SANFL - The weird & the wonderful

[FattyLumpkin]

AH has brought up the "Sand bag" incident; we've previously touched on the "count at Thebby", "Mad Dog Muir going off at Thebby", a few broken behind posts etc, and of course the "Buff Tyrell Vs Port" game of '76.

I'd like to learn of, or have my memory refreshed of other classic SANFL games/moments folklore.

examples include Bagshaw's Bare Bum goal (didn't Robran do something smilar?). The '76 GF when they let the crowd sit on the oval. Freddy's wayward yellow boots in the '75 GF. However my favourite was at 3/4 time of a (Port Vs Norwood ???) final at Footy Park when some irate spectator jumped the fence and took issue with Umpire Bennett. Bennett responded with a couple of quick knees to the groin. I recall the second one was delivered whilst the boys in blue had said offender well secured and quite defenceless. Classic stuff. Also like to hear a first hand account of Glenelgs highest score - how can a team bag 49 goals??

 

[Adelaide Hawk]

However my favourite was at 3/4 time of a (Port Vs Norwood ???) final at Footy Park when some irate spectator jumped the fence and took issue with Umpire Bennett. Bennett responded with a couple of quick knees to the groin. I recall the second one was delivered whilst the boys in blue had said offender well secured and quite defenceless. Classic stuff. Also like to hear a first hand account of Glenelgs highest score - how can a team bag 49 goals??

I remember that incident. It was assumed he was a Port fan because Norwood was leading by quite a margin. He was a very angry man and he put up magnificent resistance to a number of security men, they had trouble shifting him.

It reminds me of a story I related once before on BigFooty. One of Norwood's recruits in 1965 was Sid Simeon. He played in Round 1 and kicked 2 goals at FF but was dropped and never regained his spot. He kept playing seconds and in the last minor round was in the crowd watching the league match between Norwood and Central District. At the completion of the game he jumped the fence and assulted the field umpire Brian Lees. He was sacked by the club and not heard from again

As for the 49 goals by Glenelg, I had a mate who played for Central District that day. When I asked him about how it felt to play in the game, he just looked at me and said, "A barrel of laughs", and that was all he wanted to say. I think only Glenelg people talk about that day

 

[doubleblues]

I know it has been done on another thread a while ago and really not footy but the day in 1975 at the West Lakes shopping centre carpark on that sat arvo when the mini blew up
I can still vaguely remember that day, I had gone to the footy with the old man, sitting in the members and thinking WTF was that

 

[- PC -]

Michael Grahams 7 bounces... I know it doesnt seem so much but it got a replay or 3 over the year.

Covered in another thread but I was fortunate enough (Ridley Gve played Mini league ) the day John Roberts kicked his 16 and a crowd of only 3500 or so were there to see it

The ball going into Thebarton Prmary school all the time

Jackie Love singing at the 83 GF and the first time I heard the immortal line'' she has the longest legs I have seen and they go all the way to heavan''

 

[mickyj]

AH has brought up the "Sand bag" incident; we've previously touched on the "count at Thebby", "Mad Dog Muir going off at Thebby", a few broken behind posts etc, and of course the "Buff Tyrell Vs Port" game of '76.

I'd like to learn of, or have my memory refreshed of other classic SANFL games/moments folklore.

examples include Bagshaw's Bare Bum goal (didn't Robran do something smilar?). The '76 GF when they let the crowd sit on the oval. Freddy's wayward yellow boots in the '75 GF. However my favourite was at 3/4 time of a (Port Vs Norwood ???) final at Footy Park when some irate spectator jumped the fence and took issue with Umpire Bennett. Bennett responded with a couple of quick knees to the groin. I recall the second one was delivered whilst the boys in blue had said offender well secured and quite defenceless. Classic stuff. Also like to hear a first hand account of Glenelgs highest score - how can a team bag 49 goals??

Mad dog going off at thebbie ,when he played for west torrens he was always going off ,funny thing I loved watching him play and big bad jeff Sarau (spelling). Go back further Billy Barret making west torrens run miles or km's before a game and billy barret kicking drop kick goals from centre i think it was against port at alberton one of the first games I went too. Neville "rocky" Roberts running onto thebbie for torrens in his headgear or the crowd having ago at "rocky" when he turned up to watch a torrens trial game after he left us for the legs.
The crowd at thebbie at times was not the most well behaved towards the other team players from memory one of the players races wasnt awful to walk under.
My beloved west torrens so many memories most of them bad some good ,do yoou guys remember KG wanting Torrens and woodville to join to beat Tassie in a state game !!
One last memory Dirk Ingliss kicking the longest goal at footy park prior to the AFL .
Cheers
Mickyj

 

[Robranisgod]

IIt reminds me of a story I related once before on BigFooty. One of Norwood's recruits in 1965 was Sid Simeon. He played in Round 1 and kicked 2 goals at FF but was dropped and never regained his spot. He kept playing seconds and in the last minor round was in the crowd watching the league match between Norwood and Central District. At the completion of the game he jumped the fence and assulted the field umpire Brian Lees. He was sacked by the club and not heard from again.

I have vague memories that Sid Simeon was jailed for a short time for that assault on Brian Lees. For forty years I have wondered whether Advertiser food critic Sol Simeon took his pen name from Sid Simeon!!!

 

[Crowked]

Also like to hear a first hand account of Glenelgs highest score - how can a team bag 49 goals??

How? By playing on a mini league ground against very poor opposition.

It is embarasing for us, no doubt.

I think we have set enough records on the other side of the ledger now to live with it though.

 

[FattyLumpkin]

True the Bay Oval is a tad undersized, but even my beloved Peckers always managed to keep the damage to less than 40 goals, more often less than 35. Another 15 goals on top of that is unbelievable. The planets must truly have aligned perfectly for Glenelg.

I'm possibly way off course, but I seems to recall the Dogs weren't travelling all that badly around this period.

If nothing else I would have thought Centrals would have gone into time wasting mode to "chew up the clock". If all else failed you could start a "blue" in those days.

It be interesting to see some stats and see how much (or little) of the ball Centrals had.

 

[spell_check]

Remember that the SCG is shorter. Unley and Norwood are narrower than Glenelg.

Fatty, believe it or not, but I have done the stats for that game, as I purchased it from the Glenelg Football Club. Unfortunately though, it cuts out about 15 minutes of the first quarter and the first 90 seconds or so of the second quarter.

Glenelg																														
No.	Name		Kicks					Marks					Handballs					Total	I50	O50	Clear	Clang	Free Kicks		15 m Pen		H Outs	Tack.	Goals	Bds.
			1	2	3	4	T	1	2	3	4	T	1	2	3	4	T						For	Ag.	For.	Ag.				
1	Peter	Marker	5	4	8	6	23	1	3	3	2	9	0	8	5	3	16	39	11	0	13	0	1	5	0	0	1	1	1	1
2	Wayne	Phillis	1	4	0	5	10	0	3	0	4	7	2	3	2	1	8	18	4	2	0	0	1	2	1	0	0	0	0	0
3	John	MacFarlane	3	4	6	6	19	1	0	2	2	5	2	6	4	3	15	34	15	3	5	0	2	2	0	0	0	0	2	2
5	Peter	Carey	4	4	5	7	20	1	2	3	4	10	0	2	2	0	4	24	5	0	1	0	4	2	0	0	2	1	8	2
7	Adrian	Rebbeck	3	3	3	6	15	1	2	0	1	4	2	3	1	0	6	21	3	1	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	4	1
8	Colin	Anderson	5	2	3	3	13	0	2	1	0	3	1	5	1	3	10	23	4	5	4	2	3	2	0	0	10	0	0	0
10	Rex	Voigt	0	2	1	3	6	0	0	0	1	1	1	2	2	3	8	14	2	3	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	1	0	0
11	Greg	Bennett	6	7	5	5	23	0	2	3	2	7	1	5	5	4	15	38	8	1	5	0	3	3	0	0	0	2	4	3
12	Graham	Cornes	4	1	5	1	11	0	1	2	2	5	2	6	2	3	13	24	8	0	3	0	2	3	0	0	3	1	1	0
13	Daryl	Rady	0	0	4	8	12	0	0	3	0	3	0	0	2	3	5	17	6	1	4	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	1
14	Brian	Colbey	2	2	3	3	10	0	1	0	0	1	0	4	0	3	7	17	2	2	1	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
15	Peter	Anderson	1	2	2	2	7	1	0	2	2	5	0	0	0	0	0	7	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
19	Fred	Phillis	6	7	8	6	27	3	6	7	2	18	1	1	2	3	7	34	0	0	0	1	3	2	0	0	0	0	18	6
21	Bob	Tardif	0	4	2	4	10	0	3	1	3	7	0	4	2	1	7	17	2	0	0	2	1	1	0	0	28	2	0	0
22	Neville	Caldwell	2	4	5	3	14	0	0	2	1	3	2	1	2	2	7	21	4	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	4	2
24	Kym	Hodgeman	5	7	0	0	12	1	1	0	0	2	3	0	0	0	3	15	3	0	1	0	5	0	0	0	0	0	4	1
27	Stephen	Copping	2	5	2	5	14	0	1	0	4	5	1	5	2	5	13	27	3	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	1	1	1
28	Paul	Weston	2	3	4	4	13	1	0	1	3	5	0	1	0	4	5	18	4	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	1
32	Greg	Croser	1	5	3	2	11	0	1	2	1	4	2	4	3	2	11	22	6	3	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
	Ted	Osborne	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Rushed																													2
Totals			52	70	69	79	270	10	28	32	34	104	20	60	37	43	160	430	90	24	39	5	31	29	1	0	45	12	49	23
Central District																														
No.	Name		Kicks					Marks					Handballs					Total	I50	O50	Clear	Clang	Free Kicks		15 m Pen		H Outs	Tack.	Goals	Bds.
			1	2	3	4	T	1	2	3	4	T	1	2	3	4	T						For	Ag.	For.	Ag.				
1	Bill	Cochrane	3	0	0	0	3	2	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	3	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Tony	Casserly	2	2	0	1	5	0	1	0	0	1	0	5	5	5	15	20	2	3	1	0	1	1	0	0	2	1	1	0
6	John	Wyley	1	2	4	3	10	1	2	2	1	6	0	0	0	2	2	12	4	0	0	0	2	2	0	0	0	0	2	4
11	Chris	McLay	0	2	4	1	7	0	0	0	0	0	2	3	2	4	11	18	3	1	0	0	5	0	0	0	0	3	0	2
12	Barry	Norsworthy	7	1	2	1	11	2	1	1	0	4	0	5	5	6	16	27	5	1	1	1	6	5	0	0	0	2	1	0
14	Graham	Reed	2	0	2	5	9	1	0	2	4	7	1	0	2	2	5	14	3	0	1	2	1	2	0	0	0	2	2	1
16	Alan	Price	0	2	3	2	7	0	1	1	2	4	1	3	0	0	4	11	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
19	Peter	Maksimovic	0	1	3	1	5	0	0	2	0	2	0	1	1	1	3	8	1	3	1	0	1	3	0	0	0	0	0	0
21	Peter	Beythein	3	1	1	0	5	1	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	1	2	7	2	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	2	0	1	1
23	Wayne	Hughes	0	1	1	2	4	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	1	2	3	7	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	2	1	1
27	Graham	Krieg	1	5	2	5	13	0	0	2	0	2	1	0	0	0	1	14	5	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	1
28	Terry	Moore	3	4	2	2	11	2	2	2	1	7	2	1	0	1	4	15	7	2	2	1	1	4	0	0	8	0	0	1
29	Peter	Nicks	3	5	3	4	15	0	0	1	0	1	2	1	3	2	8	23	1	6	0	0	2	2	0	1	1	0	0	0
30	Ian	McKay	1	0	2	0	3	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0
33	Wayne	Campbell	1	3	1	5	10	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	2	1	4	14	0	3	2	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0
34	Michael	Koch	1	3	5	2	11	1	0	1	1	3	2	1	0	1	4	15	0	5	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
40	Gary	Rae	0	1	1	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	1	0	0	2	2	0	0	0	1	0	0
41	Julian	Swinstead	1	3	1	1	6	0	1	0	0	1	1	1	0	0	2	8	0	3	1	1	1	3	0	0	0	1	0	0
43	Mark	Norsworthy	2	1	4	1	8	1	1	1	0	3	1	2	8	5	16	24	2	1	2	1	2	3	0	0	0	1	1	1
54	Kym	Lindner	0	0	2	2	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	3	5	9	1	0	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	2	0	1
	Rushed																													0
Totals			31	37	43	38	149	11	10	16	10	47	13	25	31	36	105	254	42	32	15	6	29	31	0	1	13	18	11	13

That's the best I can do to view it.

 

[Crowked]

Remember that the SCG is shorter. Unley and Norwood are narrower than Glenelg.

Good points. The SCG, Unley and Parade also shouldnt be used for senior football.

 

[Crowked]

I'm possibly way off course, but I seems to recall the Dogs weren't travelling all that badly around this period.

Never made the finals at all from 1973 until 1978. Only one spoon in that period but werent travelling all that well I wouldnt have thought. There arent any valid excuses for that day though. Its forever going to be the worst day in the history of the CDFC.

for the record, finishes Glenelg v Centrals 1973-1978

Year G C
1973 1 6
1974 2 6
1975 2 7
1976 3 6
1977 2 10
1978 4 8

On Glenelg of that era, has a club with so much ever achieved so little? One flag from a five year period of being the clear cut best team in the comp. was certainly an underachievement. There could have been, and probably should have been 4, perhaps more premiership flags hanging on the GFC walls from those years.

 

[Adelaide Hawk]

On Glenelg of that era, has a club with so much ever achieved so little? One flag from a five year period of being the clear cut best team in the comp. was certainly an underachievement. There could have been, and probably should have been 4, perhaps more premiership flags hanging on the GFC walls from those years.

It's easy to look at the Glenelg star players over that period and wonder why they didn't win more flags. However, a popular misconception of the era from 1974 to 1984 was that they dominated in minor rounds and failed in the finals. However, in all those seasons Glenelg won the minor premiership only once, 1981.

Even in 1975 when they kicked the 49 goals they weren't minor premiers. On their day they looked unstoppable, but there were weaknesses that the better teams of that era (Port, Sturt, Norwood) could counter. It must have been frustrating for the coaches of that era because they did appear at times to have the strongest player list on paper.

 

[Adrian Shelton]

One of the funniest things i saw at the footy was during Eagles v Port at oval av. in 2000. On that day the Crows happened to be playing the Bulldogs and had them by about 7 goals at 3/4 time. When the AFL score was updated late in the last 1/4(with Eagles heading for a narrow win) a cheer went up from the Magpie army as the final score went up to confirm the Doggies come from behind win giving them something to celebrate for the day. Any port in a storm i guess!

 

[spell_check]

One of the funniest things i saw at the footy was during Eagles v Port at oval av. in 2000. On that day the Crows happened to be playing the Bulldogs and had them by about 7 goals at 3/4 time. When the AFL score was updated late in the last 1/4(with Eagles heading for a narrow win) a cheer went up from the Magpie army as the final score went up to confirm the Doggies come from behind win giving them something to celebrate for the day. Any port in a storm i guess!

I was at that game which was actually in 1999.
Round 16 1999
Western Bulldogs 0.3 6.5 8.8 14.15 (99)
Adelaide 4.4 9.7 14.12 14.13 (97)
M.C.G, 27747

Round 16 1999
Eagles 5.2 9.4 13.8 15.11 (101)
Port 2.1 7.7 9.7 11.11 (77)
Woodville, 3798

 

[- PC -]

One of the funniest things i saw at the footy was during Eagles v Port at oval av. in 2000. On that day the Crows happened to be playing the Bulldogs and had them by about 7 goals at 3/4 time. When the AFL score was updated late in the last 1/4(with Eagles heading for a narrow win) a cheer went up from the Magpie army as the final score went up to confirm the Doggies come from behind win giving them something to celebrate for the day. Any port in a storm i guess!

Hahaha similar tale ... Sturt played Port as the curtain raiser to Port v Sydney , Sturt came from behind and Sydney won... as now they played the Sydney song after the game and I said to my mate '' at least the Magpie supporters got to hear their song''

Cheer Cheer the Red and the White

 

[Crowked]

It's easy to look at the Glenelg star players over that period and wonder why they didn't win more flags. However, a popular misconception of the era from 1974 to 1984 was that they dominated in minor rounds and failed in the finals. However, in all those seasons Glenelg won the minor premiership only once, 1981.

Even in 1975 when they kicked the 49 goals they weren't minor premiers. On their day they looked unstoppable, but there were weaknesses that the better teams of that era (Port, Sturt, Norwood) could counter. It must have been frustrating for the coaches of that era because they did appear at times to have the strongest player list on paper.

I think the lack of minor premierships only further confirms my thought that they very badly underachieved. I think most years in that period they had the comfortably best list of players, but failed to achieve their potential. I have often wondered why and basically put it down to the old cliche 'a team of champions is no match for a champion team'. Perhaps too many ego's? There certainly wasnt a shortage of ego or talent, thats for sure. I doubt there was any player at central at the time that could have got a game at Glenelg, very few anyway.

 

[Dogwatcher]

Remember those mini Maccas footballs at the 2000 SANFL GF?

I took about six home - still kick em around in the hosue much to wife's dismay.

I've watched the GF on DVD a few times and it's great listening to (I think) David McKay "I don't know whose idea it was to use these footballs, but it won't be happening next year".

The Eagles got pelted with them. Not a great advertisment for CDFC supporters, but still funny nonetheless.

 

[portentous]

I remember jumping the fence at Thebby circa 1977 when Tim Evans dobbed his 100th goal for the season. All was great until I tried to climb back over the picket fence and got stuck. Thankfully a fellow Magpies' cheer squad member gave me a "boost".

Also remember Choco doing handstands on the mark at Richmond (he was playing for Westies then) and thinking "what an idiot"!!

 

[Dogwatcher]

Wow....Choco once had a sense of humour!

Can't wait to see Tredders doing handstands on the mark this year!

 

[- PC -]

Also remember Choco <snip> and thinking "what an idiot"!!

So many lines so little keyboard life left

 

[portentous]

So many lines so little keyboard life left

He's just misunderstood, like your very own Outback Jack in fact.

 

[McAlmanac]

Blighty getting his Warriors to do a simple handball drill at three quarter time at Football Park was something different.

 

[- PC -]

Blighty getting his Warriors to do a simple handball drill at three quarter time at Football Park was something different.

Was that against Glenelg?

Blighty did a lot of things. He even got the Peckers on the front page of the News.

12 head shots of senior players he sacked splashed on page 1

 

[SimonH]

I think the lack of minor premierships only further confirms my thought that they very badly underachieved. I think most years in that period they had the comfortably best list of players, but failed to achieve their potential. I have often wondered why and basically put it down to the old cliche 'a team of champions is no match for a champion team'. Perhaps too many ego's? There certainly wasnt a shortage of ego or talent, thats for sure. I doubt there was any player at central at the time that could have got a game at Glenelg, very few anyway.

I'm sure a statistician with way too much time on their hands could do a statistical analysis, but a theory I've recently come to, is that teams that thump the living daylights out of weak opponents are less likely to win a premiership: the school bully who can't fight when a bigger boy stands up to him, if you like. Apart from Glenelg's cricket score, 2 other prominent examples are:
· Sydney Swans in the 1986/87 period. They clocked up 100+ point winning margins at the SCG with monotonous regularity, and then went 0-4 in finals.
· St Kilda in 2004/5. In 2004 they admittedly hit the wall well before the finals. They reached 10-0 after their last 2 victories were 101 and 108 points, and then after losing their first game in R11, never looked remotely so threatening again. They looked like they were peaking at the right time in 2005, finishing the season belting Brisbane by 139 points, having also clocked up 4 10 goal+ victories in a row from R15-R18. None of which counted for much against a probably less-talented, but better-drilled, more unified opponent in the prelim final.

Some other anecdotal stuff: Adelaide's highest winning margin (189 points) was in 1993 (when they should have made the grand final but choked); Port Adelaide Magpies' greatest win (179 points) came in a year (1970) when they failed to make the grand final (I don't know whether they regularly thumped teams this year); Norwood's record win (158 points) came in 1995, when they again failed to make the GF; Port Power's biggest win (just 117 points) came in 2005 (and they followed delivering a 87-point thumping in week 1 of the finals with being on the wrong side to the tune of 83 points in week 2); and finally, 1979 was a red letter year for the VFL, with both of its 2 highest winning margins of all time being recorded in that year (involving 4 different teams). Fitzroy clocked up a 190 point win and were knocked out in the semi-finals; and Collingwood won by 178 points, and would gladly have traded 25-odd of those goals for one solitary goal in the GF, which they lost by 5 points.

The serious moral of the story is that a champion team who's stared adversity in the face together is better prepared for finals footy than a flashy team of frontrunning champions etc etc. The joke moral is: when you're more than 15-odd goals up, for the sake of your premiership chances, take your foot off the pedal and take it easy!

 

[SimonH]

Also remember Choco doing handstands on the mark at Richmond (he was playing for Westies then) and thinking "what an idiot"!!

The guy I remember was most famous for doing handstands on the mark was the bicycle-riding Doctor ruckman Michael Gregg (sp?) who played for Norwood circa mid-1970s. Unlike today where most players are expected to be footy-obsessed automatons, and the term 'character' is reserved for loudmouth television morons like Sam Newman, he really was a character.

Although I've since seen a number of 'handstand on the mark' anecdotes, so I wouldn't claim that he invented the practice.