Brad Fawcett set for game 300 with Bulldogs

Back in 2008 Fawcett was named in Pyramid Hill’s 1950-2008 Legends Team, earning a spot on the interchange where he was described as “a wiry player whose build belies his toughness”.

Nine years on from that accolade Fawcett is still that wiry, tough player, but with a lot more more games under his belt and more responsibility these days.

Now co-coaching the Bulldogs, on Saturday Fawcett will play his 300^th senior game for Pyramid Hill against Newbridge at Mitchell Park.

It’s an achievement he is proud of, but one that Fawcett – nicknamed Tappa – has had little time to think about given his focus is consumed by coaching and getting the best out of his 4-4 team.

“It’s one of those milestones that creep up when you start to get to my age, but at the moment with coaching it hasn’t been at the forefront of my mind,” Fawcett said this week.

“It’s there in the background, but all I’m focused on is trying to get us wins and back up the ladder and to me, that’s the most important thing we can get out of this Saturday.

“The 300 is one of those things I’ll look back on when I’m finished playing and probably appreciate more then.”

The 35-year-old got his first taste of senior football with the Bulldogs in 1998. He can’t remember who his debut was against, but recalls Alan Findlay was coach.

As part of a tribute piece going in this weekend’s edition of the El-Vee, Findlay recalls the young Fawcett as a “quiet, level-headed and very coachable kid”.

“He was very quick and could run, carry and take on the opposition. Nobody worked harder on the track or was more reliable,” Findlay said.

After his first exposure to senior football in 1998, Fawcett became a regular member of the team in 1999, and apart from a one-year stint at South Bendigo in 2009, has remained so since.

While Fawcett – who won the Bulldogs’ 2008 best and fairest – is best-known in the Loddon Valley league as a line-breaking half-back flanker, that hasn’t always been the case.

“Early years I got thrown around a bit in different positions and spent a bit of time up forward,” said Fawcett, who first played junior football with the Bulldogs in the under-14s when the club was in the Northern and Echuca District Football League.

“In my first three or four years of senior footy we were fairly young and inexperienced and copped a few hidings, but from 2003 it has mainly been playing off a half-back flank.

“I enjoy playing that position… you’ve got all the field ahead of you to try to run and create for your team going forward.

“Being light and a bit of a natural runner, I’ve always tried to base my game on hard work and running my opponent into the ground.

“These days, though, I’ve got to be a bit smarter with the way I play my footy.”

While there were some lean years for the Bulldogs early in Fawcett’s career – he didn’t play a senior final in his first five seasons – that all changed in 2004.

That was the first season of what has now become 13-consecutive years in the finals for the Bulldogs.

It’s currently the longest unbroken stretch of consecutive finals appearances by a senior team in the AFL Central Victoria region.

Yet for all the finals the Bulldogs have played year-in, year out for more than a decade, they still haven’t been able to break through for that elusive premiership.

The Bulldogs won their last senior premiership in 1950 in the Mitiamo District Football League and have had three grand final chances to snap their drought throughout Fawcett’s career – 2006, 2008 and 2011.

But they came up well short in all three grand finals, losing by margins of 52, 68 and 99 points, with the club’s sustained finals appearances having coincided with the two greatest dynasties in Loddon Valley history – that of Calivil United in the 2000s and Bridgewater this decade.

Fawcett was among the Bulldogs’ best players in all three of those grand final losses.

“It obviously keeps me coming back each year to try to help the club get into a position to win one,” Fawcett said.

“It’s a really strong motivating factor for a lot of the guys still playing there to try to achieve that goal.”

Among the opposition coaches who have spoiled Fawcett’s flag dream has been Calivil United’s Andrew Freemantle, who led the Demons to their 2008 grand final win over the Bulldogs.

“Brad is a player as opposition coach you have to put considerable time into. His ability to break the lines with his run and carry from the half-back line makes him a very dangerous player,” Freemantle said.

Fawcett is in his second season coaching the Bulldogs, with the role this year shared with Gavin James.

Before taking on the senior reins in 2016 Fawcett spent two seasons coaching the Bulldogs’ under-18s.

“Initially it was tough going heading into last year after a mass exodus of players in which we lost about 13 of our senior group, so there was a bit of a scramble there to get a team together,” Fawcett said.

“But a lot of the guys we brought into the group have been great value, good people and really added something, so I feel very fortunate to be coaching this group of players.”