Simeon Thomas-Wilson, Mercury
CALL them the Western Bulldogs, or call them Footscray. Call them the Sydney Swans, or call them South Melbourne.
Regardless of the name, it is clear the two AFL grand finalists share a closer affinity with Tasmania than one might expect.
Garry Baker, owner of Hobart restaurant Rockwall, played for both clubs in a VFL career spanning 14 years.
Rodney “Rocket” Eade, who grew up in Glenorchy, coached both clubs at the highest level, taking Sydney to its first grand final in 51 years and the Bulldogs to within a kick of securing a spot in the big dance.
Deloraine native Trent Bartlett played 42 games for the Bulldogs, while lifelong fan Robert Groenewegen — now general manager of Aurora Stadium — ran out for his boyhood club 79 times.
Ahead of the game between two clubs who have historically had to fight for everything, some of Tasmania’s former Dogs and Swans reveal why this is an AFL grand final to warm the heartstrings.
For Baker, the emotional attachment to both clubs in tomorrow’s decider is strong, with the Dogs and Swans holding special places in his heart for differing reasons.
“The old Bulldogs gave me my first break at VFL level while the Swans gave me a chance towards the end of my career when I was a little bit washed up, so I’m pretty happy both are in it,” Baker said.
“At the end of the day I can’t lose, I’m just so glad that two teams I used to play for are in the grand final … I reckon I’ll be happy no matter what.
“Also when I was playing not a lot of people ever thought there would be a Footscray/South Melbourne [who relocated to Sydney to become the Swans] grand final – they were always two clubs near the bottom of the ladder and some of the poorer clubs in the competition and while the Swans have won a couple of flags recently the Bulldogs had to fight their way there.”
But while in recent years the neutrals had jumped on the Swans as they sought to end their 72-year premiership drought the roles will be reversed tomorrow when the Dogs’ play in a grand final for the first time in 55 years, firmly as the people’s favourites.
“When I first came to the Doggies at what was then called Western Oval it had been just over 10 years since they had been in a grand final, and that was considered a long time back then – and you add 45 years to it, it seems like a lifetime ago,” Baker said.
“So I think there will be a lot of people who will want them to win because of that.”
While Baker and Eade have their fingers in both pies, for Bartlett and Groenewegen there’s no question about where their allegiances will lie tomorrow.
Born the year before the club’s last appearance in a grand final, and raised in the western suburbs of Melbourne at North Sunshine, Groenewegen would travel around Melbourne with his brother on trams, trains, whatever to watch Footscray.
He was then lucky enough to play 79 games for his boyhood team so he knows what it’s like to be on the inside and the outside as the club battled away.
As Groenewegen was about to move to Tasmania again in 1989, his beloved Bulldogs were almost merged with Fitzroy so crippling was the $2 million debt that had built up at Whitten Park.
He then had to watch on as the Doggies lost four preliminary finals throughout the 1990s and 2000s — including three in a row under Eade — and then the infamous loss of both its senior coach (Brendan McCartney) and captain (Ryan Griffen) within a day of each other in 2014.“We’ve had to fight a lot as a club,” Groenewegen said.
“We’ve never really been given anything and are always battling – there’s a lot of romance around the underdog and Footscray have always prided themselves on being exactly that.
“Even just recently after the end of 2014 when our coach and captain went a lot of people just thought it was a basket case there, but we were so close to getting to the elimination final and now this year we’ve had to overcome a lot of big injuries.
“You roll all these things together and it forms just a great story.”
Bartlett believes the story will continue to be a fairytale after seeing first hand just how relentlessly they trained when he returned to his former stomping ground last November.
“It’s been a long road, but they’ve gradually got themselves off the ground, they’ve upgraded their facilities at Whitten Oval and really become a key part of the community in the western suburbs in Melbourne,” he said.
“I had the opportunity to go there last year and it was amazing – the way they go about it is incredible. It was military-like in the way they went about their training.
“I think they will win it, they have nothing to lose and everything to gain and I think that’s the perfect position to be in.”