Yet what has been said for years by myself and others  is that the name Western is superfluous- it's all about the bulldogs.

It appears that Google are aware of this! Type “afl table” (or “afl ladder”) into the Google search function and then open up the table that appears at the top of the screen. This AFL table will show in descending order Geelong, Brisbane, Richmond, Collingwood, West Coast, GWS Giants, BULLDOGS, Essendon, Hawthorn, Port Adelaide, Adelaide, North Melbourne, Fremantle, St Kilda, Sydney, Carlton, Melbourne and Gold Coast.

No prizes for guessing which club has the most childish and most meaningless name! IMHO “Bulldogs” looks worse (and is more childish) than “Western Bulldogs” for an AFL club! I know what it is like as for 9 years (2001-2009) my NRL club was called just “Bulldogs” (sole identity a breed of dog), like AFL's "Kangaroos" (who eventually realised the error of their ways and reverted back to being North Melbourne). I would get irritated when (2001-2009) some NRL tables would show Canberra, Melbourne, Parramatta, BULLDOGS, Brisbane, Penrith, North Queensland etc etc. Thankfully my NRL club is now Canterbury-Bankstown again, although (like all NRL clubs) too much emphasis is placed on the club’s nickname these days.

Why can’t the Western Bulldogs management realise how childish and stupid “Bulldogs” or “Western Bulldogs” looks when compared to the other AFL clubs?

In the sports section of today’s (26/8/19) Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), page 35 was devoted to the AFL. Half of page 35 contained the article “Spirited Dogs set date with Giants as echoes of 2016 sound for finals” which featured a photo of Western Bulldogs player Bailey Dale. The SMH’s sister paper in Melbourne (The Age) probably has the same article in it.

In much the same way that a lot of people living in Melbourne (and Adelaide and Perth) are generally ignorant about the NRL, a lot of people living in Sydney (and Brisbane) are generally ignorant about the AFL.

Now “AFL ignorant” Sydneysiders (or for that matter people from overseas presently in Sydney on business or holiday who know nothing about AFL) after reading the above mentioned article about the Western Bulldogs in today’s (26/8/19) SMH may be curious and ask “where do the Western Bulldogs come from?” They would not be able to glean anything from the text of the article. Then they would notice on the photo of Bailey Dale the word “BALLARAT” on the right hand side of his shorts and come to the erroneous conclusion that the Western Bulldogs are a club from Ballarat!!!