Opinion Dirtiest Essendon players in your time watching

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Dec 14, 2008
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Fox footy did a thing ..well, it was basically Dermie just ratting on us, asking Paul Salmon who were the dirtiest players he played with at Essendon - without him even considering if Dipper had the pointiest elbows of the 80s, or if Leigh Matthews contesting a case of assault in a court of law constitutes a dirty act..anyhow, i digress

Who were the dirtiest players in your time watching?

first of all, i was a child of the 80s so i reckon alot of the dirty acts of that time probably went over my head - or maybe i just considered it normal for the time, so im probably more likely to start from the 90s onward. I guess Merrett, Duckworth and co were probably pretty dirty for today's standard.

secondly, there are different kinds of dirty - there are stand up, dont try to hide it, dirty act players - then there are undercover, leave the elbow hanging or drive in the sneaky knee when no one is watching dirty, outside of that are just straight hard nuts who are probably not dirty as such, but are prone to hurting others just as a rule

I'd say my first on the dirty hall of fame is Dean Wallis, sheedys enforcer. What he lacked in ability he made up for in pointy elbows that had a habit of hitting late heads. Mil Hanna says hello. I mean here was a bloke who was happy to stand infront of Tony lockett and rough him up - its like he had nhill fear or brains (see what i did there)

Dean Soloman and Mark johnson probably fall into the hard nuts category but they made their fair share of 'miss timed' bumps. Were also great at flying the flag when needed.

Nathan lovett-murray, was great at sorting people out in his home.. but he was equally adept with the fists, i dont reckon youd take him on

Paul Barnard, Barry young - sheedy drafted them in, i reckon they each had a dirty streak.

Campbell Brown labelled Lloyd a sniper, i never saw it myself, just a guy protecting his space ;)

Long has been much respected as a statesman but i recdkon he was sneakily dirty, outside of the troy Simmonds hit he loved flyting feet first in kung fu mark attemps or leaving the hanging elbow out to dry. I reckon early days he was suspended more than he played.

anyhow its perhaps an indictment on us as a club today, or perhaps its just moving with the times that nobody comes to mind in the current or recent era

so dirtiest players of the EFC, dirty acts you've witnessed from our players. Got any opinions?
 

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Pweter

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I was only starting to get into footy seriously in about 1982/83 but living in country SA only saw what they showed on TV. In those early days Ronnie Andrews didn't mind giving a bit and Roger Merrett was both a hard nut who would hurt people just by hitting the ball/pack/man hard but I reckon he chiselled his elbows and knees before games as they were crazy sharp with the damage they did.

As for when I started watching more due to greater TV coverage in the early 90s, Wallis is the obvious one for every reason you say above.

Peter Somerville was both sneaky dirty and straight up dirty. He'd give the sly ones but if anyone came at him he wouldn't hold back. I love the swing he took at Silvagni in the 93 GF that missed but the glaring sneer he gave afterwards made SOS shrink in his boots.

Sean Denham was sneaky dirty but that's par for the course for most taggers.

Mark Harvey was mad as a cut snake, but I wouldn't consider him dirty for the era. Just fearless and took no s**t if people tried him for size.

Our small defenders in 2000 were a dirty unit, either with underhanded tactics or running off the line to flatten you. Hardwick, Johnson and Solomon were nasty in that season. Combine that with Wallis at CHB and it's a backline not many would like to come up against.
 

Pweter

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Fox footy did a thing ..well, it was basically Dermie just ratting on us, asking Paul Salmon who were the dirtiest players he played with at Essendon - without him even considering if Dipper had the pointiest elbows of the 80s, or if Leigh Matthews contesting a case of assault in a court of law constitutes a dirty act..anyhow, i digress

Who were the dirtiest players in your time watching?

first of all, i was a child of the 80s so i reckon alot of the dirty acts of that time probably went over my head - or maybe i just considered it normal for the time, so im probably more likely to start from the 90s onward. I guess Merrett, Duckworth and co were probably pretty dirty for today's standard.

secondly, there are different kinds of dirty - there are stand up, dont try to hide it, dirty act players - then there are undercover, leave the elbow hanging or drive in the sneaky knee when no one is watching dirty, outside of that are just straight hard nuts who are probably not dirty as such, but are prone to hurting others just as a rule

I'd say my first on the dirty hall of fame is Dean Wallis, sheedys enforcer. What he lacked in ability he made up for in pointy elbows that had a habit of hitting late heads. Mil Hanna says hello. I mean here was a bloke who was happy to stand infront of Tony lockett and rough him up - its like he had nhill fear or brains (see what i did there)

Dean Soloman and Mark johnson probably fall into the hard nuts category but they made their fair share of 'miss timed' bumps. Were also great at flying the flag when needed.

Nathan lovett-murray, was great at sorting people out in his home.. but he was equally adept with the fists, i dont reckon youd take him on

Paul Barnard, Barry young - sheedy drafted them in, i reckon they each had a dirty streak.

Campbell Brown labelled Lloyd a sniper, i never saw it myself, just a guy protecting his space ;)

Long has been much respected as a statesman but i recdkon he was sneakily dirty, outside of the troy Simmonds hit he loved flyting feet first in kung fu mark attemps or leaving the hanging elbow out to dry. I reckon early days he was suspended more than he played.

anyhow its perhaps an indictment on us as a club today, or perhaps its just moving with the times that nobody comes to mind in the current or recent era

so dirtiest players of the EFC, dirty acts you've witnessed from our players. Got any opinions?

Dipper vs Neagle - great footy matchup, great biff matchup.

Neagle wasn't dirty imo, he was more a protector than an instigator. Daisy Williams would be dead if Neagle weren't around to try knock the head off anyone who tried to knock Daisy's head off (which seemed to be a weekly occurrence).
 
Dec 14, 2008
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I was only starting to get into footy seriously in about 1982/83 but living in country SA only saw what they showed on TV. In those early days Ronnie Andrews didn't mind giving a bit and Roger Merrett was both a hard nut who would hurt people just by hitting the ball/pack/man hard but I reckon he chiselled his elbows and knees before games as they were crazy sharp with the damage they did.

As for when I started watching more due to greater TV coverage in the early 90s, Wallis is the obvious one for every reason you say above.

Peter Somerville was both sneaky dirty and straight up dirty. He'd give the sly ones but if anyone came at him he wouldn't hold back. I love the swing he took at Silvagni in the 93 GF that missed but the glaring sneer he gave afterwards made SOS shrink in his boots.

Sean Denham was sneaky dirty but that's par for the course for most taggers.

Mark Harvey was mad as a cut snake, but I wouldn't consider him dirty for the era. Just fearless and took no sh*t if people tried him for size.

Our small defenders in 2000 were a dirty unit, either with underhanded tactics or running off the line to flatten you. Hardwick, Johnson and Solomon were nasty in that season. Combine that with Wallis at CHB and it's a backline not many would like to come up against.

somer and sos seemed to have a running thing going - they would be at it any time we played. something must have happened early doors
 
Dean Solomon was as dirty as they came.
 

Squeaky

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Yep agree with the above. Merrett made plenty of players look sideways in the 80s.
And I agree with Pweter regarding Somerville... and Harvs (what a champ)

Wallis was the one bloke in 1993 who would give out an ear massage if someone needed it.
 
Remember when kickett copped Hird flush up the middle first time we met Sydney after he left. Had about 12 months of Sheedy anger concentrated in one moment
Lucky Timmy Watson wasn’t playing, Kickett would have knifed him. Think he thought last spot on Prem team was between the two of them
 

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Pweter

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Lucky Timmy Watson wasn’t playing, Kickett would have knifed him. Think he thought last spot on Prem team was between the two of them

A shame for Kickett that Watson actually did something in the prelim then. Kickett was wildly out of form at the back end of 93.
 
Remember when kickett copped Hird flush up the middle first time we met Sydney after he left. Had about 12 months of Sheedy anger concentrated in one moment
Whacked Hardwick too from memory.

I reckon Longy was pretty dirty. Loved TD's "sqare up" on Brown for the hit on Sporn...
 
A shame for Kickett that Watson actually did something in the prelim then. Kickett was wildly out of form at the back end of 93.
Kicked 8 in round 20 and a purple patch in month up to that. Had quiet finals seriesbut had played every game up to GF. Remember footage at 3/4 time huddle in one of the finals, may have been the Prelim where he seemed pissed off and pulled away from Harvs who was trying to calm him down
 
Dec 14, 2008
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Kicked 8 in round 20 and a purple patch in month up to that. Had quiet finals seriesbut had played every game up to GF. Remember footage at 3/4 time huddle in one of the finals, may have been the Prelim where he seemed pissed off and pulled away from Harvs who was trying to calm him down

He should have told sheeds he would knock out mil.hanna. There's your gf medal son
 

Vander18

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Merrett was actually filthy...t

I actually didn't like him much. It was all raised elbows and sliding knees. Not much real toughness IMO.

Started to dislike him more when I heard him interviewed (after leaving Essendon) and he was asked if he had ever felt fear on the football field. He said no and I call bullshit on anyone who says that.....especially someone whose specialty was meeting front on contact with raised elbows!

He was part of an era that I loved but I just don't the affection for this guy that I have for pretty much everyone else who played back then.
 
Dec 14, 2008
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Ordinarily you wouldn't say he was a 'dirty' player, but Fletch knew when and when not to commit a professional foul. Classic gambler; knew when to hold 'em, knew when to fold 'em. Not sure that was dirty, but it was intelligent.

I never bought that biomechanics defense that the leg has to fling out when the arm does. Just legal mumbo jumbo. Fletch admitted himself he got into a bad habit of flicking out body parts and it became his normal move
 

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