BORN a Dog, die a Dog.
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Growing up in Footscray, Leigh Privett’s football allegiances would never be anything other than red, white and blue.
And that’s even without having been related to Charlie Sutton, a family friend of Merv Hobbs and a player in the Bulldogs’ fourths and thirds.
Now a Stanley resident, Mr Privett, 71, said his whole family supported the club.
“Mum used to always take an umbrella to the ground, raining or bright sunshine,” he said. “You know the point on the front of the umbrella? Well, you wouldn’t want to be saying anything against the Dogs.”
Nobody’s said a bad word this week as the Western Bulldogs prepared for their biggest match in more than 60 years, Saturday’s AFL grand final.
Mr Privett actually took the field, aged nine, during the club’s premiership in 1954, his connection to Sutton allowing him to be a team mascot. He has faint memories of coming out with the Bulldogs players.
“Just being overwhelmed,” he recalled.
“And all these big fellows; I was running in among them and then told to buzz off the ground.”
That day made a Bulldogs supporter of John McCormack, now of Wodonga but then an eight-year-old being driven through Footscray by his non-football parents. The boy saw the victorious sportsmen in the street, still in their playing gear.
“They were being taken on the back of a tray truck to a civic reception at the Footscray town hall,” Mr McCormack said.
“And I said to my mum and dad, ‘That’s the team I barrack for’.”
This resolution has not wavered and Mr McCormack, like Mr Privett and thousands of Bulldogs supporters around the country, hopes this weekend will end all those years without a flag.
And nobody can really understand what such a lengthy wait has meant – except perhaps fans of Saturday's opponent.
Sydney Swans followers went through similar emotions in 2005, when a heartstopper over West Coast gave the team its first premiership since 1933.
That journey included a physical element, with South Melbourne relocating north in 1982.
Border Mail journalist Nigel McNay, a Bloods fan all his life, remembers the utter disbelief he felt 11 years ago after so long following an unfashionable team.
“I knew of only one other South Melbourne supporter in primary school back in the ‘70s,” he said.
Mr McNay had agreed with the Sydney move, as did fellow Swan Gary Dyball, of South Albury, whose grandfather had led him towards the Bloods.
“It was either that or they were going to sink, so you stayed with the colours,” Mr Dyball said.
Western Bulldogs fought through their own challenges, with people power helping to stave off a proposed merger with Fitzroy in 1989.
Mr McCormack had opposed that union and remains something of a traditionalist.
“The Footscray Scraggers,” he said.
“I’ll only use ‘Western Bulldogs’ when people look at me blankly.”
For diehard Dogs, it’s not just lack of premierships but also grand finals – 55 years since the team played on the season’s last day and seven preliminary final losses since 1985.
“I’ve been to the last five prelims and we’ve only won one of them, but, thank-you God, that was the last one,” Mr McCormack said. “Some of those have been real heartbreakers; there were games we absolutely should have won.”
The retired lawyer will be at the MCG on Saturday with his sons Luke and Padraig, who is flying in from overseas just for the weekend to see the big match.
“I’ll have my boys with me, they wear their hearts on their sleeves too,” Mr McCormack said, rejecting the phrase “It’s just a game” as “utter nonsense”.
“If you’ve got your heart and soul wrapped up in a footy team and they lose a game like the ones we’re looking at now, it’s much more than a game,” he said.
Mr Privett didn't attend the preliminary final, but hosted a special night at the Stanley pub with friends and a big screen to watch the contest.
“The others there were telling me they'd never seen me so lively,” he said.
He will again be glued to a screen for the grand final, but in southern Queensland. There he will compete in the Australian Orienteering Championships, a sport he has pursued to an elite level over 27 years. Yes, he had been aware it was AFL grand final day when he committed to the event.
“But I wasn’t expecting the best,” he said.
“There’s something magic about the coach and the togetherness of all the players at the moment, something really magic.”
The Doggies have been the feel-good story of the week, but football fairytales don't always end well. The Swans are favoured to win and, inevitably, there's more grand final experience among the red and the white.
But even some Sydney fans seem to accept the opposition has become most neutral supporters' second team.
Mr Dyball expects to be the only one barracking for his side at a party and simply encourages Western Bulldogs devotees to enjoy the day.
“Ah, it’s good, it’s a lot like the 2005 scenario,” he said.
Mr McNay is also not fussed by the expanded bandwagon.
“You can’t help get excited for Doggies fans but you still want the Swans to win,” he said. “Our 72-year flag drought shows you’ve got to grab one when you can.”