Has the group text replaced the water cooler as the central hub for light conversation?

I was sat on the couch this week when my phone started to buzz incessantly.  The iconic Australian movie ‘The Castle’ was on.

I’m not even sure if any of my friends were watching the movie - I know I wasn’t - but the quotes started flying. ‘Dale dug a hole’, ‘tell him he’s dreaming’ and so on and so forth. 

And then someone sent through ‘It’s not a house, it’s a home’, and the buzzing stopped.  It wasn’t a buzz-killer (pun intended), but it shifted the mood ever so slightly.

The Whitten Oval is our house and it is our home.  The Bulldog family is a broad church.

PRESS CONFERECE: LUKE BEVERIDGE PREVIEWS RICHMOND CLASH

We have supporters and barrackers all over this vast country and we even have a few abroad, but Footscray will always be home. 

That home has seen many changes over the years, and this week a new plan was outlined to take things to a whole new level. 

It’s exciting and a little bit scary too.  Like many of you, I opened the paper this week and took a deep breath as I saw the plans for the proposed upgrade of the VU Whitten Oval facility.

That tiny little hesitation is understandable.  We must move with the times and we must evolve, but we must also retain what is unique to the spirit of our football club. 

Back in the Summer of 2007/08, the football club was undergoing its most ambitious renovation to date.  We were quite literally moving from one era to another.  A state-of-the-art facility was being built to keep up with the demands of the times.

It was exciting, but again, there were a few of us who wanted to keep a little bit of what made the place uniquely ours. 

BULLDOGS COMPLETE MASTER PLAN FOR WHITTEN OVAL PRECINCT REDEVELOPMENT

One of the things we did was keep the base of an old tree stump that we used to break ice with so the players could nurse their aching joints and bruises.  A tree stump and a wooden mallet.  Pretty basic stuff. 

I’m sure there are players who still use this archaic bit of equipment to this day and have no idea why it is that way, but these things are important.  That’s where our tiny little hesitation comes from this week. 

We just want to know that the people who are in charge of these big decisions do so with care and a reverence for the past. 

I feel good about this next chapter in our club’s story.  I know the people who will guide us through this period of change, and they have their heart in the right place. 

We should all feel proud of what the future holds, knowing where we have come from.

The house is going to get the mother of all renovations, but it will still feel like home.  Tree stumps ‘n all.

PODCAST: LISTEN TO THIS WEEK’S EPISODE OF FREEDOM IN A CAGE, WITH DALE MORRIS