Having endured three horrible seasons from 1980 to 1982, in which they had finished 10th, 11th and 12th in a 12-team competition, the Bulldogs started to show signs of a resurgence in the first two rounds of 1983.
A competitive loss to Geelong was followed by an incredible win against reigning premiers Carlton, who had thrashed the Dogs by over 100 points in a pre-season match.
So the Dogs, who had gone into their first-round game against the Cats with 10 new players, took confidence into their Round 3 match against Melbourne at Western Oval. But backing up after a victory had long been a problem for the Dogs. They had not recorded consecutive wins since the middle of 1981.
So young and inexperienced were these Dogs that only one of the 20 players to take the field that day had played more than 100 games. And even that player, Chris Hansen, was playing only his third game for Footscray, having transferred from Fitzroy in the off-season.
Melbourne was more experienced, but also young. Remarkably, not one player on either side was older than 27.
What the Dogs lacked in experience that day, they more than made up for with skill and tenacity. With the aid of the breeze in the first quarter, they ran all over the Demons, kicking eight goals to three. Melbourne was only able to reduce the difference by eight points when their turn with the wind came, but they put the clamps on the Dogs in the third term, cutting the margin to just 14.
But the young pups surged again, booting six goals to three in the final term to prevail by 32 points. So excited were Bulldog fans by Footscray at last recording back-to-back wins that they chaired coach Ian 'Bluey' Hampshire from his place on the boundary to the players' race.
It's worth noting that five Bulldogs were making just their third league appearance that day, and four of them — Andrew Purser (24 disposals and 25 hitouts), Ian Williams and Brian Royal (both 23 disposals and three goals), and Jim Sewell — were listed among the Dogs' best.
Along with Simon Beasley, who booted four goals (as did 19-year-old Rod MacPherson, himself playing just his ninth game), Purser, Williams and Sewell gave the Dogs a distinctly Western Australian flavour.
Those players, along with the Dogs' other third-gamer, future skipper Steve Wallis, would all play vital roles in Footscray's rise up the ladder in the mid '80s. The Bulldogs followed up the win over Melbourne with two more wins, against powerhouse teams Hawthorn and Essendon, who would go onto contest the next three Grand Finals.
The Bulldogs had a mid-year slump but finished 1983 strongly and then came within a whisker of playing finals in 1984.
The following year, 1985, the Bulldogs would have a magnificent season, their best since 1961, and the seeds of that great year were sewn in the early rounds of 1983.
And it was perhaps the win over Melbourne that gave the Dogs — players and fans alike — the belief that the Bulldog spirit was back, 37 years ago today.
