Brief History                                                                                                                       

The Western Bulldogs AFL team had its origins thousands of years ago, located between the junctions of the Yarra and Maribrynong Rivers in a suburb now known as Footscray that is in the city of Melbourne, Australia.    

Before the arrival of European explorers and settlers, the area around Footscray was home to the Woimurrung and Boonwurrung tribes of the Kulin nation for over 40,000 years. At that time it was at the confluence of the rivers now known as the Maribyrnong and the Yarra. Maribyrnong is an anglicised version of the Aboriginal term ‘Mirring-gnay-bir-nong’, which translates as 'I can hear a ringtail possum'. Ringtail possums would make good footys.

'Footscray' was the meeting place of the lands of the Yalukit-willan, the Marin-balluk (Marin-balug) and the Wurundjeri, and Kurung-jand-balug clans of the Woiwurrung cultural group, and the Yalukit willam clan of the Boonwurrung cultural group. Koori men stalked game, and women and children collected food and fished along the river junction, estuaries, swamps, lagoons and shared the luscious resources around the Maribyrnong Valley and south to Kororoit Creek. It was a place of plenty and possibly a great place for a game of 'marn grook' (football).  

Here is what was written about it by Mr Thomas a few hundred years ago, "The men and boys joyfully assemble when this game is to be played. One makes a ball of possum skin, somewhat elastic, but firm and strong. The players of this game do not throw the ball as a white man might do, but drop it and at the same time kicks it with his foot. The tallest men have the best chances in this game. Some of them will leap as high as five feet from the ground to catch the ball. The person who secures the ball kicks it. This continues for hours and the natives never seem to tire of the exercise."

You wonder why the aboriginals are so great at this game - they invented it, it suits their lean and agile body style. Not long after the white fellas came in a bloke named Tom Wills spotted some people having a game of marn grook up in a place now called Lexinton and the white fellas started to play the game and make rules and take it over.

During the first 40,000 years the guys in Footscray probably won about 2,500 premierships.

The Footscray football club was established in 1883 and named the "Imperials". They were later called the "Tricolours" due to the three colours of red, white and blue.  They had great success on the field and won numerous premierships.  In 1923 they won the one and only Victorian Championship ever held.

Good times were always ahead with a great supporter base happy and devoted fans. In 1954 they also beat them all. In 1990 a new national competition was started called the Australian Football League. Footscray took its honoured place as one of the founding teams.

In 1996, to enable more Australians to identify with this great club it changed its name to THE WESTERN BULLDOGS.

“There is something noble about being working class and being part of the Bulldogs. It is a known fact that the Footscray dirt we have under our fingernails makes us better people than our competitors. Good luck to Arnold and all those who stand in our way!” - Robert Murphy February 2004

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