The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football team that competes in the Australian Football League, the sport’s premier competition. Founded in 1877 as the Footscray Bulldogs, the club won nine premierships in the Victorian Football Association before gaining admission to the Victorian Football League in 1925, along with Hawthorn and North Melbourne. The club has won two VFL/AFL premierships, in 1954 and 2016 and was runner-up in 1961 and 2021. Much of the club’s supporter base comes from Melbourne’s traditionally working-class western region. 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 original home ground, Footscray’s Whitten Oval, nicknamed The Kennel. The Western Bulldogs guernsey features two thick horizontal hoops—one red and one white—on a royal blue background.