When it comes to memorable matches against St Kilda, for Bulldogs’ fans of a certain age there’s one that’s impossible to go past. That match came July 1, 1978. The Dogs were coming off an unexpected victory over reigning premiers North Melbourne, a 30-point away win that had knocked the Kangaroos off the top of the ladder.
It was Footscray’s third win in four weeks, after disastrous start to the season had produced only one victory from its first eight games. For their opponents St Kilda, the season had been almost a mirror image. The Saints had had a blistering start to the season before falling off a cliff. Only six weeks before the July 1 match the Saints had been second on the ladder and the Bulldogs stone motherless last.
Despite the contrasting form-line trends, not one of the 19,096 fans who turned up at Western Oval that afternoon could have predicted what was about to unfold. While many might have forecast a win for the Doggies, most probably expected a tight contest.
By quarter time on that mild winter’s afternoon those expectations would not have changed. In a free-flowing opening term both sides kicked five goals, and the Dogs led by the slenderest of margins, a single point, at the first break. For the home side Kelvin Templeton and Ian Dunstan had kicked four of the five goals, two each. It was a good result for Footscray, as the Saints had been kicking with the aid of a slight breeze in that first quarter.
The question of whether the Bulldogs might make better use of that slight breeze did not take long to answer. With midfielders Geoff Jennings, Alan Stoneham and Ted Whitten Junior running riot, the Dogs piled on 10 goals to the Saints three to open up a 43-point half-time lead.
Keeping pace with each other, Templeton and Dunstan both kicked three goals for the term, giving them five each for the half. With the Bulldogs a long way ahead, half time discussions in the crowd might have incorporated speculation of two players from the same side kicking 10 goals each on the same day.
That unlikely scenario did not eventuate (Dunstan would finish with seven goals), but an even more unlikely one did.
With the Saints having use of the breeze, the third quarter was a near replica of the first. The Dogs won it by a point, with each side adding six goals. Templeton maintained his trajectory, adding another two goals for a total of seven, but Dunstan was upstaged by an 18-year-old Doggies teammate playing just his 10th VFL match.
The young man in question was Doug Hawkins, whose three-goal quarter gave Footscray fans a glimpse of what would become a legendary career.
As good as they were, Hawkins’ feats of that third term would soon be forgotten. He and his teammates – specifically Kelvin Templeton – were about to produce a quarter of football that ranks as one of the greatest in the club’s – and arguably the League’s – history.
At three-quarter time the scoreboard showed Footscray leading 21.11.137 to the Saints’ 14.9.93. Such a scoreline would be considered high even at full time these days. (Accentuating that point, the highest score recorded in any of last weekend’s AFL matches was 83.) But this match had plenty more goals left in it – and half of those would be kicked by one player.
When play restarted with the Dogs again having use of the light breeze, it was ruckman Gary Dempsey who opened the scoring for Footscray, kicking his first goal. Dempsey would not hit the scoreboard again, but his solitary major triggered an avalanche of goals.
Within a couple of minutes midfielder Geoff Jennings hit Templeton lace out on the chest. Big Kelvin booted his eighth. Could he make it to the magical 10-goal mark? You bet!
Against the run of play the Saints kicked the next two goals and the margin was back at the three-quarter time mark of 44 points. With 10 minutes of the last term already gone, time appeared to be running out for Templeton to reach the double-figure mark.
Frustration for Dogs fans grew soon after when what they saw as a clear infringement on Templeton was left unpunished by the field umpire. The full-forward was unperturbed, though, marking and kicking accurately not long after.
At the 20-minute mark Templeton was again infringed, and this time the umpire spotted it, with St Kilda Trevor Barker penalised for holding. Templeton’s resultant free kick did not miss. He had 10 goals for the match!
With quarters running an average of 30 minutes, there were probably still 10 more left for Templeton to add to his total. It’s fair to say that ‘KT’ made good use of those available minutes.
By now the Dogs were dominating all aspects of the game and the players’ clear focus became getting the ball to Templeton. They achieved their aim with aplomb – and maybe an ounce of good luck. Before the final siren sounded, Templeton had booted five more goals, taking his tally to an incredible 15!
Television footage of those final minutes depicts some of Templeton’s good fortune – two more free kicks paid against Saint Trevor Barker and a couple of marks that were perhaps not quite fully controlled.
Nevertheless, Templeton and the Bulldogs had dominated, and his 15 goals was a fair reflection of that domination, as was Footscray’s final score of 33.15.213, which set a new League record. Although it was a mark that was surpassed by Fitzroy’s 36.22.238 a year later (and by Geelong’s 37.17.239 in 1992), it remains the Western Bulldogs highest-ever score across a century of V/AFL footy.
While a couple of Templeton’s last-quarter goals may have been lucky, his stats show that he could easily have booted more than his eventual 15. Along with those goals came nine behinds. Templeton’s total score for the match was 15.9.99 – a winning team score in most AFL games these days.
Templeton’s 24 scoring shots is an all-time V/AFL high (although records for behinds kicked by individual players before 1965 are incomplete). With a few more straight kicks, he may have equalled – or even surpassed – the single-game record of 18 goals, set by Melbourne’s Fred Fanning in 1947 (coincidentally also against the poor old Saints).
The final margin of that game in 1978 was 107 points, a club record against St Kilda that last until 2021, when Bevo’s Bulldogs brutally beat the Saints into submission to the tune of 111 points.
The Dogs’ leading goalkicker that night was Aaron Naughton with five, highlighting how much football has changed over the past 50 years. So much so that a 15-goal haul from a single Bulldog this Thursday night would be considered a virtual impossibility.
Another win by more than 100 points certainly be nice, but also highly unlikely. Given the evenness of the competition these days, a win over the Saints by any margin will be far more important than setting a record, as nice a prospect as that might be for the Doggies.
