Toast Chris Grant - A Retrospectus

[footscray1973]

Game #17 – Round 17, 1990 vs Collingwood at MCG (29/7/1990)

Kicked 3.1 from 9k, 1hb in 3-point win over the Magpies.

Another folkloric Bulldogs game from this era. Footscray and Collingwood (the eventual premiers) were trading blows in a thrilling final quarter, when Billy "Steve" Kolyniuk audaciously baulked around Graham Wright on the mark to kick a beautiful running goal and give the Doggies the win and Footscray fans the highlight of their year. Bravo!

That game also highlights how sad and disappointing it is that two players with so much potential never fulfilled it for different reasons.

Darren Davies (in probably his best game for us) would only play 2 more games for us (and 2 for Saints in 1991). He was a good player at his best, just struggled with consistency.

And Adrian Campbell looked good at FB, after Wheeler moved him there. Sadly a few weeks later in a reserves final, he did his knee, missed all of 91, struggled in 92, ended up at Melbourne in 93, but was never the same, and his AFL career finished up at that point.

 

[footscray1973]

Game #15 – Round 15, 1990 vs Sydney at Western Oval (14/7/1990)

Kicked 4.0 from 6k, 3hb in 16-point win over the Swans.

NSFW: 1990 season higlights presented by Ernie Sigley! Merry Chris-mas!

5:20 - Liberatore handball to McGuiness, handball to Royal, left foot kick to the top of the square - mark Chris Grant.
Those 4 were so instrumental in the club bouncing back from oblivion in 1990. It's a pity Freddie took the lure to go back
to Adelaide in 1991. How handy would he have been in the 92 finals series?

 

[Lucky Star]

Game #11 – Round 11, 1990 vs Richmond at Western Oval (11/6/1990)

Kicked 1.0 from 5k, 4hb in 14-point win over the Tigers, played on a Monday for some reason.

Some light reading before the main event:



Always good to relive a victory over the Tigs:

 

[Shacf501]

How good was Scott Wynd, geez he was a champion! Another thing that stood out watching that clip was just how good Graham wright was for them.

 

[Lucky Star]

Game #10 – Round 10, 1990 vs Geelong at Kardinia Park (3/6/1990)

Kicked 4.0 from 9k in 2-point loss to the Cats.


Elite company.

 

[Lucky Star]

Game #9 – Round 9, 1990 vs Brisbane at Carrara (26/5/1990)

One of our best, kicking 6.3 from 12k in 69-point win over the Bears.

This game is notable for Danny Del Re's first goal (DDR would go on to kick 139 goals in 62 games for the Scray):

 

[Lucky Star]

Game #8 – Round 8, 1990 vs Essendon at Western Oval (20/5/1990)

Kicked 0.3 from 7k, 3hb in 19-point loss to the Bombers.

If you'd like to watch some highlights of the match where some Essendon shut-in has done his best to remove the Doggies from the game, go ahead:

 

[footscray1973]

Game #10 – Round 10, 1990 vs Geelong at Kardinia Park (3/6/1990)

Kicked 4.0 from 9k in 2-point loss to the Cats.

View attachment 1312743
Elite company.

Wigney second on marks. The best season of his career - helped by playing the most games in a season of his career! Some luminaries on the marking list, but I reckon Wigney took most of his uncontested, helped by being the third tall behind Coleman and Grant. Was a good linkup player, but I remember a game where Demons put Grinter on him, and he spent most of the game worrying about what was coming behind him - think it was R8, 1991.

Same game featured a couple of blokes called Luke Beveridge and Peter Rohde playing for Melbourne - wonder whatever happened to them!
(Tony Campbell too, playing his second last game as a Demon, before reinventing himself as a slick-haired, long-sleeved, dual-gloved wonder kicking bombs from full back in RWB in 92!)

AFL Tables - Melbourne v Footscray - Sat, 11-May-1991 2:10 PM - Match Stats

Edit: sorry, bit off-topic for the Chris Grant thread - I did mention him in passing though, hope that counts.

 

[Lucky Star]

Was a good linkup player, but I remember a game where Demons put Grinter on him, and he spent most of the game worrying about what was coming behind him - think it was R8, 1991.

I'd be worried too.

 

[Lucky Star]

Game #7 – Round 7, 1990 vs North Melbourne at MCG (12/5/1990)

Kicked 4.1 from 7k, 1hb in 2-point win over the Kangaroos.

The Dogs got away to a flyer and, with 17-year-old Chris Grant on fire in just his seventh AFL game, booted seven goals to one to lead by 38 points at quarter time. For the second week in a row, Granty kicked all four of his goals in the first quarter.

The club marked this game with a nice recent flashback (courtesy of the Oliver Gigacz clan?):

On this Day: A post-Fightback thriller

On this day 30 years ago, the Footscray Bulldogs won a thrilling contest against North Melbourne at the MCG.

www.westernbulldogs.com.au

"Please win."

 

[BEaston]

can't believe how close we're getting.... what a journey

 

[Oliver G]

The club marked this game with a nice recent flashback (courtesy of the Oliver Gigacz clan?)

Yep, Andrew's my father.

 

[Lucky Star]

Game #6 – Round 6, 1990 vs Fitzroy at Waverley Park (5/5/1990)

Kicked 4.2 from 14k, 3hb in 32-point win over the Lions.

 

[Lucky Star]

Game #5 – Round 5, 1990 vs Carlton at Princes Park (25/4/1990)

Kicked 3.2 from 8k, 2hb in 27-point win over the Blues.

A nice win over the tragic Blues on a day when the Doggies showed the AFL world that footy would work on Anzac Day.

Very enjoyable highlights with plenty from Granty here:

 

[Lucky Star]

Game #4 – Round 4, 1990 vs Collingwood at Victoria Park (21/4/1990)

One of our best, kicking 4.0 from 7k, 4hb in 18-point loss to the Magpies, the eventual premiers.

Granty was something of a first-quarter specialist at this early stage of his career. Check out some entertaining highlights including Turtle bagging three in the first quarter here:

 

[Lucky Star]

Game #3 – Round 3, 1990 vs West Coast at Western Oval (14/4/1990)

One of our best, kicking 3.3 from 13k, 1hb in 63-point loss to the Eagles.

In this game, Turtle recorded his first tackles (4) and earned his first free kicks (2) in the AFL.

 

[Lucky Star]

Game #2 – Round 2, 1990 vs Sydney at SCG (8/4/1990)

One of our best, kicking 4.5 from 12k, 1hb in 62-point win over the Swans.

Granty took 10 marks in his second game as the Doggies recorded their first win of the year in style. The other day I recalled my older brother telling me during 1990 how, being only 17 years old, Turtle was unable to go to the pub with the other players to celebrate a win. I'm sure he would have loved a beer on this day.

A pleasure to watch:

 

[Lucky Star]

Game #1 – Round 1, 1990 vs St Kilda at Western Oval (1/4/1990)

One of our best, kicking 2.3 from 9k in 63-point loss to the Saints. 9 marks not bad on debut.

In the first of his 341 games, Granty caused St Kilda full-forward Tony Lockett

Tony Lockett

Age

58

Ht

191cm

Wt

108kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.2

3star

K

8.4

3star

HB

1.8

2star

M

6.3

5star

T

0.5

3star

G

4.8

5star

No current season stats available

D

8.2

2star

K

5.6

3star

HB

2.6

3star

M

4.0

4star

T

0.0

1star

G

1.4

5star

to wonder out loud: "Who's this kid kicking all these goals?"

Grant arrived at Whitten Oval at the end of 1989, a skinny 17-year-old from Daylesford, on the very night that merger talks with Fitzroy were revealed.
He played the first game the following season against the Saints, lining up against his boyhood hero Danny Frawley. From that moment, it was obvious the Dogs had a future champion.

A star is born:



Highlights are here:

 

[Fossie 32]

Thank you for doing this LS - a great tribute to a Great Man

Spookily this is post 570 at 4:53
5+7+0 = 12, 1+2=3
4+5+3 = 12, 1+2=3

 

[Lucky Star]

Pre-AFL

As we know, Chris Grant was drafted in the 1988 National Draft at pick 105, and played for his home club Daylesford in 1989 before landing at Footscray for the 1990 AFL season.

Here's the young man below-- Daylesford would later change its mascot/jumpers to the Bulldogs in honour of Turtle:

Granty also played for Vic Country in the Teal Cup in 1989...

...and was selected in the Teal Cup All Australian Team for that year:

 

[Lucky Star]

The End

Well that's a wrap after 6.5 years.

Thanks to everyone who read and/or contributed along the way. The Retrospectus has been a labour of love (and slight OCD).

I'll go back and tweak a few things in the early entries to add more information where I can. There are more old video clips surfacing all the time plus I don't think the Football Record was available online when I started. Funnily enough there are more Bulldogs clips available from the early '90s than the middle part of Granty's career.

Inspiration for curating such a long-term project came from Sufjan Steven's plan to do an album for each American state and reading Time's Arrow by Martin Amis confirmed I was on the right track with the whole going-backwards-in-time thing.

I'll take a break for now but have been toying with a new project dedicated to a certain day in 2016 (might need to upskill on video editing first though).

And thanks finally to Granty himself, who made me proud to be a Bulldogs supporter as a young fella, and ever since.

Next week: Patrick Wiggins

Patrick Wiggins

Age

43

Ht

196cm

Wt

99kg

Pos.

D/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

2.2

1star

K

1.1

1star

HB

1.1

1star

M

0.8

1star

T

0.4

3star

No current season stats available

D

1.2

1star

K

0.4

1star

HB

0.8

1star

M

0.2

1star

T

0.4

3star

- A Retrospectus

 

[dogwatch]

Epic thread. Superb work.