Overview

Bulldogs Through & Through traces the history of the Western Bulldogs Football Club, from its beginnings in the 1880s, through its highly successful years in the Victorian Football Association, to its admission to the Victorian Football League in 1925. The book describes the long journey before the club tasted any success in the Big League. After six successive losses in finals series—from 1938 to 1951—the Bulldogs, led by captain-coach Charlie Sutton won their first VFL premiership, beaten Melbourne at the MCG. There have been many great players who have represented the Tricolours—their nickname before the 1938 switch to Bulldogs—with ten winners of the Brownlow Medal, and three Coleman Medallists. There have been several times through the club’s history when it has teetered on the edge, most notably in 1989 when it overcame a push by the AFL’s central administration to merge with a similarly failing club in Fitzroy. Recalling that time, then Bulldogs president Peter Gordon thanked the AFL’s intervention: “for the three most profitable weeks in our history”. The club’s fightback through that period is covered in forensic detail. Bulldogs Through & Through is fully illustrated, including many archival photos from the club’s earliest years, and dramatic photos from the modern era, featuring the premierships won by the men in 2016, and the women in 2018.

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9780648621218

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Author Information

Darren Arthur is the Western Bulldogs historian and archivist, a role he has carried out since 1992. Darren’s interest, passion and ongoing work on the club’s history has helped drive many historical projects and the introduction of key initiatives such as the Bulldogs Museum, Hall of Fame, Decade Wall, and club history books. In 2010, Darren helped write the club’s Hall of Fame charter, to formalise and establish the concept, and has sat on the selection committee since its inauguration. He is also a member of the AFL’s Heritage Group, formed in 2024 to assess opportunities for the League to invest in moments throughout its history. In 2013, he was awarded Life Membership of the club. Darren was the instigator and researcher of the club’s history book, A history of the Footscray Football Club: Unleashed, produced in 1996, and the researcher of the club’s two volumes of The Bulldog Heritage: Historical player register books, produced in 2010 and 2014. He also co-wrote the Footscray chapter in The Clubs: The Complete History of every club in the VFL/AFL in 1998. He has many research credits across a number of football books over the years, including other small writing projects. Darren has a Master of Arts by Research degree from Victoria University for his research thesis on the origins of the Footscray Football Club, completed in 2019. Darren also played about 250 senior games of local, country and interstate football, including a stint with Yarraville and Waverley in the VFA. Away from football, Darren is a keen athlete and was inducted into the Stawell Gift Hall of Fame in 2021 for his unique performance of winning sashes over the sprint distances of 100, 200, 300 and 400m at the Stawell Gift meeting – the only person in history to do so. Andrew Gigacz, a life-time Western Bulldogs supporter is a writer and editor, has been the editorial controller of australianfootball.com since its beginning in 2012, and a regular contributor to the Western Bulldogs covering historical issues. He has been a contributor to several AFL history books, including recent Hardie Grant publications on the premierships of Collingwood, Geelong, Richmond and the West Coast Eagles.

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