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Dogs loss like horror movie
18 August 2007 Herald Sun
Mark Stevens
September 20, 1997 - 5.15pm
THE MCG is only 138m wide. Yet for Bulldogs coach Terry Wallace, it is the longest walk of his life.
Wallace's legs are turning to jelly. After a few metres, he can sense he is on the brink of collapse.
"I can remember my legs going from underneath me," Wallace recalls.
"We'd worked our arses off. I was emotionally spent. Exhausted."
If not for a stern word from his trusted assistant Gordon Casey, Wallace may have ended up in a crumpled heap on the turf.
"I remember 'Case' saying, 'You're the face of the club. You've got to be the one that stands up when we get back across the other side'," Wallace says.
A shattered Wallace continued his shuffle to the rooms in the Southern Stand.
"It was a bloody long walk. I reckon the (Adelaide) song was played six times while I was on the ground. It's not one of my favourite songs, I can guarantee you that," Wallace says.
As the Crows theme song echoes around the stands, the tears start flowing. Not only fans, but players break down in shock.
Rugged onballer Paul Dimattina and Daniel Southern, the tattooed wildman, bawl their eyes out in the outer.
"I cried. So did Southo," Dimattina recalls.
"Channel 7 had footage of a girl distraught in the stands. That was my younger sister.
"It was because I had broken three bloody chairs carrying on like an idiot. I didn't know what to do.
"My sister Carla was disgusted with my performance. She saw me crying and that triggered her off. She was a young girl at the time. She was 14.
"It was heartbreaking."
Dimattina, suspended in the final round against Hawthorn, had been assured by Wallace that he would be named in the Grand Final if the Dogs rolled Adelaide. Southern would have been back from injury, too.
Rohan Smith is one of the last off the ground. On the siren, he crumbles. Smith's on all fours, pounding the dirt with the palm of his hand.
"I always played with a lot of passion. I wore my heart on my sleeve and I couldn't hide my emotions," Smith recalls.
"I gave the ground a fair pounding. I think the dents are still there.
"My daughter Keely was born three days earlier. I was on such a high having a baby and then such a low."
HOW IT WENT WRONG
40 minutes earlier ....
THE yellow Whitman's airship hovers over the 'G and the Bulldogs look certain to get the chocolates.
Adelaide has been more competitive in the third term, but the Dogs still lead by 22 points at three-quarter time.
Many Dogs fans have left, racing out to Whitten Oval to queue for Grand Final tickets. The rush is bordering on hysterical. The club hasn't played in a Grand Final for 36 years.
David Smorgon, in his first year as president of the re-branded Western Bulldogs, can't believe his luck.
"I can remember sitting next to our vice-president Ray Baxter and saying, 'Can you believe this -- one more solid quarter and all that hard work and planning will end in a Grand Final'," Smorgon recalls.
"Ray was wary. He said, 'Hey, hang on, David, there's one quarter to go'."
Wallace is making his final address at the break. He talks about the chance to create history as the third Bulldogs team to play in a Grand Final, joining the '54 and '61 sides.
"I spoke to four players - (Luke) Darcy, (Rohan) Smith, (Brad) Johnson and (Chris) Grant. I said 'It's your time in the sun - we need you to step up'," Wallace recalls.
Success all year has been built on emotion. Wallace talks about the moment. The massive opportunity. It reaches fever-pitch in the huddle.
"We'd ridden that emotion all year. If I had my time over again, it might have been a bit more process driven," Wallace says.
The passionate speech, though, has instant results.
There is a strong feeling the Dogs only need one goal to break Adelaide's spirit. And they are all over the Crows early, going to the city end.
Jose Romero, strapped up and sore after carrying a shoulder injury into the game, picks up a loose ball 40m from goal, sizes up and has a shot. It hits the top of the left goalpost.
Full-forward James Cook is 30m clear and just 10m from goal. Romero doesn't see him in the shadows.
"If he pops it over to Cook, it's a lay-down misere," Wallace says.
Cook, now living in Surfers Paradise, remembers it well.
"Jose had been super all year and had come back from an injury, playing under extreme duress. You can't blame him," Cook recalls.
A minute later, Cook has a chance to make up for it.
He marks strongly 30m out, in front of opponent Rod Jameson. The angle is minimal. With six goals to his name already, Cook is odds-on to slot it.
"You would have backed him with $1 million. He was the best kick of the lot," Wallace says.
Cook stabs at it and misses to the left. The Dogs lead by 24. Still, there's no knockout punch.
Brett Montgomery misfires with a kick off the ground and the Dogs are up by 25, with all the momentum.
On ABC radio, commentator Tim Lane trumpets that the dam wall is about to burst open.
There is a sense of inevitability about the result in the Channel 7 commentary box, too.
"I wonder what the Dogs could do next week when they take on St Kilda," caller Sandy Roberts enthuses.
The game slips into an eerie holding pattern. Adelaide wastes chances, too, but doesn't look threatening.
With 11 minutes left, the Dogs still lead by 22. The Bulldogs versus St Kilda fairytale Grand Final seems a formality.
Tony Liberatore swoops on a loose ball for the Dogs, throws it on his left boot and watches as it floats high above the goalposts.
In an instant, Liberatore is celebrating. He leaps, wrapping his legs around teammate Brett Montgomery's waist. Paul Hudson holds Liberatore from behind. It's party time.
The goal umpire barely hesitates. He gives the one-finger salute. One behind.
"Everyone says it was through. It looked like it was a goal. Brad Johnson swears it was a goal," Liberatore recalls.
And, according to Hudson, the now famous embrace was no con-job to convince the umpire.
"To the eye, I thought it was through by a foot," Hudson recalls. "Gee, I'd love to have vision behind the goals. I still swear it was a goal.
"You can see by my excitement, what I thought. I get excited by goals, not points.
"For it to be called a point was pretty devastating."
Jameson, the Crows full-back who watched the ball sail over his head, is certain it missed.
"I think you'll find I went back and grabbed the footy before the umpire made his decision. I was pretty sure," Jameson recalls.
"From where I was it looked like it did miss. It was tight, though."
Considering the club's long history of failure, it is a massive moment. If the ump signals a goal the Dogs are up by 28. The dam wall Lane spoke about would surely have exploded.
"I think that was the nail, yeah," Jameson concedes.
Wallace is convinced the Dogs only needed one more goal to put the Crows away.
"If it wasn't the Doggies supporters willing us on, it was the Victorian supporters who wanted to see a Grand Final between the Dogs and Saints. It was going to be the fairytale," Wallace says.
"If we had've kicked a goal, the roof would've been lifted off the MCG."
But within 90 seconds, the Crows fans have reason to find voice.
Darren Jarman, moved forward after Tony Modra left the ground with a serious knee injury, soars above Dogs Matthew Croft, Craig Ellis and Todd Curley to mark 15m out.
There is no doubt about this shot. Dead-straight. Dogs by 17 with 9:37 left on the clock.
Suddenly, the momentum is with Adelaide. Matthew Connell kicks long, Nigel Smart out-bustles Croft and snaps a goal. The Dogs lead by only 10 with 7:20 left.
Jarman marks again, 50m out, and passes to Simon Goodwin within 35m. The youngster doesn't miss from the flank. In a flash, the Crows are just four points down with 6:22 left.
The Crows, in only their seventh season in the AFL, are not burdened by history and play freely. The Dogs almost want it too much.
"We got a little nervous. Panic started to set in, I think," Smith says.
Wallace makes minor changes, but it is before the days of dropping numbers back in a crisis.
"In this day and age, I would've thrown two behind the ball as soon as they started coming at us. Played a bit of tempo footy. That's not the way the game was played at that time," he says.
Ben Hart misses two opportunities, the second a snap from 35m. The Crows have had 15 inside 50s to seven. That dam wall threatens to bust open at the other end.
The Crows make their 16th forward thrust, but Croft intercepts at centre half-back. High on adrenalin, there is no thought of going back and slowing down play.
Croft bravely takes off, surging up the corridor. His kick wobbles and dribbles into the centre.
Hudson picks it up cleanly and off-loads a perfect handball to the running Mark West.
West takes the ball 45m out without breaking stride and runs to 35m under increasing pressure from Tyson Edwards. The crowd erupts.
It is a gold-plated opportunity with just 2:38 left. West pushes it to the left. Again, the Dogs blow a chance to kill off the Crows.
"It just drifted a bit. I thought, 'Oops, we've got to go again'. Given the time in the game, that's all you could do," West says.
"The game should have been won well and truly before that incident, though. We should never have got ourselves into that situation."
Hudson desperately wanted West to keep running with the ball, to at least 20m out, to make sure of it.
"I just remember giving it to Westy and shouting that loud to run, run, run. He couldn't hear me," Hudson recalls.
"I was shouting my lungs out, but obviously he had a shot. It was the pressure of the game. The perceived pressure."
Smorgon has left his seat. He's too nervous to watch and paces up and down the walkway in the Southern Stand.
"The last quarter was like watching a fairytale turn into horror movie," Smorgon recalls.
Before West can gather his breath, the Crows unleash another attack. Goodwin gives it to Kane Johnson, who hits Jarman 30m out with a sizzling low pass.
Jarman goes back, kicks from 35m, and coolly slots it as if it is a summer practice match. Adelaide hits the front by three points with 1:46 left.
But the Dogs aren't done yet. Scott Wynd gets it out of the middle and it squirts out to West on the wing. He pumps it long to the top of the square in hope.
The ball spills towards the behind line to the right of the post. Grant and Hudson frantically chase it, ahead of Crows opponents.
Under pressure, Grant wins it 2m out and quickly throws it on his right boot. Edwards rushes in to smother and the desperate kick flies through to the right of the post.
The commentators question why Hudson didn't shepherd, allowing Grant a clearer path to goal.
"He took a snap shot on a tight angle. That's the pressure of footy . . . finals footy . . . the closeness of the scores," Hudson says.
"In hindsight, Granty could have picked it up, gone around and snapped it on his left. But what he did was the natural reaction under pressure."
The Crows lead by two points with 1:21 left. It is before the era of running down the clock and Jameson kicks in quickly to a contest 60m out.
Scott West wins the ball after Wynd drops a mark. He pumps it forward again in hope.
Edwards, the party pooper who pressured Mark West and smothered Grant, is waiting on the end of it.
He marks 30m out and handballs to Jameson. The siren sounds.
The fairytale is over.
Wallace played in a losing Grand Final side with Hawthorn in 1984 after being four goals up. That is nothing compared to this Dog Day Afternoon.
Asked if it was the most disappointing day of his playing/coaching career, Wallace replies, "Absolutely, by that far, it's not funny. There's not even a doubt, the preliminary final of 1997 was tenfold 1984. I didn't watch a video of it for six or seven years."
"Only twice for the year we didn't kick a goal in a quarter. One was a game against Port Adelaide mid-year.
"The only other time it happened was in the preliminary final. We only needed one goal.
"I thought we blew it as much as they won it."
EVEN MERV WAS CRYING
6.15pm, St Vincent's Private Hospital
SMITH, palms still stinging from whacking the turf, arrives to see his newborn Keely just a short drive from the ground.
Famous Bulldogs supporter Merv Hughes is there, too, visiting his child born on the same day as Smith's.
"He's a massive Bulldogs man, Merv. He had the big Doggies belt buckle on," Smith recalls.
"Here he was holding Keely in the room and he was crying. There were tears about the result. A big, grown man who had played cricket for Australia, crying."
SEVEN LONG YEARS
6.30pm, MCG car park
WALLACE finally brings himself to head out to his car.
"These Adelaide people were cheering and yahooing and they didn't even see me," Wallace recalls.
"They were yelling, 'We've been waiting seven loooong years for this! Seven loooong years!
"I thought, 'Look at our position. We won in 1954 and we haven't played in a Grand Final since 1961. Seven loooong years! You're kidding."
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/common/story_page/0,8033,22263364%5E19761,00.html
Excellent article, for Crows fans atleast
18 August 2007 Herald Sun
Mark Stevens
September 20, 1997 - 5.15pm
THE MCG is only 138m wide. Yet for Bulldogs coach Terry Wallace, it is the longest walk of his life.
Wallace's legs are turning to jelly. After a few metres, he can sense he is on the brink of collapse.
"I can remember my legs going from underneath me," Wallace recalls.
"We'd worked our arses off. I was emotionally spent. Exhausted."
If not for a stern word from his trusted assistant Gordon Casey, Wallace may have ended up in a crumpled heap on the turf.
"I remember 'Case' saying, 'You're the face of the club. You've got to be the one that stands up when we get back across the other side'," Wallace says.
A shattered Wallace continued his shuffle to the rooms in the Southern Stand.
"It was a bloody long walk. I reckon the (Adelaide) song was played six times while I was on the ground. It's not one of my favourite songs, I can guarantee you that," Wallace says.
As the Crows theme song echoes around the stands, the tears start flowing. Not only fans, but players break down in shock.
Rugged onballer Paul Dimattina and Daniel Southern, the tattooed wildman, bawl their eyes out in the outer.
"I cried. So did Southo," Dimattina recalls.
"Channel 7 had footage of a girl distraught in the stands. That was my younger sister.
"It was because I had broken three bloody chairs carrying on like an idiot. I didn't know what to do.
"My sister Carla was disgusted with my performance. She saw me crying and that triggered her off. She was a young girl at the time. She was 14.
"It was heartbreaking."
Dimattina, suspended in the final round against Hawthorn, had been assured by Wallace that he would be named in the Grand Final if the Dogs rolled Adelaide. Southern would have been back from injury, too.
Rohan Smith is one of the last off the ground. On the siren, he crumbles. Smith's on all fours, pounding the dirt with the palm of his hand.
"I always played with a lot of passion. I wore my heart on my sleeve and I couldn't hide my emotions," Smith recalls.
"I gave the ground a fair pounding. I think the dents are still there.
"My daughter Keely was born three days earlier. I was on such a high having a baby and then such a low."
HOW IT WENT WRONG
40 minutes earlier ....
THE yellow Whitman's airship hovers over the 'G and the Bulldogs look certain to get the chocolates.
Adelaide has been more competitive in the third term, but the Dogs still lead by 22 points at three-quarter time.
Many Dogs fans have left, racing out to Whitten Oval to queue for Grand Final tickets. The rush is bordering on hysterical. The club hasn't played in a Grand Final for 36 years.
David Smorgon, in his first year as president of the re-branded Western Bulldogs, can't believe his luck.
"I can remember sitting next to our vice-president Ray Baxter and saying, 'Can you believe this -- one more solid quarter and all that hard work and planning will end in a Grand Final'," Smorgon recalls.
"Ray was wary. He said, 'Hey, hang on, David, there's one quarter to go'."
Wallace is making his final address at the break. He talks about the chance to create history as the third Bulldogs team to play in a Grand Final, joining the '54 and '61 sides.
"I spoke to four players - (Luke) Darcy, (Rohan) Smith, (Brad) Johnson and (Chris) Grant. I said 'It's your time in the sun - we need you to step up'," Wallace recalls.
Success all year has been built on emotion. Wallace talks about the moment. The massive opportunity. It reaches fever-pitch in the huddle.
"We'd ridden that emotion all year. If I had my time over again, it might have been a bit more process driven," Wallace says.
The passionate speech, though, has instant results.
There is a strong feeling the Dogs only need one goal to break Adelaide's spirit. And they are all over the Crows early, going to the city end.
Jose Romero, strapped up and sore after carrying a shoulder injury into the game, picks up a loose ball 40m from goal, sizes up and has a shot. It hits the top of the left goalpost.
Full-forward James Cook is 30m clear and just 10m from goal. Romero doesn't see him in the shadows.
"If he pops it over to Cook, it's a lay-down misere," Wallace says.
Cook, now living in Surfers Paradise, remembers it well.
"Jose had been super all year and had come back from an injury, playing under extreme duress. You can't blame him," Cook recalls.
A minute later, Cook has a chance to make up for it.
He marks strongly 30m out, in front of opponent Rod Jameson. The angle is minimal. With six goals to his name already, Cook is odds-on to slot it.
"You would have backed him with $1 million. He was the best kick of the lot," Wallace says.
Cook stabs at it and misses to the left. The Dogs lead by 24. Still, there's no knockout punch.
Brett Montgomery misfires with a kick off the ground and the Dogs are up by 25, with all the momentum.
On ABC radio, commentator Tim Lane trumpets that the dam wall is about to burst open.
There is a sense of inevitability about the result in the Channel 7 commentary box, too.
"I wonder what the Dogs could do next week when they take on St Kilda," caller Sandy Roberts enthuses.
The game slips into an eerie holding pattern. Adelaide wastes chances, too, but doesn't look threatening.
With 11 minutes left, the Dogs still lead by 22. The Bulldogs versus St Kilda fairytale Grand Final seems a formality.
Tony Liberatore swoops on a loose ball for the Dogs, throws it on his left boot and watches as it floats high above the goalposts.
In an instant, Liberatore is celebrating. He leaps, wrapping his legs around teammate Brett Montgomery's waist. Paul Hudson holds Liberatore from behind. It's party time.
The goal umpire barely hesitates. He gives the one-finger salute. One behind.
"Everyone says it was through. It looked like it was a goal. Brad Johnson swears it was a goal," Liberatore recalls.
And, according to Hudson, the now famous embrace was no con-job to convince the umpire.
"To the eye, I thought it was through by a foot," Hudson recalls. "Gee, I'd love to have vision behind the goals. I still swear it was a goal.
"You can see by my excitement, what I thought. I get excited by goals, not points.
"For it to be called a point was pretty devastating."
Jameson, the Crows full-back who watched the ball sail over his head, is certain it missed.
"I think you'll find I went back and grabbed the footy before the umpire made his decision. I was pretty sure," Jameson recalls.
"From where I was it looked like it did miss. It was tight, though."
Considering the club's long history of failure, it is a massive moment. If the ump signals a goal the Dogs are up by 28. The dam wall Lane spoke about would surely have exploded.
"I think that was the nail, yeah," Jameson concedes.
Wallace is convinced the Dogs only needed one more goal to put the Crows away.
"If it wasn't the Doggies supporters willing us on, it was the Victorian supporters who wanted to see a Grand Final between the Dogs and Saints. It was going to be the fairytale," Wallace says.
"If we had've kicked a goal, the roof would've been lifted off the MCG."
But within 90 seconds, the Crows fans have reason to find voice.
Darren Jarman, moved forward after Tony Modra left the ground with a serious knee injury, soars above Dogs Matthew Croft, Craig Ellis and Todd Curley to mark 15m out.
There is no doubt about this shot. Dead-straight. Dogs by 17 with 9:37 left on the clock.
Suddenly, the momentum is with Adelaide. Matthew Connell kicks long, Nigel Smart out-bustles Croft and snaps a goal. The Dogs lead by only 10 with 7:20 left.
Jarman marks again, 50m out, and passes to Simon Goodwin within 35m. The youngster doesn't miss from the flank. In a flash, the Crows are just four points down with 6:22 left.
The Crows, in only their seventh season in the AFL, are not burdened by history and play freely. The Dogs almost want it too much.
"We got a little nervous. Panic started to set in, I think," Smith says.
Wallace makes minor changes, but it is before the days of dropping numbers back in a crisis.
"In this day and age, I would've thrown two behind the ball as soon as they started coming at us. Played a bit of tempo footy. That's not the way the game was played at that time," he says.
Ben Hart misses two opportunities, the second a snap from 35m. The Crows have had 15 inside 50s to seven. That dam wall threatens to bust open at the other end.
The Crows make their 16th forward thrust, but Croft intercepts at centre half-back. High on adrenalin, there is no thought of going back and slowing down play.
Croft bravely takes off, surging up the corridor. His kick wobbles and dribbles into the centre.
Hudson picks it up cleanly and off-loads a perfect handball to the running Mark West.
West takes the ball 45m out without breaking stride and runs to 35m under increasing pressure from Tyson Edwards. The crowd erupts.
It is a gold-plated opportunity with just 2:38 left. West pushes it to the left. Again, the Dogs blow a chance to kill off the Crows.
"It just drifted a bit. I thought, 'Oops, we've got to go again'. Given the time in the game, that's all you could do," West says.
"The game should have been won well and truly before that incident, though. We should never have got ourselves into that situation."
Hudson desperately wanted West to keep running with the ball, to at least 20m out, to make sure of it.
"I just remember giving it to Westy and shouting that loud to run, run, run. He couldn't hear me," Hudson recalls.
"I was shouting my lungs out, but obviously he had a shot. It was the pressure of the game. The perceived pressure."
Smorgon has left his seat. He's too nervous to watch and paces up and down the walkway in the Southern Stand.
"The last quarter was like watching a fairytale turn into horror movie," Smorgon recalls.
Before West can gather his breath, the Crows unleash another attack. Goodwin gives it to Kane Johnson, who hits Jarman 30m out with a sizzling low pass.
Jarman goes back, kicks from 35m, and coolly slots it as if it is a summer practice match. Adelaide hits the front by three points with 1:46 left.
But the Dogs aren't done yet. Scott Wynd gets it out of the middle and it squirts out to West on the wing. He pumps it long to the top of the square in hope.
The ball spills towards the behind line to the right of the post. Grant and Hudson frantically chase it, ahead of Crows opponents.
Under pressure, Grant wins it 2m out and quickly throws it on his right boot. Edwards rushes in to smother and the desperate kick flies through to the right of the post.
The commentators question why Hudson didn't shepherd, allowing Grant a clearer path to goal.
"He took a snap shot on a tight angle. That's the pressure of footy . . . finals footy . . . the closeness of the scores," Hudson says.
"In hindsight, Granty could have picked it up, gone around and snapped it on his left. But what he did was the natural reaction under pressure."
The Crows lead by two points with 1:21 left. It is before the era of running down the clock and Jameson kicks in quickly to a contest 60m out.
Scott West wins the ball after Wynd drops a mark. He pumps it forward again in hope.
Edwards, the party pooper who pressured Mark West and smothered Grant, is waiting on the end of it.
He marks 30m out and handballs to Jameson. The siren sounds.
The fairytale is over.
Wallace played in a losing Grand Final side with Hawthorn in 1984 after being four goals up. That is nothing compared to this Dog Day Afternoon.
Asked if it was the most disappointing day of his playing/coaching career, Wallace replies, "Absolutely, by that far, it's not funny. There's not even a doubt, the preliminary final of 1997 was tenfold 1984. I didn't watch a video of it for six or seven years."
"Only twice for the year we didn't kick a goal in a quarter. One was a game against Port Adelaide mid-year.
"The only other time it happened was in the preliminary final. We only needed one goal.
"I thought we blew it as much as they won it."
EVEN MERV WAS CRYING
6.15pm, St Vincent's Private Hospital
SMITH, palms still stinging from whacking the turf, arrives to see his newborn Keely just a short drive from the ground.
Famous Bulldogs supporter Merv Hughes is there, too, visiting his child born on the same day as Smith's.
"He's a massive Bulldogs man, Merv. He had the big Doggies belt buckle on," Smith recalls.
"Here he was holding Keely in the room and he was crying. There were tears about the result. A big, grown man who had played cricket for Australia, crying."
SEVEN LONG YEARS
6.30pm, MCG car park
WALLACE finally brings himself to head out to his car.
"These Adelaide people were cheering and yahooing and they didn't even see me," Wallace recalls.
"They were yelling, 'We've been waiting seven loooong years for this! Seven loooong years!
"I thought, 'Look at our position. We won in 1954 and we haven't played in a Grand Final since 1961. Seven loooong years! You're kidding."
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/common/story_page/0,8033,22263364%5E19761,00.html
Excellent article, for Crows fans atleast
So I went to my grandparents, by the time I got there it was about 10mins into the last and my Grandad is a huge AFC fan and he screemed when I got there to get in the lounge room 'the tide is turning' he said to me, Ive never seen my grandad so passionate about anything but we were roaring until the game ended.
