Footscray will make its long-awaited return to competitive football at the Whitten Oval on Saturday morning against fellow stand-alone club Richmond in the Victorian Football League.
The game is scheduled for an earlier time of 10.30am, so Bulldogs and Tigers supporters can make a full day of it, taking in VFL football at the traditional ground in the morning, followed by the clash between the two clubs in the AFL at Etihad Stadium from 1.45pm.
“I hope we can pack out the Whitten Oval before the AFL match,” Footscray co-captain Lukas Markovic said.
“I think it’s fantastic the way the club has organised this first game.
“Supporters can come along to the Whitten Oval, get along to the old ground, then jump on the train and it’s 10 minutes to Etihad Stadium to watch the AFL game.”
Markovic has supported the Bulldogs his whole life and has had the opportunity to wear the red, white and blue on the biggest stage in the AFL.
After a stint on Hawthorn’s list was cut short by injury, Markovic was offered a second chance when he was drafted by the Bulldogs in 2009. He played 29 games and kick five goals but was delisted at the end of last season.
Markovic did not want his time with the Bulldogs to end then and there, so he jumped at the chance to become an inaugural co-captain of the VFL side alongside Nick Lower.
He saw it as a way to stay involved in the inner sanctum and repay the club for giving him an AFL lifeline five years ago.
When the Bulldogs moved to Princes Park and then Docklands, the Whitten Oval seemed destined to remain exclusively a training venue.
But with the split between Williamstown and the Western Bulldogs at the end of last season, the grand old ground got its second chance, just as Markovic did with the Bulldogs not so long ago.
“I remember going out and watching a few games at the Whitten Oval when I was a kid,” Markovic said. “I never thought I’d ever be leading the team out on the Whitten Oval playing for Footscray. It’s quite amazing how it’s turned out.”
Markovic will continue in the swingman role he played last season at both levels. His position will change on a needs basis, depending on which players filter down from the AFL side.
“We’ve got a bit of depth at the Bulldogs AFL and a bit of tall timber, so there could be weeks where the backline is full of talls and there’s no room for me down there, or the forward line full of talls and I go down back,” he said. “I’m happy to play either end of the ground.”
Meanwhile, Williamstown began its 150th season with a 13-point loss to premiers Box Hill Hawks at Burbank Oval on Saturday.
The Seagulls charged home in the second half only to be undone by inaccurate kicking for goal. They will be out to make amends when they face the Northern Blues at Visy Park on Sunday.
