Stoked to see son play final
THIS year’s grand final excitement is intoxicating for Luke Dahlhaus’s Leopold family.
The Dahlhauses have embraced the Western Bulldogs since Luke joined as a rookie six years ago, and dad Mark said they were well aware the whole country was now behind them.
Mark will be joined by his wife Lori, their son Ryan and his wife Sarah at the MCG on Saturday as the Bulldogs take on Sydney for a shot at a historic premiership.
Before that there’s tomorrow’s grand final parade. With a huge celebration anticipated should the Dogs cause an upset, Mark said he hoped not to spend too much time on Saturday night at the city hotel they’ve booked.
“I think the guy that does the banner summed it up a couple of weeks ago when he said Hawthorn has 75,000 members and the Bulldogs have got 24 million,” he said.
“I suppose everyone has a soft spot for them because they haven’t won one since ’54.
“But Luke got us four tickets and Ryan has booked a hotel in Melbourne so we’ll go to the parade on Friday and then go to the game Saturday.
“Hopefully we won’t have to use the hotel on Saturday night because we’ll be up all night if they win, I’d imagine.”
Mark estimated he had seen 112 of son Luke’s 114 games at the Bulldogs, but none had come close to eliciting the excitement of last Saturday’s win over the GWS Giants.
The week before, the family formed part of the 87,823 crowd at the Bulldogs and Hawthorn semi-final at the MCG, but even that didn’t come close to the noise produced at the preliminary final.
“Lori and I were there and it was pretty exciting. Luke has played 114 games and I think we’ve seen 112 of them but that was the most nailbiting finish, especially when the Giants got 14 points up,” he said.
“But even then we thought as long as they don’t kick another goal we know the Bulldogs won’t give up.
“They certainly gave it their all that last quarter, it was fantastic. We went to the Hawthorn game the week before and this one only had 22,000 but the noise was probably greater than at the MCG.
“It was probably 50 per cent full of Bulldogs supporters.”