CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
It’s been 20 years since Willie Mason and the famous Dogs Of War gloriously snatched the NRL premiership from Uncle Nick and the boys from Bondi.
The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs. A storied rugby league club. The family club. A club that unites locals of all different creeds and backgrounds. Their membership includes the Greek migrants whose flag blends in perfectly on the hill of blue and white at Belmore Oval. They’ve got the Lebanese migrants of all religious orders. They’ve got the generational westies whose families used to farm the area in the olden days, and they’ve got Vietnamese who arrived in the late 1970s. They’ve got a leagues club full of leathery old codgers selling raffle tickets, and the best yum cha buffet outside of Chinatown.
It’s a club that the rest of the competition never counts out. It’s a club full of a battlers that fight like fuck. But it’s a club that can only seem to win if everything is going perfect.
And right now, things are perfect.
That’s according to one outspoken Doggies fan and prominent local barber.
Moey & Moey’s Barbershop on Bankstown’s High street is reportedly buzzing this week, after the Bulldogs look forward to a 20-year anniversary rematch against the Sydney Roosters, and fight to win four games on the TROT.
“It’s exciting times” says the store’s owner, Moey senior.
Canterbury’s three straight wins on the TROT have them in their highest ladder position since Malcolm Turnbull was still Prime Minister. When the club attains this kind of momentum, the exciting atmosphere is palpable in Moey and Moey’s barber shop, as is the case for the 42 other men’s hair stylists along this same street.
“Four games on the TROT” would be our biggest winning streak in 5 years, says Moey senior.
The Doggies are currently enduring the club’s longest finals drought since the 1950s. The Bulldogs have not played finals football since 2016 and – their last Grand Final appearance against the Rabbitohs in 2014.
However, the ten year anniversary of the Dogs of War felt more like it was the Bunnies year than the Bulldogs year.
But the twenty year anniversary feels different
“Cuz we are doing all this shit with half our stars injured” says Moey junior.
“We got fuel in the tank” says Moey senior.
“I can feel it” says Moey junior.
“Wallah cuz this is the year” says both Moeys, at the same exact time.
