The Matthews / Bruns incident. What was it that caused the aftermath ?

[stevothedevo]

Not sure but there's a clip available

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He was a nasty footballer

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I agree he was guilty of some quite serious indiscretions but if these 3 pieces of evidence are what you're bringing to court. Maybe lawyering isn't your thing.

 

[Freomaniac]

No doubt indeed. Even as a skinny kid he was tough as hell.

By the time he was 25 he was built like a brick shithouse.

You just couldn’t hurt him. You’d bounce off him if you went the crunch. He knew how to protect himself and took evasive action if you ran at him.

Like all great players they has 360 degree awareness of what’s around them. Even if you were lucky to get a hit in they would come back at you instantly and remind you how big a mistake you just made.

Boarderline psychopaths.

Gaz Snr the king of them all.

Sounds about right. Leigh Matthews had a competitive streak to point it was border line psychotic.

Similar to Michael Jordan

 

[Partridge]

I agree he was guilty of some quite serious indiscretions but if these 3 pieces of evidence are what you're bringing to court. Maybe lawyering isn't your thing.

I'm suspecting Ablett ran over his dog to be honest. Seen way worse from other Geelong players, let alone other clubs.

 

[Freomaniac]

Pickett was not a coward. What a load of bs.

As for Byron Pickett, You don't want to be in his path if he wanted to do that hip and shoulder bump lol

 

[HairyO]

My mail is Bruns had applied the squirrel grip to multiple hawks earlier in the game which he had a reputation across the league as being quite fond of doing so much so post incident well known players from at least two other teams personally rang Matthews to congratulate him

Yep. This had been happening for a while too. Bruns had a name for it.

Matthews was pissed off and Bruns running past was just perfect timing for him to unleash his fury on a deserving target.

The VFL were gutless letting the police get involved because there had been literally hundreds of similar incidents over the years and weve seen dozens since.

 

[GWT6]

Sounds about right. Leigh Matthews had a competitive streak to point it was border line psychotic.

Similar to Michael Jordan

What a load of crap - Jordan never king hit people from behind because he was getting beaten. Jordan wasn't a gutless coward like Matthews.

 

[Catsace]

That's the key word though. He was definitely physical. I'm not sure he was a thug at all.

The one thing Ablett didn't like or tolerate - and I met players who told me this - was being scragged off the ball. That's what Lyon was doing. You can almost see the footage (he's just out of screen), the ball was pretty close, he was getting pulled back by the jumper, and he swung an arm behind him. It wasn't a king hit 50 metres off the ball or anything like that.

He was no angel, but there were plenty of dirtier players even at Geelong. Garry Hocking and Damian Bourke were far nastier than Ablett ever was.

Think it was at VFL park in 1988 when Bourke collected Justin Madden, and in a bit of a turn up for the times Geelong beat the Blues that day. In the 80's the Cats didn't often come out victors over the Hawks and Blues, especially away from KP.

 

[demondavey]

Name a worse Geelong player who consistently hurt the opposition?

Andrew Mackie

 

[Catsace]

There’s two different stories I’ve heard over the years regarding the reason Lethal lashed out like he did, and I don’t know if either of them have any roots in truth although I see someone else above has heard one of them also.

1. Involved a case of Bruns being decked as a result of Lethal having his jatz crackers given a good squeeze on the bottom of a pack moments earlier.

2. Involved Bruns having some extracurricular activities with Kelvin Mathew’s wife.

Kelvin Matthews left Geelong after the 1982 season, seems a little odd that it would take three years for retribution for that?

 

[Partridge]

Think it was at VFL park in 1988 when Bourke collected Justin Madden, and in a bit of a turn up for the times Geelong beat the Blues that day. In the 80's the Cats didn't often come out victors over the Hawks and Blues, especially away from KP.

Yep, and that was absolutely a king hit.

 

[Partridge]

In Matthew’s autobiography when recalling the game, noted that an ugly pall had descended over Kardinia Park, in no small part as a result of the antics of Jacko. Jacko had in fact, completely lost the plot. Maththew’s added that the umpires had lost control of the game and he had remonstrated with them (something he rarely did) prior to king hitting Bruns.

Lying in his hospital bed, Bruns, for his part, was asked to comment on what he thought of Matthews and in reply he said ‘I think he’s the pits’. Reflecting on that comment Matthews observed that Bruns was a hypocrite, and it was common knowledge around the league that Bruns, himself was a little sniper. No love lost there.

As a side note, I wasn’t at the game, instead listening to it on the radio. So appalled were the commentators calling the game, and I can’t remember who they, were suggesting that the game be called off.

Impressive memory retention on the part of Matthews there. Considering the game was played at Princes Park, and not in Geelong.

He's also wrong about Jackson. Jackson did exactly two things that day:

1. Constantly niggled Hawthorn defenders (which he did most weeks).
2. Dared to remonstrate with Chris Langford when he clipped him behind the ear after Jackson took a mark. He stood up, turned around and gave one back. Front on, was absolutely NOT any kind of cheap hit, and I suspect the biggest crime was daring to stand up for himself. There's even footage of this too, doesn't stop the mythology though.

And to anyone who trots out the "well Bruns was known to be a sniper, etc.", name me one other match, or one other incident, one other player - ever - when he was reported or involved in something. Not a rumour or innuendo, an actual match with a date, or better yet footage. Because there are plenty of other incidents with Matthews, that can be named and confirmed. There are none (to my knowledge) of Bruns. But Bruns is to blame. Right.

 

[garlic munchers]

Tell that to Kristian Bardsley.

And Don Pyke.

 

[AlwaysHawks15]

Impressive memory retention on the part of Matthews there. Considering the game was played at Princes Park, and not in Geelong.

He's also wrong about Jackson. Jackson did exactly two things that day:

1. Constantly niggled Hawthorn defenders (which he did most weeks).
2. Dared to remonstrate with Chris Langford when he clipped him behind the ear after Jackson took a mark. He stood up, turned around and gave one back. Front on, was absolutely NOT any kind of cheap hit, and I suspect the biggest crime was daring to stand up for himself. There's even footage of this too, doesn't stop the mythology though.

And to anyone who trots out the "well Bruns was known to be a sniper, etc.", name me one other match, or one other incident, one other player - ever - when he was reported or involved in something. Not a rumour or innuendo, an actual match with a date, or better yet footage. Because there are plenty of other incidents with Matthews, that can be named and confirmed. There are none (to my knowledge) of Bruns. But Bruns is to blame. Right.

The 89 GF there's plenty of footage of him laying into Dipper on the ground when he wasn't expecting a cheap shot. You do realise you can be a sniper without anybody seeing it or being held accountable for it.

 

[Partridge]

The 89 GF there's plenty of footage of him laying into Dipper on the ground when he wasn't expecting a cheap shot. You do realise you can be a sniper without anybody seeing it or being held accountable for it.

This one is easily checked.



It's about 5 seconds in. Dipper drops in the hole and Ablett was leading.

Credit for having a vivid imagination though. Dipper wasn't on the ground for starters, and it wasn't a cheap shot. The other Hawthorn players noticeably had no issue whatsoever with what Ablett did, and this was in a Grand final. Just like Brereton's (superb) bump on Van der Haar two weeks' prior, this was still part of the game then.

 

[AlwaysHawks15]

The 89 GF there's plenty of footage of him laying into Dipper on the ground when he wasn't expecting a cheap shot. You do realise you can be a sniper without anybody seeing it or being held accountable for it.

This one is easily checked.



It's about 5 seconds in. Dipper drops in the hole and Ablett was leading.

Credit for having a vivid imagination though. Dipper wasn't on the ground for starters, and it wasn't a cheap shot. The other Hawthorn players noticeably had no issue whatsoever with what Ablett did, and this was in a Grand final. Just like Brereton's (superb) bump on Van der Haar two weeks' prior, this was still part of the game then.

Yeah you missed the footage from earlier in the game when Bruns, Bews and Hocking were basically assaulting him in a 3 on 1. More so Bruns and Bews.

 

[Partridge]

Yeah you missed the footage from earlier in the game when Bruns, Bews and Hocking were basically assaulting him in a 3 on 1. More so Bruns and Bews.

Post it then. Especially the bit about the sniping (like decking him behind play - that would qualify).

Or say elbowing someone to the face as you're running past. Like Dipper did to Garry Hocking in the same match.