Denmark-born Hamling key part of historic Bulldogs premiership

Denmark-born Western Bulldogs defender Joel Hamling has produced the biggest performance of his young and emerging career as he quelled the influence of Sydney on the way to his club’s drought-breaking AFL premiership.

Hamling was a key part of the historic grand final victory, playing a brilliant game in defence opposed to Franklin, who kicked only one major as the Bulldogs went on to record an epic 22-point win.

It has been a fairytale journey for Hamling and his family after not playing an AFL game in three seasons with Geelong and failing to break into the Bulldogs side until the second half of this year.

Born in Denmark, a young Hamling moved to Broome, where he played at Cable Beach Football Club before playing 10 colts games with Claremont in 2011.

From there, the key position player was recruited by Geelong with pick 32 in 2011 national draft, but he never played a senior game and was delisted at the end of 2014.

The Bulldogs threw Hamling a lifeline when they picked up him up as a delisted free agent, and 23 games later the 23-year-old is an AFL premiership player.

Hamling was superb in the grand final for the Bulldogs, winning several crucial one-on-one contests with the Swans superstar while gathering nine possessions and four marks.

Such was his determination at the contest, the WA product finished with a game-high 14 one-percentage acts and also took a courageous mark coming back with the flight when the game was on the line.

The little-known defender played 11 games last season for the Bulldogs and only appeared in three matches in the first 18 rounds this season.

However, with notable injuries to captain Robert Murphy and Marcus Adams, Hamling forced his way into the side in round 19 and was never omitted.

He produced shutdown jobs on West Coast Eagles’ Josh Kennedy and Greater Western Sydney star Jeremy Cameron during a sensational finals campaign.

His father James, who still lives in Denmark, made the trip to the MCG to watch his son be a part of the historic win, ending a 62-year premiership drought for the Bulldogs.