| Western Bulldogs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Names | ||||
| Full name | Footscray Football Club Limited, trading as Western Bulldogs[a][1] | |||
| Former name(s) | Footscray Football Club (1877–1879, 1882-1996) Prince Imperial Football Club (1880-1881) | |||
| Nickname(s) | Dogs, Doggies, Scraggers, The ‘Scray, Footscray, | |||
| 2024 season | ||||
| After finals | 7th | |||
| Home-and-away season | 6th | |||
| Leading goalkicker | Jamarra Ugle-Hagan (43 goals) | |||
| Charles Sutton Medal | Marcus Bontempelli (6th title) | |||
| Club details | ||||
| Founded | 1877 (entered into the VFL in 1925 as Footscray, renamed as Western Bulldogs in 1996) | |||
| Colours | Royal blue, red, white | |||
| Competition | AFL: Senior men AFLW: Senior women VFL: Reserves men VFLW: Reserves women | |||
| President | Kylie Watson-Wheeler | |||
| Coach | AFL: Luke Beveridge AFLW: Tamara Hyett VFL: Stewart Edge VFLW: Rhys Sullivan | |||
| Captain(s) | AFL: Marcus Bontempelli AFLW: Deanna Berry VFL: Joshua Chatfield VFLW: Riley Christgoergl | |||
| Premierships | VFL/AFL (2)Reserves/VFL (8)VFA (9)AFLW (1) | |||
| Ground(s) | AFL: Marvel Stadium (56,347) & Eureka Stadium (11,000) AFLW/VFL/VFLW: Mission Whitten Oval (10,000) | |||
| Training ground(s) | mission Whitten Oval | |||
| Uniforms | ||||
| ||||
| Other information | ||||
| Official website | westernbulldogs.com.au | |||
The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football club based in West Footscray, a suburb of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. The club competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition.
Originally named the Footscray Football Club[a][1] the club cites a foundation year of 1877, and it adopted the name of the local borough. The club won nine premierships in the Victorian Football Association (VFA) before gaining admission to the Victorian Football League (which became the AFL in 1990) in 1925. The club has won two VFL/AFL premierships, in 1954 and 2016 and was runner-up in 1961 and 2021.
The club has developed a strong support base to the west of the city, traditionally a working-class area. Docklands Stadium, in the city's inner-west, has served as the club's home ground since 2000, while its headquarters and training facilities are at its traditional home ground, the Whitten Oval. The club also plays home games at Mars Stadium in the city of Ballarat west of Melbourne. The Western Bulldogs guernsey features two thick horizontal hoops—one red and one white—on a royal blue background. Fourteen players from the club are members of the Australian Football Hall of Fame, including inaugural inductee and Legend Ted Whitten. Marcus Bontempelli and Luke Beveridge serve as the club's current captain and head coach respectively.
At the end of 1996, as part of a broader rebranding scheme, the club changed its name from Footscray to Western Bulldogs. The club has fielded a side in AFL Women's since the competition's 2017 inception, winning a premiership in 2018, and also has a reserves side in the Victorian Football League and VFL Women's League.
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- ^ a b "Current details for ABN 68 005 226 595". Australian Business Register. 12 July 2015. Retrieved 9 September 2015.