Luke Beveridge Aussie Footy Anthem ‘Tooth ‘n’ Nail’

Already big news in AFL circles, “Tooth ‘n’ Nail’, the new single by Sunset & The Windy Hills, is the first record ever co-written by an AFL head coach, and the first song co-written by the Western Bulldogs‘ enigmatic coach Luke Beveridge.

The Western Bulldogs, stirred by the emotion of “Tooth ‘n’ Nail”, scrapped out a 5-point thrilling win over the reigning premiers, The Brisbane Lions at the Gabba, in the opening round of the season on Saturday night. And Bevo was moved to sing the song in his chat with Fox Footy after the game!

The “Game Day Mix” of “Tooth ‘n’ Nail” premiered on the Bulldogs podcast Inside the Kennel; after the podcast’s anchor Mattie Lyons gave the tune a spin, co-host and Bulldogs living legend Dougie Hawkins said he “loved it”.

Kylie Watson Wheeler, Bulldogs President speaking with Gary Lyon and Tim Watson on SEN Breakfast, for Bulldogs Membership Day, alluded to the fact that, “It’s a catchy tune.”

As mentioned by Bevo on Fox Footy/Kayo after the match on Saturday night,the song is to buy on Bandcamp now, for just 99c:
https://sunsetandthewindyhills.bandcamp.com/track/tooth-n-nail-game-day-mix-2

ANDREW KIDMAN’S ACCOUNT OF EVENTS: READ THE FULL STORY HERE

In April last year I was in Melbourne with Luke Beveridge, we were discussing the struggles of an artist’s life. Prior to the digital/streaming revolution I made a living making independent films, music and hand shaped surfboards. In the last five years I’ve been scrapping tooth ‘n’ nail to make these artforms pay. Interestingly, Luke asked me, “What is it that you love doing the most?” My response was music, because that’s what I’ve been doing since I was five years old and I feel it informs the other creative acts.

Prompted by Luke’s question, I realised I needed to focus intently on creating music. Jay Kruegner, my bandmate and engineer of our recordings encouraged me to learn how to better record my instruments, so I could share these recordings with him to work on. I began to do this, teaching myself how to properly use the studio.

Concurrently, I was riding my bike one evening, walking my Beagle, when the origins of“Tooth ‘n’ Nail” began flooding my head. I was witnessing my “dog on its mission”. And I began humming that line. As I rode, I began pondering a song that could inspire Luke’s players with positive affirmations and visions. The lyrics and melodies kept coming. As they came to me, I recorded them on my phone. By walk’s end I had all the parts to the song.

In the coming days I recorded the demo of what was in my head and asked my bass player Paul Brewer to come around and sing backing vocals and lay the bass tracks down. I’ve been making music with Paul since the early 90s; I trust his judgement. I got the demo in a place where it was listenable and re-recorded it from my shitty 90-dollar speakers onto my phone and sent it to Paul, asking him if it was ready to send to Luke. Paul said, “Send it.”

Luke’s a busy guy; he was in the middle of coaching the ’25 season. I pressed send from my phone to him. Within minutes he was texting me, asking me what it was? quoting the lyrics back to me in a text. He was excited. I said to him I would send him the lyrics that evening to look over, to see if they were right. He got back to me straight away, suggesting these changes to the opening lines.

“Move and create, make the magic happen, paw prints merge in and under.”

I thought Luke’s lyrics enhanced the song with a sense of light and fun, whilst deliberately tapping into essence of what it is to be a Bulldog. I took them onboard and in the following months constructed the song with Jay into what you hear today.

During the off-season Luke worked up a theme to present to his players for the new year. The theme was “Tooth ‘n’ Nail”.

Luke had an edit cut to the song of his players exhibiting deeds that sum up the spirit and lyrics of the song. In February, at the conclusion of the Dog’s pre-season camp in Noosa, he presented it to his players, coaches and administration. I was in the room to witness this, as the players hooted and hollered to the action. As the room emptied to the bar to celebrate the week, Joel Freijah found me and had all sorts of questions about what had just unfolded. Later, standing at the Bistro, Cody Weightman told me he loved it, I said, “Hopefully it gets stuck in your head during games.” Cody said, “It’s weird what music comes into my head when I’m playing, sometimes I find myself singing Justin Bieber.” I said, “Justin Bieber is great.”

For the music buffs out there, the genre is Psych Rock.

The original song is written in four parts. The intro is an upbeat, disco style tempo to get the players engaged and moving, this segways into two anthemic mantras that harmonise with the guitar rock lead breaks, Hendrix often used this technique, this breaks down into a quiet, thoughtful and reflective moment for the players to focus on, that leads into the heartfelt voice of a single fan singing the words “Tooth ‘n’ Nail” in a packed stadium, the fan beside him joins in and by the third round of the passage all the Bulldog fans are singing it, joining as one, swaying together, inspiring their team… “Tooth ‘n’ Nail” and “Dogs on a Mission!”

Once the original had been submitted, Luke came into the process again, asking Jay and I if it was possible to create a more upbeat version for game day. This was a simple process, as we were able to double time the drums and add 80s Aussie, pub rock, rhythm guitars, as well as the bass line melody from the Bulldogs anthem “Sons of the West”.

At Luke’s request we created 5 versions of the song, at different lengths and for the different purposes.

ANDREW KIDMAN & LUKE BEVERIDGE

Beveridge bonded with Andrew Kidman, leader of the Northern NSW-based band, a few years back after Kidman sent Beveridge a collection of surf-related books and films resulting from his work over the years. A musician, film maker and author, Kidman is the former editor of Waves magazine and an Australian surf renaissance man whose work has made its mark around the world. Mostly with his band The Windy Hills, which also includes Andrew’s lead guitar playing rock journo pal Martin Jones (who is also a former editor of both In-Press and Rhythms magazines), bass player Paul Brewer and multi-instrumentalist/studio wiz Jay Kruegner, Kidman has played the Sydney Opera House,Wilco’s Solid Sounds Festival, San Sebastian’s International Film Festival and the New York Surf Film Festival as well as providing Northern NSW supports to the likes of Sunnyboys, Ed Kuepper & Jim White,Dinosaur Jr, Ben Howard and Bonnie Prince Billy.

Having already prompted Beveridge’s 2026 season theme for the Western Bulldogs, “Tooth ‘n’ Nail” is both an inspiring and contemplative modern rock anthem. Indeed, it exists in a number of different mixes which highlight its unique qualities, and potential uses, with the “Game Day Mix” the most likely to get a Bulldogs home crowd at Marvel Stadium singing along.

Available to stream or digitally download, Sunset & The Windy Hills’ “Tooth ‘n’ Nail’ will also be available as a limited-edition Solar Flare coloured 7″ vinyl single from https://sunsetandthewindyhills.bandcamp.com/album/tooth-n-nail

“Sweet Caroline”? “Country Roads”? Okay… what happened to music at the footy? Here’s an anthem that is both modern and classic at once, boiling with the scrapping spirit of AFL…

Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge and singer-songwriter Andrew Kidman got together over a love of music, surfing and footy and concluded that AFL could do with a modern anthem. So, they wrote one. And it turned out better than either could have dreamed. “Tooth ‘n’ Nail” mines the depths of all kinds of Australian goodness – our rich rock and roll heritage; our fighting underdog spirit; our devotion to our mates and our sport. And yet, despite all the regard for heritage, “Tooth ‘n’ Nail” is utterly contemporary in sound and tone… So good, so good!

Luke presented the song to the club, and it was instantly embraced by one and all…. “scrapping tooth and nail”, “Dogs on a mission” are catch-cries to lead the club into the 2026 season.

In 1982, Andrew Kidman captained the North Sydney AFL Regional Team to no wins at the New South Wales State Carnival in the Riverina then, in 1988, won the U/19 Australian Schoolboy Surfing title at Bells Beach. He knows how to scrap it out.

Today he is a surfboard shaper, filmmaker, author and songwriter who has been soundtracking his own oceanic visions for over 35 years. His Northern Rivers-based band Sunset & The Windy Hills provides the freedom to chase any sonic suspicion – from whispered acoustic reflections to psychedelic soundstorms.

From stringing up bedsheet movie screens in sweaty New York abattoir basements to performing at Wilco’s Solid Sound festival in Massachusetts to selling out the Sydney Opera House and Melbourne’s Hamer Hall with their Spirit of Akasha – Celebrating Morning Of The Earth shows (the 2014 album of which was nominated for a Best Original Soundtrack, Cast or Show Album ARIA Award), Sunset & The Windy Hills have done it all… and then some.

They might be the best band you’ve never heard of…