THE story so far.

Yesterday, we had a red hot crack at a Western Bulldogs banner. We called it the “lamest banner ever” and declared it both unfunny and wrong.

Well, it now appears that we were in fact wrong.

Actually, we weren’t entirely wrong. As we showed with some quick bridge research (and who doesn’t love googling bridge facts on a Monday afternoon?), the Westgate Bridge is clearly inferior in terms of both dimensions and aesthetics to its northern counterpart, the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

But there is one important thing we did get wrong: the tone of the banner.

See, we thought it was a lame dig at the Sydney Swans concocted by the humourless (albeit admirably hardworking) Western Bulldogs cheer squad. In fact, the banner was the work of Melbourne comedian Danny McGinlay.

McGinlay conceived of the bridge comparison banner not as a serious cross-border sledge, but as a rather amusing piece of throwaway banter of the sort he’s been writing for several weeks now.

This all started back in June when McGinlay, a Bulldogs fan, was at a game when he saw a Bulldogs banner which really was on the lame side. He tweeted as much too.

.@westernbulldogs - this banner is so insipid I have no words. Which probably makes me ideal to be in the cheer squad pic.twitter.com/CxTtsJoQZU — Danny McGinlay (@dannymcginlay) June 7, 2014

“I thought it was the cheer squad writing it and I went on social media and bagged them,” McGinlay tells his new best friends at news.com.au.

“We got into a bit of back and forth and then I found out it wasn’t them so I contacted the club and told them I want to formally offer my services to write the banner.”

McGinlay had previously worked behind the scenes on the defunct AFL comedy show Before the Game, so he knew his way around a footy joke.

“That piqued the club’s interest,” he says.

It basically came down to a situation where the club said “show us what you got”, and what Danny had was this very excellent banner at the Port Adelaide game on June 21 this year.

Although the @westernbulldogs lost today, I'm pleased to announce my official debut as the banner writer. pic.twitter.com/zn88iwg1nb — Danny McGinlay (@dannymcginlay) June 21, 2014

A Bulldogs staffer told McGinlay, “Oh, wow, that’s funny, you’ve got the job.”

For the uninitiated, the banner was funny because the Dogs had never played at Port’s new home ground, the Adelaide Oval, so of course they were undefeated there.

He’ll have to make a new sign next year, though. The Dogs lost by a humbling 72 points.

Two weeks later, he pulled out an excellent sledge against the Cats. Reeeeow! Take that!

Here's my banner for this week. The @westernbulldogs cheer squad did a great job with the art work! pic.twitter.com/zg9SUTDTSo — Danny McGinlay (@dannymcginlay) July 6, 2014

The Dogs sadly lost that one too, although not by too much.

A few weeks later, McGinlay was at it again with a banner cleverly referencing Bulldogs club legend Doug “The Hawk” Hawkins.

Alas, the Bulldogs lost that game by 63 points. You clearly need a sense of humour to follow this club.

Not every Danny McGinlay banner has gotten past the kennel keepers at Bulldogs HQ. For the St Kilda match, he proposed a banner that read: “Patron Saint of Wooden Spoons”. Insulting the opposition was clearly a bridge too far, if you’ll excuse the pun.

But mostly, the banners have been brilliant and McGinlay hopes to keep writing them next year.

“I do this for free,” he says. “I just want to contribute to my beloved club.”

We think that’s a pretty top attitude. So today, instead of bagging an anonymous banner maker, we salute both the dedication and wit of Danny McGinlay. There. We said it. Who said we journalists are *stubborn people?

On by the way, it’s Danny’s birthday today so happy 32nd, champ. Our gift to you is this story and a ridiculous plug for loads of your stuff, including:

* A funny thing you can buy and listen to called “Danny McGinlay — The Complete First Season”. Get it here at his website.

* The play Danny is starring in at Melbourne Fringe called “Death of a Salesman: The Sitcom”.

And of course, Danny is on Twitter @dannymcginlay.

*Actually we are quite stubborn, so as a side note, we’d like to point out that McGinlay’s surname starts with the letters MCG, which also happens to be the acronym for a football ground where the Western Bulldogs NEVER play on the last Saturday in September. On the positive side, being a fan of the Bulldogs must provide a rich vein of comic material for Danny.