Latest news with #TedWhitten
Yahoo
24-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
What Luke Beveridge thinks about Chris Grant's no-show
There's long been rumours of a rift, but Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge says it would have been great to acknowledge Chris Grant's contribution to the club at Monday night's gala celebration. The Bulldogs named their five greatest players at Monday's gala, with Ted Whitten coming in at No.1, ahead of current captain Marcus Bontempelli, Grant, Gary Dempsey and Doug Hawkins. Grant was a notable absentee from the celebrations, with the Bulldogs great still reportedly feeling wounded from his sudden exit from the club eight months ago. 25 of the greatest all together. ❤️ — Western Bulldogs (@westernbulldogs) July 21, 2025 The 52-year-old, who played 341 games for the Bulldogs, was in the director of football role before leaving abruptly in November last year following a reported falling out with Beveridge. It ended Grant's 30-year association with the Bulldogs. Grant has remained silent about the issue that resulted in him leaving, with the club great keen to avoid adding fuel to the fire. Beveridge addressed Grant's absence from the gala when questioned about it during his weekly press conference on Thursday. "It would have been great to have Chris there, for him, especially when you consider the impact he's had on our football club," Beveridge said. "Even in the struggling times when the club wasn't financial and our survival was questioned, Granty was a critical figure on the playing field and through that journey to show his loyalty. "So it would have been great to have been able to acknowledge Chris as part of that recognised 25, but unfortunately he wasn't there. "It didn't diminish the celebration, we celebrated everyone that was there."The ninth-placed Bulldogs (10-8) will be aiming to keep their finals hopes alive when they take on struggling Essendon (6-11) at Marvel Stadium on Friday night. This week's re-signing of Bontempelli until the end of 2029 has given the Bulldogs a pep in their step, and the skipper used the moment to signal his wish for Port Adelaide star Zak Butters to join him at the kennel. Butters, who grew up a Bulldogs fan, will become a free agent at the end of 2026, and Beveridge doesn't mind his players doing their utmost to lure rival stars their way. "I can't stop our players from talking about who they'd love to have as teammates," Beveridge said. "But I've got a personal approach to it. I spoke about Matt Rowell the other week because I knew he was going to re-sign at Gold Coast. "So it wasn't like a public overture. As far as a player like Zak, who every club has a great opinion of, I don't want to be over the top with anything in regards to him. "He's still contracted, so the ball's in Port Adelaide's court."
Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
AFL superstar Bontempelli makes call on Bulldogs future
The Western Bulldogs have finalised a four-year deal that keeps superstar Marcus Bontempelli at the Whitten Oval until the end of the 2029 season. The highest-profile player in the AFL coming out-of-contract, the Dogs captain is going nowhere after signing a new four-year deal. "I've had a few different things happening - getting married in the off-season, opening a small coffee shop out in Kew - but ultimately it is no different to how I've dealt with other things in the past," Bontempelli said. "It's an important decision to spend the right amount of time. "This club means so much to me, it's hard to put it into a few words to be honest. "It is where I have grown as a man and spent all of my adult years coming here at 18. "When I think about the person I want to become it has been influenced by the people I have spent a lot of time with at the Western Bulldogs. "I owe so much from a footballing experience perspective but I think I really owe a lot of my maturing as a person and as a man to the football club. "For me, it's such a special place, the fans, the people that have supported me along the way. "I've never not felt supported by our people here at the club. "I feel incredibly lucky to have had that for so long." 👀 — Western Bulldogs (@westernbulldogs) July 22, 2025 Confirmation of the news comes a night after Bontempelli was named the club's second-greatest ever player, only behind the legendary Ted Whitten. Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge was excited about Bontempelli's future when asked about it last Wednesday: "I think we're getting close, but that's all I can really say." The 29-year-old has played 253 games for the Bulldogs after being taken with pick four in the 2013 draft. A tall, big-bodied midfielder, Bontempelli made his mark on the competition instantly. Bontempelli won the first of his six Charles Sutton medals as the Bulldogs' best-and-fairest in 2016, the season the club broke a 62-year premiership drought. The signing is a boost for the Bulldogs following two-straight defeats that has them sitting outside of the top-eight ahead of the final five weeks of the season.
News.com.au
21-07-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Barber in Melbourne's west says farewell after six decades
A Sunshine barber shop that operated for 60 years is set for a new chapter. The former Gents Continental hairdresser is one of three shopfronts within a single building at 74 and 76-78 Hampshire Rd that went under the hammer with a $1m-plus asking range on the weekend. Although it was passed in, the site will remain on the market for private sale. Fourth-generation barber Raffaele Mucilli, now aged 88, opened the barber shop in 1959. He also ran a woman's hairdressers in the back for about a decade. Mr Mucilli, whose father taught him the art of hairdressing, migrated from Italy to Australia when he was 20 years old. He worked as a builder and for other barbers, before opening his own business. Mr Mucilli's late wife, Lucia, was a dressmaker who occasionally sold Italian-imported shoes from the barber shop. Individual touches at the address include barber's chairs featuring footstools with an image of the Italian flag on them. Some of his customers included three generations of the same families, from grandparents to grandkids. Legendary Footscray footballers, father and son duo Ted Whitten and Ted Whitten Jr, were among Mr Mucilli's clients. In addition to his sporting career, the elder Mr Whitten ran a food store and milk bar in Sunshine. 'He had a little grocery shop one shop after mine,' Mr Mucilli said. He recalled how Mr Whitten and Collingwood icon Lou Richards, who often appeared on television together, would make bets between themselves based on football results. One of these wagers involved Mr Richards cutting grass with nail clippers, near a house attached to the shop, when Footscray won a game. 'The street was full of people,' Mr Mucilli said. The father-of-two is well-known in the local community. 'If I go shopping in Sunshine or any other place even further away, people recognise me and scream at me, 'You're the barber, you're the barber,'' he said. Mr Mucilli's daughter, Pia, described her father's barber shop as 'like a time capsule' from the 1950s and 1960s. The premises were used to record scenes for a 2018 short film titled The Widow, set in 1965 and starring Matrix Reloaded and Underbelly actor Steve Bastoni. The building's other two shopfronts are currently leased to a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu studio and a pilates studio. Douglas Kay Real Estate Sunshine director Peter Kay has the listing.
