- Joined
- Sep 5, 2007
- Posts
- 3,632
- Reaction score
- 3,677
- Location
- Melbourne
- AFL Club
- Brisbane Lions
- Other Teams
- Fitzroy Football Club
-
Guest - BigFooty Tipping 2026 - Get on! - $500 first prize - Weekly Prizes - Click to Join
PLUS Your club board comp is now up!
-
Weekly Prize - Join Any Time - Tip Opening Round
The Golden Ticket - Official AFL on-seller of MCG and Marvel Medallion Club tickets and Corporate Box tickets at the Gabba, MCG and Marvel.
Vale Norm Johnstone
- Thread starter Last of the Roys
- Start date
- Tagged users None
🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.
MAXIMUM GRUNDAGE
Premiership Captain
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2010
- Posts
- 41,751
- Reaction score
- 69,621
- Location
- Traralgon
- AFL Club
- Melbourne
- Other Teams
- Washington Capitals, Ireland CC
Vale Norm Johnstone
royboy 29
Debutant
Vale Norm Johnstone,club champion !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Log in to remove this Banner Ad
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2001
- Posts
- 4,878
- Reaction score
- 1,712
- Location
- Fitzroy
- AFL Club
- Gold Coast
- Other Teams
- Fitzroy
Big Normie was one of my father's favorite Royboys. He likened him to Mick Conlan, for his ferocious attack at the football & propensity for kicking goals.
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2002
- Posts
- 17,797
- Reaction score
- 6,871
- Location
- South-West Gippsland
- AFL Club
- Brisbane Lions
- Other Teams
- Lexton, Northcote Park
I feel a bit guilty for not having posted this previously. In my defence, I've been (unsuccessfully) looking among my papers for an article I wrote about Norm 22 years ago, for a history magazine. I don't suppose there are many on BigFooty who can say they saw a bloke play whose career began in 1944. I can.
Anyway, enough of the preamble (actually, more preamble). I'll try to recall the key points from that article, as best I can. Norm was the hardest man I've ever seen play footy. He stood at 183 cm, yet weighed in at 92 kg. Despite his size, he was unbelievably quick. He ran low to the ground, with an attendant low centre of gravity. Unlike today's players, this allowed him to bump opposition players legally. He generally played as a ruck-rover, but played quite a bit on the forward line. The following is sort of a list of bullet points from what I remember of the article I wrote. I interviewed Norm and his wife, the lovely Shirl, at their home in Mordialloc for the article. I also interviewed Charlie Sutton, Footscray's only premiership captain, by phone.
1) Among a long list of extraordinary things I found out was the reason Norm failed to be part of the 1944 premiership team. This was his first year with Fitzroy, and he made quite an impression. However, the condition upon which he'd signed to play with Fitzroy, part way though the season, was that he be allowed to return to his club Chelsea, to play in finals with them. This he did, and ended up being part of their premiership that year.
2) Norm worked as a brick carter for all of his footy career. These days, bricks are delivered on pallets, on trucks with cranes installed on them. Norm's job was to load 1500 bricks by hand (often these bricks were still hot, having just come out of the kiln). Then, Norm would drive just about anywhere in Melbourne, and reverse the process by unloading the bricks, by hand, at building sites. Norm followed this process three, sometimes four times a day. I've worked in the brick industry, and I know how draining this life was for the brick carters. Sometimes, Norm told me, if he'd finished work early, he'd drive to Brunswick Street and have a sleep in his truck, before it was time for him to train with the team. Is it any wonder he was averse to training?
3) Norm told me a lovely story about how he played in a game at Brunswick St one day, when one third of the oval was covered in water. I can't recall the name of the umpire involved, but some drunken clown ran onto the ground and appeared to be about to dong the umpy. Norm saw him coming, read his intent, and picked the bloke up and threw him into the nearest huge puddle.
4) Because I knew so little about it, I spoke to Norm at length about his performance in the 1952 semi-final, which Fitzroy lost. He spoke of the excitement of playing before the big crowd at the MCG, and of his disappointment at losing. It was only after I'd done some research among contemporary newspapers that I found out that Norm had been unanimously voted BOG in that game, by the press. The research also revealed that Norm kicked a drop-kick goal from the centre circle that day (to the Punt Rd end). About ten years ago, I happened to meet Travis Johnstone, when he was with his mate David Schwarz. I related to Travis the story of his grandad's goal from the centre circle. Schwarz said, "That's something Travis will never do."
5) Around 1957, I saw a game at Brunswick St, against Collingwood. The back-pocket for Collingwood was an extremely talented, and fair, bloke called Ron Reeves. Reeves collected the ball by himself, for the umpteenth time, near the centre, and was about to put Collingwood into attack. Norm ran at him from forty metres away, and hit Reeves with a hip and shoulder. Reeves went up in the air, became horizontal, crashed to earth, breaking his collar bone. It looked gruesome, but somehow exciting.
6) My father spoke in awe of a similar clash he saw between Norm and Jack Dyer, during the 1940s. Having played against Dyer, my dad had little respect for him. He reckoned he used to pick on little blokes (which my dad was). Norm and Dyer are running at each other, with the ball in between them. The collision is inevitable. Dyer is the one carried off on a stretcher, also with a broken collar bone. The sound of this collision was heard in space. It was this encounter which caused Dyer to characterise Norm as a player who enjoyed hurting people.
7) During a game at Footscray, in the 1950s, Norm had a run in with Footscray captain Charlie Sutton, another feared and revered hard man. Charlie was coming back with the flight of the ball, when Norm crashed into him. The Footscray fans went mental as Charlie was stretchered off, and police had to be called to escort Norm and Shirl from the social rooms after the game. While Norm and the other players from that game were sharing a drink inside, the crowd outside (including one bloke brandishing a tomahawk) were on the verge of rioting. Norm and Shirl received death threats from Footscray supporters for years after. Shirl even received a couple written in lipstick. When I spoke to Charlie Sutton about this incident, he remembered it well. Apparently, he was out of action for six weeks, with five broken ribs. He bore no grudge against Norm for what happened, and saw it as part of the game (especially the game as he played it). He spoke glowingly about Norm as a footballer (particularly how skilful he was), and as a bloke. So do I.
Edit: Norm was never suspended during his 14 year career. He once had a fight at Festival Hall, against Australia's light-heavyweight boxing champion, Jack Twist. Norm was unstoppable, except that he bled like a stuck pig. His only hope of victory would have been to drown Twist in his (Norm's) blood. Happily, he never fought again.
Anyway, enough of the preamble (actually, more preamble). I'll try to recall the key points from that article, as best I can. Norm was the hardest man I've ever seen play footy. He stood at 183 cm, yet weighed in at 92 kg. Despite his size, he was unbelievably quick. He ran low to the ground, with an attendant low centre of gravity. Unlike today's players, this allowed him to bump opposition players legally. He generally played as a ruck-rover, but played quite a bit on the forward line. The following is sort of a list of bullet points from what I remember of the article I wrote. I interviewed Norm and his wife, the lovely Shirl, at their home in Mordialloc for the article. I also interviewed Charlie Sutton, Footscray's only premiership captain, by phone.
1) Among a long list of extraordinary things I found out was the reason Norm failed to be part of the 1944 premiership team. This was his first year with Fitzroy, and he made quite an impression. However, the condition upon which he'd signed to play with Fitzroy, part way though the season, was that he be allowed to return to his club Chelsea, to play in finals with them. This he did, and ended up being part of their premiership that year.
2) Norm worked as a brick carter for all of his footy career. These days, bricks are delivered on pallets, on trucks with cranes installed on them. Norm's job was to load 1500 bricks by hand (often these bricks were still hot, having just come out of the kiln). Then, Norm would drive just about anywhere in Melbourne, and reverse the process by unloading the bricks, by hand, at building sites. Norm followed this process three, sometimes four times a day. I've worked in the brick industry, and I know how draining this life was for the brick carters. Sometimes, Norm told me, if he'd finished work early, he'd drive to Brunswick Street and have a sleep in his truck, before it was time for him to train with the team. Is it any wonder he was averse to training?
3) Norm told me a lovely story about how he played in a game at Brunswick St one day, when one third of the oval was covered in water. I can't recall the name of the umpire involved, but some drunken clown ran onto the ground and appeared to be about to dong the umpy. Norm saw him coming, read his intent, and picked the bloke up and threw him into the nearest huge puddle.
4) Because I knew so little about it, I spoke to Norm at length about his performance in the 1952 semi-final, which Fitzroy lost. He spoke of the excitement of playing before the big crowd at the MCG, and of his disappointment at losing. It was only after I'd done some research among contemporary newspapers that I found out that Norm had been unanimously voted BOG in that game, by the press. The research also revealed that Norm kicked a drop-kick goal from the centre circle that day (to the Punt Rd end). About ten years ago, I happened to meet Travis Johnstone, when he was with his mate David Schwarz. I related to Travis the story of his grandad's goal from the centre circle. Schwarz said, "That's something Travis will never do."
5) Around 1957, I saw a game at Brunswick St, against Collingwood. The back-pocket for Collingwood was an extremely talented, and fair, bloke called Ron Reeves. Reeves collected the ball by himself, for the umpteenth time, near the centre, and was about to put Collingwood into attack. Norm ran at him from forty metres away, and hit Reeves with a hip and shoulder. Reeves went up in the air, became horizontal, crashed to earth, breaking his collar bone. It looked gruesome, but somehow exciting.
6) My father spoke in awe of a similar clash he saw between Norm and Jack Dyer, during the 1940s. Having played against Dyer, my dad had little respect for him. He reckoned he used to pick on little blokes (which my dad was). Norm and Dyer are running at each other, with the ball in between them. The collision is inevitable. Dyer is the one carried off on a stretcher, also with a broken collar bone. The sound of this collision was heard in space. It was this encounter which caused Dyer to characterise Norm as a player who enjoyed hurting people.
7) During a game at Footscray, in the 1950s, Norm had a run in with Footscray captain Charlie Sutton, another feared and revered hard man. Charlie was coming back with the flight of the ball, when Norm crashed into him. The Footscray fans went mental as Charlie was stretchered off, and police had to be called to escort Norm and Shirl from the social rooms after the game. While Norm and the other players from that game were sharing a drink inside, the crowd outside (including one bloke brandishing a tomahawk) were on the verge of rioting. Norm and Shirl received death threats from Footscray supporters for years after. Shirl even received a couple written in lipstick. When I spoke to Charlie Sutton about this incident, he remembered it well. Apparently, he was out of action for six weeks, with five broken ribs. He bore no grudge against Norm for what happened, and saw it as part of the game (especially the game as he played it). He spoke glowingly about Norm as a footballer (particularly how skilful he was), and as a bloke. So do I.
Edit: Norm was never suspended during his 14 year career. He once had a fight at Festival Hall, against Australia's light-heavyweight boxing champion, Jack Twist. Norm was unstoppable, except that he bled like a stuck pig. His only hope of victory would have been to drown Twist in his (Norm's) blood. Happily, he never fought again.
