Fat Pizza
2 Sep 2007, 10:46
Which Fitzroy player was credited with taking 17 marks during the famous “fog game” in 1971?
Fat Pizza
3 Sep 2007, 09:52
Alex Ruscuklic
Correct. Personally, I think the statisticians would have had enough trouble identifying who kicked the goals during the second half of that match, without recording who took each mark. I'm sure they must have made a few "educated guesses".
Well done Scott_Superstar.
Which Fitzroy player was credited with taking 17 marks during the famous “fog game” in 1971?
Anyone actually at the Fog Game? Tell us your story and memories of the day....
blynd_freddie
4 Sep 2007, 22:58
Anyone actually at the Fog Game? Tell us your story and memories of the day....
Ok you've baited me, yes I attended the round 21 “fog game” against Carlton in 1971. I was 11 at the time and pardon the pun but could be a little hazy with a couple of the details of the game but this is how I remember the occasion.
To paint a picture from where I was sitting, the white concrete Social Stand, positioned up against the tennis courts at the scoreboard end. As with most foggy days there was little if any wind. I don’t recall the fog causing any disruption to the first half. I believe it wasn’t until the third quarter that the fog seemed to drift in from behind the stands, from a western or the bay/lake side remembering the Junction Oval is roughly a North/South goal-to-goal ground.
I believe Fitzroy were kicking towards the southern end in the third term, Carlton were on a bit of a roll and as the fog started to close in, with the visibility decreasing we found it increasingly difficult to see to the other side of the ground soon the goals to the Fitzroy Street end were in gulfed.
In those days only one or two games would be shown as a highlights or a “best quarter” replay that night and some of you young bucks have a whine about only four games FTA, ha. Anyway I digress, this game was being televised and the commentators were positioned in the front right corner under a tarp covered scafold frame, looking at the Social Stand from the ground. I can clearly recall sitting behind the commentators having to watch the game via the TV monitors, the camera assisted with the depth of vision into the fog and was far superior than using the naked eye. Even with the aid of this technology though, one still struggled to see to the spare “center circle” on the closest wing.
Checking the records, there were 7 goals kicked in the 3rd quarter. Us 2, them 5.
Even with the Carlton resurgence I remember being optimistically confident, especially when the bright flood light on the top left of the scoreboard was switched on, remember the scoreboards proximity to the goals.
In my mind this light was going to be the landing light in guiding my team to victory.
I think it was during this quarter that it almost became a total white out, yet we still kicked 4 goals to one, I recall “as if it were yesterday” the silence of the game, pockets of cheering then a roar. The roar could have been anything from a bit of biffo or the sighting of player movement, the ball or a goal. Only the sighting of a running boundary umpire having to follow the boundary fence, confirmed a goal. They had to run from goal to goal, along the boundary for directional safety to report each score to the goal ump at the other end of the ground.
I think this total white out only lasted for 5 to 10 minutes no more, hence why the game was never called off. But yes, most of the 2nd half was played in an eerily Hounds of the Baskerville mist, more so for the Carlton supporters who had to leave with their tails between their legs after a 23 point loss.