PETER Gordon boasts keen senses of history and justice.

A longtime crusader for the underdog, Gordon was chiefly responsible for saving his beloved Bulldogs from a merger with Fitzroy during his first stint as president in 1989, when he was a 32-year-old rising star in the legal world.

And the ever-passionate Western Bulldogs boss espouses a unique perspective on his club’s incredible 2016 premiership.

Asked to describe the spiritual impact of the triumph, Gordon draws analogies with the fall of the Berlin Wall (which, incidentally, started within weeks of the Dogs' successful 'Fightback' in 1989) and the $89 million settlement he achieved for thalidomide survivors in 2013. Here's the context.

"(The flag) was six months ago, so I can put it into more perspective now," Gordon told the AFL Record before the Dogs started their title defence with a win over Collingwood.

"In a way it's like a local version of the fall of the Berlin Wall, in that it was such an important event in people's lives that many had despaired they'd never see.

"I'm still stopped by people who tell me what a profound effect it’s had on their family and their lives. Recently a woman told me, 'My dad died in December, but he died a very happy man because his team had won the flag.'

"It's amazing how many people have similar stories.

"The last big legal class action I did was for thalidomide victims and it was for people like the Bulldogs – they were born 50-55 years ago; they'd been denied justice and compensation all their lives; they’d led pretty simple lives struggling to make ends meet, and they were just hoping their day would come. (Thalidomide drugs, used in the late 1950 and 1960s by pregnant women with morning sickness, were later found to have caused severe birth defects.)

"It seems odd to compare the 2016 premiership with that class action, but there are some profound similarities.

"There’s no underestimating the effect the premiership has had on people."

The full version of this story appears in the round two edition of the AFL Record, available at all venues.