldogs