About

The Footscray Football Club, trading as the Western Bulldogs, is an Australian rules football club that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL). Founded in 1877, the club won nine premierships in the Victorian Football Association (VFA) before moving to the Victorian Football League (now renamed the AFL) in 1925. The club has won two senior premiership since joining the VFL/AFL, in 1954 and 2016. The Western Bulldogs home guernsey features two thick horizontal hoops—one red and one white—on a royal blue background. The club's traditional rivals include St Kilda and geographical rivals Essendon. The club has its headquarters and practices at the Whitten Oval in Footscray, an inner-western suburb of Melbourne, Australia. The club draws its supporter base from this traditionally working class area and plays its home matches at Docklands Stadium (currently known as Etihad Stadium) in the Melbourne Docklands area, also in the city's inner-west. In October 1996, the club began to play under its current name of the "Western Bulldogs", changing from its original name of the "Footscray Football Club". The Whitten Oval underwent a A$20 million redevelopment starting in 2005 to improve the club's headquarters and training facilities.