Essendon Football Club

Australia

Founded

1871

Arena

Marvel Stadium · 56,347 cap

The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers, is a professional Australian rules football club. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCracken family in their Ascot Vale home "Alisa", and while the exact date is unknown, it is generally accepted to have been in 1872. The club's first recorded game took place on 7 June 1873 against a Carlton seconds team. From 1878 until 1896, the club played in the Victorian Football Association (VFA), then joined seven other clubs in October 1896 to form the breakaway Victorian Football League (known as the Australian Football League since 1990). Headquartered at the Essendon Recreation Ground, known as Windy Hill, from 1922 to 2013, the club moved to The Hangar in Tullamarine in late 2013 on land owned by the Melbourne Airport corporation. The club shares its home games between Docklands Stadium and the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Zach Merrett is the current club captain. Essendon is one of Australia's best-known and most successful football clubs. It has won 16 VFL/AFL premierships, which, along with Carlton and Collingwood, is the most of any club in the competition.

Western Bulldogs

Australia

Founded

1877

Arena

Marvel Stadium · 56,347 cap

The Footscray Football Club, trading as the Western Bulldogs, is an Australian rules football club that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL). Founded in 1877, the club won nine premierships in the Victorian Football Association (VFA) before moving to the Victorian Football League (now renamed the AFL) in 1925. The club has won two senior premiership since joining the VFL/AFL, in 1954 and 2016. The Western Bulldogs home guernsey features two thick horizontal hoops—one red and one white—on a royal blue background. The club's traditional rivals include St Kilda and geographical rivals Essendon. The club has its headquarters and practices at the Whitten Oval in Footscray, an inner-western suburb of Melbourne, Australia. The club draws its supporter base from this traditionally working class area and plays its home matches at Docklands Stadium (currently known as Etihad Stadium) in the Melbourne Docklands area, also in the city's inner-west. In October 1996, the club began to play under its current name of the "Western Bulldogs", changing from its original name of the "Footscray Football Club". The Whitten Oval underwent a A$20 million redevelopment starting in 2005 to improve the club's headquarters and training facilities.