Drake Huggins
Club Legend
- May 2, 2018
- 2,391
- 9,697
- AFL Club
- St Kilda
- Other Teams
- Stoke City, Southampton.
- Banned
- #1
I alluded to this story in another thread, so here goes the story as promised. It relates to the forces of the universe conspiring against us yet again to deny us one of the AFL's greats, Chris Judd. I'm probably stretching the analysis to a breaking point but bear with me. I've already outlined how WCE gazumped us to snatch him from us on draft day back in 2001, but this story has its genesis in the early seventies and shows just how much the footy gods enjoy tormenting us.
It reminds me of the fable of Tantalus, a character from Greek mythology, whose story gave us the word tantalising. Tantalus was doomed never to reach a bunch of grapes he greatly desired. Every time he reached for them, a gentle breeze would blow and move them just out of his reach. So it went for eternity. Sounds like he must have been a saints' supporter.
Back to the story of Andrew Judd, who with his lovely wife Leslie, sired the dual Brownlow Medallist and premiership captain. A former senior football writer for The Herald (showing our age) and The Age, and colleague of mine, Ken Davis, told me this one. Andrew Judd was a student at Xavier and in the great tradition of that institution's muck up day history, he decided to pull a prank to beat all that preceded it.
The Friday before the HSC exams were due to start, he decided to commandeer a tram from the nearby Kew depot. He simply walked in at the change of the day to the afternoon shift, got in an empty tram and drove it into Barkers Road. None of the staff seemed to notice. He only drove it a few stops before abandoning it and making good his escape. Or so he thought. While the staff didn't notice, a number of disgruntled customers soon started ringing the depot to complain the tram had not stopped for them to be picked up. A quick investigation identified the culprit. Despite having an exemplary academic and behavioural record, Judd senior was expelled on the spot and suffered the inconvenience and humiliation of not being allowed to enter the Xavier campus at Kew to sit his HSC exams. He was forced to do them at the Exhibition Buildings with the great unwashed. He passed comfortably and went on to university.
He vowed that if he ever had a son, he would never allow him to set foot in any Xavier run school. He held to his promise and when the time came for young Chris to choose a school, Xavier was not even considered, despite the offer of a scholarship. The "Men for Men" from Kew take their nepotism and cronyism very seriously and the insult cut deeply from all reports. Apart from the personal affront to the Jesuits, the fact was that Chris was a fine footballer, more than handy cricketer and a high achieving student. He would've brought more glory and bragging rights with him. He and his parents chose Caulfield Grammar, home of the despised protestants.
I've often wondered if Chris had been a Xavier boy, instead of a Caulfield Grammarian, whether GT would have fallen in love with him the way he did with Luke Ball. Maybe he would've instructed JB to grab Judd at pick number 2 instead of waiting for pick 5, which was the plan. Rod Butterssssss was furious we didn't get Judd. He'd coached Chris in juniors and rated him the best junior he'd seen. I'm still bitter about it. I think not drafting him cost us at least one, if not two flags. Not that it was my decision. I just had a very good view of the unfolding tragedy.
This is why I'm a tad apprehensive about this draft. I rate Rankine as I rated Judd then. A clear number one, though back in the day I'd seen little of Luke Hodge. If he's available to us and we don't take him, I'm sure we'll live to regret it. Max King also evokes a similar fear in me. Given our history, the one we end up will probably be a bust and the other will go on to play in multiple premierships. Such is the fate of the saints' supporter. Sigh!!!
My next lengthy post will be an analysis and profile of the sort of personality is drawn to support the saints. It follows on from my piece in which I diagnosed the club with displaying all the traits of someone with Borderline Personality Disorder. I promise it will be interesting if somewhat confronting.
It reminds me of the fable of Tantalus, a character from Greek mythology, whose story gave us the word tantalising. Tantalus was doomed never to reach a bunch of grapes he greatly desired. Every time he reached for them, a gentle breeze would blow and move them just out of his reach. So it went for eternity. Sounds like he must have been a saints' supporter.
Back to the story of Andrew Judd, who with his lovely wife Leslie, sired the dual Brownlow Medallist and premiership captain. A former senior football writer for The Herald (showing our age) and The Age, and colleague of mine, Ken Davis, told me this one. Andrew Judd was a student at Xavier and in the great tradition of that institution's muck up day history, he decided to pull a prank to beat all that preceded it.
The Friday before the HSC exams were due to start, he decided to commandeer a tram from the nearby Kew depot. He simply walked in at the change of the day to the afternoon shift, got in an empty tram and drove it into Barkers Road. None of the staff seemed to notice. He only drove it a few stops before abandoning it and making good his escape. Or so he thought. While the staff didn't notice, a number of disgruntled customers soon started ringing the depot to complain the tram had not stopped for them to be picked up. A quick investigation identified the culprit. Despite having an exemplary academic and behavioural record, Judd senior was expelled on the spot and suffered the inconvenience and humiliation of not being allowed to enter the Xavier campus at Kew to sit his HSC exams. He was forced to do them at the Exhibition Buildings with the great unwashed. He passed comfortably and went on to university.
He vowed that if he ever had a son, he would never allow him to set foot in any Xavier run school. He held to his promise and when the time came for young Chris to choose a school, Xavier was not even considered, despite the offer of a scholarship. The "Men for Men" from Kew take their nepotism and cronyism very seriously and the insult cut deeply from all reports. Apart from the personal affront to the Jesuits, the fact was that Chris was a fine footballer, more than handy cricketer and a high achieving student. He would've brought more glory and bragging rights with him. He and his parents chose Caulfield Grammar, home of the despised protestants.
I've often wondered if Chris had been a Xavier boy, instead of a Caulfield Grammarian, whether GT would have fallen in love with him the way he did with Luke Ball. Maybe he would've instructed JB to grab Judd at pick number 2 instead of waiting for pick 5, which was the plan. Rod Butterssssss was furious we didn't get Judd. He'd coached Chris in juniors and rated him the best junior he'd seen. I'm still bitter about it. I think not drafting him cost us at least one, if not two flags. Not that it was my decision. I just had a very good view of the unfolding tragedy.
This is why I'm a tad apprehensive about this draft. I rate Rankine as I rated Judd then. A clear number one, though back in the day I'd seen little of Luke Hodge. If he's available to us and we don't take him, I'm sure we'll live to regret it. Max King also evokes a similar fear in me. Given our history, the one we end up will probably be a bust and the other will go on to play in multiple premierships. Such is the fate of the saints' supporter. Sigh!!!
My next lengthy post will be an analysis and profile of the sort of personality is drawn to support the saints. It follows on from my piece in which I diagnosed the club with displaying all the traits of someone with Borderline Personality Disorder. I promise it will be interesting if somewhat confronting.
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