Western Bulldogs

Western Bulldogs
Names
Full name	Footscray Football Club Limited, trading as Western Bulldogs[a][1]
Nickname(s)	Dogs, Doggies, Scraggers, The ‘Scray, Dish Lickers, Footscray.
2023 season
Home-and-away season	9th
Leading goalkicker	Aaron Naughton (44 goals)
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: Nathan Burke VFL: Stewart Edge VFLW: Rhys Sullivan
Captain(s)	AFL: Marcus Bontempelli AFLW: Ellie Blackburn VFL: Joshua Chatfield VFLW: Riley Christgoergl
Premierships	VFL/AFL (2) 1954 2016 Reserves/VFL (8) 1936 1945 1962 1988 1994 1998 2014 2016 VFA (9) 1898 1899 1900 1908 1913 1919 1920 1923 1924 AFLW (1) 2018
Ground(s)	AFL: Marvel Stadium (56,347) & Eureka Stadium (11,000) AFLW/VFL/VFLW: Whitten Oval (10,000)
Training ground(s)	Whitten Oval
Uniforms
Home Away Clash
Other information
Official website	westernbulldogs.com.au

The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football team that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition.

Founded in 1877 as the Footscray Football Club,^[a][1] and based in West Footscray in the old City of Footscray west of Melbourne, 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.

Much of the club's supporter base comes from Melbourne's traditionally working-class western region. 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 original 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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