1983 team

[Dutton Peabody]

Lotta blokes coming to the end of their careers. Lotta blokes retiring end '83 or moved on. Two up and coming sides in Hawthorn & * rising. Can sum up the finals by Dermott debuting in a final v us and kicking 5 on Dench. Huge loss to * in prelim softened by them belting Pies the next year by even more.

Worrying signs in season when on top of the ladder we got a 150 belting from Fitzroy. But story goes club was riddled with flu.

Age wearies us all and dulls the memory Hoju. It was the 2nd greatest player ever, lethal leigh that gave us a reaming at Waverley in 83.
At the end of his career he played at full forward and kicked five. Brereton's five was in the 1st semi final of '82 at the G. To my recollection
he kicked them on Glendinning not Dench. Hawthorn had a habit of unleashing a heavy hitter on us in finals. Dipierdemenico was another.

 

[Hojuman]

Age wearies us all and dulls the memory Hoju. It was the 2nd greatest player ever, lethal leigh that gave us a reaming at Waverley in 83.
At the end of his career he played at full forward and kicked five. Brereton's five was in the 1st semi final of '82 at the G. To my recollection
he kicked them on Glendinning not Dench. Hawthorn had a habit of unleashing a heavy hitter on us in finals. Dipierdemenico was another.

Correct DP. '82.
Still sure it was Dench, but.....
Dipper would have been the 1st Norm Smith medallist if they'd bought it in that year.

 

[Passmore]

Admission. I still blame Ross for our poor '78 GF.
Hawks had 3 goals in about first 3 minutes with l think his opponent Moncrieff nailing 2. Looked like he was asleep. Game ending injuries to Alves & Blight didn't help but we lost by 18 points.

My uncle blamed Glendinning for Blighty’s short lived stint as coach. Reckons he never put in for him.

 

[Gasometer]

My uncle blamed Glendinning for Blighty’s short lived stint as coach. Reckons he never put in for him.

Well there in is a problem that going from Mate to Coach is an issue

 

[JD-Roo]

Admission. I still blame Ross for our poor '78 GF.
Hawks had 3 goals in about first 3 minutes with l think his opponent Moncrieff nailing 2. Looked like he was asleep. Game ending injuries to Alves & Blight didn't help but we lost by 18 points.

And the Knights' mark that gets replayed in front of goal in the last 1/4 was, is, and always will be in the back.

 

[muttley45]

Age wearies us all and dulls the memory Hoju. It was the 2nd greatest player ever, lethal leigh that gave us a reaming at Waverley in 83.
At the end of his career he played at full forward and kicked five. Brereton's five was in the 1st semi final of '82 at the G. To my recollection
he kicked them on Glendinning not Dench. Hawthorn had a habit of unleashing a heavy hitter on us in finals. Dipierdemenico was another.

Ha ha, true, I can remember "Gladys" Moncrieff kicking a few in finals v us too, but I wouldn't actually classify him as a heavy hitter.

 

[Masked Avenger]

It was an odd time in the Club's history. In 81 we missed the finals for the first time since 73 and on the back of Barassi leaving. Things were looking a bit grim with a host of ageing stars.The addition of some handy footballers in the Krakouers and Abernethy plus a cracking year from Blight saw us play finals in 82. My memories of 83 include our 100 point plus thumping of the reigning premiers Carlton at Arden Street and a barrell goal from Glendinning that would have landed somewhere near the old British Hotel. I also remember the emergence of John Holt, Tony Furey, Graeme Atkins and Donald McDonald. They looked like they could be anything. Most were gone within a few years and we got thumped in the finals and just avoided the wooden spoon in 84. It was certainly a ride!

 

[Kimbo]

Sorry Hilly, as much as I'd like this bad record of ours to be forgotten, I can never go for the Eagles to ever win.

Remains true, however, Geelong smugness - GAJ and Danger - had me not 'over glad' with their win.

 

[DEVO]

I don't remember a great deal of the 1983 season because living in Canberra only one match was televised each Saturday afternoon, so I think I only saw about 6/7 North Melbourne games that season including the two finals. I'm pretty sure the 150pt thumping at the hands of Fitzroy was one and the 111pt thrashing of Carlton was another.
One of the things I do remember was we had no real star forward yet we still finished the season as the leagues top scoring team kicking over 400 goals in the regular season. Would love to see North scoring that freely today. I think by the end of the season we had five players kick over 40 goals another 3 or 4 kick more than 20, while Kerry Good who was a fairly prolific goal scorer in previous seasons kicked 10 in four games and Ian Fairley in his debut season kick 15 in six games.
Things were looking good about halfway through the season but the wheels fell off, big time, towards the end, and then we had a disastrous 1984 were we almost won the wooden spoon. To make the finals in 1985 was a very impressive effort.

 

[Snake_Baker]

The most schizo season I ever saw.

Closely followed by this current one.

Injuries killed us in 83.

 

[Dingster]

My 1983 happy memory. Absolutely flogged Carlton.

 

[Snake_Baker]

My 1983 happy memory. Absolutely flogged Carlton.

The reigning premiers.

 

[Marstermind]

One of the closest seasons on record. We finished on top with 16-6. Hawthorn, Essendon and Fitzroy were 15-7 and the Top 4 all had percentages in the 120s. Carlton were two games back in 5th. We were 1-1 against Hawthorn, Carlton and Essendon and had been flogged by Fitzroy twice. We were almost flat track bullies by the end of the year. We'd beaten Essendon in Round 16, but had lost to the other 3 finalists in the last match going into the finals.

Fitzroy were the unlucky team of 1983. They lost the QF against Hawthorn with a very unlucky deliberate out-of-bounds against Clayton, and dodgy in the back to Loveridge and then had Essendon in the SF who had beaten them twice during the year. Had they beaten Hawthorn they'd have played us in a SSF and they'd beaten us by 45 and 150 during the year. They would have been confident of beating us, getting to the GF and having another go at Hawthorn. Had Fitzroy won the 1983 premiership would they have died 13 years later? Those umpiring decisions may have changed football history.

Hindsight says that the North Melbourne Preliminary Final team were not a patch on the Hawthorn and Essendon teams of that era. We had stars. But Schimma, Greig, Dench and Dempsey's best days were behind them. Glendinning was at his peak. The Krakouers were really good and getting better. But the rest were honest and mostly unremarkable. That the team completely fell off the cliff the next year is telling. With 6 games to go in 1984 we were two games adrift on the bottom of the ladder. In 1982 we were a genuine finalist but a mile off Hawthorn, Carlton or Richmond. Our #1 placing in 1983 was a result of a golden period at the start of 1983 were we won three games by 100+ but couldn't sustain.

 

[Wild Bill]

lol - Fitzroy beat us by 150 points in a match during the year!!

 

[Twinkletoes]

lol - Fitzroy beat us by 150 points in a match during the year!!

Yep, and I sat through every minute of it in the Blackie Ironmonger Stand alongside my over celebrating pain in the arse Fitzroy supporting dad, brothers and uncles.

 

[Hojuman]

lol - Fitzroy beat us by 150 points in a match during the year!!

Story goes we were riddled with the flu and blokes were literally dragged out of bed to play.

And yes, l sat through it too

 

[DEVO]

Fitzroy were the unlucky team of 1983. They lost the QF against Hawthorn with a very unlucky deliberate out-of-bounds against Clayton, and dodgy in the back to Loveridge and then had Essendon in the SF who had beaten them twice during the year. Had they beaten Hawthorn they'd have played us in a SSF and they'd beaten us by 45 and 150 during the year. They would have been confident of beating us, getting to the GF and having another go at Hawthorn. Had Fitzroy won the 1983 premiership would they have died 13 years later? Those umpiring decisions may have changed football history.

Maybe that was the intention of the VFL commission (was it the commission back then, or did that happen a few years later) all along. In order to expand the VFL nationally they needed to eliminate the struggling Victorian clubs, they had already shipped South Melbourne to Sydney and they saw Fitzroy as the next target for elimination or relocation.

 

[arden station]

My 1983 happy memory. Absolutely flogged Carlton.

Distinct memory of being directly behind Abernathy as he kicked that goal. Bloody good side. Also remember going to Waverley for maybe the first final against Hawthorn and us looking promising early with Atkins lively but then never looked like it.

 

[Dingster]

Distinct memory of being directly behind Abernathy as he kicked that goal. Bloody good side. Also remember going to Waverley for maybe the first final against Hawthorn and us looking promising early with Atkins lively but then never looked like it.

I hated Waverley except for that elimination final vs Carlton.

 

[Wild Bill]

I hated Waverley except for that elimination final vs Carlton.

Me too - I grew up in Gisborne - a long drive home after a loss!!!

My best memory was the 94 final V the Hawks!! Jump the fence when Dunstall kicked his 100th and enjoyed the clinic Carey put on.