By Michael Giles
BRUCE Clifton, now deceased, used to be a bank manager at Leongatha in the 1960s and a great Footscray supporter.
My cousins, the Gannons of Leongatha, had chosen various footy teams to support in their early days, until offered the chance to join the Clifton family on their regular footy trips to Melbourne.
The only proviso was that they had to barrack for Footscray.
Certainly no glamour club and starved for success, they didn’t present well to a young footy lover but at least you got to go to the games.
For years, the members of the family who got on board with the Doggies back then, have secretly blamed Bruce Clifton for their predicament, and even considered changing over to Adelaide when a family member married one of the Crows players recently.
But John Gannon stuck fast to the red, white and blue and during a 20-year working life in the UK, he tentatively booked flights home three times when the Bulldogs figured in preliminary finals.
But it wasn’t to be. The flights were cancelled, time and time again.
For the entire 54 years of his life, his team has never even made it to a grand final, let alone win one, and had more often than not been languishing near the bottom of the ladder, out of calculations and, just as disappointingly, out of the footy conversation.
Now back in Australia, living in Queensland, he wasn’t about to miss the club’s first opportunity in 55 years to break through, and despite still being on crutches from a recent knee reconstruction, he flew down on the morning of the game.
And what unfolded in the great game on Saturday made the long, long wait worthwhile, and then some.
He had Bruce Clifton to thank for being part of that select band of true believers who rode every bump and every score on Saturday, not daring to dream with even minutes to go, when the Bulldogs surged to a commanding lead.
He celebrated long and hard on Saturday night and went back to the kennel on Sunday before flying home on Monday… what a weekend!
His story will be repeated right across Victoria, where long-suffering Doggies fans have finally tasted the ultimate success. Congratulations. You deserve it.
There’s something else taking place this week – oh yes – the voting packs in the local government elections will arrive by mail this week and residents are asked to take their choices seriously.
It’s not going to be 62 years, but if we get stuck with another dud or dysfunctional council this time around, four years will feel like an absolute eternity.
The story that had to be told, i was converted the same ruthless way.
I was streaming the game , from the little fishing village of Mamallapuram – 55 k’s down the coast from Madras in south India.
At the end of the third quarter i looked out the window the swell had come up and nice 4 to 6ft barrels were peeling off the Shore Temple right hand point.
I said bugger the game grabbed my board and paddled out.
As usual the hot Tamil locals were ripping giving me nothing.
After half an hour Top Tamil local ” Mumu ” ( who owns the surf shop ) called me in on a solid 6 footer, i made the drop and somehow managed to get a little cover up — paddled in and got the news the doggies had finally won.
Had dinner with Bruce last night after watching a replay of the grand final again – laughed long and hard about him being deceased.
Thanks for the story. I enjoyed reading about the plight of The Bulldogs team.
You may however be interested to know that Bruce Clifton is alive and well! Still very passionate and very proud of his 7 children and family members who are still very actively involved in their weekly games.
They were all there on Saturday(24 in total) and are still in disbelief and complete adoration of the Bulldogs!!
Go Bulldogs and especially Go Bruce!
Ana Clifton(daughter -in -law)
Sir – it was about half way down the “Ruby straight” that Bruce Clifton stopped the car and said “you’ll have to get out, only Footscray supporters in this car” – at 5 years old it was truely a chastening experience and one which for many years I felt I would ultimately regret. It was with a sense of relief that my kids followed the Crows as they wouldn’t be subject to years of disappointment as a doggies supporter. You have some dark days as a Dogs man, you rarely meet another Dogs supporter- all those years of looking at others as they win Grand Finals thinking “I wonder what it feels like” and as you climb into your 6th decade of life you begin to wonder ” will I ever feel what its like?” …… and then came that one Saturday in October (sic) and it all took a change – so many “Doggies for Day” thanks to all of you for your amazing support it meant so much. Even the Swans supporters were saying “well if he had to lose at least it was to you guys” . You are correct, I simply couldn’t believe it – after 7 Prelim Final losses in a row (!) I had thought we had climbed our Everest by making the Grand Final – but no, we also got to ski down again after winning the “big dance”. Just goes to show that with any 62 year rebuilding programme you cant hurry success…..roll on 2078 I say.
Yours Sincerely
John Gannon ( ex Leongatha) “woof”