AFL Comparison #18: the Western Bulldogs

Last one! Your assignment NOW will be to go through all eighteen teams (click the label "comparisons" to weed down to these articles) and choose your new favorite (or several favorites, if that's easier!). Thanks for reading!

The Western Bulldogs are simply "west" of Melbourne, not of the rest of Australia... they're over a thousand miles east of the "West Coast Eagles". (Think the Michigan Wolverines - "the champions of the West"!) The "Western" Bulldogs are only twenty-one seasons old, having been formed in 1996 out of the remnants of the Footscray and Fitzroy teams, which date back to the 1920's; officially, their records are inherited from Footscray, and their minor league team is still there.

Western is what most would call an "afterthought" team - ask a footy fan to name the eighteen teams in the league, and only a diehard Doggie fan would think to remember them in the first five names coming from their mouths. But every once in awhile they make noise - champions in 1954 (as Footscray), top four team in 2008-2010 - and they're rarely bad enough to be a laughing stock (in their 21 years of existence, Western has only one "wooden spoon" for last place, back in '03).

But with superstar Marcus Bontempelli, Liam Picken, Jake Stringer, and a young millionaire named Tom Boyd who finally showed his value in this year's finals, the Bulldogs made some noise this year, winning their first title in 62 years (the longest drought in the AFL) and bringing out the biggest celebration in footy history when 180,000 fans came out to celebrate the Grand Final victory with coach Luke Beveridge, captain Robert Murphy and the team.

Their American counterpart: the Chicago Cubs

Who else?

As this is being written, the Chicago Cubs are hosting their first World Series games since 1945, in search of their first world championship since the Ottoman Empire, 108 years ago in 1908. They inspire the same kind of loyalty as the Bulldoggies - they even have the same color scheme!

The movie Back To The Future II famously predicted (in 1985) that the Cubs would finally win their first title in 2015...and they did make the NLCS last year, falling to the Mets in four straight. This year (2016), they won the pennant, had the best record in the league at 103 wins, and everyone except Cleveland fans is rooting for them to break the skein.

Just like the Bulldogs. And just like the Dogs, there's no reason to think they won't be back next year, too.