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This year’s Charles Sutton Medal ceremony saw the Bulldogs’ faithfuls vote on a new look for season 2012 and beyond. Ironically, this new look is actually very old, a trend which seems to be spreading across the AFL.
The ‘Dogs return to a basic, traditional design’ reflects similar moves across the game, with clubs choosing simpler, more refined strips and logos over the more daring or elaborate designs. The best examples of this are Port Adelaide and Fremantle.
Both dockside, expansion clubs chose to be bold and different for most of their existence in the AFL – Freo choosing to mix their now iconic purple with green and red (the universal maritime colors for port and starboard) and the Power adding teal to their traditional black and white.
In recent seasons, however, both clubs have chosen to revert back to simpler, more ‘traditional’ designs.
Both now have guernseys reflecting their areas’ respective footballing history, with Fremantle’s change to all purple and white and the Power adopting a South Australia-esque strip (albeit designed by an 11-year-old, who was inspired by a rugby league jumper).
Looking across the leagues’ teams, we see a favoring of traditional bars, columns, bands and full color designs, which is broken up by the colors of our new kids on the block – GC and GWS.
Both expansion clubs have decided to be different in their look; the GC’s distinctive red and gold home and tidal wave sporting away guernsey setting them aside from the traditional and conservative older boys, while the Giants’ orange and charcoal seems to be from another world (not unlike the club, who might as well be based on Mars for their relation to traditional football territory).
In a time when clubs like the Bulldogs, Port and Freo are choosing to fall in line with conservative aesthetics, finding a bold beauty in simplicity, the new kids in town are deliberately setting themselves apart from the rest.
And so they should. Marketing and identity will be two of the most important factors in the success of these two new clubs in their fights to win over their reflective heartlands, and being bright, bold and unique will help with this.
This is true now, and it was certainly true for each expansion club, especially Freo, Port, and, strangely, the Western Bulldogs.
Freo and Port were representing regions steeped in proud footballing history, but were also faced with competition from established, crosstown rivals, just like the GC and GWS. They two needed to be bright, bold and unique.
The ‘Dogs needed a similar marketing appeal when they made the name change from Footsgrey to Western Bulldogs.
Trying to appeal to the greater West of Melbourne, rather than their small but loyal fan base, the Bulldogs added their angry, snarling Bulldog head to the front their strip to mark their change in identity and, hopefully, fortunes (on field and off).
For the Bulldogs, a reversion to their iconic Footsgrey bands, worn by club icons like Teddy Witten and Doug Hawkins, reflects a supporter base keen to re-connect with a proud history in moving forward.
And, lets face it, it looks fantastic.
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