Legendary Bulldogs supporter David Porter leaves an enduring legacy after his passing at 62

The Tattersalls worker and Bulldogs cheer squad co-president answered quickly: A flag.

The Western Bulldogs were everything to him, and in the mind of Dennis Galimberti, he stands as a “monumental person in the history of the club’’.

Galimberti is himself a significant individual in it: he was general manager of Footscray when the Footscray-Fitzroy merger proposal became public late in 1989.

Galimberti knew nothing about it.

He blew the whistle, becoming Dennis the Menace to its proponents, and Porter was one of the most recognisable figures in the battle to save the Bulldogs, a large man with a round face, a floppy fringe and top-to-toe passion for the red, white and blue.

He says Porter, who has died at the age of 62, was at the forefront of the “fightback campaign’’.

“On the morning after I announced what was going on, the cheer squad led a march down Barkly St, Footscray and marched on VFL House in protest of the merger,’’ Galimberti says.

“We planned a rally at the Western Oval – 10,000 people ended up coming – and we thought it was absolutely imperative that we were able to show the supporters we had a list of players prepared to play for us if we could get the team readmitted into the competition.

“The cheer squad came and made a banner and we had 25 players run through it. And Dave was behind that. He was Footscray through and through.’’

He was also, he says, an iconic league football supporter.

Bulldogs great Doug Hawkins says he has never forgotten the sight of David Porter clapping and chanting “Footscray’’ outside the club after news of the merger broke.

“He was a terrific bloke, a huge part of the club,’’ Hawkins says. “He loved the Bulldogs with a passion.’’

This year Galimberti saw Porter, in a wheelchair after a run of poor health, at a VFL match between Sandringham and Footscray.

He went over to shake his hand and talk to a “very decent man and a monumental person in the history of the club’’.

Galimberti says the fightback campaign was “built around passionate people like Dave Porter’’.

In an interview with the Herald Sun in 1995, Porter said he was “lost’’ and “numb’’ when he heard about the planned merger.

Camping on the VFL’s doorstep was the least he could for his club, he said.

He said he had been going to watch the Bulldogs since the mid-1960s, when his father took him to the outer at the Western Oval.

The young boy went on to become a life member of the club and with Gary Munn was president of the cheer squad for many years, taking up a position behind the goals.

As one supporter said, Porter was “the most recognisable face on TV in the background each time we kicked a goal’’.

In 2010, a broken foot prevented him from his attending his 500th consecutive Bulldogs match.

He had to be satisfied with 499, a run that began early in 1990, the first season after the fightback campaign, and even took in a pre-season game in New Zealand.

Porter, who attended Wembley State School and Footscray High School, planned his work holidays around the AFL draw.

“It’s always been a club where supporters have been welcome,’’ Porter said in 1995. “You can go down and mix with the president and everyone on down.’’

The premiership he longed to see came in 2016, in the VFL and a week later in the AFL.

The Western Bulldogs badged their VFL team Footscray in 2014 in an attempt to reclaim history, and Porter embraced the return of the name, the jumper and the ground.

“That was a nod to the fight that people like Dave and Irene Chatfield and those very western suburbs, working class, heart-of-gold people and the contribution they made,’’ former Bulldogs president Peter Gordon says.

He says he was saddened to learn of the death of an “exceptional supporter’’ who “dedicated his whole life to the Bulldogs’’.

“David Porter was a real representative of his club and his suburb, and a real symbol of an ordinary supporter who followed their team home and away, in fair weather and foul, working on the banner through the week in the dead of winter, turning up week after week when we were on the bottom of the ladder,’’ Gordon says.

“He had a club that meant everything to him. It was part of his soul. There was a sense of belonging. And after ’89 he had that for the rest of his life.’’

He says the club is “just a little bit diminished’’ for Porter’s passing.

Like many football supporters of his generation, David Porter followed a league club on Saturday and a VFA team on Sunday.

Yarraville was his association side, and he was part of the Eagles’ cheer squad too.

He manned the gate at home games, sold raffle tickets, operated the scoreboard and played Santa at club Christmas parties. In 1983 he served as Yarraville’s community development officer.

“He was a jovial character and a great person to have around,’’ former Eagles coach Les Twentyman says.

“I’ve said this at all the clubs I’ve coached: clubs aren’t bricks and mortar, they’re about people. If there weren’t people, clubs would collapse. People like David Porter are essential to the game.’’

In a social media post the Western Bulldogs said David Porter played a significant role in the fightback of 1989 and his “love and passion for our football club will live on forever’’.

Former Dogs coach Terry Wallace called him a “constant around the Whitten Oval in both troubled and successful times’’.

Funeral arrangements are being made.