Western Bulldogs
Names
Full name	Footscray Football Club Limited, trading as Western Bulldogs[a][1]
Former name(s)	Footscray Football Club (1877–1879, 1882–1996) Prince Imperial Football Club (1880–1881) Western Bulldogs (1997–present)
Nickname(s)	Bulldogs, Dogs, Doggies, The ‘Scray, Footscray, Tricolours
2025 season
Home-and-away season	9th
Leading goalkicker	Aaron Naughton (60 goals)
Charles Sutton Medal	Ed Richards (1st title)
Club details
Founded	1877; 148 years ago (1877)
Colours	Royal blue   Red   White
Competition	AFL: Senior men AFLW: Senior women VFL: Reserves men VFLW: Reserves women
President	Kylie Watson-Wheeler
CEO	Ameet Bains
Coach	AFL: Luke Beveridge AFLW: Tamara Hyett VFL: Alex Johnson VFLW: Rhys Sullivan
Captain(s)	AFL: Marcus Bontempelli AFLW: Deanna Berry VFL: Daniel Orgill VFLW: Riley Christgoergl
Premierships	VFL/AFL (2) 1954 2016 Reserves/VFL (9) 1936 1945 1962 1988 1994 1998 2014 2016 2025 VFA (9) 1898 1899 1900 1908 1913 1919 1920 1923 1924 AFLW (1) 2018
Ground	AFL: Marvel Stadium (56,347) & Eureka Stadium (11,000) AFLW/VFL/VFLW: Mission Whitten Oval (10,000)
Training ground	Mission Whitten Oval
Uniforms
Home Away Clash
Other information
Official website	westernbulldogs.com.au

The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray.^[2] The club competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition.

Originally named the Footscray Football Club^[a][1] the club cites a foundation year of 1877, and it adopted the name of the local borough. The club won nine premierships in the Victorian Football Association (VFA) before gaining admission to the Victorian Football League (which became the AFL in 1990) in 1925. The club has won two VFL/AFL premierships, in 1954 and 2016 and was runner-up in 1961 and 2021.

The club has developed a strong support base to the west of the city, traditionally a working-class area. Docklands Stadium, in the city's inner-west, has served as the club's home ground since 2000, while its headquarters and training facilities are at its traditional home ground, the Whitten Oval. The club also plays home games at Mars Stadium in the city of Ballarat west of Melbourne. The Western Bulldogs guernsey features two thick horizontal hoops—one red and one white—on a royal blue background. Fourteen players from the club are members of the Australian Football Hall of Fame, including inaugural inductee and Legend Ted Whitten. Marcus Bontempelli and Luke Beveridge serve as the club's current captain and head coach respectively.

At the end of 1996, as part of a broader rebranding scheme, the club changed its name from Footscray to Western Bulldogs. The club has fielded a side in AFL Women's since the competition's 2017 inception, winning a premiership in 2018, and also has a reserves side in the Victorian Football League and VFL Women's League.

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