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2020 TOYOTA AFL GRAND FINAL SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2020 125TH GRAND FINAL
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BEST OF ENEMIES: This unusual season turned oddball when rival stars Gary Ablett, Dan Hannebery and Shane Edwards had to train together in a Queensland hub.
FEATURES
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IN FOCUS
AFL Media photographers have been on the spot for some memorable moments during the 2020 season.
TIGER TOUGH
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CHAMP OPENS UP
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Tony Jewell was a Richmond premiership player and coach but his football journey was bumpy and colourful. ASHLEY BROWNE reports.
Carlton’s reclusive premiership hero Brent Crosswell reflects on a colourful career and that famous 1970 Grand Final victory. HOWARD KOTTON reports.
Owned and produced by Sports Entertainment Network AFL Record Editor Michael Lovett Production Editor Gary Hancock Senior Writer Ashley Browne Writers Peter Blucher, Lachlan Geleit, Howard Kotton, Sam Mills, Nic Negrepontis, Laurence Rosen, Andrew Slevison, Alex Zaia
Statisticians Col Hutchinson, Mark Genge Art Director Dennis Miller Senior Designer Ben Pola Production Manager Stephen Lording Photo Editor Rohan Voigt
Photography Michael Willson, Dylan Burns CEO – BallPark, Rainmaker & Publishing Richard Simkiss Publications Commercial Manager, SEN Dean McBeth Traffic Coordinator Tillina Carter
Address correspondence to The Editor, AFL Record, Level 5, 111 Coventry St, Southbank, VIC 3006. (03) 8825 6600 Email: Michael.Lovett@ sen.com.au AFL Record, Vol. 109, Grand Final, 2020 Copyright © 2020. ACN No. 004 155 211. ISSN 1444-2973, Print Post approved PP320258/00109 Printed By Ovato
CALL ME NORM
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GRAND GABBA
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The Norm Smith Medal is the iconic token of the game. Ex-Roos star Glenn Archer knows just how much it means to win it. ANDREW SLEVISON reports.
I feel good ... I’m excited PEARCE HANLEY ON HIS RETIREMENT – PAGE 112
The Gabba has been home to some wonderful sporting and cultural events but never an AFL Grand Final. Relive the history of Brisbane’s beloved venue. PETER BLUCHER reports.
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AFL.com.au AFL RECORD 5
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A SEASON LIKE NO OTHER The AFL faced its greatest challenge in 2020, but the show has gone on and will deliver a history-making Toyota AFL Grand Final at the Gabba. GILLON McLACHLAN AFL CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
HISTORIC SEASON: The entire football industry, including players and fans, banded together to keep footy alive in 2020. (Below) A Cape York House student in Cairns hoists the premiership cup.
elcome to the 2020 Toyota AFL Grand Final. As we bounce the ball for the final match of the season, we find ourselves in unfamiliar territory – in Queensland, at the Gabba, and in late October – a unique setting, a unique time, all in a very unique year. Completing the 2020 Toyota AFL premiership season has been the game’s greatest test, but also one of its greatest achievements. Way back in March, when our 23-round season became an
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18-round, 153-game journey, we knew this year was going to be like no other. A season in which everything changed – by the week, by the day, by the hour – and sometimes even by the minute. A year in which our competition depended as much on expertise in logistics, epidemiology and infectious disease management as it did on forward structures, training loads and list management. It was going to take resilience and ingenuity to find a way to play through a pandemic. Sacrifices were made and our industry banded together to make it happen.
Our clubs, players, coaches, umpires and officials deserve our gratitude for their devotion to their craft and to ensuring there was a game for the fans. They moved with little notice, played games off four-day breaks. Some lived for more than 12 weeks in hubs and without families for long stretches and embraced the communities in which they resided. New challenges presented themselves, and it has been as much an emotional journey as it has been a physical contest. This season that was about providing some comfort for those
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CAIR C CA C
AFL RECORD WELCOME who had survived the deadly bushfires over the summer instead became a game of survival in itself. Which is why, for this season, despite all its twists and turns, it has been one of the most remarkable and rewarding experiences for all. And for the club which wins the 2020 Toyota AFL premiership, it will be one of the all-time great achievements. For they will have achieved success in what will go down as one of the most challenging seasons in the history of our game. Before the bounce of the ball at the Gabba, on behalf of the AFL Commission and our chairman Richard Goyder, I want to say thank you to everyone who has contributed to us getting this far. We simply couldn’t have made it without the support of state governments, chief health officers, our clubs, players, coaches, umpires, staff, venues, corporate and broadcast partners – thank you for your unwavering support. And I would like to particularly thank Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk for partnering with the AFL and allowing us to base our competition out of Queensland. We understand the privilege it is to continue playing footy and the Queensland community has been so welcoming of our game. To all the essential workers, who have put the health and safety of others in front of their own – we cannot thank you enough for keeping our communities as safe as possible.
And to all our fans around the country – your loyalty and passion this season have been truly remarkable; 992,000 members stuck with their clubs in a time when they could barely attend matches for the majority of the season. Footy is about connection and a sense of belonging and this remarkable number demonstrates why AFL members are the most passionate and loyal across all sports. It is this type of passion and commitment from everyone in footy that has allowed us to make it this far and for that I cannot say thank you enough.
MAKING A SPLASH: Former Lions champion Simon Black took the premiership cup on a tour of the Sunshine State. PHOTOS: TOURISM AND EVENTS QUEENSLAND
This is a history-making occasion and I wish both teams the best of luck and, wherever you are watching, I hope the Toyota AFL Grand Final delivers you a most unforgettable experience.
MESSAGE FROM THE PREMIER AND MINISTER FOR TRADE THE HON ANNASTACIA PALASZCZUK
W
elcome to this truly historic event. Queenslanders love their sport. We know how it binds families and communities in a way nothing else does. We also know what it’s like to go through natural disasters and how important it is to lend a helping hand. Hosting the AFL this season has been Queensland’s way of paying back the many kindnesses shown to us in our hours of need.
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It’s also a vital link to normal life in a year that has been anything but. I know you’ll enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime Grand Final with its special Queensland flavour. We can all share in this moment and the game that not even a pandemic could stop.
ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME: Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has welcomed the opportunity to host the 2020 Grand Final.
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GALLERY OF GREAT MOMENTS It might have been a shorter season, but there was no shortage of highlights on the field. Here is a selection of the best images as seen through the lens of photographers from AFL Photos and Getty Images. BEST IMAGES OF 2020
ROBBIE ROBS BLUES CARLTON v PORT ADELAIDE, ROUND 7, GABBA
PIC: BRADLEY KANARIS/GETTY IMAGES
BK SAYS: The siren was just seconds away when Robbie Gray took a mark in front of me. As Gray lined up the kick, I was well aware that a goal would give Port Adelaide victory. He was very close to me, so I had to switch from the camera with the 400mm lens to the
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camera with the 70-200mm zoom lens. I had so little time to change over that I was holding the 400mm over my shoulder as I shot him with the 70-200mm lens. As Gray starts to move in to take his kick, the full time siren sounds. Gray takes the kick and it’s a beauty!
He celebrates in the opposite direction from me before turning back towards me and celebrating and screaming with joy at the Port Adelaide win – and that’s when I got this fantastic shot. The rest of his teammates soon followed and piled on to celebrate.
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LOOK, UP IN THE SKY MELBOURNE v RICHMOND, ROUND 5, MCG
PIC: QUINN ROONEY/GETTY IMAGES
QR SAYS: I noticed Kysaiah Pickett at the back of the pack as the ball hung over the forward flank from a long kick down the line. Pickett had been looking dangerous all game, so I thought he might go for a big mark. Luckily for me, I got a clear view as he charged at the pack and took a huge vertical leap on to the shoulders of Adam Tomlinson. I was amazed at the elevation he got, but unfortunately he couldn’t pull in the mark.
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BEST IMAGES OF 2020
CRASH, BANG
ADELAIDE v ESSENDON, ROUND 8, MCG
PIC: MARK BRAKE/GETTY IMAGES
MB SAYS: During the second quarter, I was following a lead by Bomber Jacob Townsend. He was being closely defended by Adelaide’s Kyle Hartigan, but as Townsend was about to mark, Crows acting captain Tom Doedee charged flat out from the
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right of my frame, demolishing the attempted mark and taking out Townsend and Hartigan. The image was just out of my preferred lens distance and happened so fast I wasn’t sure what I had captured, but knew it could be good. Trying to file and shoot at this
stage of the game is quite intense, so by the time I got back to crop the image, Doedee had been taken off the ground. He returned later but wasn’t moving freely and subsequently missed the next few games with a hamstring injury.
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JUMPING THROUGH HOOPS GEELONG v HAWTHORN, ROUND 2, GMHBA STADIUM
PIC: MICHAEL WILLSON/AFL PHOTOS
MW SAYS: What seemed like a standard marking contest quickly turned into a sea of hoops as Rhys Stanley, Tom Stewart, Joel Selwood and Patrick Dangerfield all competed for the ball. There is actually a Hawthorn player in the middle of the pack, but I couldn’t tell you who it is. It’s not too often you see four players from the same team competing in the air, but would you expect anything less in 2020?
MARK OF RESPECT
ADELAIDE v SYDNEY, ROUND 1, ADELAIDE OVAL PIC: MATT TURNER/AFL PHOTOS
MT SAYS: When the final siren sounds, I point my camera at players of significance – match-winners, captains and old foes – hoping to capture the few emotional seconds of jubilation or desolation. I’ve had many near misses, letdowns and blocked shots. For me, this shot is special, not for the jubilation or desolation, as it’s even hard to tell who won the match. It shows two of the great modern-day midfielders and warriors, Crows captain Rory Sloane and Swans co-captain Josh Kennedy, after being locked in a tackle for the ball, as they did in the first seconds of the match, only now the final siren would end the battle. The tackle turned into a hug after Sloane’s 200th game where Kennedy was instrumental in the Swans hanging on for a three-point win.
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BEST IMAGES OF 2020
BOMBER GROUNDED ESSENDON v CARLTON, ROUND 4, MCG
PIC: DARRIAN TRAYNOR/AFL PHOTOS
DT SAYS: Covering AFL for the brief time it was played in Melbourne in 2020 was a bizarre experience. A Saturday night game at the MCG between Essendon and Carlton would normally guarantee a massive crowd of perhaps 80,000-plus. On this occasion, the mighty MCG was empty. The edge and excitement seemed to be missing.
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Bombers defender Michael Hurley got himself all tangled up after taking an intercept mark. Often in a marking contest you are looking for the peak of the action. When the player is at the highest point in the air or when the ball is taken into the hands. On this occasion, it was a matter of staying with the action
as Hurley landed awkwardly. It appeared, almost in frustration, that rather than fall flat and protect the ball, he followed through with his momentum and flipped up on to his feet. Part of this motion left me with a frame that appears less than graceful from Hurley when in fact it was quite an athletic moment.
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OUT OF THE BLUE FREMANTLE v CARLTON, ROUND 12, OPTUS STADIUM
PIC: WILL RUSSELL/AFL PHOTOS
WR SAYS: In the dying moments of this tight contest, the Dockers were defending desperately. They looked to have done the job until a late bump handed the ball to Carlton on the final siren. Amid the raucous noise from disgruntled supporters, Jack Newnes moved a photographer and security guard on the perimeter to give him the room to kick. I used my second camera to take a series of images of him kicking a drop punt, and the subsequent jubilation as all the Carlton players came together to celebrate the win.
IN NO DANGER GEELONG v PORT ADELAIDE, ROUND 12, METRICON STADIUM PIC: MATT ROBERTS/GETTY IMAGES
MR SAYS: I find frames like this the luck of the draw. Often you see great breakaways, but they are too far upfield; or if it is in the right distance for the lens, players or umpires or even the odd trainer get in the way in the foreground. On this night, it was perfect as Cats star Patrick Dangerfield broke free from the tackle with no obstructions.
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BEST IMAGES OF 2020
IT’S A CRUEL GAME COLLINGWOOD v HAWTHORN, ROUND 6, GIANTS STADIUM
PIC: RYAN PIERSE/GETTY IMAGES
RP SAYS: You have to feel for big Jonathon Patton. So much talent but so little luck on the injury front. This was taken as he walked down the tunnel into the rooms after feeling his hamstring go early in the game. The tears started on the bench and you could tell he was shattered. The quality and sharpness are not as crisp as usual because it was dark looking down into the tunnel. I had to quickly up my camera ISO to 8000 while hand-holding a 600mm lens at a slow shutter speed.
CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR MELBOURNE v BRISBANE LIONS, ROUND 8, METRICON STADIUM PIC: CHRIS HYDE/GETTY IMAGES
CH SAYS: I had my camera pointed at Melbourne captain Max Gawn, who was waiting to go up for a mark. Suddenly, Lions forward Cam Rayner flew into the side of my frame and leaped high over Gawn. Rayner grabbed the ball for just a split second before dropping it. So close to one of the marks of the year!
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LASTING
AFL RECORD THE JEWELL IN THE TIGERS’ CROWN
GRAND FINAL
MEMORIES
The
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s he sits on the sunny poolside veranda of his home on the Mornington Peninsula, about an hour’s drive south of Melbourne, Tony Jewell takes a sip of tea and ponders the question. Did he ever think he was in danger of going to his grave as Richmond’s only living premiership coach? Jewell coached the Tigers to the 1980 premiership. The 80-point win over Collingwood was the most one-sided Grand Finals for years. But it was reflective of a season in which Jewell’s outfit was clearly the most dominant team in the competition. More premierships beckoned, and soon. Or so it seemed. Instead, Jewell had to wait 37 long years for that next Tiger flag. He now has Damien Hardwick for company. He doesn’t know Hardwick all that well. If anything, he keeps his distance from him and the current crop of brilliant Richmond footballers, believing that they, as
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If nothing else, Tony Jewell’s football career was eventful. An honest player – but good enough to play in a Richmond premiership side – he later became a Tigers premiership coach. He was also sacked twice by Richmond and once by St Kilda, where he pulled one of footy’s great stunts by watering the Moorabbin surface the night before a game. ASHLEY BROWNE caught up with a true character of our game.
he did back in his playing days, would enjoy nothing less than hearing a bunch of former players banging on about “back when I played”. He’s probably right. But then again, Jewell has some fantastic footy stories to tell. Jewell grew up in Caulfield, a Melbourne suburb better known for producing doctors, lawyers and accountants than champion footballers. He lived just a mongrel punt from Princess Park. He played his junior footy at Caulfield City where Carlton great Harold ‘Soapy’ Vallence and former Tiger ruckman Bill ‘Polly’ Perkins were among the coaches. Until Jewell came along, Milne McCooke, who played 13 games for St Kilda in the mid-1950s, was the best player to come out of Caulfield. “He was our absolute hero,” Jewell said. McCooke then moved to the VFA to play for Oakleigh and asked Jewell’s older brother Rick to join him. Tony tagged along as well. Rick lasted one night. Tony lasted three years, topping the goalkicking
one season and finishing fourth in the Liston Medal. Former Richmond coach Alby Pannam was in charge at Oakleigh and urged his old club to pursue Jewell. He was also on the radar of new Tigers coach Len Smith, who had noticed Jewell while coaching rival VFA club Coburg. However, Jewell was residentially bound to St Kilda, and when Richmond made its first overtures, he was invited by Saints coach Allan Jeans to play in a ‘Possibles’ versus ‘Probables’ practice game. He lined up on future triple Brownlow medallist Ian Stewart. “Jeans warned me he could play a bit,” Jewell chuckled. “I never saw much of the ball.” St Kilda cooled on him and the feeling was mutual. Jewell was preparing to return to Oakleigh when he ended up becoming part of the consideration for one of the biggest football deals of the time. Tom Bricker was a Caulfield timber merchant and best mates with Jewell’s father. AFL.com.au AFL RECORD 20
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AFL RECORD THE JEWELL IN THE TIGERS’ CROWN
LASTING GRAND FINAL
MEMORIES
LOCAL SHOWERS: Richmond coach Tony Jewell, who guided the Tigers to the 1980 flag (left), has admitted watering Moorabbin Oval the night before games when coach of St Kilda.
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AFL RECORD THE JEWELL IN THE TIGERS’ CROWN
His brother Don was president of VFA club Moorabbin, whose ground the Saints were in delicate negotiations to relocate to from the Junction Oval. The Saints were at pains not to upset Bricker, so when it was suggested they waive their residential claim over Jewell and allow him to join Richmond, they were happy to oblige. The Tigers got their man in time for the 1964 season and, several months later, the Saints got their ground. “It turned out well,” said Jewell with just a touch of understatement. “They (Richmond) were a cot case before Len Smith got there. But he became a genius of a coach.” Jewell made his debut for the Tigers that season and thrived under Smith, who was a man before his time. There were 10 golden rules under Smith – six when in possession of the ball and the rest without it – and as Jewell became interested in coaching later on, he took that philosophy with him. “He was the first coach in Australia to measure things,” Jewell said. “Instead of shouting at you, he would tell a story. ‘You are getting beaten because of this, this and this and here are the stats to prove it.’ “He was absolutely fabulous and doesn’t get anywhere near the credit he deserves.”
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INFLUENTIAL FIGURES: Jewell attributed much of his coaching philosophy to his first mentor at Richmond, Len Smith (pictured right above with brother Norm); Kevin Bartlett and Francis Bourke (right) were among the many superstars Jewell played with in the 1967 premiership; legendary administrator Graeme Richardson (below) ruled the Tigers during Jewell’s first stint as coach at Punt Rd.
Smith also had the foresight to build a game-plan suited to the MCG, which became the club’s home ground in 1965, and legendary Tiger football administrator Graeme Richmond was charged with finding the right type of players. Ill health meant Smith had to step down at the end of 1965 and in his place came Tom Hafey, who according to Jewell, “upped the ante with training”. “We were super, super fit,” Jewell said. “Len was a soft man and I’m not sure he could have taken us all the way. “But Tommy, together with Graeme Richmond, produced a really strong team. There were no issues. We just had to win. And we did.” The Tigers came home strongly in Hafey’s first season, winning six of their last eight games to miss the finals by half a game. They were at the MCG to watch St Kilda beat Collingwood by one point in the Grand Final. They realised it could have been them. “Once you have the belief, it doesn’t matter what the coach says, you know you’re good enough. We could have won it in 1966,” he said.
They only had to wait 12 more months, beating Geelong by nine points in the 1967 Grand Final to claim the club’s first flag in 24 years. Richmond’s success that season, as well as the years that followed, was based on a bunch of superstars such as Royce Hart, Kevin Bartlett, Bill Barrot and Francis Bourke. Kevin Sheedy soon followed. “That blueprint hasn’t changed all that much,” Jewell noted. “If you have six or seven superstars as Richmond has now, you can have some very good players around them. “The bottom six players would be really good players in poorer sides.” Richmond was a tough club and Graeme Richmond ruled it with an iron fist. “They called him the man with the grey flannel suit and he had a small office at the top of the stairs next to the board room,” Jewell said. “I think he was the only full-time administrator at the time. He’d come down that hallway after training and the minute that door opened, a deathly quiet would fall over them. “He’d walk around, point at blokes and say, ‘Hey ‘Cocko’, I need to see you in my office’.
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LASTING GRAND FINAL
MEMORIES “You never saw those blokes again. We joked he had a trap door in front of his desk. “He’d press a button and you’d fall through it and end up in the Yarra, with VFA clubs there waiting to fish you out,” he said with a laugh. Jewell then became one of them. He missed out on the 1969 premiership because of broken ribs and 12 months later was told by the Tigers that his 80-game career as a self-described “reliable defender” was over. Carlton and North Melbourne had a nibble at him, but he thought he would try coaching. And when the team of his childhood came knocking, he couldn’t resist. Caulfield had joined the VFA in 1962, first as a merged entity with Brighton and, from 1965, as a team in its own right. Many of Jewell’s mates were already there and a few more from Richmond – Eric Moore, Paddy Guinane, John Perry and Neville Crowe – would join him at Princess Park. “The acorn never falls far from the tree and it just had a nice feel about it,” he said about the second division club that lived in the shadow of neighbouring traditional VFA powers Oakleigh, Prahran and Sandringham. Within three years he had guided the Bears to their first and only VFA premiership when they beat Brunswick at Toorak Park. The year before they lost the Grand Final to unbeaten Geelong West by a goal. Jewell had been suspended the week before and still thinks the Bears would have sprung the upset had he played. Through Caulfield teammate Ray Ball (father of Luke), Jewell made contact with the legendary Norm Smith, who had coached Ball at South Melbourne. Jewell was invited to several lunches with the six-time premiership coach and gleaned plenty as he started out on his own coaching journey. “We discussed going crook at blokes and giving them a burst,” Jewell recalled. “He said, and I’ll never forget his words, ‘There’s definitely a place, but I only go crook at blokes if they’re breaking team rules. If they’re getting beaten by an opponent, then that’s my job to
FLAG HEROES: Barry Rowlings (above) was part of Richmond’s brilliant midfield in 1980, while Mick Malthouse (left) was a general in the Tigers’ defence.
tell him how to beat him or make a move, but if he breaks a team rule, I’ll tear strips off them.’ “But he also said that if you do ‘tear strips’ off them, you then put your arm around them, buy them a drink and tell them there’s nothing personal. “I could have been an alcoholic because I went crook at that many blokes then bought them beers.” The Bears were a renowned party club. They trained hard and played hard, but the Sunday night Bear Cave disco was the place to be seen, not just for VFA players but many from the VFL as well. “The social side was fabulous,” Jewell said. “And the fun we had after the game was fantastic. You looked forward to going there.” Jewell coached Caulfield into the 1976 VFA first division finals but then decided he had taken the club as far as he could. The friendships forged in his six years at the Bears remain as tight as any he has had in the game. Richmond then came calling and he returned to Punt Rd as reserves
I could have been an alcoholic because I went crook at so many blokes, then bought them a beer TONY JEWELL
coach under Barry Richardson, the new senior coach who faced the unenviable job of replacing Hafey, who sensationally quit once he realised he was about to be sacked. Jewell immediately won the 1977 reserves flag and among those in the team were Mark Lee, Emmett Dunne and Mick Malthouse, who would all play in the 1980 senior premiership team. But it was a difficult time for Richardson, with officials such as Graeme Richmond convinced the side had lost its trademark Tiger toughness. Jewell remembers Richmond sidling up to him from time to time and asking him to take physically-demanding training drills. “Cocko, we need to toughen these bastards up,” he would say. And when Jewell replaced the sacked Richardson after just two seasons, he knew in what direction he was expected to take the side. Jewell believed he was ready to be a senior coach and that he had served enough of an apprenticeship. “I can’t say I ever enjoyed coaching, but you take things on and do the best you can, but the good thing about Caulfield was that I made a lot of mistakes and they were very forgiving,” he said. “I often think that not enough blokes who coach in the AFL have been out and coached their own team.” AFL.com.au AFL RECORD 23
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LASTING
AFL RECORD THE JEWELL IN THE TIGERS’ CROWN The Tigers started slowly in 1979 and Jewell felt the heat. A screaming front page headline in the well-read Inside Football called for him to be replaced by Hart. But there was a feeling of optimism at the end of the season and Jewell used the results of a written survey of the playing group to galvanise them ahead of the 1980 season. It showed that the senior players, those with several premierships to their name, didn’t think the younger group was up to it, while the younger players felt they hadn’t earned the respect of the senior group. All it really needed was a “seize the moment” speech from Jewell to those younger players and the Tigers were away. An 11-game winning streak that started in round four was all they needed to realise they were the team to beat. At one stage, Jewell called them to a meeting and asked who they thought could beat them in a Grand Final. “I didn’t wait for an answer,” he said. “I could just tell from the looks on their faces.” Richmond had a brilliant midfield in 1980. Jewell had the luxury of rotating Geoff Raines, Barry Rowlings, Dale Weightman and Rob Wiley through the centre square and leaving Bartlett to run riot in the forward line. Bryan Wood was starring on the wing. Michael Roach kicked 112 goals. Jewell thought the backline might be his achilles heel, but he had Malthouse to keep things in check. “It was a very good side,” he said. “It was a simple game-plan. We were pretty tough and hard, but also very disciplined.” The Tigers lost to South Melbourne in the final game of the year and dropped to third place as a result. It led to a phone call from Graeme Richmond, who told Jewell, “Geez, Cocko, what have you done? You’ve blown your chance.” Jewell thought the Tigers were flat, but in an inspired move, he brought the effervescent Peter Welsh into the side. In the finals, Welsh took on and beat Geelong’s Michael Turner and Collingwood’s Ricky Barham, two of the best wingmen in the competition at the time,
24 AFL RECORD
LET THE PARTY BEGIN: Jewell joins players (clockwise from top left) Jim Jess, Emmett Dunne, Michael Roach and David Cloke and partners in the celebrations after the 1980 Grand Final; (right) Jewell clashes with Carlton coach ‘Percy’ Jones at quarter-time of the qualifying final at Waverley Park.
I just knew this mob couldn’t beat us JEWELL ON HIS CONFIDENCE AGAINST COLLINGWOOD IN THE 1980 GRAND FINAL
GRAND FINAL
MEMORIES
and as Jewell said, “it resurrected his career.” Richmond opened the 1980 finals series with a comfortable 42-point win over reigning premier Carlton at Waverley on a day best remembered for Jewell and Blues counterpart Peter ‘Percy’ Jones tangling during the quarter-time break. Well-known sports psychologist Rudi Webster was the cause of the altercation. Webster had crossed to the Tigers from Carlton the previous summer. As Jewell descended on to the ground to give his address, Webster tugged at his jacket and said Jones was having a go at him. Blues nerves were raw because Tiger Graeme Landy had knocked out Ken Sheldon and Jewell recalled that Jones kept at Webster and then approached him. “I just pushed him way. I wasn’t going to punch him,” he said. Jewell thought nothing more of it until the post-match media conference when it was all the journalists wanted to talk about. But he said that Webster played a big part in the 1980 premiership. “Jack Dyer thought it was all bulldust,” Jewell recalled with a laugh. “But I was always of the view that it would have been nice to have someone for a player to talk to if they were struggling with confidence. “You couldn’t say it to a coach because they would have thought you were soft.”
Bartlett torched the Blues with six goals. He kicked eight against Geelong in the second semi-final and another seven in the Grand Final. “His September was amazing,” Jewell said. “That whole year, he didn’t want to play half-forward because he thought he should still be playing on the ball. But it’s staggering how well he played.” Richmond went into the 1980 Grand Final oozing confidence. The Tigers considered Geelong as their only real threat and Jewell believes Collingwood overachieved in getting as far as it did. “I just knew this mob couldn’t beat us,” he said. “Their midfield was tiny and we had all these
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AFL RECORD THE JEWELL IN THE TIGERS’ CROWN giants. We were too quick, and their forward line wasn’t all that flash.” And Jewell knew his men would be fresh after the week off, while the Magpies, despite having won three knockout finals would still train heavily in the lead-up to the game. He remembers hearing they trained for two hours at Victoria Park on the Thursday night. “One of the criticisms I had of Tommy was that he would train us too hard,” Jewell said. “We had a session at the MCG and we basically just kicked the ball around.” The ‘Hafey versus Richmond narrative’ was played up by the media all week. “It wasn’t part of our build-up, but it might have been for Tommy,” Jewell said. “I don’t think he would have liked to lose to Richmond in a Grand Final.” Jewell’s pre-game confidence was justified. The game was over quickly and Richmond’s dominance was clear from the start. “Very early in the game, Jimmy Jess flew back with the ball and crashed into Billy Picken. He took the mark and kicked the goal,” he said. “I turned to my chairman of selectors Allan Cooke and said, ‘We can’t get beaten.’ “In one act, Jess just showed the rest of his teammates he’s going to die in order to win this game.” One of the tales out of the Grand Final was that Jewell didn’t have a celebratory drink until midnight. He said at the time, and he maintains it, that he wanted to have a clear memory of the jubilation and the joy in the hours that followed the game. But there is another side. Despite his pre-game confidence, Jewell felt anxious and took some medication to calm his nerves. That and an impromptu hit of tennis with some friends a few hours before the game did the trick. But he wanted all traces of the medication to disappear from his system before touching a drink. “I sincerely wanted to enjoy and remember the celebrations because, knowing Richmond and its history, I knew I might never be there again,” he said. And he was right. Incongruous as it might seem in this era when a premiership pretty much guarantees the coach a long-term
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ON THE MOVE: Less than a year after coaching a flag, Jewell’s time at Richmond was up and he moved to St Kilda, where he unearthed stars such as Tony Lockett (below).
LASTING GRAND FINAL
MEMORIES contract extension, Jewell finished up less than 12 months later. A 13-9 record and a seventh-place finish in 1981 sealed his fate. “Even when I was appointed, people who I knew pretty well around the club said as soon as Francis Bourke retired or wanted the job, he’d have it,” Jewell said. “Graeme Richmond was pretty adamant about that.” Jewell knew when Bourke retired midway through 1981 that the end was in sight, “but I thought there were enough credits in the bank to get one more year”. One evening not long after the end of the season, he was called and asked to come to the club. “There’s only one reason why you go to a meeting at Richmond at six o’clock,” he said. Instead of driving to Punt Rd, he rang close friend and Herald journalist Bruce Matthews and gave him the exclusive story of his ‘resignation’ as coach. Jewell wasn’t out of footy for long. He helped out at North Melbourne for a period in 1983 and by 1984 was coaching St Kilda. Ian Stewart was his weekly tennis partner and millionaire businessman and Saints president Lindsay Fox wanted him to return to the club as general manager. Stewart agreed to on the proviso that Jewell be his coach. In his time at Moorabbin, St Kilda successfully challenged the VFL player rules to bring Swans pair Silvio Foschini and Paul Morwood to the club and unearthed young gems Tony Lockett and Danny Frawley. Of Lockett, who became the greatest full-forward in League history, Jewell said it was a big ask for such a young player to line up at full-forward every week. “He was a bit moody as he was feeling his way, but he could seriously play,” he said “I had no success at St Kilda. We had no money and every second week I got threatened. Lindsay didn’t want me there. I couldn’t see any light at the end of the tunnel.” Jewell coached through 1983 and planned to finish up at the end of 1984. Instead he was sacked by Fox with four games remaining. But no discussion of Jewell’s time at St Kilda is complete without asking the obvious question. Did the Saints deliberately water the middle of the ground at Moorabbin?
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LASTING
AFL RECORD THE JEWELL IN THE TIGERS’ CROWN
“Yeah, we did it twice. It was ‘Stewy’s’ idea,” he said, laughing at the memory of standing in the middle of Moorabbin in the dead of night, hoses at the ready and a can of beer in their hands. The second time they tried it was ahead of a game against powerful Carlton. “It was freezing cold and I said to Stewy there has to be a better way,” Jewell said. “I knew there was a box with a computer control. So we got out a cigarette lighter and we’re looking for it while the Saints Disco was going on upstairs. “We’re pushing all these buttons and we couldn’t get it to start. So we watered it ourselves and just after we finished, every sprinkler in the joint came on. “It was like a swimming pool the next day and we beat Carlton!” It might be Jewell’s favourite footy story. He recalls irate Blues powerbroker Wes Lofts seeking him out afterwards, cursing wildly and demanding an explanation. “Local showers,” is all Jewell would say. Jewell would coach again and it is one of footy’s less-known sliding doors moments. Late in 1985, Bob Rose was coaching Collingwood for the second time and approached Jewell to be his assistant with a view to then taking over as senior coach. “You’re the unanimous choice. We don’t want someone who hasn’t coached before,” Rose told Jewell.
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“We’ve spoken to Leigh Matthews but we don’t think he’s ready.” Jewell immediately agreed to take the job, yet within minutes the phone rang. It was John Robertson, a Richmond board member, telling him that the club had just sacked Paul Sproule as coach and that his old job was his for the taking. Jewell explained to Robertson that he had just made a verbal commitment to Collingwood, but within an hour, the entire Tiger board was on his doorstep apologising for sacking him the first time and pleading with him to return to Tigerland. “So I rang Bobby, who was a ripper bloke, and he totally understood. He wished me luck and said they’d appoint Leigh,” he said. “The rest is history. Leigh won a premiership and I won a wooden spoon.” The Richmond that Jewell walked back into in 1986 was a far cry from the mighty and powerful club he played for and coached. “No money and no players,” he said in what was becoming a familiar refrain. “Because we had been so powerful, I believed we could get our way out of it. “I was honoured to coach them again, but we’d lost so many good players and you look back at it now and ask how could we replace them in such a short period of time.” Jewell was coach during the brief and inglorious period when colourful businessman Alan Bond was club president.
GRAND FINAL
MEMORIES
YELLOW AND BLACK: Still a staunch supporter of the Tigers, Jewell had two separate stints as Richmond coach, as well as serving as chairman of selectors under various coaches.
“He used to call me Bruce. There was Dale Wineman (Weightman) and Bruce Jewell,” he said. “When you look back and think of the people you meet in football, some were quite extraordinary.” The Tigers were at rock bottom, with no money to secure players and no real appetite or knowledge to attack the draft, which was just coming into the game. “They became dinosaurs very quickly. They were scared of the supporter group, scared of losing sponsors and the committee was scared of being tipped out, so there was no continuity of thinking,” he said. “In the end I went to (president) Neville Crowe and said we’re going nowhere here. I knew ‘KB’ (Bartlett) wanted the job and would be better for the membership. I’d had enough.” Enough of coaching at least. Jewell later served as chairman of selectors under various coaches, including Frawley. He noted that players such as Brendon Gale, Nick Daffy, Matthew Richardson and Wayne Campbell all took losing really hard. “They didn’t want Richmond to be down. I always thought one of these four blokes would lead us out of the wilderness,” he said. And it was Gale, as chief executive of the Tigers since 2010, who did just that and Jewell has enjoyed every minute of the Richmond renaissance, albeit from a distance. “When I first came to Richmond it was 25 years since our last premiership and we would get Jack Dyer shoved down our throats,” he said. “You’d get sick of it, so I’ve had hardly anything to do with Hardwick. “What he has done for Richmond has been remarkable – but he doesn’t need people like me in his ear.”
FACT FILE Leigh (Matthews) TONY JEWELL Born: December 8, 1943 won a Recruited from: Oakleigh (VFA) Round 2, 1964, v Essendon premiership Debut: Height: 185cm Weight: 83kg and I won Games: 80 Goals: 16 a wooden Honours: premiership side 1967. Coaching record: Richmond spoon 1979-81; 1986-87 (113 games, u
JEWELL ON KNOCKING BACK THE COLLINGWOOD COACHING JOB TO RETURN TO RICHMOND
53 wins, 59 losses, 1 draw; premiership 1980); St Kilda 1983-84 (40 games, 9 wins, 31 losses).
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AFL RECORD COPING WITH COVID
COPING WITH
C VID There will never be an AFL season quite like 2020 as COVID-19 brought the game to its knees. When it returned after 81 days, nothing seemed like it was before. And the game might never be the same again. PICTURES: MICHAEL WILLSON, DYLAN BURNS & PAUL KANE WORDS: ASHLEY BROWNE
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u KEEPING BOUNDARIES
The way football was covered by the huge media throng was significantly altered in 2020. Social distancing was the key and enterprising TV producers came up with new ways for their boundary riders to remain COVID-safe while still interviewing players and coaches. Radio and TV commentators called most of their games off the TV from back in their studios, while many journalists covered games and wrote the stories from the comfort of their living room couches. Zoom media conferences became the primary mechanism for interviewing players and coaches.
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u REMOTE CONTROL
The AFL shut its Docklands headquarters within days of the suspension of the season in late March and the game was run remotely thereafter, with roughly 20 per cent of AFL staffers who were not stood down for the season all working from home. By the middle of the year, a steady migration to Queensland was underway and by late September when the home and away season ended, it was estimated that more than 2000 people with some attachment to the game – players, coaches, officials and their families – were living in the Sunshine State.
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u KEEPING TOUCH
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Once the game was shut down in late March, AFL players spent the next two months trying to keep themselves fit amid strict rules that restricted them to training with just one other player. Many players returned to their home state to be with family, while others such as North Melbourne’s rising star Tarryn Thomas went bush and got his footy fix among the hay bales alongside the horses and vines at Willow Lake Winery in the Yarra Valley.
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AFL RECORD COPING WITH COVID
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COPING WITH
C VID u PRIVATE GATHERING
It was touch and go whether the season would start at all as COVID-19 loomed larger with every passing day. In the end, the AFL got one round away at the urging of the government and health authorities. But it was a jarring experience, with only players, coaches, officials and essential media and stadium staff allowed inside the venues. The games and their broadcasts were soulless affairs and, if there is one truth from the season that was reinforced, it is that there is no footy without the fans.
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32 AFL RECORD
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u THE FOOTY CAPITAL
Once the second COVID-19 wave hit Victoria, the game moved en masse to the relative safety of Queensland, where the game was run and won for the rest of the season. Clubs trained separately, but sometimes even together, in the hubs and it was from there that Gillon McLachlan announced the Gabba as the Grand Final location. But the MCG, as was the case with the lone bugler on Anzac Day, was never far from our thoughts.
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AFL RECORD COPING WITH COVID u THE NEW NORMAL
The game was fundamentally different in 2020. Seventeen rounds instead of 22. Sixteen-minute quarters instead of 20. Two ‘Footy Frenzy’ blocks that featured games every day of the week, including Tuesday, Thursday and Friday double-headers. Friendly scratch matches (with players regularly changing teams between quarters) instead of fair dinkum state league games for those not playing senior football. Football club staff members and directors, unless they had match-day specific roles, could not attend games until late in the season once they had cleared quarantine. All sorts of other procedural requirements came into force. Players not selected to play either couldn’t attend games or had to remain in the stands if they did.
PIC: MICHAEL WILLSON/AFL PHOTOS
No handshakes, no post-game hugs and no linking arms while singing the club song. Mask wearing and social distancing were mandatory. Cardboard cut-outs replaced actual fans in the stands. Those attending games had to vouch for their health and undertake mandatory temperature tests before being permitted to enter AFL venues. And until we get a vaccine, we can likely expect more of the same in 2021. @hashbrowne
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34 AFL RECORD
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0
AFL RECORD ALL IN THE FAMILY TRANSPORTING
YOU BACK
IN TIME 1970 GRAND FINAL
TH
AN
N I V E R SA R Y
SCALING
FOOTY’S
GREATEST
MOUNTAIN
Fifty years on, the 1970 Grand Final stands as a high point in the game’s history. It had everything – from one of the greatest marks of all time, to the biggest half-time comeback in a Grand Final – as Carlton clawed its way back from a 44-point deficit to run down arch rival Collingwood. There were heroes aplenty, including Brent Crosswell, who now keeps a low profile in Hobart. In his day, he was a star with more than a touch of flair and flamboyance. He relives that grand occasion with HOWARD KOTTON.
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GRAND FINAL , September 26, 1970, MCG Carlton 0.3 Collingwood 4.8
12.5 17.9 (111) 13.16 14.17 (101)
BEST: Carlton – Jesaulenko, Crosswell, McKay, Silvagni, Robertson, Hopkins. Collingwood – Dunne, Price, Tuddenham, McKenna, W. Richardson, Greening. GOALS: Carlton – Hopkins 4, Jesaulenko 3, Crosswell 2, Gallagher 2, Nicholls 2, Walls 2, Jackson, Silvagni. Collingwood – McKenna 6, Dunne 2, Thompson 2, Tuddenham 2, Britt, W. Richardson. Umpire: D. Jolley. Crowd: 121,696 CARLTON B: B. Gill, K. Hall, V. Waite HB: J. Goold, D. McKay, B. Mulcair C: G. Crane, I. Robertson, P. Pinnell HF: B. Crosswell, R. Walls, S. Jackson F: P. Jones, A. Jesaulenko, B. Thornley R: J. Nicholls (c), S. Silvagni, A. Gallagher Reserves: N. Chandler, T. Hopkins Coach: R. Barassi COLLINGWOOD B: C. Tully, J. Clifton, P. Eakins HB: D. O’Callaghan, T. Potter, L. Adamson C: R. Dean, B. Price, J. Greening HF: M. Richardson, L. Thompson, C. Britt F: R. Dunne, P. McKenna, W. Richardson R: G. Jenkin, T. Waters (c), D. Tuddenham Reserves: B. Heard, R. Watt Coach: Bob Rose
A
t half-time, Carlton was facing footy’s equivalent of climbing Mt Everest, a mountain that appeared too steep to overcome in a mere 60 minutes. This was mission impossible for the Blues. Champagne corks were being popped among the Collingwood faithful in a record crowd of 121,696, confident that the Magpies’ 14th premiership was a formality. Heroes in navy blue and white were required and on this sun-soaked day, Carlton coach Ron Barassi assumed the role of Sir Edmund Hillary, leading a mission supported by his dedicated, determined and disciplined 20 Tenzing Norgays. Brent Tasman Crosswell was one of those Norgays who in no small way changed the course of football history. Fifty years on, the 1970 Grand Final remains a high watermark – arguably the game’s greatest premiership decider. Early this century, Carlton key defender David McKay was adjudged by a panel of experts assembled by the AFL Record to be best-on-ground. But it would have been a close call. While speedy blond forward pocket Ted Hopkins’ influence was undeniable with his four-goal contribution, Crosswell was most worthy of consideration. When the Blues were struggling in the first half, the brilliant midfielder nicknamed ‘Tiger’ helped keep them afloat. He kicked his first goal during Carlton’s incredible seven-goal blitz in the first 10 minutes of the third quarter and then came his shot at glory to put his team in front for the first time late in the final term. Awarded a free kick after being taken in a high tackle by Collingwood star Des Tuddenham, Crosswell had a set shot from about 35m out at the city end. “The wind was going slightly right to left and I remember thinking I needed to kick it towards
4.5 10.13
the right goalpost,” he told the AFL Record. “The kick was slightly right of the goalpost and the wind just took it through, thankfully. “We’d come back from a nightmare first half when the game was completely beyond our grasp to winning an impossible Grand Final. “Even today, 44 points behind at half-time is a lot to come back from.” While all seemed lost at the major interval, Crosswell recalled how tired several Magpies, notably Len Thompson, looked and mentioned it to teammates in the dressing rooms. Despite the miserable scoreline, Barassi remained composed and clear in his message about how the Blues could somehow revive their fortunes. “He wasn’t screaming at us and that had a steadying effect,” Crosswell said. “You don’t want your leader to be in a state. “It was a fantastic game ... a position game, a game of various colourful physical types. “Think of the polarities between Ross ‘Twiggy’ Dunne and ‘Big Nick’ (John Nicholls), a feature that gave the game more meaning because it was more intrinsically dramatic than the homogenous forms and robotic predictability of contemporary football, yet its speed anticipated the modern game.
MAN FOR THE MOMENT: Brent Crosswell puts the Blues in front for the first time in the match with a set-shot goal late in the final term of the 1970 Grand Final; (above left) the half-time scoreboard.
It was like being sentenced to be executed and then given a reprieve BRENT CROSSWELL
“It was certainly a great thing to be a part of – in a sense it was like being sentenced to be executed and then being given a reprieve.” In the painful aftermath for the Magpies, there was insult to injury – Crosswell had almost been a Collingwood player. “I was approached by Collingwood secretary Peter Lucas a week after signing with Carlton, so it was a close thing,” he said. Crosswell was 20 and playing in his third consecutive Grand Final since arriving in Melbourne in 1968. In his first Grand Final against Essendon two years earlier, the centreman from Campbell Town in Tasmania played an important role in Carlton’s drought-breaking premiership, quelling the influence of classy Bomber John Ellis. Despite carrying a broken collarbone into the game which prevented him tackling, Crosswell outpointed Ellis and kicked one of the Blues’ seven goals. In the premiership decider against Richmond the following season, the Blues faced a hurdle that ultimately proved insurmountable. Trailing the Tigers by 22 points at the main interval, they mounted a courageous third-quarter comeback to lead by four points at the final change. AFL.com.au AFL RECORD 37
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AFL RECORD BRENT CROSSWELL
But it was in vain as the powerful Tigers stormed home to claim victory. Was it about to happen again to the Blues? Crosswell copped widespread criticism from inside and outside Carlton for his performance in 1969 and he was determined to turn that around. “I felt the criticism was so unfair, so to come back in 1970 and play really well against St Kilda (in the preliminary final) and then Collingwood, that vindicated me,” he said. “I redeemed myself and that was very important for me.” The Blues trailed the Magpies by 17 points at the final change as Barassi moved among his troops imploring them for one last effort. Nonetheless the coach said he was proud of them regardless of the result. This was Barassi at the peak of his powers – a ruthless master tactician who knew how to elicit the best out of his men – and he achieved the desired result. His players believed they could, and would, prevail and failing in a second successive Grand Final was not an option.
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It is often said that opposites attract and that was the nature of the at-times tempestuous relationship between Crosswell and Barassi. Barassi had lured Crosswell across Bass Strait after he was recommended to Carlton by former Blues wingman Berkley Cox and they enjoyed playing chess together when not in the heat of battle on the football field. After falling out with Carlton over his rejected demands for a new contract worth $5600 a year, Crosswell joined forces with Barassi again at North Melbourne, where they combined in another two premierships, and later at Melbourne for another two seasons. Crosswell was voted best-on-ground in the 1975 Grand Final, the Kangaroos’ first AFL/VFL premiership, in the AFL Record’s 2001 poll of pre-Norm Smith medallists (1965-78) and was a member of the Roos’ team that triumphed over Collingwood in 1977. Crosswell said Barassi taught him not to complain too much and not to make excuses. “Early on we got on pretty well, but after I turned 20 he was more critical of me because I was fully mature then,” Crosswell said.
FLAMBOYANT: Crosswell, pictured at a Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame function in 2012, was the ultimate entertainer and played at three clubs in his 222-game career. PHOTO: NEWSPIX
He was a bit of an enigma, just marched to a different drum TEAMMATE DAVID McKAY ON CROSSWELL
“I didn’t like being attacked in the press by Barassi, especially when I couldn’t respond.” Crosswell was an entertainer – flamboyant, spectacular in the air, quick-thinking and versatile. In his early years at Carlton, he was in the centre, but as his body developed he was used as a key forward and defender. Barassi often used him to plug gaps, much to his chagrin. “I was in every position, but that used to annoy me. It upset my game,” he said. “I might be playing centre half-back on an opponent and I was thinking how I was going to deal with this bloke. I was working on him psychologically, not just physically.” While he was forced to adhere to team rules as an elite footballer, that did not always sit well with him as an individual and he admitted there were times when he found the game to be boring and tedious. To liven up proceedings, he developed a habit of throwing the ball up in the air after taking a big mark in front of goal. Crosswell said he was heavily influenced by former star Richmond centreman Bill Barrot, who later briefly became a teammate at Carlton in 1971. “He was a bit of a showman and I liked that,” Crosswell said. “It’s not easy to do that in Australian culture. “There is a premium placed on team play and being unpretentious, not showing off.” Crosswell fitted in well at Carlton with a cross-section of different characters coming together under Barassi. The Tasmanian wasn’t your average footballer on or off the field. “As a person he was a bit of an enigma – not unfriendly but he just marched to a different drum,” McKay said. McKay was disappointed when Crosswell departed Carlton in his prime in early 1975 and went across town to join Barassi at Arden St. “His relationship with Ron Barassi appeared to be quite strong in football terms and it was not surprising to see Brent follow Ron to both North Melbourne and Melbourne,” McKay said. For much of his time with the Blues, Crosswell was an economics student at Monash University, who was outspoken in his opposition to the Vietnam War.
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TRANSPORTING
YOU BACK
IN TIME At one stage he would ride a motorcycle to and from games and it almost had deadly consequences after a match at Princes Park (now Ikon Park). He was riding through Melbourne’s CBD late at night when his bike skidded in the prevailing cold, wet conditions and was almost hit by a truck at an intersection. “I should’ve been dead,” he said. “It was such a dumb thing to do. Now I don’t like people riding motorbikes. “I was tired, I put the foot on the brake and the back wheel locked. “I missed the truck by no more than an inch. “The truck driver remained at the intersection for a long time – he would’ve been surprised that a Carlton footballer had nearly killed himself.” On another occasion in what he described as an act of stupidity, he smoked hash one day before playing at Glenferrie Oval. After this was reported in a small publication in Carlton, it is reputed playwright David Williamson modelled the main character Geoff Hayward in his production The Club on Crosswell. Crosswell generally reserved his best for finals, relishing playing in front of packed houses.
UNIQUE BOND: Crosswell shared a tempestuous relationship with coach Ron Barassi (above left), and after two premierships together at Carlton, followed him to North Melbourne, where they combined for two more flags.
McKay ranks him alongside another former premiership teammate Wayne Johnston as Carlton’s greatest big-occasion players. “As a footballer he (Crosswell) had enormous talent. He was very athletic and had great reflexes,” McKay said. Surprisingly the MCG wasn’t Crosswell’s favourite ground – “I hated it because the surface was a mess with little grass and
Only a Driven Man Delivers on His Promise
for 34 Years.
full of undulations that made the bounce unpredictable” – and preferred to play at the Blues’ spiritual home of Princes Park, where he made his debut against Geelong in round one, 1968. “Princes Park was a most beautiful oval in the most beautiful spot – one of the great gems of Melbourne,” he said. “It could hold 50,000 and it was just exquisite.”
Albert Cenusa is no ordinary transport company MD. Along with his family, transport is his life. Local transport, Interstate transport, Taxi trucks and 3PL warehousing - they’re in his blood. And so is a relentless desire to deliver better service and happier customers. If you need AQIS, HACCP, dairy or organic certified transport and warehousing, call 9587 4433 or visit statetransport.com.au. Albert and State Transport are ready to deliver for you too. It’s a promise.
AFL.com.au AFL RECORD 39
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AFL RECORD BRENT CROSSWELL For 30 years, Crosswell has lived in his home state, unable to return to the mainland as a long-term sufferer of Meniere’s Disease – an inner-ear disorder that causes severe vertigo, hearing loss and hallucinations in its worst form. A retired schoolteacher, Crosswell keeps himself busy in South Hobart and takes care of his 95-year-old father Darrell, tucking him into bed every night. He could not be at Marvel Stadium two years ago when he was inducted into Carlton’s Hall of Fame and, even if the 50-year celebrations of the 1970 triumph had not been cancelled because of COVID-19, he would have been forced to remain in Tasmania. While acknowledging the game’s place in history, Crosswell remains unsure if it was a change for the better. “I think there were people who recognised that handball had a more prominent part to play in the game,” he said. “I liked the marking game, the variety of kicks. “I liked the position game – players who played in different positions had a clear identity. “It clarified the game and made it easier to follow.” Any analysis of the reasons behind Carlton’s incredible comeback generally starts with Alex Jesaulenko’s iconic mark over Graeme ‘Jerker’ Jenkin, Barassi’s inspired decision to bring on reserve Hopkins to replace Bert Thornley and the Blues’ creative use of handball which proved to be a game-changer not only in this contest but for the future. But there were other factors just as pivotal. While ‘Jezza’s’ grab late in the second quarter lifted the Blues’ spirits, star full-forward Peter McKenna and Tuddenham collided heavily earlier in the term, leaving the Magpies spearhead severely concussed. Contrary to a commonly-held belief, it wasn’t the first time Barassi’s Blues had used handball as an offensive weapon. They had trialled the winning formula at Glenferrie Oval six weeks before as they overpowered Hawthorn. “I didn’t pay too much attention to the handball thing because I had other things on my mind,” Crosswell said.
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BRENT CROSSWELL Born: August 8, 1950 Recruited from: Campbell Town (Tas) Debut: Round 1, 1968, v Geelong Height: 188cm Weight: 86kg Playing career: 1968-82 Games: 222 (Carl 98, NM 76, Melb 48) Goals: 257 (Carl 92, NM 108, Melb 57) Player honours: Melb 2nd best and fairest 1981; NM leading goalkicker 1977, Melb leading goalkicker 1980; Carl premiership sides 1968, 1970; NM premiership sides 1975, 1977; Tas Football Hall of Fame (icon) 2012; Carl Hall of Fame inductee 2018. Brownlow Medal: career votes 25
A PAINFUL WATCH u A year ago, Peter McKenna
summoned the courage to watch the second half of the 1970 Grand Final for the first time. McKenna had no recollection of the final two quarters – and admitted he felt sick watching. “I don’t remember half-time, I don’t remember playing the second half of the game,” the former champion Collingwood full-forward said. “I can’t remember the function on the Saturday night or how I got home. It’s weird.” As it had done in its previous three encounters during the season, hot favourite Collingwood reigned supreme in a sublime first-half display. The well-oiled Magpie machine was at full throttle and should have led by more than 44 points but for inaccuracy in front of goal. Ross ‘Twiggy’ Dunne, whose father Frank had died five days before the game, was marking
“I always handballed more than most other players in the team, usually five a game.” Crosswell speaks with pride as he recalls his involvement in a “unique, extraordinary game”, describing his post-match emotions as “relief, amazement and exultation”. “Every game of football at that level takes an enormous amount out of you,” he said. “You go through the injuries, the tribulations of the whole year. “When you go through the finals and win (the Grand Final), it’s a tremendous feeling of self-justification – a statement of your worth in a way.” McKay said Crosswell’s Grand Final performance was integral to the Blues’ triumph. “I think he would agree it was one of his biggest games, if not his biggest, on one of the League’s biggest occasions,” McKay said. The Blues had scaled the mountain many thought unthinkable and planted their 10th flag on the summit. Like Hillary and Norgay who were the first to climb the world’s highest peak, Barassi, Crosswell and his 19 teammates had created history and changed the game forever.
everything, Des Tuddenham was crashing through packs and the Richardson brothers, Wayne and Max, John Greening and Barry Price were setting up a plethora of opportunities for McKenna. But the game took a turn when McKenna was flattened by Tuddenham in a marking contest during the second quarter. McKenna, who had booted five goals in the first half, added only one after the major interval. “Today I would never have been allowed back on the ground,” he said. “‘Tuddy’ had hit me very, very hard. “In the third quarter, I got a handball from Max Richardson and wildly kicked at goal from 35m out. “I scored a bloody point, Max can remember it, and I actually apologised to him on the phone recently.” In an interesting twist, McKenna finished his distinguished AFL/VFL career with Carlton, playing 11 games with the Blues in 1977. But the pain still lingers for McKenna and his Collingwood
teammates from the memorable 1970 encounter. “None of us have ever got over it,” he said. “You can make all of the excuses you like, but when you’re that far in front, you should win the game.”
HOWARD KOTTON
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Only a Driven Man
Delivers on His Promise
for 34 Years.
Albert Cenusa is no ordinary transport company MD. Along with his family, transport is his life. Local transport, Interstate transport, Taxi trucks and 3PL warehousing - they’re in his blood. And so is a relentless desire to deliver better service and happier customers. It’s what many companies may say, but for Albert it’s personal.
It’s what gets him moving each morning. And drives his passion for transporting specialised and timesensitive goods. To some that’s obsessive. To Albert it comes naturally. You might say it’s a state of mind. One that his loyal clients have been enjoying for over 34 years. If you need AQIS, HACCP, dairy or organic certified transport
and warehousing, call 9587 4433 or visit statetransport.com.au. Albert and State Transport are ready to deliver for you too. It’s a promise.
State Transport Logistics Pty Ltd - Taxi Trucks. 3PL Warehousing. Production line, Re-works and Pick & Pack. Ph: 03 9587 4433 Web: www.statetransport.com.au
AFL RECORD THE GAMES THAT MATTERED MOST
Not every game ends with just the four premiership points or, as is the case this year, a shiny premiership cup for the winner. There have been games that have changed the way football has been played and charted a new history for the sport. ASHLEY BROWNE has a stab at identifying those games that should be remembered for more than just the final score. ROUND 1, 1902
Geelong 11.12 (78) d Carlton 6.4 (40) at Princes Park. u The significance: It was the first game of a non-descript season for the Blues, who finished the year in sixth place. But they created history, with Jack Worrall listed on the team sheet as the first ‘coach’ in League history. It was a radical move. Until then it was the domain of the captain to work out the tactics, make the moves and gee up the team. Worrall, who played VFA football for Fitzroy and 11 Test cricket matches for Australia, was also a noted sports journalist. He masterminded a premiership hat-trick for the Blues between 1906-08 and then crossed to Essendon where he took charge of two more flag-winning teams in 1911 and 1912. u The upshot: Not until Collingwood in 1904 did another club follow in Carlton’s footsteps in appointing a coach, but by 1911 every club had one. Coaches have since become among the most influential and iconic identities in the game.
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BLUE HEAVEN: Four-goal hero Ted Hopkins is chaired from the ground after Carlton’s 1970 “handball, handball, handball” Grand Final comeback that changed the way the game was played.
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AFL RECORD THE GAMES THAT MATTERED MOST
PRELIMINARY FINAL, 1930
Geelong 12.19 (91) d Collingwood 9.11 (65) at the MCG. u The significance: Between 1902 and 1930, the finals were structured according to what was known as the ‘Argus System’. Essentially, it meant that if the team that finished on top of the ladder won its first final, but then lost its second final, it held the right of challenge to play what became known as the ‘Grand Final’ against the team that had knocked it over the week before. The 18-0 Collingwood team of 1929 needed to exercise that right of challenge against Richmond after a shock 62-point finals loss to the Tigers. The Magpies won the rematch, and the flag, by 29 points. Geelong then beat Collingwood by 26 points in what history recorded as the preliminary final the following season. Had the Pies won, it would have been the Grand Final and the season would have been finished. Instead, both teams traipsed back to the MCG the following week and it was Collingwood that prevailed by 30 points to win the premiership. But the end of the season was unsatisfactory. There was no sense of finality. u The upshot: The McIntyre Finals System was introduced in 1931 and with it came the surety that the final game of the year would always be the Grand Final and would decide the premiership.
DECONGESTION: The centre diamond was introduced in 1971, followed by the centre square in 1975, making play at ball-ups quicker and cleaner; Alex Jesaulenko (above right) hauls in his iconic mark in Carlton’s come-from-behind Grand Final win over Collingwood in 1970.
GRAND FINAL, 1970
Carlton 17.9 (111) d Collingwood 14.17 (101) at the MCG. u The significance: Collingwood led by 44 points at half-time. The backslapping had already started in the Magpies rooms, while next door, Carlton coach Ron Barassi delved deep into his bag of tricks. He made a host of positional changes, the most famous was moving Ted Hopkins to the forward pocket. But most notably, he told his players their only avenue to get back into the game was to “handball, handball, handball”. The result was spectacular and historic. The Blues came back from the dead to win by 10 points in one of the greatest Grand Finals, with Hopkins kicking four goals. u The upshot: Modern football was said to have been born that afternoon and using handball as an
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Modern football was said to be born that afternoon
attacking weapon to set up the play soon became part of every club’s arsenal. The legend of Barassi also grew and for the next 20 years there was no greater figure in the game.
GRAND FINAL, 1971
Hawthorn 12.10 (82) d St Kilda 11.9 (75) at the MCG. u The significance: For the second successive year, the premiership side overhauled a large deficit to win the game, with the Hawks coming from 20 points behind at three-quarter time to claim the flag. It was one of the toughest, no, make that one of the dirtiest flag-deciders ever played, but the other notable aspect was that it became a tipping point for the aesthetics of the game. Hawthorn’s game-plan was basic – congregate as many players as possible at centre bounces in order to clear space for mercurial spearhead Peter Hudson. Given that in the early ’70s most grounds turned into boggy mud heaps, the congested play in the middle of the ground didn’t do much for the look and feel of the game. Change came slowly, but the events of 1971 caused the League to move, and in 1973, a centre diamond (sides 45m long) was
introduced with only four players per side allowed inside it at each centre bounce. u The upshot: Centre bounce play became quicker and cleaner. The centre diamond became a centre square in 1975 and there would be no changes to starting positions at centre bounces until 2019 when the six-six-six rule was introduced.
ROUND 4, 1977
Collingwood 17.24 (126) d Richmond 14.16 (100) at the MCG. u The significance: After winning four flags in 11 seasons as coach of the Tigers, Tom Hafey was sacked at the end of 1976. It was the start of nearly 40 years of tumult and underachievement at Richmond. Hafey was quickly snapped up as coach of arch rival Collingwood, which was coming off its first wooden spoon. In a smart piece of fixturing, the League scheduled the first match the following season between the clubs, a Tigers home game at the MCG, on Anzac Day. The build-up was enormous and 92,436 were there, the third-biggest crowd for the year at the famous old ground. Kevin Sheedy played for Richmond that afternoon and the
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occasion planted a seed in his ever-fertile mind. That seed came to bloom in 1995 when Sheedy, by then a three-time Essendon premiership coach and one of the most influential people in the game, together with Collingwood and the Victorian branch of the RSL, convinced the AFL to create an annual Anzac Day blockbuster between the Bombers and Magpies. u The upshot: The first game was a classic and ended in a draw in front of 94,825 fans at a spellbound MCG. Thousands more were locked out. Since then, with the exception of this year, the Pies and the Dons have had the day to themselves in Melbourne and it has become the biggest home and away game of the year, attracting near-capacity crowds and an enormous TV audience. The game and the lead-up is credited with helping contemporary Australia reconnect with the symbolism of the day and the history of the Anzacs.
ROUND 10, 1979
Carlton 18.15 (123) d Collingwood 16.11 (107) at Princes Park. u The significance: This game is best remembered for rugged Collingwood defender Stan Magro’s shirtfront of Carlton captain-coach Alex Jesaulenko.
In 1979 it was still considered an acceptable part of the game, even though Jesaulenko was concussed. The thing about that clash was that so many people claim to have been there to see it. And they probably were. Somehow, 46,106 fans crammed their way into Carlton’s famous old ground and most of them were squeezed into the outer. Fans without reserved seats were queuing from early in the morning and the ‘house full’ sign went up before half-time of the reserves game that preceded it. It was a cracking contest, but not a great viewing experience for those in the outer, with amenities such as food and drink outlets and the toilets hard to reach. And so heated up a discussion about the merits of the suburban grounds and whether there was an appetite to spend money to increase their capacity. There was talk of moving big-drawing games to the MCG and VFL Park. But with six games in Melbourne every Saturday, no Friday night games and Sunday football not permitted, there was little the League could do to relieve the squeeze. u The upshot: Ground rationalisation began in earnest in 1985 when Fitzroy moved to Victoria Park and North Melbourne moved home games to the MCG. The transfer of big games to the MCG and Waverley began the following year. It took until 2005, when the Blues played their last game at Princes Park, before the suburban venues shut down for good.
The demand was there. Footy needed to go national. u The upshot: South Melbourne moved to Sydney in 1982 and became known as the Sydney Swans. Brisbane and West Coast came into the competition in 1987 and by 1990 the VFL became known as the AFL. Adelaide joined in 1991, Fremantle in 1995, Port Adelaide in 1997, Gold Coast in 2011 and GWS the following year. The game’s national footprint was almost complete.
PRELIMINARY FINAL, 1979
ON THE MOVE: Richmond premiership coach Tom Hafey (left) led arch enemy Collingwood to victory over the Tigers in his first game with the Magpies in 1977, while South Melbourne became the first club to relocate when it moved north to become the Sydney Swans in 1982 (below).
Collingwood 18.14 (122) d North Melbourne 13.17 (95) at VFL Park. u The significance: The Pies knocked the Kangaroos out of the finals, meaning Ron Barassi and his men would be watching the Grand Final from the stands for the first time in six years. But the talking point was the ruck tussle between North’s Gary Dempsey and Collingwood’s Peter Moore. Both were champions of the game. As a Footscray player in 1975, Dempsey won the Brownlow Medal, while Moore collected the first of his two Brownlows two days after this particular game.
ROUND 10, 1979
Hawthorn 23.18 (156) d North Melbourne 16.9 (105) at the SCG. u The significance: It was the first rematch of the previous year’s Grand Final, but North needed little persuasion when approached by the VFL to move the clash from Arden St to the SCG, the first game staged for premiership points in Sydney for 27 years. The Hawks beat the Kangaroos again, but the main takeaway was the large crowd – 31,395 – comprised of Victorian expatriates, travelling supporters and Sydney’s small but loyal Australian Football community. Later that year, 17,140 were there to see Richmond beat Fitzroy in a shootout and, with that, the League had all the evidence it needed. AFL.com.au AFL RECORD 45
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AFL RECORD THE GAMES THAT MATTERED MOST
Neither ruckman wanted to allow the other a free passage to the ball at centre bounces, so they stood alongside each other and used their bodies to impede the other. There was no artful ruckwork to be seen, but rather a series of ugly wrestles at every centre bounce more befitting a Saturday night at Festival Hall than a footy ground. u The upshot: The League moved swiftly at the end of the season to introduce a line across the centre circle with both ruckmen instructed to line up on the defensive side of the line.
ROUND 18, 1981
Essendon 12.16 (88) d Collingwood 9.15 (69) at the MCG. u The significance: When it came to footy in Melbourne, Saturday was for the VFL and Sunday was for the VFA. With the exception of the Richmond-Fitzroy game in 1970 when the Royal Family came to town, that was how it always was. It was also unfair. Every other big-time sport, as well as other major forms of entertainment, had been staged on Sundays for years. After a long and loud campaign through the media, the Victorian Government relented and allowed two trial Sunday games at the MCG late in 1981. There were all sorts of restrictions. No curtain-raisers and no beer sales among them. Parking inspectors in the nearby streets were extra vigilant. But the day was a success. The Bombers won the 12th of their eventual 15 games on the trot, with 64,149 fans in attendance. The game was good and the atmosphere terrific. South Melbourne and Carlton played another Sunday game the following week.
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u The upshot: The League got regular Sunday football the following year when South Melbourne moved to Sydney and played its home games at the SCG. Sunday finals at the MCG were introduced in 1984, but it wasn’t until 1987 that Sunday home and away games were fixtured in Victoria on a regular basis.
QUALIFYING FINAL, 1991
Hawthorn 18.16 (124) d West Coast 15.11 (101) at Subiaco. u The significance: It had been a decade since the League had begun its national expansion, but when it came to the finals, things became manifestly unfair. All finals had to be played in Victoria – either at the MCG or Waverley – and West Coast was dealt with harshly in 1990, crossing the continent six times in as many weeks – two home and away games and four finals – clocking up more than 30,000km in the air. In 1991, the AFL moved to ensure a home state advantage, at least for the first week of the finals, and when the rampaging Eagles finished top of the ladder, they got to host the qualifying final against the Hawks, the first time a final had been played outside Victoria. u The upshot: It was billed as the biggest sporting event staged in Western Australia and the game sold out in only a few hours. And while the Eagles didn’t get the result they wanted, the point was made emphatically that a ‘so-called’ national competition demanded more integrity when it came to finals. Home state finals are now the norm throughout September, at least until the Grand Final.
A CHANGING GAME: Expansion club the West Coast Eagles entered the competition in 1987 (above right) and earned the right to host the first final outside Victoria in 1991 (above left) against Hawthorn, with the Hawks prevailing on the way to claiming the flag. Nicky Winmar’s defiance after a St Kilda-Collingwood clash in 1993 sparked the AFL’s historic Racial and Religious Vilification policy.
ROUND 4, 1993
St Kilda 18.18 (126) d Collingwood 15.14 (104) at Victoria Park. u The significance: Indigenous players had been a feature of League football for many years and among them were some of the game’s very best. But when it came to racial vilification, it was open slather. These men were on the receiving end of much abuse – on and off the field – and pretty much had to cop it. But the game changed on a sunny afternoon after a stirring win by St Kilda. Responding to a barrage of abuse as he walked off the ground, Saints star Nicky Winmar lifted his jumper and pointed to his skin, as if to say, “I’m indigenous and I’m proud.” Photographer Wayne Ludbey’s now iconic photo was placed on the front page of the next day’s Sunday Age and it sparked the game into action. Senior AFL staffer Tony Peek was charged with finding out the extent of racial and religious vilification in the game and was horrified by what he learned. u The upshot: Within months, the first Racial and Religious Vilification policy was signed off by the AFL Commission and it was a historic document. There was, and still remains, much to do, but the League showed itself to be nimble and progressive and a leader in Australian sport.
GRAND FINAL, 2008
Hawthorn 18.7 (115) d Geelong 11.23 (89) at the MCG. u The significance: It was one of the great Grand Final boilovers, with the one-loss Cats humbled
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Here’s to the fans of Season 2020. You’ve stuck with your team and supported the game against all odds. And while you may not have been there in person, we’ve heard you cheering from around the nation. Now with just one game left to play, emotions are running high. Can you feel it? It’s that 2020 Toyota AFL Grand Final feeling. Good luck and enjoy the ride.
by the Hawks and their emerging genius coach Alastair Clarkson. At first glance, the scoreline suggests Geelong kicked itself out of the game and for some – not the Cats themselves it must be said – that has become the main narrative more than a decade later. But part of Clarkson’s game-plan that day was to play keepings off. The Hawks were under instructions to control the ball and maintain possession by any means possible. And as it panned out, this was taken to extreme measures. Hawthorn rushed the ball through the Geelong goals at every opportunity because it could set up better from a kick-out. There were 11 rushed behinds to the Cats and, according to Champion Data, four of those were at the end of Geelong chains of possession (likely touched on the line after a kick) and seven were when the Hawks had possession in defence. Earlier that season, Richmond defender Joel Bowden helped ice a four-point win over Essendon by twice running the ball through the goals in the final 30 seconds as well, but it took for repeated occurrences in the showpiece game of the year for the AFL to institute rule changes. u The upshot: Over the next few years the AFL tightened the rules, to the stage where pretty much every deliberate rushed behind from outside the goal square, or even within it if the player has time and space to dispose of the ball and is under no real pressure, results in a free kick.
HIGH DRAMA: A Tom Hawkins ‘goal’ in the 2009 Grand Final that touched the post triggered the score review system; while the 2010 draw (below) led to the introduction of extra time in Grand Finals.
Hawthorn rushed the ball through at every opportunity
last goal came in the dying seconds), it was a talking point for a long time afterwards. u The upshot: It took some time, but the AFL introduced technology to assist goal-line decisions in 2012 and the quest to improve the system continues every year.
GRAND FINAL, 2010
Collingwood 9.14 (68) drew with St Kilda 10.8 (68) at the MCG. u The significance: St Kilda’s quest for that elusive second premiership was dashed for good when a bouncing ball eluded Saints forward Stephen Milne as he was steaming into goal with just moments to go. The Pies held on for the draw in front of 100,016 spellbound fans and the game went down as just the third drawn Grand Final in League history, following those in 1948 and 1977.
The Saints, Pies and 93,853 fans then returned to the MCG the following week for the replay, which Collingwood won in a breeze by 56 points. But there was a ‘hangover’ feel to the entire week and there was sharp debate as to why the extra time rule for all other finals didn’t extend to the Grand Final as well. It also became clear that non-Victorian teams would face a massive disadvantage if they had to travel home and back again in the event of any future drawn Grand Finals. u The upshot: It took a few years, but in April, 2016, the AFL determined that the extra time rule introduced for the finals in 1991 would be extended to the Grand Final. Five minutes of extra time each way, and if the scores are still tied after that, then next score wins.
GRAND FINAL 2009
Geelong 12.8 (80) d St Kilda 9.14 (68) at the MCG. u The significance: Geelong’s second flag in three years, secured only after two late goals at the end of an epic struggle in the cold and wet. The Saints were on top in the second quarter, when the Cats surged forward against the run of play. The ball spilled to Tom Hawkins who snapped a goal that put Geelong a goal ahead. The problem was that slow-mo replays of the kick clearly showed the ball skimming the goalpost on the way through. With no score review mechanism, the goal stood and, given the final result (the Cats’ AFL.com.au AFL RECORD 47
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AFL RECORD PROMOTION
PRESSURE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
HUGH GREENWOOD
2020
GOLD COAST SUNS
PRESSURE POINTS
980
u Coinciding with the continued
PRESSURE ACTS
391
improvement of the Gold Coast Suns this season was the impressive form of trade period recruit Hugh Greenwood. The hard-tackling and combative midfielder departed the Adelaide Crows after three seasons to link up with the Suns and enjoyed a successful debut season which saw him claim a fourth-place finish in the best and fairest. Greenwood picked up the second most disposals at the club behind Touk Miller, while easily accumulating the most contested possessions and providing the most clearances as well as centre clearances. While the attacking side of his football was of a high quality in 17 games for the Suns, the Tasmanian product stood above them all when it came to the pressure part of the game. According to Champion Data, Greenwood finished the home and away campaign on top of the pressure pile with a total of 980 pressure points, made possible by 391 pressure acts and laying the most tackles in the competition with 116. Greenwood finished ahead of Melbourne’s Clayton Oliver (920.9 points), All-Australian Saint Jack Steele (917.7), Hawthorn’s Tom Mitchell (834.8) and Suns teammate Miller (817.2).
TACKLES 116 TIME ON GROUND AVE 78 mins TACKLE EFFICIENCY
75.8%
CLAYTON OLIVER
JACK STEELE
u Champion Data introduced its
pressure point system in 2011 as a way of measuring defensive intent beyond just tackles, spoils and smothers. Points are awarded for corralling (1.2), chasing (1.5), closing (2.75). ANDREW SLEVISON
48
48 AFL RECORD
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II
n a year like no other, NAB continued their commitment to growing the game for n aaround year like no other, NABNAB continued their atcommitment to growing the Auskick game for kids Australia through AFL Auskick Home. For the 22 NAB AFL kids around Australia through NAB AFL Auskick at Home. For the 22 NAB AFL at Home winners, who were carefully selected from entries across the country based onAuskick their at Home passion, winners,commitment who were carefully selected from entries across country on their enthusiasm, and dedication to fine tuning theirthe footy skills based from home, enthusiasm, commitment and during dedication to fine their footywas skills from home, their interviewpassion, with Hamish McLachlan Channel 7’stuning AFL Broadcast a once-in-atheir interview with Hamish McLachlan during Channel 7’s AFL Broadcast was a once-in-alifetime experience they will never forget. Each winner was also awarded an AFL Merchandise lifetime experience they will never forget. Each winner was also awarded an AFL Merchandise Pack with their favourite team’s gear – all thanks to NAB, who are proud to support footballers Pack with their favourite team’s gear – all thanks to NAB, who are proud to support footballers from NAB AFL Auskick to the big time. from NAB AFL Auskick to the big time. ROUND 2ROUND 2
MEET THE 2020MEET NAB THE AFL 2020 NAB AFL AUSKICK AT HOME AUSKICK AT HOME WINNERS! WINNERS!
ERNIE ERNIE CHEESMAN CHEESMAN FAVOURITE TEAM Richmond TEAM FAVOURITE Richmond
ROUND 5ROUND 5
GRACE GRACE MYERS MYERS FAVOURITE TEAM Essendon TEAM FAVOURITE Essendon
NAB Auskickers.indd 2
ROUND 6ROUND 6
LEVI LEVI PERRELLA PERRELLA FAVOURITE TEAM West Coast TEAM FAVOURITE West Coast
ROUND 3ROUND 3
GROVER GROVER HAINS HAINS FAVOURITE TEAM Essendon TEAM FAVOURITE Essendon
ROUND 6ROUND 6
CHARLIE CHARLIE WINIARSKI WINIARSKI FAVOURITE TEAM Carlton TEAM FAVOURITE Carlton
ROUND 4ROUND 4
HUDSON HUDSON PALADINO PALADINO FAVOURITE TEAM Carlton TEAM FAVOURITE Carlton
ROUND 7ROUND 7
ARCHIE ARCHIE GETHIN GETHIN FAVOURITE TEAM West Coast TEAM FAVOURITE West Coast
17/10/20 6:42 pm
ROUND 7
ROUND 8
AIDEN HO
RUBY THOMSON
LEO RALPH
FAVOURITE TEAM Richmond
FAVOURITE TEAM Brisbane Lions
FAVOURITE TEAM Hawthorn
ROUND 9
ROUND 10
ROUND 12
ROUND 12
JURRAH PENRITH
TENNYSON BALLARD
LEVI ZACHARIOU
MAVI AHMET
FAVOURITE TEAM GWS Giants
FAVOURITE TEAM Collingwood
FAVOURITE TEAM Hawthorn
FAVOURITE TEAM Essendon
ROUND 12
ROUND 13
ROUND 14
ROUND 15
KEELY GELJON
REYANSH JANI
CLARRIE SPURR
MATTEO LORIENTE
FAVOURITE TEAM North Melbourne
FAVOURITE TEAM Richmond
FAVOURITE TEAM Carlton
FAVOURITE TEAM Collingwood
ROUND 17
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ROUND 9
ROUND 17
ROUND 18
ROUND 18
STELLA LEAPER
OLIVER BANKS
ZEV ROITMAN
TOM MCINNES
FAVOURITE TEAM Western Bulldogs
FAVOURITE TEAM Essendon
FAVOURITE TEAM St Kilda
FAVOURITE TEAM West Coast
17/10/20 6:42 pm
u LAST TIME AS PREMIER
2019
Richmond 17.12 (114) d GWS Giants 3.7 (25)
uThe Tigers made it two flags in three years with an 89-point demolition of the GWS Giants, who were found wanting in their first Grand Final appearance. A miserly defence, a dominant midfield and multiple goalkicking options gave Richmond its 12th premiership. Dustin Martin again starred to collect his second Norm Smith Medal. The game will be remembered for the debut of mature-age Tiger recruit Marlion Pickett, who was the first player since Collingwood’s Keith Batchelor in 1952 to make his debut in a Grand Final – and he didn’t disappoint.
2011
Geelong 18.11 (119) d Collingwood 12.9 (81)
uGeelong won its third flag in five years, confirming its ranking as one of the great sides of any era. The Cats and the Magpies played out an enthralling contest with the lead changing several times. But after leading by just seven points at three-quarter time, Geelong asserted its superiority in the final term. Key forward Tom Hawkins announced himself on the big stage, Steve Johnson overcame a serious knee injury to kick four goals and Jimmy Bartel added the Norm Smith Medal to his long list of honours.
ARGF p76-77 Teamlists_RE.indd 76
RICHMOND Coach Damien Hardwick Captain Trent Cotchin GOALS
BEHINDS
1 Nick VLASTUIN 2 Dylan GRIMES 3 Dion PRESTIA 4 Dustin MARTIN 6 Jack ROSS 7 Liam BAKER 8 Jack RIEWOLDT 9 Trent COTCHIN 10 Shane EDWARDS 11 Jason CASTAGNA 12 David ASTBURY 13 Jack HIGGINS 14 Bachar HOULI 15 Jayden SHORT 17 Daniel RIOLI 19 Tom LYNCH 21 Noah BALTA 22 Josh CADDY 23 Kane LAMBERT 25 Toby NANKERVIS 29 Shai BOLTON 31 Oleg MARKOV 33 Kamdyn McINTOSH 34 Jack GRAHAM 35 Nathan BROAD 39 Jake AARTS 41 Mabior CHOL 50 Marlion PICKETT RUSHED 1ST QTR
2ND QTR
3RD QTR
FINAL
17/10/20 11:45 pm
u UMPIRES
GEELONG CATS
9
DEBUT: 2004 GAMES: 400 GRAND FINALS: 7 – 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
Coach Chris Scott Captain Joel Selwood
11 GOALS
BEHINDS
1 Rhys STANLEY 2 Zach TUOHY
Simon MEREDITH
DEBUT: 2004 GAMES: 387 GRAND FINALS: 5 – 2013, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017
4 Gary ABLETT 6 Jordan CLARK
23
7 Harry TAYLOR
Robert FINDLAY
DEBUT: 2009 GAMES: 254 GRAND FINALS: 0
8 Jake KOLODJASHNIJ 9 Jack STEVEN 13 Lachie FOGARTY
25
14 Joel SELWOOD
Shaun RYAN
DEBUT: 2003 GAMES: 350 GRAND FINALS: 8 – 2008, 2009, 2010 (2), 2011, 2017, 2018, 2019
17 Esava RATUGOLEA 22 Mitch DUNCAN
26
23 Gary ROHAN
Craig FLEER
DEBUT: 2012 GAMES: 139 GRAND FINALS: 0
24 Jed BEWS 25 Lachie HENDERSON
The three Grand Final umpires were to be announced during Grand Final week.
26 Tom HAWKINS 27 Sam MENEGOLA
u TIPSTERS
29 Cameron GUTHRIE
Michael LOVETT
30 Tom ATKINS
AFL RECORD Geelong by 14 points
32 Gryan MIERS 35 Patrick DANGERFIELD
Ashley BROWNE
37 Sam SIMPSON
AFL RECORD Richmond by 10 points
38 Jack HENRY 40 Luke DAHLHAUS
Bob MURPHY
42 Mark O’CONNOR
SEN Geelong by 7 points
44 Tom STEWART 45 Brad CLOSE
Andy MAHER
46 Mark BLICAVS
SEN Geelong by 19 points
RUSHED
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Curtis DEBOY
DEBUT: 2014 GAMES: 109 GRAND FINALS: 0
21
3 Brandan PARFITT
1ST QTR
Matt STEVIC
2ND QTR
3RD QTR
FINAL
Dwayne RUSSELL SEN Geelong by 6 points
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ONE WEEK at a TIME GRAND FINAL
News from in and around the AFL
He’ll go down as one of the all-time greats RICHMOND COACH DAMIEN HARDWICK AFTER DUSTIN MARTIN WON HIS SECOND NORM SMITH MEDAL IN 2019
A ratings bonanza
F
ASHLEY BROWNE
MICHAEL LOVETT
EDITOR’S LETTER
or the bean counters at the AFL, there is another set of numbers that will count almost as much as the final score of the 2020 Grand Final. They will be poring feverishly over the TV ratings and how large an audience there was for Channel Seven’s telecast of the first night Grand Final in League history. Figures of up to five million viewers have been bandied about and, while that might be fanciful, it is worth noting there are a few factors likely to boost the numbers. The first is the 7.30pm (AEDT) opening bounce. TV ratings, especially for live sport, are always higher at night. The second is that with only 30,000 or so at the game compared with the 100,000 who would normally be at the MCG, that already adds to the TV audience. And with COVID-19 restrictions still strong in Victoria, clubs, pubs and large gatherings won’t be permitted, so those viewers will likely be watching on their own screens at home, which will again be a boon for the ratings. Bumper figures for the historic night Grand Final would likely make the AFL consider the move to a later start on a permanent basis as it looks to recoup as much money as possible in the next few years in the wake of this COVID-afflicted season, which is forecast to result in a $400 million loss for the game.
Grand Final day on Seven starts with the Weekend Sunrise Grand Final edition from 9am, followed by the AFL Grand Final Brunch. At 11.30am, horse racing from Melbourne and Sydney takes over, including the 100th running of the Cox Plate from Moonee Valley. From 4.30pm, the focus switches back to the Gabba, with preview shows, pre-match entertainment, the game and then the post-match presentation and celebrations. The 2020 season presented major logistical challenges for broadcasters and, in the case of Seven, it has often meant having Bruce McAvaney calling games from a studio in Adelaide, Brian Taylor and special commentators working from a studio in Melbourne and boundary riders Luke Hodge and Abbey Holmes live at the venues, either the Gabba or Metricon Stadium.
u At the start of every season,
most football commentators and scribes are asked to fill out a pro forma. Who will make the eight, who will be playing in the Grand Final and who will win the premiership? It is always assumed the latter two questions refer to the last Saturday in
September and the venue will be the MCG. Well, here we are some eight months on and the Grand Final is about as far as you could get from the MCG and we’re almost at the end of October. The photo spread you have seen earlier in this year’s AFL Record Grand Final edition says it all.
REUNITED: After calling the footy remotely for most of the season, (from left) Luke Hodge, Bruce McAvaney, Brian Taylor and Abbey Holmes will all be together for the Grand Final.
Figures of up to five million have been bandied about
Taylor completed his fortnight-long quarantine in Queensland last week and was reunited with McAvaney for the preliminary finals. They will be calling the Grand Final together at the Gabba. Fox Footy’s blanket Grand Final day coverage starts at 10am and includes special editions of Bounce and AFL 360. Fox doesn’t have broadcast rights to the Grand Final, but the first of what will be multiple replays will start from 10.30pm, barely 30 minutes after the final siren.
Every aspect of our life, including our beloved game of Australian Football, has been turned on its head since we first learned about the COVID-19 pandemic. Little did we know back then what impact it would have but, in the words of AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan, it has taught us to be nimble and agile.
So we are days, hours, minutes out from the biggest game of the year and the ’G will be empty save for Mike Brady and a few cast members. But we know the Gabba will turn on a spectacle – at night no less – and we take our hats off to the people of Queensland who have made it possible. Have a great Grand Final.
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ONE WEEK at a TIME
Dunstall the pick of Qld’s finest ASHLEY BROWNE
F
ormer Hawthorn champion Jason Dunstall sits comfortably in the list of all-time champions of the AFL and his 1254 goals over 269 games between 1985 and 1998 is the third highest in League history. Only Tony Lockett (1360) and Gordon Coventry (1299) kicked more majors. But where Dunstall has no peer in the AFL is premierships won by a Queenslander. The former Coorparoo spearhead played in the 1986, 1988, 1989 and 1991 Hawthorn premiership teams and was a huge part of that club’s first golden era. In 2011, Dunstall told The Golden Years: Stories from Hawthorn’s Golden Era (published by Slattery Media) that he had no idea what he would be walking into at Hawthorn. “I didn’t really know the landscape. I grew up in Brisbane, loved the game and watched the match of the day on TV direct from Melbourne each weekend, but I didn’t have a great feel for how things worked,” he said. “Once I got here, it quickly became apparent to me that I had come to the right place at the right time.” In addition to being a member of the Australian Football Hall of Fame and an official Legend of the Hawks, Dunstall is a Legend of the Queensland Sport Hall of Fame, alongside the likes of Allan Border, Greg Chappell, Roy Emerson, Cathy Freeman, John Eales, Wally Lewis and Rod Laver. Brisbane superstar Michael Voss heads the list of Queenslanders to have played in three AFL flags. The 1996 Brownlow medallist was Lions skipper when they won three straight flags between 2001 and 2003. Fellow Queenslanders Jason Akermanis, Marcus Ashcroft and Clark Keating played alongside him in each of those teams.
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I grew up in Brisbane, loved the game FOUR TIME-PREMIERSHIP HAWK JASON DUNSTALL
Akermanis won the 2002 Brownlow Medal while Ashcroft’s 318 games is the second-most of any player in Brisbane history. The other three-time premiership player from Queensland is not as heralded. David Hale was a vital role player in the Hawks’ three-peat of 2013-15. Originally from Broadbeach, he played 129 games for North Melbourne before finding success at Hawthorn through a further 108 games as a tall forward and relief ruckman. Lions utility Robbie Copeland played in the 2001 and 2003 premierships and is the sole Queenslander to win two flags. The Hawthorn flavour continues through the list of Queenslanders to have played in one premiership team, with the Zimbabwean-born Stephen Lawrence (2001), Brent Renouf (2008) and Michael Osborne (2008) also featuring. Collingwood pair Gavin Crosisca (1990) and Dayne Beams (2010) also hail from Queensland, as did Lions 2003 premiership ruckman Jamie Charman. Queenslanders also claim 1982 Carlton premiership ruckman
BREEDING GROUND OF CHAMPIONS: Hawthorn star Jason Dunstall (top left) with the 1989 Coleman Medal and (above) in action for Coorparoo; (right) Lions skipper Michael Voss after the 2001 premiership.
Warren ‘Wow’ Jones as one of their own. Even though he was from Castlemaine, he was recruited to the Blues from Morningside. Then there is the curious case of Aaron Keating, older brother of Clark. His six games for Adelaide included the 1997 premiership. He is officially listed as having been drafted from Norwood and also played in that club’s SANFL premiership team the same year as he did the Crows. He was originally recruited from Surfers Paradise.
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B U I LT A N D B A C K E D F O R THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE At Mitsubishi we’ve always strived towards one goal. To build the best and most reliable vehicles in the game. It’s why we’re proud to bring you an Australian first. An unrivalled 10 Year New Car Warranty* with 10 Year Capped Price Servicing^. So now you can drive with the kind of confidence you’d feel when your team’s 10 goals up in the last quarter of the Grand Final. Every year. For a decade. To find out more about Mitsubishi Diamond Advantage, visit mitsubishi-motors.com.au or your local Mitsubishi dealer.
Conditions apply. *10 Year/200,000km New Car Warranty (whichever occurs first and when all scheduled services are completed at a Mitsubishi Dealership or Authorised PHEV Mitsubishi Dealer for PHEV vehicles). ^10 Year/150,000km Capped Price Servicing (whichever occurs first). Includes the first 10 regular services (at 15,000km/12 month scheduled intervals). Some items excluded or subject to separate warranty. PHEV main power (traction) battery is warranted for 8 years or 160,000km (whichever occurs first). Any non-regular service/repair items are at an additional cost, servicing must be completed by a Mitsubishi Dealer within 7,500kms or 6 months of the service due date. Valid from date of vehicle registration. Excludes Government, Rental and National Business customers. ©Mitsubishi Motors Australia Limited. ABN 53 007 870 395
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GABBA IN RARE AIR u The 2020 Grand
First shots fired in trade wars LAURENCE ROSEN
T
alk around the upcoming trade and free agency period has hit fever pitch as the season comes to a close. Even as this finals series has been playing out, the wheeling and dealing between clubs has continued as the start of some of the most frenzied weeks on the football calendar edge closer. As has been the case in recent seasons, Essendon has been at the centre of discussions, with the Bombers reassessing their list and working out a way forward after a recent player exodus.
Carlton is set to be another big player Dashing defender Adam Saad decided to leave Tullamarine and pursue a move to Carlton, while free agent Joe Daniher declared his intention to move to Brisbane. Orazio Fantasia has since confirmed his desire to head home to South Australia. On the flip side, youngsters Jordan Ridley (four years), Kyle Langford and Andrew McGrath (both two years) have re-signed and Essendon can look positively towards 2021 under new coach Ben Rutten, given it will be armed with multiple top drafts picks. Carlton is set to be another big player, after both Saad and GWS Giants free agent Zac Williams signalled their intentions to join the Blues.
SWAPPING COLOURS: Bombers Joe Daniher and Adam Saad (inset) have declared their intentions to join new clubs in 2021.
Next year promises to be crucial for Carlton, which would be hoping to return to the finals on the back of a fruitful off-season. Plenty of talk also centres around the Giants, who will lose Williams and face a fight to hold on to prized forward Jeremy Cameron, who is assessing his options. On-baller Jackson Hateley has already requested a trade to Adelaide, playing just 13 games in two seasons after being taken with pick 14 in the 2018 NAB AFL Draft. There has also been speculation around young pair Xavier
O’Halloran and Jye Caldwell, who have lacked opportunities in recent seasons. This is a time of year where seasons can be set up – you only have to see the success St Kilda enjoyed in 2020 after aggressively targeting last year’s trade period. The silly season is almost upon us, with the free agency period opening on October 30 before the chaos of the trade period begins on November 4 and ends on November 12. Think the season finishes on October 24? Think again.
Final will be the first to be held outside Victoria and just the 11th in League history not to be played at its traditional home, the MCG. The most recent before this year was in 1991, when the construction of the Great Southern Stand meant the flag decider was moved to Waverley Park, where 75,230 fans saw Hawthorn beat West Coast. Before then, it was during the heart of World War II that the Grand Final was shared around. The MCG was transformed into a US Army base (Camp Murphy) between 1942-45, so Carlton’s Princes Park hosted the Grand Final in 1942, 1943 and 1945. The last of those was the infamous ‘Bloodbath’ Grand Final in which Carlton beat South Melbourne by 28 points in a wild game that resulted in nine players being reported on 15 charges. The Junction Oval hosted the 1898, 1899 and 1944 Grand Finals. Fitzroy’s 15-point win over Richmond in 1944 was the last in the club’s history. The East Melbourne Cricket Ground staged the Grand Final in 1900, before it moved to the Lake Oval in 1901. The MCG became the permanent home the following season and is contracted to resume hosting the Grand Final next year until 2058.
ASHLEY BROWNE
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AFL RECORD NORM SMITH MEDAL
Just call me
ANDREW SLEVISON
S
ince its inception in 1979, the Norm Smith Medal has become an iconic token of the game. Named after the man who won four premierships as a player with Melbourne and a further six as coach of the Demons, the medal is an immediate entry into the history books. ‘Norm Smith medallist (insert name here)’ becomes, well, the norm in footy vernacular. It says that if you can perform on the biggest stage of all, then you are worthy of such a tag, worthy of constant recognition. The names of winners are etched into folklore and those players are more often than not known as a ‘big-game’ performer for the rest of their lives. No doubt there are footy fans all around the country who can recite the list of those who have claimed best-on-ground honours over the past four decades. For some it is almost easier to recall who was crowned ‘Norm’ in a given year than it is to remember who won the Brownlow Medal or kicked the most goals. Even players at local level borrow the moniker if they’ve
104 AFL RECORD
been lucky enough to be chosen as the best player in the game that matters most. It’s a much-deserved and well-earned hubris. You have the right to gloat (to a degree) if you can walk the walk in the game that delivers the greatest amount of glory to your club. Four players – Gary Ayres, Andrew McLeod, Luke Hodge and Dustin Martin – have won the medal twice and they stand out above the rest of the pack for their heroics on that one day in September (or October in some cases). That esteemed quartet will be lauded for eternity. But winning the Norm Smith Medal means many different things to the many different players who have had it hung around their necks. Collingwood’s Nathan Buckley famously removed the medal immediately receiving it after the Magpies were beaten by the Brisbane Lions in 2002. St Kilda favourite Lenny Hayes claimed it in the 2010 drawn Grand Final, only to play on a losing side in the replay the following weekend. Maurice Rioli (1982), Gary Ablett snr (1989) and Chris Judd (2005)
‘Norm’
PROUD ROO: 1996 Norm Smith medallist Glenn Archer says the award is recognition a player had played their part in the biggest game of the season.
It is almost easier to recall who was crowned ‘Norm’ ... than who won the Brownlow
SAINT’S PAIN: Lenny Hayes claimed the medal in the 2010 drawn Grand Final, but was on the losing team a week later.
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McKernan probably should have won it,” Archer said. “With four or five people voting, everyone sees it in a different light. “Corey played in the ruck and had 29 possessions. These days, that would win it easily. “To say that you’ve won a Norm Smith Medal, that’s a pretty good thing. It makes you feel good that you played your part. “It would be tough if you won the flag and you had a bad game.” For every winner, there has also been plenty of ‘almost Norms’. The player who was desperately unlucky not to sweep the vote. In recent history, Richmond’s Bachar Houli (2017 and 2019) has twice been second in voting behind ‘Mr September’ Martin, also won on days their team lost, while Paul Chapman edged out St Kilda’s Jason Gram on a countback after Geelong beat the Saints in a thriller in 2009. Some past winners may take it as simply doing their bit for the team and the greater good of the side’s success was first and foremost. One such person is North Melbourne legend Glenn Archer. His name was called in 1996 when the Kangaroos broke a 19-year premiership drought. While his Norm Smith Medal, along with his two premiership medallions, fell victim to a schoolbag rubbish mishap some years ago, Archer stands firm that the award vindicates a healthy contribution on the most important day of the footy calendar. “When you win it, it’s just a confirmation that you contributed on the biggest day of the season,” Archer said. “One of the major things when you go into a Grand Final is to make sure I’m rowing my side of the boat and that I contributed. “It’s nice to have the honour. It’s nice to be remembered as a Norm Smith medallist. “But I’m not going to a Norm Smith party on my own!” Archer had 22 disposals and eight marks, and while it wasn’t the absolute best outing of his 311-game career, it was a performance that mattered. “Mine was a strange year, because the team was so even,” he said. “I’m pretty sure I didn’t get a three-vote from those voting. “I thought I played OK. It was a bit of a shock when I was told.
BITTER-SWEET: (Top) Collingwood’s Nathan Buckley was awarded the Norm Smith Medal in 2002, but it was rival skipper Michael Voss who walked away with the premiership; Dustin Martin (above) is one of just four players to win the medal twice.
“One of the officials had let me know … when he said that, I was celebrating.” It is a subjective award, like they all are. The opinion of just five people – ex-players and media types – can launch your name into the game’s stratosphere. Archer admitted he felt fortunate he was the beneficiary on that day. He says he was one of at least a handful who could have been lucky enough to be rewarded. “If I was really honest, I looked back after watching the game a couple of times, and Corey
while many believe Tom Boyd was the Western Bulldogs’ best in 2016. Sam Mitchell was close on two occasions behind Cyril Rioli and Hodge during Hawthorn’s imperious three-peat from 2013-15. They are just a few of the cases where it might have been someone else. The opinion will almost always be divided. But no matter who it is this year, regardless of which teammate or opponent they beat to claim Norm Smith Medal honours, they will be more than a footnote in history as we will remember their name forever.
NORM SMITH
MEDAL WINNERS Presented to the player judged, by an independent panel of football experts, to be best on ground in the Grand Final. Norm Smith was an icon of the game, as a player and a coach. He played 210 games and kicked 546 goals for Melbourne (1935-48) and 17 games for Fitzroy (1949-50). He coached Melbourne to eight Grand Finals for six premierships. Later he guided South Melbourne to its first final in 25 years. He died in 1973, aged 57. 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Wayne Harmes (Carl) Kevin Bartlett (Rich) Bruce Doull (Carl) Maurice Rioli (Rich) Colin Robertson (Haw) Billy Duckworth (Ess) Simon Madden (Ess) Gary Ayres (Haw) David Rhys-Jones (Carl) Gary Ayres (Haw) Gary Ablett (Geel) Tony Shaw (Coll) Paul Dear (Haw) Peter Matera (WCE) Michael Long (Ess) Dean Kemp (WCE) Greg Williams (Carl) Glenn Archer (NM) Andrew McLeod (Adel) Andrew McLeod (Adel) Shannon Grant (NM) James Hird (Ess) Shaun Hart (BL) Nathan Buckley (Coll) Simon Black (BL) Byron Pickett (PA) Chris Judd (WCE) Andrew Embley (WCE) Steve Johnson (Geel) Luke Hodge (Haw) Paul Chapman (Geel) Lenny Hayes* (StK) Scott Pendlebury** (Coll) Jimmy Bartel (Geel) Ryan O’Keefe (Syd) Brian Lake (Haw) Luke Hodge (Haw) Cyril Rioli (Haw) Jason Johannisen (WB) Dustin Martin (Rich) Luke Shuey (WCE) Dustin Martin (Rich)
*Drawn Grand Final **Replay
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AFL RECORD THE GABBA
I
With its distinctly Australian name and proud sporting heritage, it is only fitting the Gabba plays host to the first League Grand Final played outside Victoria. PETER BLUCHER
t is a one-time swamp that has been the playground to countless sporting luminaries such as Australian cricketing greats Sir Donald Bradman, Ricky Ponting and Greg Chappell and international superstars Sir Gary Sobers, Sir Richard Hadlee, Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar. Like Australian rugby league greats Clive Churchill and Brian Davies, rugby union stars Nick Shehadie and George Gregan, and track and field legends Betty Cuthbert and Shirley Strickland. Even English soccer legend Sir Stanley Matthews has worked his magic at a venue with such an honour roll it includes greyhound Top Simbi and the Cameroon national soccer team. And the best AFL players of the past 30 years. It is the Gabba. After hosting 360 AFL games since 1981, it is the home of Australian Football – albeit temporarily – and host of the 2020 AFL Grand Final to close the game’s most extraordinary season. Game No. 361 on the turf gridlocked between Vulture St and Stanley St on the wings and Main St and Wellington Rd behind the goals will be the one with the big asterisk.
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The (*) that will accompany it in the record books will signify a season up-ended by a worldwide pandemic that has infected more than 38 million people and killed more than a million. It will remind us of when 84 of 153 games were played in Queensland. When many players spent most time in hubs, mostly across Queensland, helping to stop the spread of the deadly virus while playing to first empty stadiums and later minimal crowds. It will remind us of a name which in March 2020 was just a spelling challenge to most outside Queensland. Annastacia Palaszczuk is the Queensland Premier whose government helped get the AFL season done. And it will remind us of when the one-time swamp in Woolloongabba, 2.9km south-east of the Brisbane GPO, hosted a Grand Final beamed from the lucky country to a world that will never be the same. According to A Superb Century, written in 1995 by Brisbane sports journalist Wayne Smith to commemorate 100 years of the Gabba, historians are divided over the origins of the name. John McClurg says ‘Gabba’ comes from Aboriginal words ‘woolloon’
Game No. 361 will be the one with the big asterisk
meaning ‘fighting talk’ and ‘gabba’ meaning ‘place’. But J.G. Steele, an early settler, says it means ‘swirling water’ and is an amalgom of ‘woolloon’ and ‘capemm’. Indisputably, the area served as an Aboriginal battleground and in 1853 hosted a fight involving warriors from four clans. It was a fight over a woman. A member of the Logan clan had stolen a female from an opposing tribe and had to defend himself against her father. It triggered an all-in melee which ended with the death of a Bribie Island warrior who, as was reported with horror in the Moreton Bay Free Press, was “promptly roasted and eaten”. The Gabba has been home to less confrontational battles since March 21, 1895, when South Brisbane City Council mayor Thomas Heaslop set aside a swampy parkland known as the Woolloongabba Recreational Reserve for cricket. If Mayor Heaslop had established a visitors’ book, it would be a remarkable keepsake. And if Mark Williams, Port Adelaide’s 2004 premiership coach, was to walk on to the Gabba on Grand Final day, he might hold the cup aloft and yell: “This is for you Christopher Skase.”
Because 34 years ago, after an AFL licence was awarded to the Brisbane Bears, Skase snubbed the Gabba and based the club on virgin land at Carrara. Nineteen years on from the failed tycoon’s death, if he had the chance, Williams may be tempted to say: “Christopher Skase, you were wrong!” While the Gabba has been best known via cricket, it also has a long Australian Football history. It hosted the code from 1905-14, 1959-71 and through the 1970s and ’80s before the AFL arrived in 1991. In 1961, the Gabba hosted the Australian Carnival. Western Australia were champions on percentages and Victoria’s Brian Dixon won the Tassie Medal from WA’s Jack Clarke, Big V teammate Allen Aylett and Tasmania’s Darrel Baldock. Ron Barassi was named captain of an All-Australian team that included three other future Australian Hall of Fame Legends – Victorian teammates Ted Whitten and Baldock, and WA’s ‘Polly’ Farmer. There were seven other Hall of Famers in waiting – Victoria’s Aylett and John Schultz, South Australia’s Neil Kerley and John Halbert and WA’s Clarke, John Todd and Ray Sorrell. In June 1981, Essendon defeated Hawthorn in the first VFL match
played on a pear-shaped Gabba, with a grass greyhound track around the outside. In 1982, Australian Football was a Brisbane Commonwealth Games exhibition sport. Eleven days after Carlton upset Richmond in the Grand Final, they met again. The Tigers won 28.16 (184) to 26.10 (166). Maurice Rioli, Norm Smith medallist in a beaten Grand Final side, was best afield again. In 1991, the AFL scheduled four Gabba matches as a trial for the Bears’ move from Carrara. In round four, Geelong beat Brisbane 27.28 (190) to 12.16 (88). Cat Billy Brownless kicked 11 goals in a ground record that still stands. The Geelong side included 24-year-old Ken Hinkley and
THEN AND NOW: The Gabba will be the centre of the football universe for the Grand Final, and is a far cry from the venue of the 1930s (below).
20-year-old Sean Simpson, father of 2020 Cat Sam. Four weeks later, in the second Gabba game of ’91, Tony Lockett kicked 10 goals for St Kilda. In 1993, Jason Dunstall, a junior at nearby Coorparoo, kicked 10 goals for Hawthorn. On a Tuesday afternoon – July 16, 1991 – Queensland scored a 23.14 (152) to 15.18 (108) Gabba win over Victoria. It was State of Origin with a tweak. The home side could pick interstate Bears who’d been three years in Queensland. With first-choice captain Dunstall injured, Roger Merrett led a Queensland side under coach Norm Dare with seven non-Queensland Bears plus Gavin Crosisca and Stephen Lawrence. Sixteen years on, Jonathan Brown joined the Gabba 10-goal club in a 2007 Brisbane win that saw Carlton coach Denis Pagan sacked. Brown is the all-time Gabba leading goalkicker with 323, from Alastair Lynch (295) and Daniel Bradshaw (290). Simon Black, the 2020 AFL premiership cup ambassador, has played most Gabba games (170), from Luke Power (149), Michael Voss (147) and Nigel Lappin (147). Tom Rockliff has the Gabba record of 47 possessions in a game. Gabba regulars, too, will remember Shaun Smith’s Mark of AFL.com.au AFL RECORD 107
AFL RECORD THE GABBA the Year in 1995 and Goals of the Year from Jarrod Molloy in 1999 and Jason Akermanis in 2002. There was the Bears’ breakout 1995 win over Hawthorn. It was the AFL’s biggest three-quarter time deficit turned into a win. They were 45 points down, but added 9.7 to 1.3 to win by seven. Special, too, was the “if it bleeds, we can kill it” game against Essendon in 2001 when the ninth-placed Lions, inspired by coach Leigh Matthews’ words, beat the ladder leaders to begin a 16-game streak that culminated in a Grand Final win over the Bombers. In 2013, there was the ‘Miracle on Grass’. The 15th-placed Lions came from 52 points down to beat second-placed Geelong when 200th-gamer Ash McGrath kicked a 55m boomer after the siren. The litany of great Gabba football moments has come at the expense of another long-time Gabba treasure – the Gabba Greyhounds. The industry, originally run under gas lights, had thrived in the early 1900s when there were 20 races on a program, the dogs chased a mechanical lure, and often there were novelty races with monkeys as jockeys. But with betting banned, it was shut down in 1928. When it returned on April 6, 1972, there were 42 bookmakers, including interstater Bill Waterhouse, and a crowd of 11,500. It continued for 20 years. Top Simbi, winner in 20 of 24 starts, was the pin-up dog. The last meeting was February 4, 1993 before the dogs moved to Albion Park. It’s been football in winter and cricket in summer since, with occasional other sports and rare concerts such as Adele, who pulled sell-out crowds of 65,000 in March 2017. Oddly, the second sport to make the Gabba home was cycling. It was an 1890s boom sport and a winter carnival in 1897 attracted riders from the southern states plus America and Europe. The Gabba hosted Australia in 11 rugby league Tests from 1909-56, including an epic loss to Great Britain in 1954 in front of an all-time Gabba sporting attendance record of 46,355. Six Gabba rugby union Tests were spread from 1907 to 2002.
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GABBA MEMORIES: Former Brisbane Lions champion Jonathan Brown (above) holds the record for most goals at the venue; Melbourne’s Shaun Simpson hauled in the ‘mark of the century’ in 1995 (right); superstar Adele attracted a crowd of 65,000 to her concert in 2017 (below).
In 1956, the Gabba hosted the track and field selection trials for the Melbourne Olympics. Cuthbert and Strickland were set to shine, but Brisbane’s weather didn’t. It rained endlessly. The track had to be relocated, leaving the 220-yard finish on a bend, and in shotput the ‘shot’ kept disappearing in the mud. Officials wiped results and hand-picked athletes for final trials. In 1963, the Gabba hosted the Claxton Shield interstate baseball series and the longest game in competition history between WA and NSW.
It went 18-innings before it was called off in fading light. In 2000, an upgraded Gabba hosted Olympic soccer. Six qualifying games featuring Brazil, South Africa, Kuwait, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Japan and Cameroon plus a qualifying final set up a golden fairytale. Cameroon beat Brazil 2-1 in front of 37,332 in the Gabba qualifier and beat Chile and Spain in Sydney to claim the country’s first Olympic gold medal on penalties. It is all part of a Gabba history that began with cricket. Having joined the Sheffield Shield in 1926-27, Queensland split home games between the Gabba and the Exhibition Ground until 1931 when the first Gabba Test match was played. A 23-year-old Bradman scored a majestic 226 in a timeless match which, after two days were washed out, went into day seven. Australia, captained by Bill Woodfull, beat South Africa by an innings. Bradman’s brilliant knock was the Gabba’s highest for almost 80 years before it was bettered by Alastair Cook (235 not out) in 2010 and Michael Clarke (259 not out) in 2012. Hadlee posted the best Gabba Test bowling performance in 1985. He took 9-52 and 6-71 in the second innings for match figures of 15-123. NZ won by an innings.
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But the iconic Gabba cricketing moment was the tied Test against the West Indies in December, 1960. The Windies, led by Sir Frank Worrell, made 453 thanks to Sobers’ 132. Australia, under Richie Benaud, made 505 via Bob Simpson (92) and Norm O’Neill (181) before the tourists made 284. Aussie quick Alan Davidson took 6-87 for a match haul of 11-222. Australia needed 233 to win. It was 6-92 after Windies tearaway Wes Hall created havoc. Davidson and Benaud put on 134 before Davidson (80) was run out. At 7-227, the Aussies needed six runs with three wickets in hand, but there was only one over left. Eight balls from the fearsome Hall. It went single, wicket, dot ball, bye, dropped chance/single. Three off three was needed. Ian Meckiff, who in the Gabba Test three years later would be called for ‘chucking’, hoisted ball six to mid-wicket. The batsmen had run two as Conrad Hunte gathered on the boundary. Scores were tied. The batsmen went again, but Hunte’s hard, flat throw saw Wally Grout run out. Australia needed one run with one wicket in hand from two balls. It only took one. Lindsay Kline pushed it to square leg and set off.
ICONIC MOMENT: Cricket’s first tied Test was played at the Gabba in 1960 between Australia and the West Indies, ending with a dramatic runout.
Joe Solomon pounced and, with one stump to aim at from 12m, hit it to run out Meckiff by centimetres. Not as dramatic, but equally big to local fans was Queensland’s breakthrough Shield triumph in March 1995 to end a hoodoo that was a source of much mirth interstate. The Bulls, runners-up 11 times, belted SA by an innings and 101 runs after Trevor Barsby (151), Martin Love (146) and Border (98)
batted the visitors out of it in the first innings. It was over long before the end, but when Carl Rackemann caught Jason Gillespie at backward point off Paul Jackson to claim the final SA wicket, joy was matched only by relief. West Indian Courtney Walsh took a Gabba hat-trick in 1988 and Peter Siddle did likewise on his 26th birthday against England in 2010. Ponting and Steve Waugh have played most Gabba Tests with 17, while Ponting is the leading Test run-scorer there with 1335. Shane Warne has taken most Gabba wickets with 68, from Glenn McGrath’s 65. Ian Healy and Adam Gilchrist share the Gabba Test dismissals record with 44, and Ponting, with 24 catches, has most by a non-keeper. The late great Dean Jones, who scored a superb 145 off 136 balls in a Gabba one-day international against England in 1990, with 12 four and four sixes, is the leading ODI run-scorer at the ground with 513, from Ponting (464). McGrath (21) is the leading ODI wicket-taker from Brett Lee (20). The AFL Grand Final at the Gabba? Who would have thought? It won’t happen again, but it’s one that will never be forgotten.
AFL.com.au AFL RECORD 109 MWC Eclipse Mask_Afl Record Ad 184x110.indd 1
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CURTAIN CALL
GARY
ABLETT
GEELONG/GOLD COAST
KADE
SIMPSON CARLTON
GAMES 355* (Geel 245, GCS 110) GOALS 443* (Geel 319, GCS 124)
GAMES 342 GOALS 139
IMPACT: One of the game’s all-time greats, Ablett bows out having completed a decorated career at two clubs. In the first of his two stints with the Cats, he played in the 2007 and 2009 premierships (and was best and fairest in both years), won the 2009 Brownlow Medal, and was an All-Australian in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. He left the club where his father was an icon to join the fledgling Gold Coast Suns in 2011. Ablett’s impact there was immediate, adding another Brownlow in 2013, four best and fairests (2011, 2012, 2013, 2017) and four more All-Australian blazers in 2011 (captain), 2012, 2013 and 2014. Returned to the Cattery in 2018 and while not quite the player he was, still dazzled his adoring Geelong fans with his sublime skills. A lock to join his father in the Australian Football Hall of Fame in a few years. MICHAEL LOVETT
IMPACT: Simpson has been Carlton’s beating heart since 2003. Be it on the wing, in the midfield, at half-forward or deep in defence, Simpson’s magnet was left on the team board for well over a decade. The long-sleeved stalwart played 342 games, despite managing only six in his first two seasons. From there, Simpson played at least 17 games in 15 consecutive years – including every game in his final season. After starting his career as an underrated wingman capable of winning the ball and hitting the scoreboard, Simpson was flipped into defence in the twilight of his career and evolved from rebounding NIC NEGREPONTIS weapon to lockdown small defender.
QUOTE: “Anyone who even has a passing interest in Gary and his family would be extremely proud and admire the way he’s gone about his business, particularly over the past couple of months.” – Geelong coach Chris Scott
QUOTE: “I’m not great at putting things into words and I struggled to put Simpson’s career into words, but he bleeds navy blue. He is what the Carlton Football Club stands for: he competes, he turns up every week, he gets his job done, he’s such a great mate to his teammates and he’s not a big man but he competes.” – Carlton coach David Teague
*Figures do not include 2020 preliminary final
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This year’s roll-call of retirees is headlined by one of the AFL’s all-time greats – Geelong’s Gary Ablett – along with a Blues favourite, a trio of premiership Hawks and a decorated whistleblower.
JUSTIN
WESTHOFF PORT ADELAIDE
BRYCE
GIBBS
CARLTON/ADELAIDE
GAMES 280* GOALS 313*
GAMES 268 (Carl 231, Adel 3) GOALS 152 (Carl 137, Adel 15)
IMPACT: A popular and unassuming stalwart, Westhoff proved to be one of the game’s great draft bargains. The utility was selected with the 71st pick in the 2006 NAB AFL Draft and ended his career as Port Adelaide’s third most capped player. Nicknamed ‘The Hoff’, he quickly earned cult-hero status among the Power faithful with his versatility allowing him to play forward, back or in the ruck. He finished fourth in the 2007 Rising Star award and won the Gavin Wanganeen Medal as the club’s best under-21 first-year player. In the twilight of his career, Westhoff claimed his first John Cahill Medal as the club’s best and fairest in 2018, a testament to his durability and consistency across an outstanding 14-season career. ALEX ZAIA
IMPACT: Gibbs will forever be remembered as a No. 1 pick, but his career was so much more than his draft position. He played through the middle, off half-back, in run-with roles and even across half-forward, with his elite ball-use a highlight of his game. After making his debut in 2007, Gibbs made an immediate impression at Carlton but his best year came in 2014 when he claimed the John Nicholls Medal. A tough decision was made at the end of 2017 when he swapped the navy blue for Crows colours, playing out the twilight of his career in his hometown of Adelaide. Fittingly, he finished his playing days with a farewell game against the Blues late this season. Only 21 men have played more games for Carlton. ANDREW SLEVISON
QUOTE: “He is so well respected and valued by his teammates and everyone associated with the club and it’s a mark of his selfless character that he has elected to make a call now on his future so as to avoid any distraction for the team during finals.” – Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley
QUOTE: “I’ve had an amazing career over 14 years and one that I’m very proud of. If I look at it as a whole, I’m certainly very proud of what I’ve achieved and have been very grateful and fortunate to be able to do what not many people get to do and live out a childhood dream.”
*Figures do not include 2020 preliminary final
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AFL RECORD RETIREES
JAMES FRAWLEY
TRAVIS VARCOE
GAMES 239 (Melb 139, Haw 100) GOALS 24 (Melb 18, Haw 6)
GAMES 230 (Geel 138, Coll 92) GOALS 171 (Geel 130, Coll 41)
IMPACT: The Ballarat product was a terrific player for Melbourne over eight seasons, finishing second in the 2010 best and fairest and earning All-Australian selection the same season. He was primarily a key defender, but spent some time up forward as well. But the Demons were a battling side and it was no surprise he bolted to Hawthorn as a free agent in 2015, playing in a premiership side in his first season. He played a huge part in that finals series, blanketing star forwards Taylor Walker, Matthew Pavlich and Josh Kennedy in successive weeks. He was a fine player thereafter for the Hawks and had the club not embarked down the path of a clear rebuild and a desire to get younger, he might have squeezed out one last season.
IMPACT: A silky smooth mover who gave two clubs great service over a 14-year career. Selected by Geelong at pick No. 15 in the 2005 NAB AFL Draft, he played an invaluable role in the Cats’ 2009 and 2011 flag-winning sides. In 2009, Varcoe dished out a slick handball to Paul Chapman which resulted in the goal that put the Cats ahead in the dying minutes. He kicked the opening two goals of the 2011 decider against Collingwood and his gut running from defence to attack at a crucial stage of the final term produced his third goal and iced the game for the Cats. Varcoe was traded to the Magpies at the end of 2014 and enjoyed his best season in 2018 when he played in Collingwood’s losing Grand Final side. He also kicked the opening goal of that game. MICHAEL LOVETT
MELBOURNE/HAWTHORN
ASHLEY BROWNE
QUOTE: “Across his career, he has been reliable and disciplined, using his speed and strength to great effect. His country background and humility endeared him to all, especially his teammates, many of whom will be lifelong mates.” – Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson
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GEELONG/COLLINGWOOD
QUOTE: “I’ve run my race. I don’t have another season left in the tank. I leave feeling very fortunate and thankful for all that two wonderful clubs, Geelong and Collingwood, did for me and my family.”
SAM JACOBS CARLTON/ADELAIDE/ GWS GIANTS
GAMES 208 (Carl 17, Adel 184, GWS 7) GOALS 50 (Carl 3, Adel 45, GWS 2) IMPACT: Selected No. 1 in the 2007 Rookie Draft by Carlton, Jacobs played 17 games for the Blues before returning home to South Australia to join the Crows. The ultra-consistent ruckman produced his best football at Adelaide, winning three Showdown Medals and finding himself in the All-Australian squad of 40 on three occasions. Earning double-digit Brownlow votes in 2017, he was a key part of the Crows side that made the Grand Final that year. He was traded to GWS at the end of 2019, but played just seven games for the Giants in his final season. Despite a year remaining on his contract, opted to call time in 2020, citing family reasons for his decision.
LACHLAN GELEIT
QUOTE: “With our second child due in November, it’s time to put my family first and it just feels like the time is right and I’m really excited about what’s next. I go out with real happiness and I’m really proud of the career. I’ve been very lucky to be part of three great clubs.”
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CURTAIN CALL
BEN STRATTON HAWTHORN
GAMES 202 GOALS 2 IMPACT: Drafted by the Hawks as a mature-aged defender from East Fremantle, Stratton went on to a storied career in the brown and gold that included three premierships from 2013-15 and, in his final two seasons, the club captaincy. Rangy and athletic, Stratton’s fierce competitiveness, his ability to read the play and his versatility, which allowed him to play tall and small (he regularly had the better of Eddie Betts) made him a defensive weapon for the Hawks. He will be forever remembered for a match-saving tackle on Patrick Dangerfield in the dying seconds of the 2012 preliminary final and some key intercept marks a year later as Geelong was surging late in the 2013 preliminary final. Was hugely popular with teammates and was unchallenged as the master of the pre-game music mix.
ASHLEY BROWNE
QUOTE: “I’ve done a lot of thinking over the last month and once you do it’s probably time (to retire). My body is still intact ... but now seems like the right time. I’m very excited about what lies ahead. I can’t have forecast the success I had and was so fortunate to land at Hawthorn with all those great people around me.”
LYNDEN DUNN MELBOURNE/ COLLINGWOOD
GAMES 198 (Melb 165, Coll 33) GOALS 99 (Melb 97, Coll 2) IMPACT: A popular figure at two clubs, Dunn squeezed every bit out of himself over a 14-year career. He was recruited by Melbourne with pick 15 in the 2004 NAB AFL Draft, but didn’t make his AFL debut until round six, 2006. He played 165 games for the Demons before being traded to Collingwood at the end of the 2016 season. Not the most gifted player, but there was no more determined figure. His career was dealt a cruel blow in 2018 when he was on track to play finals for the first time but ruptured his ACL in round 15. Reinjured the same knee in 2019 and didn’t play. Was delisted but picked up as a supplementary selection earlier this year and played two games. MICHAEL LOVETT QUOTE: “They (Dunn and delisted Pies Tim Broomhead and Matthew Scharenberg) have been a big part of our story and I trust we will always be a proud part of theirs.” – Collingwood GM of Football Geoff Walsh
PAUL PUOPOLO HAWTHORN
GAMES 196 GOALS 185 IMPACT: Another of Hawthorn’s mature-age draft successes, he arrived as a fourth-round selection in 2011 from Norwood, and was originally pencilled in as an old-style nuggety half-back. But in 2012 he became one of the first of a new breed of small forwards whose defensive acts such as tackles, smothers and knock-ons were as valuable to the team as goals kicked. He and Cyril Rioli terrorised opposing backlines for pleasure. Over time, Puopolo became an attacking weapon himself and knew how to find the goals and take the occasional speccy as well. The player who was overlooked for several drafts and was contemplating life as a labourer, instead retired as a three-time premiership player and an integral part of one of the greatest teams ever.
ASHLEY BROWNE
QUOTE: “I feel like I could probably give a little more, but looking at the circumstances of where the club is heading, I’d be taking a spot for a young kid who’s trying to develop and that didn’t sit well with me. I’m pinching myself at the career I’ve had.” AFL.com.au AFL RECORD 113
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AFL RECORD RETIREES
WILL SCHOFIELD
MATTHEW KREUZER
GAMES 194 GOALS 22
GAMES 189 GOALS 94
IMPACT: Drafted from the Geelong Falcons in 2006, Schofield was a warrior over the course of his 14-year career with the Eagles. He played just 15 games across his first three seasons before becoming a defensive staple from 2010 onwards. Schofield often played as an undersized backman on bigger opponents and was constantly a difficult match-up for some of the competition’s best goalkickers. Having played in West Coast’s losing 2015 Grand Final to Hawthorn, he was recalled for the 2018 preliminary final win over Melbourne before playing a key role in the thrilling premiership triumph against Collingwood. Schofield has finished his career on 194 games, which has him sitting 27th on West Coast’s all-time list. ANDREW SLEVISON
IMPACT: Kreuzer was the No. 1 pick in the 2007 NAB AFL Draft and immediately cemented himself as the club’s franchise ruckman, playing 56 consecutive games to start his career. From there, it was marred by injury. A torn ACL in 2010, multiple serious foot surgeries, an ongoing heart condition and knee and ankle issues limited Kreuzer to only 189 games. Despite the games missed, the ruckman was the soul of Carlton on and off the field. The team walked taller with him out there and fans filled the air with cries of “Kreuz” whenever he went near the ball. At his best in 2017, Kreuzer made the All-Australian squad as a ruckman who controlled the air and was just as good on the ground. NIC NEGREPONTIS
QUOTE: “I’ve run out of fight to bang down Adam Simpson’s door every week. I have loved the fight to get my spot and I’ve tried to play my role as much as possible. There have been amazing moments and really difficult moments. I’ve had personal adversity ... I’ve lost a Grand Final and I’ve won one.”
QUOTE: “What he’s done for this football club … he’s been asked a lot of in that sense. He’s had little niggles, he gets back up and, because he’s such a competitor, you trust him to go out there and get the job done.”
NATHAN BROWN
JACK WATTS
PEARCE HANLEY
GAMES 183 (Coll 130, St K 53) GOALS 7 (Coll 7)
GAMES 174 (Melb 153, PA 21) GOALS 161 (Melb 143, PA 18)
IMPACT: Selected with pick No. 10
IMPACT: Taken with pick No. 1 in the 2008 NAB AFL Draft at just 17, Watts was one of the most hyped youngsters the game had seen. The pressure placed on him to help turn around the fortunes of the Demons was enormous. While he never lived up to external expectations, Watts’ versatility saw him craft a solid career during the most difficult period in the club’s history, playing under six senior coaches. His best season was 2016, when he kicked 38 goals and finished fifth in the best and fairest. Switching to Port Adelaide in 2018, he was cruelled by injuries, playing just a further 21 games. SAM MILLS
WEST COAST EAGLES
COLLINGWOOD/ST KILDA
in the 2006 NAB AFL Draft, Brown went on to play 183 games – 130 at Collingwood and 53 for St Kilda. Hailing from North Ballarat, the key defender was part of the Magpies’ drought-breaking 2010 premiership, replacing the injured Simon Prestigiacomo at the eleventh hour. He played an important role on the day, quelling the influence of star St Kilda forward Nick Riewoldt. After nine seasons in the black and white, Brown moved to the Saints as a free agent and slotted in down back while adding much-needed experience and leadership on and off the field. Brown didn’t make a senior appearance in 2020 after leaving the club’s Queensland hub to return to Victoria for family reasons. ALEX ZAIA QUOTE: “It’s the right time for me now to give what I have given football for the past 14 years to my other team – my girls. They need their daddy and husband more than ever and there’s nothing that can be bigger than that. I thank you (teammates) for understanding.”
114 AFL RECORD
MELBOURNE/PORT ADELAIDE
QUOTE: “Since my injury, I feel my body has let me down and I have been struggling with the physical and mental requirements of getting back to the level of fitness that’s required. I feel lucky to have had 12 years in the game and, while there have been some challenges, there have also been some amazing memories.”
CARLTON
– Carlton coach David Teague
BRISBANE LIONS/ GOLD COAST SUNS
GAMES 169 (BL 129, GCS 40) GOALS 60 (BL 58, GCS 2) IMPACT: Plucked from Gaelic football at the height of the Irish experiment, Hanley was one of the few dependable cogs in a tough era for the Brisbane Lions. After making his debut in 2008, he became a regular under Michael Voss in 2011 and averaged more than 20 disposals a game until he left the club for Gold Coast at the end of the 2016 season. Ironically, his best outing was against the Suns in 2014 when he amassed 45 disposals. His move south provided a young Gold Coast squad with experience and leadership and was a coup for a club that lacked quality players. Despite never playing a final, Hanley finishes his career with the fourth-most games by an Irish player. SAM MILLS QUOTE: “I feel good, it’s obviously been on my mind for a while … it’s obviously a big decision, but I’m ready for it. I’m excited for the next phase in my life and looking forward to sinking my teeth into that.”
SEN.com.au
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AFL RECORD RETIREES
RICKY HENDERSON
BEN REID
GAMES 159 (Adel 90, Haw 69) GOALS 79 (Adel 43, Haw 36)
GAMES 152 GOALS 73
IMPACT: The former basketball prodigy was spotted by Adelaide at an NBL tryout camp and was convinced to give the oval ball game a go. He was a serviceable wingman through seven seasons with the Crows and was a terrific user of the ball when given time and space. Was released by Adelaide at the end of 2016 and followed his great mate Jack Gunston to the Hawks as a delisted free agent. There haven’t been many better in that category than Henderson who at least for his first three seasons with the club was an integral part of the side with his hard, two-way running and deep and penetrating kicking. He played his best football for the Hawks and was runner-up in the 2019 Peter Crimmins Medal, before knee injuries restricted him to just seven games in 2020. ASHLEY BROWNE
IMPACT: When his body allowed, Reid spent the majority of his career with Collingwood as an effective player at either end of the ground. After only eight games in his first three seasons, the eighth pick from the 2006 NAB AFL Draft came of age in 2010, winning a premiership medal before claiming an All-Australian blazer the following year. Reid played three more consistent seasons until 2014. Unfortunately, the agile key-position swingman was cruelled by soft-tissue injuries for the remainder of his career, playing only 57 games in his last seven seasons. Thrown forward late in his career, the left-footer played only two games in 2020, but he will forever be remembered as a flag winner with the Pies. LACHLAN GELEIT
ADELAIDE/HAWTHORN
QUOTE: “Since the moment I arrived, I loved the change Hawthorn provided and the environment at the club. I’m really pleased to have been able to spend the last few years of my AFL career in the brown and gold. I’m happy to be moving into a new chapter of life and look forward to whatever comes next.”
TORY DICKSON WESTERN BULLDOGS
GAMES 114 GOALS 181 IMPACT: Dickson didn’t take the traditional path to the AFL, going undrafted until he was picked up with a speculative pick (No. 57) in the 2011 NAB AFL Draft, aged 24. The lead-up forward quickly found his place in attack for the Bulldogs, playing 17 games in his debut season in 2012 before kicking 50 goals in 2015. He will always be known for playing a crucial role in the club’s drought-breaking 2016 premiership – where he kicked a combined seven goals in the preliminary and grand finals. After that memorable campaign, Dickson had a fantastic season in 2019, becoming the most accurate player in the competition in his 17 games. After just one game this season, the 33-year-old announced his retirement in September, closing the curtain on a solid career.
LAURENCE ROSEN
QUOTE: “For a long time, I didn’t think I would get to play one AFL game and to have played more than 100 games for this club and contribute to our 2016 premiership success was incredible. The opportunity the Western Bulldogs have given me is something I will always be grateful for.”
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COLLINGWOOD
QUOTE: “It was just a wonderful time in my life that I wish could go on forever but, of course, it never can and my time has come. Thanks to the many teammates, coaches, friends and family who travelled with me over the years. Whatever I was able to do, it was with your help.”
ANTHONY MILES
GWS GIANTS/RICHMOND/ GOLD COAST GAMES 88 (GWS 10, Rich 61, GCS 17) GOALS 31 (GWS 1, Rich 24, GCS 6)
TOMMY SHERIDAN
FREMANTLE/ GWS GIANTS
GAMES 83 (Frem 81, GWS 2) GOALS 31 (Frem 31, GWS 0)
CONOR McKENNA
ESSENDON GAMES 79 GOALS 20
GEORGE HORLIN-SMITH
GEELONG/GOLD COAST GAMES 58 (Geel 51, GCS 7) GOALS 29 (Geel 7, GCS 2)
TOM BELLCHAMBERS ESSENDON
GAMES 136 GOALS 77 IMPACT: Arriving at Essendon with pick No. 8 in the 2008 Pre-Season Draft, Bellchambers played just 14 games in three years before his breakout season in 2011, where he played 13 games to cement himself as the club’s No. 1 ruckman. Always a popular player among teammates, the Bombers big man unfortunately struggled with injury through much of his career. Playing just seven games in 2020 due to a persistent knee injury, the 31-year-old made the difficult decision to call time on a 12-year career. He leaves Essendon as a fine servant of the club and safe in the knowledge that he’s mentored the club’s future ruckman Sam Draper. LAURENCE ROSEN QUOTE: “I’ve been lucky to live out my childhood dream and in doing so have created some amazing memories and friendships along the way that I will cherish forever. Physically, my body is telling me my time is up and I go out knowing that I couldn’t have given any more to this great club.”
SHAUN RYAN UMPIRE
GAMES 349* IMPACT: It is a case of second time around for the much-decorated whistleblower. He retired at the end of the 2011 season having umpired five Grand Finals in succession from 2008-11 (including the 2010 drawn Grand Final). But this time it’s permanent with Ryan announcing that he would be bowing out at the end of the 2020 finals series. After he returned to the AFL in 2015, he clocked up three more Grand Final appearances (2017-19) and leaves still at the top of his game after officiating in this year’s finals series. Ryan is a two-time All-Australian umpire (2010, 2019) and an AFL life member. A barrister outside of football, he was a wise counsel for the umpiring fraternity and a leader and ambassador for umpiring across all levels of the game. MICHAEL LOVETT QUOTE: “Like a lot of Warrnambool kids growing up, the dream was to play AFL football. I worked out pretty quickly that wasn’t going to happen. Umpiring gave me the opportunity to be involved with the greatest sport at the highest level.” *Total does not include 2020 preliminary final
SEN.com.au
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The Essential First Step.
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Football has long had its family dynasties. ASHLEY BROWNE has researched and listed the most influential family groups in the game in 2020, on and off the ground.
1THELLOYDBROTHERS 2THE BRAYSHAWS
The brothers have had plenty of impact at various clubs and in wildly different aspects of the game for nearly 30 years. Matthew was the champion player of the three, with his 270 games, 926 goals and a premiership for Essendon, but as a commentator/analyst since then for various outlets but these days for Channel Nine, AFL.com.au and 3AW, he goes as hard as he did the day he flattened Brad Sewell at the MCG. As a coach at Haileybury College, he has played a key role in the development of rising stars including Max and Ben King, Andrew Brayshaw, Luke Davies-Uniacke and Aiden Bonar. Oldest brother Simon started in a player welfare role at Hawthorn, moved to Collingwood in several high-performance roles and now heads up footy operations at Geelong. Brad played 11 games for the Hawks, before becoming a player manager. He spent several years as Fremantle’s list manager and is now the general manager of football at Carlton. Their father John played 29 games for Carlton in the mid-1960s.
FOOTY IN THE BLOOD: (Opposite page) The Lloyd and Brayshaw clans have been influential on and off the ground and in the media. (Top from left) Brad, Simon and Matthew Lloyd. (Bottom from left) Mark, Hamish, James, Andrew and Angus Brayshaw.
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If you’re of a certain age, the name Brayshaw makes you think of cricket, specifically Ian, a terrific all-rounder for Western Australia in the 1960s and 1970s. His son James also played first-class cricket for South Australia and Western Australia. But they are now firmly a football family and deeply embedded in the game at that. As he moved into breakfast radio in Adelaide and Melbourne, James came to call footy for Triple M and Channel Nine before being tapped on the shoulder to become president of North Melbourne in 2008 when a relocation to the Gold Coast was on the cards. He held that position for nine years. He now calls games for Channel Seven and is part of the Triple M radio call team. His older brother (by one year) is Mark Brayshaw, a 32-game defender for the Kangaroos between 1990-92 who later served as chief executive of Richmond and since 2015 has been chief executive of the AFL Coaches Association, which has significantly increased in size and scope since he took over. Three of Mark’s sons are on AFL lists. Angus, the No. 3 selection at the 2014 NAB AFL Draft and the shock third place-getter at the 2018 Brownlow Medal (without scoring an invitation) is a star for Melbourne, while younger brother Andrew, the No. 2 pick in 2017, is an emerging star at Fremantle. Youngest brother Hamish made his debut for West Coast in round 17 this season.
BROTHERS IN ARMS: AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan (left) and media identity Hamish McLachlan are two of the highest-profile figures in the game.
3
THE McLACHLAN BROTHERS
AFL boss Gillon is far and away the most powerful figure in footy and his standing has only been elevated further by his artful performance in managing the game through the most disruptive and difficult season in history. Occasionally he has let his guard down and reflected on the personal toll this year took, and losing 10kg, we suspect, was just the start. His younger brother Hamish calls footy and hosts footy shows for Channel Seven and has become one of the more prominent voices in the game. He and Gill adroitly handle their relationship whenever they’re on air together, which included last year’s Brownlow Medal. Their uncle Ian is better known for his cricketing connections – he is a former SACA president and played one Test match for Australia – but he was one of the first to recognise more than a decade ago that football needed to return to Adelaide Oval and was a major player in cricket and footy putting aside their differences and making it happen.
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AFL RECORD ALL IN THE FAMILY
4THE SCOTT TWINS
The identical twins have been high-profile figures in the AFL world for a long time and were at their fearsome best when playing for Leigh Matthews’ dominant Brisbane sides in the early 2000s, earning themselves the ‘Kray Brothers’ moniker. Chris was the Rising Star winner in 1994 and played 215 games over 13 years, including the 2001 and 2002 premierships. In 2011, he became coach of Geelong and steered the Cats to a flag in his first year. Since then he has led them to the finals every season except for 2015, and has totally transformed the playing list without ever having to bottom out. His seniority as a head coach (only Alastair Clarkson has held the same job for longer) means he is a respected voice in the game and is close to many of the key figures at the AFL. One of those is Brad who played 146 games for the Brisbane Lions from 1998-2006, including the 2001 and 2002 flags, after 22 for Hawthorn in 1997 and then became coach of North Melbourne for 211 games between 2010-19. He is the third longest-serving coach in Roos history. In January, he joined the AFL as competition evolution manager, working under footy operations boss Steve Hocking (Chris’s offsider at the Cats for several years) with a wide-ranging brief across game trends, analytics and coaching. But like so many at AFL headquarters, COVID-19 scuttled those plans and, instead, he spent much of 2020 helping supervise the interstate hub at which most clubs spent time this year. In August, he became the new chief executive of AFL Victoria.
MAHER 7 ANDREW AND EMMA RACE
One of the power couples of the game, although no doubt they’ll blanch, then giggle at this description. Andrew has been in the game for more than 30 years as a writer, broadcaster, boundary rider and radio presenter and currently hosts the drive time show on SEN with Bob Murphy and the wildly popular The Front Bar on Channel Seven, whose success ultimately proved to be the downfall of The Footy Show after 25 years. He is also the runner for the Carlton AFLW side and lives in a divided household with wife Emma, who is Hawthorn’s No. 1 ticketholder. Her star in the game has risen in recent years as a member of the popular and influential Inner Sanctum podcast and radio show, while behind the scenes she has worked with women seeking roles in the footy industry and advised AFLW players on matters such as wage equality.
SIBLING RIVALRY: Teammates in the 2001 and 2002 premierships with the Brisbane Lions, Chris (left) and Brad Scott then became opponents as coaches; (right) Giants CEO David Matthews and brother Simon have played significant off-field roles at League and club level.
MATTHEWS 6 THE BROTHERS
BASSAT 5 THE BROTHERS
Their main claim to fame is that they conceived and built online recruitment website SEEK.com from scratch and it changed the Australian media landscape forever, starting the drift away from newspaper classified advertising. Younger brother Paul joined the AFL Commission in 2012 and his knowledge of Silicon Valley, the digital space and emerging technologies has been an asset to the game and he is particularly close to Gillon McLachlan. A member of the hastily convened ‘Corona Cabinet’ in 2020, he is the second-longest serving commissioner. Older brother
120 AFL RECORD
Andrew, the Seek CEO, is in his second season as St Kilda president and has helped establish the Saints as a destination club. They were one of the feel-good stories of the season and the club’s sixth-place finish and record 48,588 membership figure this year was a reflection of the optimism surrounding the club.
The brothers have blazed separate trails in the game
The Geelong-born-and-raised brothers have blazed separate trails in the game. David was a long-time AFL executive, and his last stop there was as the general manager of game development. But he was tapped on the shoulder by then AFL boss Andrew Demetriou to become chief executive of the GWS Giants when they entered the AFL in 2012. He has done a terrific job growing the club on and off the field after overcoming significant hurdles as a start-up venture. His brother Simon is a former Geelong Advertiser sportswriter who moved into a communications role at Essendon before being headhunted to Richmond in a general manager’s role that oversees communications and marketing. He is regarded as one of the best in the business.
SEN.com.au
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8THE SHAW FAMILY
This might be the first and last go-around for this great footy family on this list, at least for now. Rhyce has just completed a difficult first full season as coach of North Melbourne, having gone down that path after a stellar playing career with Collingwood and Sydney. The quirky Heath was delisted at the end of this season after 325 games with the Pies and the GWS Giants over 16 years. They’re the second generation from their family to leave a huge impression on the game. Their father Ray is a former Collingwood skipper and his brother Tony is one of the greatest Magpies of all, the 1990 premiership captain (and Norm Smith medallist) and later the coach of Collingwood. He still works for 3AW as a special commentator. Their first cousin is Robert Shaw, the former Essendon player who later coached Fitzroy and Adelaide.
HEY DAD: (Top) Heath Shaw followed in the footsteps of his father Ray at Collingwood before ending his career at the Giants, while brother Rhyce (left) has just completed his first full season as coach of North Melbourne. Kane (left) and Chad Cornes, pictured in 2000, ironically became Port Adelaide stars after their father Graham had coached SA rival Adelaide.
9THE CORNES FAMILY
Up there with the Williams and Ebert families in terms of fame and influence when it comes to football in South Australia. It starts with Graham, one of the all-time greats of the Glenelg Football Club through 317 games between 1967-82. He briefly played for North Melbourne in 1979 and finished his SANFL playing career as captain-coach of South Adelaide in 1983-84. He was the foundation coach of Adelaide from 1991-94 and has been an influential commentator and broadcaster since then, primarily on 5AA and these days on Twitter. There was great irony that his two sons went on to forge fantastic playing careers with Port Adelaide, the club Graham despised during his Glenelg days. Chad played 239 games with Port between 1999-2011 and 16 with the GWS Giants in their 2012 debut season. He is now an assistant coach with the Power. Kane played 300 games for Port between 2001-15 and was one of the premier run-with players of his time. He and Chad were teammates when the Power won the 2004 premiership. These days, Kane is one of the more influential and outspoken commentators in the game and appears regularly across several SEN and AFL Nation shows as well as the Sunday Footy Show and Footy Classified on the Nine Network. AFL.com.au AFL.com.au AFL RECORD 121
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AFL RECORD ALL IN THE FAMILY
10THE KING TWINS
We’re getting in early here, but the identical twin brothers from Melbourne’s bayside might soon be battling each other to be the best key forward in the competition for the next decade. The respective fourth and sixth picks at the 2018 NAB AFL Draft have become their clubs’ main forward targets. In his second season, Ben kicked 17 goals for Gold Coast and played a key role in the team’s improvement from last place to 14th on the ladder. Max didn’t play in 2019 for St Kilda because of injury, but the wait was worth it, and he booted 22 goals this season to help the Saints – the team he and Ben followed as kids – march into the finals for the first time in a decade. It is unlikely they will play in the same team any time soon. Ben is contracted to the Suns until 2022 and to reunite them one day in the future would likely cost a club a bunch of early draft picks and/or star players.
122 AFL RECORD
FAMILY TIES: Dockers teammates Ebony (left) and Kara Antonio are the AFLW’s first married couple; Max (left) and Ben King look destined to be stars for the next decade; Erin Phillips and brother-in-law Shaun Burgoyne are both champions of the game.
AND 11 EBONY KARA ANTONIO
They met when they were trying out for the West Australian state team and have been together ever since. There are several other couplings through AFLW – and not all of them play for the same club – but the Fremantle teammates are the League’s first married couple, having tied the knot last October after Kara, the captain of the Dockers, proposed to Ebony on the end-of-season trip to Bali 12 months before. The cancellation of the AFLW season one week into the finals series because of COVID-19 might have cost them a premiership. The Dockers went 6-0 through the abridged home and away season and won their opening final by 70 points before the season was called off.
BURGOYNE AND ERIN PHILLIPS 12 SHAUN Bear with us on this one. Burgoyne has been an AFL champion for nearly two decades, a Port Adelaide premiership player in 2004 and a three-time premiership Hawk between 2013-15 after moving there at the start of 2010. He finished the 2020 season on 389 games and, as well as being the League’s indigenous games record-holder, he is also influential and a sounding board when it comes to the AFL and all things indigenous. Burgoyne is married to Amy, whose father Greg was a champion defender for Port Adelaide in the SANFL and Collingwood in the VFL. Another daughter is Erin, who after a brilliant basketball career that included an Olympic
SEN.com.au
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AFL RECORD ALL IN THE FAMILY
silver medal and two WNBA championships, turned her attentions to AFLW in 2017 and has since won two premierships and two AFLW competition best and fairests. She is the AFLW’s first superstar.
AND 13 TIM SAMANTHA LANE
One of the doyens of sports commentary in Australia, Tim was a longtime ABC broadcaster and those with a long memory might remember him commentating and hosting The Winners. He moved to Channel Ten and 3AW where he is now the lead commentator. He also writes influential and thought-provoking pieces for The Age and the proud Tasmanian is also a passionate advocate for the game in his home state and in particular getting its own AFL licence. His daughter Samantha is a former AFL.com.au and The Age football writer and TV host and boundary rider, whose media focus is now mainly on the AFLW. She has a powerful voice on the women’s football stage and her 2018 book Roar compellingly told the story of the birth and the early days of the AFLW.
124 AFL RECORD
14
TIM AND JOBE WATSON
Tim is one of the all-time great players in Essendon history (307 games and three premierships) and he parlayed that into a great media career as a sports news reader and commentator with Channel Seven (with a two-year break to coach St Kilda) and many years as the breakfast host on SEN 1116. His son Jobe was a star Essendon midfielder through 220 games over 15 seasons, who is now emerging as a respected specialist commentator, also with Seven.
AND 15 KEVIN RHETT BARTLETT
Kevin is one of the all-time greats, a 403-game, four-time premiership-winning superstar for Richmond between 1965-83. He later coached the club, but many football supporters would know him as a longtime radio and TV broadcaster, and an influential one at that. He served on the rules committee for many years and used his media outlets to strongly promote his views on the game. He finished up with SEN 1116 last year, having been there since the station’s inception. He now
DOUBLE ACTS: Tim and Samantha Lane (left), Tim and Jobe Watson (above) and Kevin and Rhett Bartlett (right).
broadcasts games for 3AW and his opinion still carries merit. His son Rhett is fast making a name for himself as one of the game’s leading historians. He has already written several books but now finds long-lost football films and videos, which he digitises and makes available online. Some of his discoveries are extraordinary. The AFL should be looking to bring him into its embrace.
ALSO CONSIDERED u Travis and Rob Auld
Travis is the AFL general manager responsible for fixturing, broadcasting and finance. Rob is the general manager for game development. u Ben and Harry McKay
(Lane is) one of the doyens of sports commentary in Australia
Harry is a key forward for Carlton and one of the club’s emerging stars, while twin brother Ben is a North Melbourne key defender. u Nathan and Zak Jones
Nathan is the longtime Melbourne midfielder and former captain, while Zak is one of the prime on-ballers at St Kilda, having crossed from Sydney at the start of the year. u Sarah Jones and
Leigh Carlson
Sarah is one of the leading presenters at Fox Footy while her husband Leigh is a senior producer.
SEN.com.au
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and Unique. Just Like The Goods He Delivers.
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o d e W t a h W s That’ 1300HANGMYTV Your TV wall mounting experts.
Season 2020 will go down as one of the most challenging, dramatic and unusual in AFL/VFL history – on and off the field. LAURENCE ROSEN & MARK GENGE
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AFL RECORD SEASON REVIEW
ROUND 1
ROUND 2 u LADDER
u LADDER TEAM
NO ONE HOME: The stands were empty as the Tigers ran on to the ground for a unique round one clash with the Blues.
HIGHLIGHTS
u Has there ever been a
more chaotic build-up to an opening round of the season? The green light for the game to proceed was given less than 48 hours before Richmond’s 24-point win over Carlton. Amid a backdrop of worsening COVID-19 conditions across Australia, the opening weekend remarkably took place as scheduled, despite not a single fan attending any one of the nine games. Collingwood made an early statement with a thumping win against the Western Dogs at Marvel Stadium on Friday night, while the Giants took care of a lacklustre Geelong in Sydney on Saturday night. A chaotic Sunday saw the announcement during half-time of Hawthorn’s clash against the Brisbane Lions that the season would be suspended indefinitely. By the time the ball was bounced in Perth for the final game of the round, the footy world was coming to grips with an unprecedented shutdown. It was the last game of AFL football until early June.
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PTS
TEAM
PTS
1 Port Adelaide
4
1 Port Adelaide
8
2 Collingwood
4
2 North Melbourne
8
3 West Coast Eagles
4
3 Essendon
8
4 Hawthorn
4
4 Collingwood
6
5 GWS Giants 6 Richmond
4
5 Richmond 6 St Kilda
4
7 Essendon 8 Sydney Swans
4
7 Geelong Cats 8 GWS Giants
4
4
9 North Melbourne
4
9 Sydney Swans
4
10 St Kilda
0
10 Gold Coast Suns
4
11 Adelaide Crows
0
11 Brisbane Lions
4
12 Fremantle
0
12 West Coast Eagles
4
13 Carlton
0
13 Hawthorn
4
14 Geelong Cats
0
14 Melbourne
4
15 Brisbane Lions
0
15 Fremantle
0
16 Melbourne
0
16 Carlton
0
17 Western Bulldogs
0
17 Adelaide Crows
0
18 Gold Coast Suns
0
18 Western Bulldogs
0
u RESULTS Thursday, March 19 Rich 16.9 (105) vs. Carl 12.9 (81) (MCG) (N) Friday, March 20 WB 5.4 (34) vs. Coll 13.8 (86) (MRVL) (N) Saturday, March 21 Ess 9.9 (63) vs. Frem 8.9 (57) (MRVL) Adel 11.5 (71) vs. Syd 11.8 (74) (AO) (T) GWS 17.3 (105) vs. Geel 11.7 (73) (GS) (N) GCS 4.5 (29) vs. PA 10.16 (76) (MS) (N) Sunday, March 22 NM 8.8 (56) vs. StK 7.12 (54) (MRVL) Haw 14.6 (90) vs. BL 9.8 (62) (MCG) WCE 12.6 (78) vs. Melb 7.9 (51) (OS) (T)
u ODD SPOT
WHERE IS EVERYONE? In his second AFL match, Richmond’s Marlion Pickett played in front of no paying customers, with attendances affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This was in stark contrast to his debut in the 2019 Grand Final in front of 100,014 spectators.
4
TWO ON THE TROT: Shaun Higgins was outstanding as North Melbourne stormed home to stun the Giants.
HIGHLIGHTS
u After an 81-day break
between matches because of the COVID-19 pandemic, excitement was at fever pitch for footy-starved fans as the 2020 season resumed under the bright lights of the MCG, only for the first game of the restart to end in a low-scoring draw between Collingwood and Richmond. It was a big Friday night down at GMHBA Stadium, as the Cats took on the Hawks at their home ground for the first time in more than a decade, romping home for a 10-goal win. Crowds also returned to the footy in Adelaide, with the Showdown taking place in front of a few thousand people as Port Adelaide made an early-season statement against the Crows, triumphing by 75 points. Essendon eventually overcame a brave Sydney Swans outfit at the SCG to prevail by six points and the round ended at Marvel Stadium with the Saints handing the Western Bulldogs their second consecutive smashing of the season, this time by 39 points.
6
4
u RESULTS Thursday, June 11 Coll 5.6 (36) vs. Rich 5.6 (36) (MCG) (N) Friday, June 12 Geel 17.6 (108) vs. Haw 7.5 (47) (GMHBA) (N) Saturday, June 13 BL 12.9 (81) vs. Frem 10.9 (69) (G) Carl 7.11 (53) vs. Melb 8.6 (54) (MRVL) (T) PA 17.8 (110) vs. Adel 5.5 (35) (AO) (N) GCS 14.6 (90) vs. WCE 6.10 (46) (MS) (N) Sunday, June 14 GWS 8.12 (60) vs. NM 12.8 (80) (GS) Syd 11.7 (73) vs. Ess 12.7 (79) (SCG) StK 14.4 (88) vs. WB 7.7 (49) (OS) (N)
u ODD SPOT
LUCK OF THE DRAW In a low-scoring draw, 5.6 (36) apiece, Collingwood kicked the first four goals of the match and Richmond the last four. The Tigers did not lead at any stage. It was the first draw between these clubs since 1917.
SEN.com.au
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ROUND 3
ROUND 4 u LADDER
u LADDER TEAM
NO LOVE LOST: The Giants and Bulldogs resumed their hostilities in a tense affair.
HIGHLIGHTS
u Much has been made
of the simmering tensions between modern-day rivals the Western Bulldogs and GWS Giants on the back of several high-profile clashes in previous seasons. And, while there was no one in the stands at Marvel Stadium, it was no less spiteful on the field as the Bulldogs won a tense affair by 24 points. It was a dramatic Saturday after Conor McKenna’s positive COVID-19 test forced the Essendon-Melbourne game the following day to be postponed until what turned out to be the final round of the season. It was also a round which David Teague will look back on fondly, after notching unquestionably his best win as Carlton coach as the Blues knocked off Geelong by two points at GMHBA Stadium. There was also somewhat of a reality check for St Kilda at the MCG, going down easily to an impressive Collingwood outfit, while Richmond’s indifferent form since football’s return continued when it was upstaged by Hawthorn by 32 points at the MCG.
PTS
TEAM
PTS
1 Port Adelaide
12
1 Port Adelaide
16
2 Collingwood
10
2 Gold Coast Suns
12
3 Gold Coast Suns
8
3 Brisbane Lions
12
4 Essendon
8
4 Hawthorn
12
5 Brisbane Lions
8
5 Collingwood
10
6 North Melbourne
8
6 Geelong Cats
8
7 Sydney Swans
8
7 St Kilda
8
8 Hawthorn
8
8 Essendon
8
9 Richmond
6
9 North Melbourne
8
10 Geelong Cats
4
10 GWS Giants
8
11 St Kilda
4
11 Sydney Swans
8
12 GWS Giants
4
12 Carlton
8
13 Carlton
4
13 Western Bulldogs
8
14 Melbourne
4
14 Richmond
6 4
15 West Coast Eagles
4
15 Melbourne
16 Western Bulldogs
4
16 West Coast Eagles
4
17 Fremantle
0
17 Fremantle
0
18 Adelaide Crows
0
18 Adelaide Crows
0
u RESULTS Thursday, June 18 Rich 5.9 (39) vs. Haw 11.5 (71) (MCG) (N) Friday, June 19 WB 8.9 (57) vs. GWS 4.9 (33) (MRVL) (N) Saturday, June 20 NM 8.12 (60) vs. Syd 10.11 (71) (MRVL) Coll 12.9 (81) vs. StK 5.7 (37) (MCG) (T) Geel 11.11 (77) vs. Carl 12.7 (79) (GMHBA) (N) BL 10.14 (74) vs. WCE 6.8 (44) (G) (N) Sunday, June 21 GCS 12.10 (82) vs. Adel 4.5 (29) (MS) Ess vs. Melb (MCG) – rescheduled to round 18 Frem 6.5 (41) vs. PA 10.10 (70) (MS) (N)
u ODD SPOT
GENERATION NEXT Carlton defeated Geelong by two points at GMHBA Stadium, its first win at the venue since 1996. Father and son combinations – Steve and Jack Silvagni, and Gary Ablett snr and jnr – played in the respective matches.
SO CLOSE: After this strong mark, Jacob Townsend’s last-gasp shot at goal just fell short against the Blues.
HIGHLIGHTS
u In a re-match of the previous
season’s epic preliminary final, Collingwood would have fancied its chances on Friday night against a Giants side that had lost both games since the season restart, but what ensued was a contest which went right down to the wire, with the Magpies again falling short. There was high drama on the Saturday night at the MCG in a low-scoring contest between Essendon and Carlton on a bitterly cold night. It came down to one final kick in the dying stages from Bomber Jacob Townsend, which ricocheted off Liam Jones’ face on the goal line and saw the Blues winning by a point. Port Adelaide did it easily over the West Coast Eagles in a game that will be remembered for Charlie Dixon’s bag of six goals as he asserted himself as one of the best forwards of the season. Richmond’s premiership defence was in the balance as it remained winless since the competition’s restart, this time going down to the relentless Saints, who smothered the Tigers with their pressure in an impressive 26-point win.
u RESULTS Thursday, June 25 Syd 5.9 (39) vs. WB 10.7 (67) (SCG) (N) Friday, June 26 GWS 10.6 (66) vs. Coll 9.10 (64) (GS) (N) Saturday, June 27 PA 13.11 (89) vs. WCE 6.5 (41) (MS) StK 15.3 (93) vs. Rich 10.7 (67) (MRVL) (T) Ess 8.3 (51) vs. Carl 7.10 (52) (MCG) (N) GCS 10.4 (64) vs. Frem 8.3 (51) (MS) (N) Sunday, June 28 BL 10.23 (83) vs. Adel 7.4 (46) (G) Melb 6.8 (44) vs. Geel 7.5 (47) (MCG) Haw 8.10 (58) vs. NM 8.6 (54) (MRVL) (N)
u ODD SPOT
CLEAN SHEET At half-time, Gold Coast 7.0 (42) led Fremantle 6.0 (36), the first time in an AFL/VFL match that no behinds were scored in the first two quarters. Gold Coast won the match by 13 points to move to second on the ladder. AFL.com.au AFL RECORD 129
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ROUND 5
ROUND 6 u LADDER
u LADDER TEAM
WINNERS ARE GRINNERS: Cats champions Gary Ablett and Joel Selwood shared the spotlight with big milestones.
HIGHLIGHTS
u Two all-Victorian blockbusters
headlined Thursday and Friday night footy and both didn’t disappoint, with St Kilda recording an important win over Carlton while Essendon had its best victory of the season, beating Collingwood by 15 points. It was a great shame there was no one at GMHBA Stadium for Geelong’s clash against Gold Coast, as the club marked the dual milestones of Gary Ablett (350 games) and Joel Selwood (300) on the same night. There were special scenes after the clash, as both sets of players gave the two greats a guard of honour after the Cats’ comfortable win. The game was also notable for the season-ending shoulder injury to first-year Suns sensation Matt Rowell. Port Adelaide had been asserting itself as one of the teams to beat, but the Power’s 37-point loss to Brisbane at the Gabba was a significant setback in the eyes of many. The Tigers returned to the winners’ list with a gritty performance against the Demons, but lost star midfielder Dion Prestia with an an ankle syndesmosis injury that kept him sidelined for the rest of the home and away season.
130 AFL RECORD
PTS
TEAM
PTS
1 Port Adelaide
16
1 Port Adelaide
20
2 Brisbane Lions
16
2 Geelong Cats
16
3 Geelong Cats
12
3 Brisbane Lions
16
4 St Kilda
12
4 Essendon
16
5 Essendon
12
5 Collingwood
14
6 Gold Coast Suns
12
6 Richmond
14
7 GWS Giants
12
7 St Kilda
12
8 Western Bulldogs
12
8 Carlton
12
9 Hawthorn
12
9 Gold Coast Suns
12
10 Collingwood
10
10 GWS Giants
12
11 Richmond
10
11 West Coast Eagles
12
12 Carlton
8
12 Western Bulldogs
12
13 North Melbourne
8
13 Hawthorn
12
14 Sydney Swans
8
14 Fremantle
8
15 West Coast Eagles
8
15 Melbourne
8
16 Fremantle
4
16 North Melbourne
8
17 Melbourne
4
17 Sydney Swans
8
18 Adelaide Crows
0
18 Adelaide Crows
0
u RESULTS Thursday, July 2 Carl 8.7 (55) vs. StK 11.7 (73) (MRVL) (N) Friday, July 3 Coll 7.6 (48) vs. Ess 10.3 (63) (MCG) (N) Saturday, July 4 WCE 11.11 (77) vs. Syd 6.7 (43) (MS) Geel 13.11 (89) vs. GCS 8.4 (52) (GMHBA) (T) WB 13.9 (87) vs. NM 5.8 (38) (MRVL) (N) BL 12.13 (85) vs. PA 6.12 (48) (G) (N) Sunday, July 5 Adel 4.10 (34) vs. Frem 8.6 (54) (MS) Melb 8.4 (52) vs. Rich 12.7 (79) (MCG) GWS 13.5 (83) vs. Haw 7.7 (49) (GS) (N)
u ODD SPOT
ALPHABETS ANONYMOUS Richmond debutant Jake Aarts became the second player on an alphabetical list of all AFL/VFL footballers, behind South Melbourne’s Vic Aanensen. The previous player to debut with the letters ‘aa’ in their surname was North Melbourne’s Cameron Zurhaar in 2017.
BACK FROM THE BRINK: Led by skipper Nat Fyfe, the Dockers turned around a six-goal deficit against the Saints.
HIGHLIGHTS
u Let hub life begin. After
a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases in Victoria, all 10 clubs moved out of the state and relocated to various hubs along the eastern seaboard. The round was played entirely in Queensland and New South Wales. Geelong made a statement on the Thursday night with seven unanswered goals in an extraordinary third quarter to blow the Brisbane Lions away at the SCG. The Dockers were steadily building under new coach Justin Longmuir and had one of the best moments of their season, coming back from a six-goal deficit at quarter-time to beat St Kilda by six points. Much-hyped Gold Coast small forward Izak Rankine made his debut against Melbourne, kicking three goals in a dazzling display of what’s to come. Carlton was ultra-impressive on Sunday night as it dismantled the Western Bulldogs by 52 points, kicking 16 goals and recording a triple-digit score in the process, while, in contrast, Richmond climbed into the eight by outlasting Sydney in the second-lowest scoring match of the AFL era.
u RESULTS Thursday, July 9 Geel 11.7 (73) vs. BL 6.10 (46) (SCG) (N) Friday, July 10 Coll 8.11 (59) vs. Haw 3.9 (27) (GS) (N) Saturday, July 11 Frem 12.7 (79) vs. StK 11.7 (73) (MS) WCE 10.7 (67) vs. Adel 5.4 (34) (G) Melb 12.8 (80) vs. GCS 9.9 (63) (GS) (N) Ess 9.13 (67) vs. NM 7.11 (53) (MS) (N) Sunday, July 12 PA 9.9 (63) vs. GWS 6.10 (46) (MS) Rich 4.10 (34) vs. Syd 3.8 (26) (G) Carl 16.7 (103) vs WB 7.9 (51) (MS) (N)
u ODD SPOT
PREMIERSHIP QUARTER Despite winning by 27 points, Geelong was outscored by Brisbane in the first quarter (two points), the second quarter (eight points) and the final quarter (seven points). The Cats dominated the Lions in the third quarter – 7.3 (45) to 0.1 (1).
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ROUND 7
ROUND 8 u LADDER
u LADDER TEAM
SHOW OF POWER: Robbie Gray is mobbed by teammates after his match-winning goal against the Blues.
HIGHLIGHTS
u A round that will forever
be remembered for producing one of the defining moments of the season. Football’s greatest scenes are routinely produced while executing skills under the most intense pressure and on a Sunday afternoon in July against Brisbane, Port Adelaide star Robbie Gray’s calmness under pressure was on full display when he kicked an after-the-siren winner against Carlton from the most acute of angles. Earlier in the round, the Western Bulldogs flexed their muscles in a 42-point thumping of Essendon on Friday night at Metricon Stadium, while at the same venue the following night, Richmond consigned a struggling North Melbourne to an equal sixth-lowest score in club history. Footy also returned to Optus Stadium and Adelaide Oval for the first time since March, with 65,556 fans attending three matches across the venues. It was also a round where Melbourne’s Christian Petracca played arguably his best game for the club in a 43-point win against Hawthorn at Giants Stadium.
PTS
TEAM
PTS
1 Port Adelaide
24
1 Port Adelaide
2 Brisbane Lions
20
2 Brisbane Lions
24 24
3 Collingwood
18
3 Geelong Cats
20
4 Richmond
18
4 St Kilda
20
5 Geelong Cats
16
5 West Coast Eagles
20
6 St Kilda
16
6 Western Bulldogs
20
7 Gold Coast Suns
16
7 Essendon
20
8 West Coast Eagles
16
8 Collingwood
18
9 Western Bulldogs
16
9 Richmond
18
10 Essendon
16
10 Gold Coast Suns
16
11 Carlton
12
11 Carlton
16
12 Melbourne
12
12 GWS Giants
16
13 GWS Giants
12
13 Melbourne
12
14 Hawthorn
12
14 Sydney Swans
12
15 Fremantle
8
15 Hawthorn
12
16 Sydney Swans
8
16 Fremantle
8
17 North Melbourne
8
17 North Melbourne
8
18 Adelaide Crows
0
18 Adelaide Crows
0
u RESULTS Thursday, July 16 Geel 5.5 (35) vs. Coll 8.9 (57) (OS) (N) Friday, July 17 Ess 7.9 (51) vs. WB 14.9 (93) (MS) (N) Saturday, July 18 GWS 10.8 (68) vs. BL 13.10 (88) (GS) Syd 9.6 (60) vs. GCS 13.14 (92) (SCG) (T) Rich 11.11 (77) vs. NM 2.11 (23) (MS) (N) Sunday, July 19 Carl 9.7 (61) vs. PA 9.10 (64) (G) Haw 7.6 (48) vs. Melb 14.7 (91) (GS) Frem 5.2 (32) vs. WCE 9.8 (62) (OS) (T) Monday, July 20 Adel 8.7 (55) vs. StK 12.6 (78) (AO) (N) u ODD SPOT
SONS OF GUNS Eleven sons of former players participated in the Collingwood-Geelong clash. Collingwood had Callum Brown, Josh Daicos, Brayden Maynard, Brody Mihocek, Darcy Moore and John Noble, while Gary Ablett, Jed Bews, Cameron Guthrie, Tom Hawkins and Sam Simpson all donned the blue and white hoops.
SHOWTIME: Izak Rankine was lively but wasteful in front of goal as the Suns narrowly went down to the Dogs.
HIGHLIGHTS
u Plenty of close finishes,
dramatic results and a West Coast performance which sent a message to the rest of the competition. Gold Coast played host to its first prime-time clash and, while the Suns may have lost a tight tussle against the Western Bulldogs, one suspects it won’t be the last time they are given a blockbuster timeslot. The round also saw the Grand Final rematch between the GWS Giants and Richmond, with Leon Cameron’s side saluting by 12 points against an undermanned Tigers outfit. Tom Papley was the subject of much controversy in Sydney’s win over Hawthorn after he was awarded a free kick on the goal line just seconds after booting a major. Alastair Clarkson said the star Swan “milks” free kicks, something the Hawks coach later conceded was a poor choice of words. West Coast was utterly dominant against Collingwood, putting in the performance of 2020 up to this point to dismantle the Pies by 66 points. The round ended in the wet at Optus Stadium, with the Dockers kicking just 14 points as the Cats cruised to a 32-point victory.
u RESULTS Thursday, July 23 GCS 6.10 (46) vs. WB 7.9 (51) (MS) (N) Friday, July 24 GWS 9.8 (62) vs. Rich 6.14 (50) (GS) (N) Saturday, July 25 NM 9.3 (57) vs. Carl 9.10 (64) (G) Syd 9.6 (60) vs. Haw 7.11 (53) (SCG) PA 6.8 (44) vs. StK 12.1 (73) (AO) (N) Sunday, July 26 Adel 8.11 (59) vs. Ess 9.8 (62) (AO) WCE 18.3 (111) vs. Coll 6.9 (45) (OS) Melb 7.7 (49) vs. BL 7.11 (53) (MS) (N) Monday, July 27 Frem 2.4 (16) vs. Geel 6.12 (48) (OS) (N) u ODD SPOT
THE BUTLER DID IT Late in the first quarter, Dan Butler scored St Kilda’s only behind when he hit the post with a difficult dribble kick under pressure. St Kilda’s next 11 scoring shots were goals for a final score of 12.1 (73). AFL.com.au AFL RECORD 131
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ROUND 9
ROUND 10 u LADDER
u LADDER TEAM
IMPOSING: Nic Naitanui willed the Eagles over the line against the Cats.
HIGHLIGHTS
u The round began with
Richmond taking care of a disappointing Western Bulldogs outfit at Metricon Stadium and ended with Fremantle’s stunning upset against Collingwood in front of a raucous home crowd at Optus Stadium. There were plenty of blowouts, but the Tigers, Power, Lions and Saints all showed why they were forces to be reckoned with this year. Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson had been under plenty of heat in recent weeks, but after conceding a 31-point early lead to Carlton, his side wrestled back momentum to claim a circuit-breaking win at Optus Stadium on a Friday afternoon. Elsewhere, the battle of the expansion sides saw the Giants prevail again against the Suns, but the story of the round was clearly West Coast’s clash against Geelong, which was arguably the game of 2020 to that point. Nic Naitanui’s role in willing his side over the line by nine points in a frantic finals-like final quarter could not be overstated.
132 AFL RECORD
PTS
TEAM
PTS
1 Port Adelaide
28
1 Port Adelaide
32
2 Brisbane Lions
28
2 St Kilda
28
3 St Kilda 4 West Coast Eagles
24
3 Brisbane Lions 4 Richmond
26
24 22
28
5 Richmond 6 Geelong Cats
5 Geelong Cats 6 West Coast Eagles
24
20
7 GWS Giants
20
7 GWS Giants
24
8 Western Bulldogs
20
8 Collingwood
22
9 Essendon
20
9 Western Bulldogs
20
10 Collingwood
18
10 Essendon
20
11 Gold Coast Suns
16
11 Gold Coast Suns
16
12 Carlton
16
12 Melbourne
16
13 Hawthorn
16
13 Carlton
16
14 North Melbourne
12
14 Hawthorn
16
15 Melbourne
12
15 North Melbourne
12
16 Fremantle
12
16 Fremantle
12
17 Sydney Swans
12
17 Sydney Swans
12
18 Adelaide Crows
0
18 Adelaide Crows
0
u RESULTS Wednesday, July 29 WB 7.7 (49) vs. Rich 13.12 (90) (MS) (N) Thursday, July 30 Melb 4.8 (32) vs. PA 12.11 (83) (G) (N) Friday, July 31 Carl 9.4 (58) vs. Haw 14.5 (89) (OS) Ess 3.10 (28) vs. BL 14.7 (91) (MS) (N) Saturday, August 1 NM 19.5 (119) vs. Adel 7.8 (50) (MS) StK 15.11 (101) vs. Syd 6.12 (48) (G) (T) WCE 11.7 (73) vs. Geel 10.4 (64) (OS) (N) Sunday, August 2 GCS 4.11 (35) vs. GWS 9.7 (61) (MS) Frem 10.1 (61) vs. Coll 7.7 (49) (OS) (T) u ODD SPOT
FAST AND THE FURIOUS In a lightning start against Geelong, West Coast’s Luke Shuey received the ruck tap and handballed to former Cat Tim Kelly. He streamed forward and sent it to Josh Kennedy, who turned and kicked the first goal 16 seconds in.
SURPRISE PACKET: Dan Butler continued his brilliant season for the Saints with four goals to thwart the Suns.
HIGHLIGHTS
u This was a historic round,
starting on Monday night with Port Adelaide’s win over the Western Bulldogs at Adelaide Oval and ending on Friday night at Metricon Stadium as the Giants overcame a 29-point deficit to defeat Essendon by four points. Richmond won its 15th successive match against Brisbane, which kicked an innacurate 4.17 at Metricon Stadium on Tuesday night. In a high-pressure game against Adelaide, Melbourne overcame a nervy first three quarters to post a big win at Adelaide Oval, consigning the Crows to their 10th straight loss of the season. Thursday night saw a double-header of contrasting styles, with Josh Daicos’ kick from the pocket sealing a badly-needed win for Collingwood against the Swans at the Gabba, while Dan Butler continued his fantastic season with four goals in St Kilda’s entertaining four-point win over Gold Coast at Metricon Stadium. The Bombers also had questions to answer after letting that big lead slip against the Giants.
24
u RESULTS Monday, August 3 PA 8.7 (55) vs. WB 5.12 (42) (AO) (N) Tuesday, August 4 Rich 12.10 (82) vs. BL 4.17 (41) (MS) (N) Wednesday, August 5 Geel 13.12 (90) vs. NM 9.3 (57) (G) (T) Adel 5.7 (37) vs. Melb 13.10 (88) (AO) (N) Thursday, August 6 Coll 6.14 (50) vs. Syd 6.5 (41) (G) (T) GCS 11.8 (74) vs. StK 12.6 (78) (MS) (N) Friday, August 7 Ess 8.7 (55) vs. GWS 8.11 (59) (MS) (N) Byes: Fremantle, West Coast Eagles, Hawthorn, Carlton u ODD SPOT
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS St Kilda defeated Gold Coast by less than a goal for the fourth consecutive match. The sequence was two points (R13, 2018), one point (R1, 2019), four points (R13, 2019) and four points (2020).
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ROUND 11
ROUND 12 u LADDER
u LADDER TEAM
POWERHOUSE: Charlie Dixon kicked just two goals but was influential as the Power overran the Tigers.
HIGHLIGHTS
u The story of the round was
undoubtedly Port Adelaide’s 21-point win over Richmond on Saturday afternoon in front of a passionate home crowd at Adelaide Oval. Still missing several of their best players, the Tigers hung in the contest against the rampant Power before being overrun in the final quarter. Carlton showed plenty of good signs at Optus Stadium on Sunday afternoon but again gave up a game-defining run of goals in the third quarter to go down by 21 points to West Coast. Elsewhere, St Kilda fell well short against the well-drilled Cats at the Gabba, while the Dockers led by their young midfield trio of Andrew Brayshaw, Adam Cerra and Caleb Serong put together a complete performance to beat the battling Hawks. The round also saw the second draw of the season, between Essendon and Gold Coast after a frantic finish involving Izak Rankine ended all square. After its two wins to start the season, North Melbourne’s tale of woe continued with its eighth loss in the next nine games, this time against Melbourne.
PTS
TEAM
PTS
1 Port Adelaide
36
1 Port Adelaide
36
2 Brisbane Lions
32
2 Brisbane Lions
36
3 Geelong Cats
28
3 Geelong Cats
32
4 West Coast Eagles
28
4 West Coast Eagles
32
5 St Kilda
28
5 St Kilda
32
6 Richmond
26
6 Richmond
30
7 Collingwood 8 GWS Giants
26 24
7 Collingwood 8 Melbourne
24
26
9 Essendon
22
9 GWS Giants
24
10 Melbourne
20
10 Western Bulldogs
24
11 Western Bulldogs
20
11 Essendon
22
12 Gold Coast Suns
18
12 Carlton
20
13 Carlton
16
13 Gold Coast Suns
18
14 Fremantle
16
14 Fremantle
16
15 Hawthorn
16
15 Sydney Swans
16
16 North Melbourne
12
16 Hawthorn
16
17 Sydney Swans
12
17 North Melbourne
12
18 Adelaide Crows
0
18 Adelaide Crows
0
u RESULTS Saturday, August 8 PA 13.15 (93) vs. Rich 11.6 (72) (AO) (T) BL 14.12 (96) vs. WB 11.6 (72) (G) (N) Sunday, August 9 WCE 11.6 (72) vs. Carl 7.8 (50) (OS) Melb 13.14 (92) vs. NM 5.5 (35) (AO) (N) Monday, August 10 StK 4.10 (34) vs. Geel 14.9 (93) (G) (N) Frem 7.6 (48) vs. Haw 4.8 (32) (OS) (N) Tuesday, August 11 Adel 5.8 (38) vs. Coll 10.2 (62) (AO) (N) Wednesday, August 12 GCS 11.7 (73) vs. Ess 11.7 (73) (MS) (N) Byes: GWS Giants, Sydney Swans u ODD SPOT
THE CULLING FIELDS North Melbourne’s loss to Melbourne was its 10th in a row in South Australia. Shaun Atley and Todd Goldstein were the only remaining players in the Roos’ team from their last win, against Port Adelaide, in 2011.
CLOSE CALL: Dayne Zorko led from the front as the Lions survived a scare against the gallant Roos.
HIGHLIGHTS
u Season 2020 was a testing
one for the Giants and that continued in this round as they went down to cross-town rivals the Swans by 41 points in a game in which Leon Cameron’s side could muster only three goals. Port Adelaide’s premiership credentials were dealt a significant blow after it was thrashed by Geelong. Brisbane snuck over the line against North Melbourne in another game highlighting the Lions’ inaccuracy in front of goal, while Richmond weathered an early Gold Coast storm to close out a comfortable 21-point victory. A red-hot Melbourne surged into the eight with a thumping 56-point win over a lethargic Collingwood. But the round belonged to Carlton recruit Jack Newnes, who had the final say in a dramatic four-point win in the wet against Fremantle at Optus Stadium. After a chaotic ending, Newnes kicked the winning goal after the siren from the most unlikely of angles to send Blues fans around the country into raptures. The moment will go down as one of the season’s most defining.
u RESULTS Thursday, August 13 Syd 10.6 (66) vs. GWS 3.7 (25) (OS) (N) Friday, August 14 Geel 14.7 (91) vs. PA 4.7 (31) (MS) (N) Saturday, August 15 NM 8.4 (52) vs. BL 7.11 (53) (MS) Melb 16.4 (100) vs. Coll 6.8 (44) (G) (T) Frem 5.6 (36) vs. Carl 5.10 (40) (OS) (N) Sunday, August 16 WB 16.15 (111) vs. Adel 8.6 (54) (MS) StK 10.8 (68) vs. Ess 5.3 (33) (G) WCE 12.9 (81) vs. Haw 7.7 (49) (OS) (T) Monday, August 17 Rich 8.5 (53) vs. GCS 4.8 (32) (G) (N) u ODD SPOT
DREAM BELIEVERS Carlton’s Jack Newnes kicked a spectacular goal from the boundary after the siren to snatch a win over Fremantle. Two Dockers had also fulfilled the childhood dream of match-winning goals after the siren – David Mundy in 2017 against Richmond and now coach Justin Longmuir against St Kilda in 2005. AFL.com.au AFL RECORD 133
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ROUND 13
ROUND 14 u LADDER
u LADDER TEAM
EMERGING STAR: Shai Bolton was awarded the Yiooken Award as best afield in the Dreamtime clash in Darwin.
HIGHLIGHTS
u Sir Doug Nicholls Round
is one of the features of any season and this year two games were played in Darwin, which were unquestionably the highlights of an impactful round. More than 5000 fans attended each match in the Top End – Carlton’s convincing win over Gold Coast on the Friday night, before the traditional Dreamtime at the ’G between Richmond and Essendon morphed into Dreamtime in Darwin, providing a fitting backdrop to one of the AFL’s great occasions. The Tigers overcame a wasteful first half to hold off the Bombers by 12 points. The Western Bulldogs burst Melbourne’s bubble with a third-quarter blitz of six unanswered goals. Fremantle kept Sydney to just two goals and Hawthorn almost pulled off an upset against Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval. Staging was again in the spotlight, but after being fined for respective incidents in the Dreamtime clash against Essendon, Richmond duo Dylan Grimes and Nick Vlastuin were later cleared of any wrong doing.
134 AFL RECORD
PTS
TEAM
PTS
1 Port Adelaide
40
1 Port Adelaide
44
2 Brisbane Lions
40
2 Geelong Cats
40
3 Geelong Cats
36
3 Brisbane Lions
40
4 West Coast Eagles
36
4 Richmond
38
5 Richmond
34
5 West Coast Eagles
36
6 St Kilda
32
6 Collingwood
34
7 Collingwood
30
7 St Kilda
32
8 Western Bulldogs
28
8 Melbourne
28
9 Melbourne
24
9 GWS Giants
28
10 Carlton
24
10 Western Bulldogs
28
11 GWS Giants
24
11 Essendon
26
12 Essendon
22
12 Carlton
24
13 Fremantle
20
13 Gold Coast Suns
22
14 Gold Coast Suns
18
14 Fremantle
20
15 Hawthorn
16
15 Hawthorn
16
16 Sydney Swans
16
16 Sydney Swans
16
17 North Melbourne
12
17 North Melbourne
12
18 Adelaide Crows
0
18 Adelaide Crows
0
u RESULTS Friday, August 21 GCS 4.3 (27) vs. Carl 7.18 (60) (TIO) (N) Saturday, August 22 WB 12.8 (80) vs. Melb 7.10 (52) (MS) PA 9.14 (68) vs. Haw 9.4 (58) (AO) (T) Ess 10.1 (61) vs. Rich 10.13 (73) (TIO) (N) Frem 7.8 (50) vs. Syd 2.7 (19) (OS) (N) Sunday, August 23 Adel 5.7 (37) vs. Geel 9.11 (65) (AO) BL 6.14 (50) v StK 7.6 (48) (G) WCE 9.7 (61) v GWS 7.7 (49) (OS) (T) Monday, August 24 Coll 10.5 (65) v NM 5.5 (35) (G) (N)
u ODD SPOT
WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? Kade Simpson set a record for the longest gap between games at a venue. His first match at TIO Stadium in Darwin was in round 13, 2005. His next was 15 years, two months and three days later. Eddie Betts was a teammate on both occasions.
BOMBERS AWAY: Joe Daniher returned with a bang to lead Essendon to a thrilling comeback win over Hawthorn.
HIGHLIGHTS
u In his first game at AFL
level in 467 days, Joe Daniher showed why there is so much hype about his future by kicking three goals in Essendon’s comeback win over Hawthorn. It was a big Thursday, with the Tigers toppling the Eagles by 27 points to hand them their first loss since round six. The Western Bulldogs gave up an early six-goal lead against Geelong to go down by 11 points at Metricon Stadium. The Giants were in desperate need of a good performance and that came against Fremantle at Optus Stadium, as second-gamer Jake Riccardi kicked four goals in their thumping win. Things were tight and tough between Melbourne and St Kilda in Alice Springs as the Saints were left to rue a wasteful night with the Demons sneaking home by three points in a thriller. But perhaps the most-anticipated clash of the round came on Sunday afternoon, with Carlton taking on Collingwood in the unusual surrounds of the Gabba. Undermanned and behind at half-time, Nathan Buckley’s side steadied and eventually coasted to a 24-point win to keep their finals hopes alive.
u RESULTS Thursday, August 27 Haw 10.11 (71) vs. Ess 13.9 (87) (AO) (T) Rich 14.4 (88) vs. WCE 9.7 (61) (MS) (N) Friday, August 28 WB 9.7 (61) vs. Geel 10.12 (72) MS (N) Saturday, August 29 PA 11.7 (73) vs. Syd 7.5 (47) (AO) Frem 8.5 (53) vs. GWS 14.7 (91) (OS) Melb 8.4 (52) vs. StK 7.7 (49) (TP) (N) Sunday, August 30 Carl 7.6 (48) vs. Coll 10.12 (72) (G) GCS 12.19 (91) vs. NM 4.4 (28) (MS) (N) Byes: Adelaide Crows, Brisbane Lions
u ODD SPOT
YOU CAN’T SPLIT THEM Collingwood’s win over Carlton drew the Magpies level with the Blues in their 258 clashes. Both clubs have won 127 times, with four draws. The last time Collingwood led the head-to-head battle against Carlton was after round 16, 1981.
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ROUND 15
ROUND 16 u LADDER
u LADDER TEAM
FLYIN’ RYAN: Eagle Liam Ryan’s full array of skills were on show with a four-goal performance against Essendon.
HIGHLIGHTS
u The Crows were made to
wait until late in the year to finally taste victory in Matthew Nicks’ first season as coach. But it would have been a sweet victory as they comprehensively took care of a struggling Hawthorn in front of their home crowd at Adelaide Oval. Liam Ryan stepped up with four goals in West Coast’s gritty win over Essendon, while Richmond finished strongly to keep a dogged Fremantle at bay. The inconsistent Melbourne ran into problems against the Swans, going down by 21 points to put a significant dent in its finals chances. It was a tricky Thursday evening for the Giants as well, but after starting poorly, they found a way to overcome Carlton’s challenge. It was the second round of the year that ran entirely during the week, and it finished with the blockbuster between Brisbane and Collingwood at the Gabba, which had just been named the host of this year’s Grand Final. What transpired was ultimately a pressure-heavy, low-scoring match, with the Lions sneaking over the line by the end of the night.
PTS
TEAM
PTS
1 Port Adelaide
44
1 Port Adelaide
2 Brisbane Lions
44
2 Brisbane Lions
48 48
3 Richmond
42
3 Geelong Cats
44
4 Geelong Cats
40
4 Richmond
42
5 West Coast Eagles
40
5 West Coast Eagles
40
6 Collingwood
34
6 St Kilda
36
7 St Kilda
32
7 Collingwood
34 32
8 GWS Giants
32
8 GWS Giants
9 Melbourne
28
9 Western Bulldogs
32
10 Western Bulldogs
28
10 Melbourne
28 28
11 Essendon
26
11 Carlton
12 Carlton
24
12 Essendon
26
13 Gold Coast Suns
22
13 Fremantle
24
14 Fremantle
20
14 Gold Coast Suns
22
15 Sydney Swans
20
15 Sydney Swans
20
16 Hawthorn
16
16 Hawthorn
16
17 North Melbourne
12
17 North Melbourne
12
18 Adelaide Crows
4
18 Adelaide Crows
8
u RESULTS Tuesday, September 1 Haw 7.6 (48) vs. Adel 12.11 (83) (AO) (T) WCE 9.6 (60) vs. Ess 6.9 (45) (G) (N) Wednesday, September 2 Rich 8.8 (56) vs. Frem 4.5 (29) (MS) (N) Thursday, September 3 Syd 10.7 (67) vs. Melb 6.10 (46) (CS) (T) GWS 6.12 (48) vs. Carl 5.9 (39) (MS) (N) Friday, September 4 BL 6.6 (42) vs. Coll 5.4 (34) (G) (N) Byes: Geelong Cats, Gold Coast Suns, North Melbourne, Port Adelaide, St Kilda, Western Bulldogs
u ODD SPOT
CROWING AT LAST Adelaide’s Matthew Nicks coached his first win in his 14th match as a senior coach. His opponent, Alastair Clarkson, was coaching his 365th game, which included 220 wins and four premierships. The Crows, 18th on the ladder, led for the entire match.
MATCH-WINNER: Marcus Bontempelli’s last-gasp goal was the difference between the Dogs and Eagles.
HIGHLIGHTS
u The second footy frenzy
continued into the third-last round of the season as Port Adelaide opened proceedings on a Saturday night against a lowly North Melbourne outfit, which it promptly took care of as it looked ahead to October’s finals series. St Kilda overcame a shaky start to down Hawthorn, while Geelong cruised to a big win over Essendon, extinguishing the Bombers’ finals hopes. The Sunday night clash between the Western Bulldogs and West Coast went down to the wire, with captain Marcus Bontempelli’s last-gasp goal from 50m reviewed and then ultimately given the all clear. Adelaide took down the Giants on Tuesday night which was a major shock, making it two wins from two in September for the bottom-placed side. But the highlight of the round came later that night, with Matthew Cottrell’s game-winning goal for Carlton giving way to one of the best celebrations of the season. The Blues had fought their way back from a 39-point deficit against Sydney to win by five points.
u RESULTS Saturday, September 5 NM 6.6 (42) vs. PA 11.12 (78) (MS) (N) Sunday, September 6 StK 11.14 (80) vs. Haw 9.12 (66) (MS) Geel 17.6 (108) vs. Ess 5.12 (42) (G) WB 6.13 (49) vs. WCE 7.5 (47) (MS) (N) Monday, September 7 Melb 4.9 (33) vs. Frem 6.11 (47) (CS) (N) Tuesday, September 8 Adel 8.11 (59) vs. GWS 7.5 (47) (AO) (T) Carl 8.9 (57) vs. Syd 8.4 (52) (MS) (N) Wednesday, September 9 BL 13.10 (88) vs. GCS 6.7 (43) (G) (N) Byes: Collingwood, Richmond u ODD SPOT
OUT OF THE BLUE Midway during the second quarter, Sydney led Carlton 7.1 (43) to 0.4 (4). The Blues gradually reduced the margin and, with scores level in the final moments, hit the front when Matthew Cottrell goaled after an excellent pack mark. Swan Lewis Taylor missed a late shot as Carlton held on for a memorable victory. AFL.com.au AFL RECORD 135
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AFL RECORD SEASON REVIEW
ROUND 17
ROUND 18
u LADDER TEAM
RIDING INTO THE SUNSET: Bryce Gibbs is chaired off by former Blues teammates Kade Simpson and Marc Murphy.
HIGHLIGHTS
u St Kilda’s finals spot was
up for grabs in the first match of the penultimate round, but unfortunately for Brett Ratten’s side, it blew several golden opportunities late in the match and went down to West Coast by 15 points, keeping its fans on tenterhooks until round 18. It was billed as one of the matches of the season and what eventuated was a rock-solid Richmond outfit taking control of the contest, beating fellow top-four side Geelong by 26 points. The Brisbane Lions locked in a top-two spot with a gritty 32-point win over Sydney in Cairns. The fight for places in the lower half of the eight heated up and culminated in a thrilling end to Greater Western Sydney’s game against Melbourne, with the Demons seaking over the line by five points to keep their hopes alive. It was a fitting farewell for midfielder Bryce Gibbs, who was given a final game for Adelaide against his former club Carlton. He ended the day being chaired off by ex-teammates Marc Murphy and Kade Simpson after the Crows prevailed by 16 points.
136 AFL RECORD
u LADDER PTS
TEAM
PTS
1 Port Adelaide
52
1 Port Adelaide
2 Brisbane Lions
52
2 Brisbane Lions
56
3 Richmond
46
3 Richmond
50
4 Geelong Cats
44
4 Geelong Cats
48
5 West Coast Eagles
44
5 West Coast Eagles
48
6 Collingwood
38
6 St Kilda
40
7 St Kilda 8 Western Bulldogs
36
7 Western Bulldogs 8 Collingwood
40
36
9 Melbourne
32
9 Melbourne
36
10 GWS Giants
32
10 GWS Giants
32
11 Fremantle
28
11 Carlton
28
12 Carlton
28
12 Fremantle
28
13 Essendon
26
13 Essendon
26
14 Gold Coast Suns
22
14 Gold Coast Suns
22
15 Sydney Swans
20
15 Hawthorn
20
16 Hawthorn
16
16 Sydney Swans
20
17 North Melbourne
12
17 North Melbourne
12
18 Adelaide Crows
12
18 Adelaide Crows
12
u RESULTS Thursday, September 10 StK 6.14 (50) vs. WCE 9.11 (65) (G) (N) Friday, September 11 Geel 4.7 (31) vs. Rich 7.15 (57) (MS) (N) Saturday, September 12 NM 5.5 (35) vs. Frem 15.9 (99) (MS) PA 11.13 (79) vs. Ess 4.5 (29) (AO) (T) GWS 11.8 (74) vs. Melb 12.7 (79) (G) (N) Sunday, September 13 Carl 8.8 (56) vs. Adel 10.12 (72) (MS) Haw 6.4 (40) vs. WB 11.10 (76) (AO) Syd 6.5 (41) vs. BL 11.7 (73) (CS) (N) Monday, September 14 Coll 10.8 (68) vs. GCS 6.10 (46) (G) (N) u ODD SPOT
HERO TO ZERO Scott Pendlebury achieved two Collingwood records – the most games played (313, equal with Tony Shaw) and the most as captain (161, equal with Nathan Buckley). Pendlebury had zero disposals in the first quarter for the first time since the opening quarter of round 12, 2009.
POWER-PACKED: Brett Ebert rides home a goal as Port Adelaide sewed up top spot on the ladder.
HIGHLIGHTS
u After the most tumultuous
season in AFL/VFL history, the final round finally arrived and with that all manner of finals permutations. Positions on the ladder were undecided right up until the final game, with Port Adelaide beating Collingwood to retain the top spot it had held right throughout the season. Earlier, St Kilda squared off against GWS in a do-or-die Friday night blockbuster – and the Saints not only won, but smashed a Giants side that was goalless after half-time. Melbourne beat Essendon to provisionally claim eighth spot, before the Western Bulldogs took the Demons’ place in the finals after beating Fremantle at Cazalys Stadium. It was an emotional weekend for several retiring stars. After 342 games, Carlton’s Kade Simpson finished up on the Saturday night in the Blues’ loss to Brisbane, while the careers of premiership Hawks Paul Puopolo and Ben Stratton came to a close in the Adelaide sunshine on the final Sunday of the season as Hawthorn easily beat Gold Coast.
56
38
u RESULTS Thursday, September 17 NM 4.10 (34) vs. WCE 7.7 (49) (MS) (N) Friday, September 18 StK 12.10 (82) vs. GWS 3.12 (30) (G) (N) Saturday, September 19 Ess 7.7 (49) vs. Melb 10.8 (68) (MS) Adel 4.9 (33) vs. Rich 12.5 (77) (AO) (T) BL 11.12 (78) vs. Carl 10.1 (61) (G) (N) Sunday, September 20 Haw 17.6 (108) vs. GCS 8.9 (57) (AO) Syd 9.9 (63) vs. Geel 10.9 (69) (MS) Frem 6.8 (44) vs. WB 11.8 (74) (CS) (N) Monday, September 21 Coll 7.3 (45) vs. PA 9.7 (61) (G) (N) u ODD SPOT
A GOAL AND GOODBYE Hawthorn’s Ben Stratton and Paul Puopolo were farewelled with a win. Stratton kicked his second career goal in his 202nd match. It was more than 10 years since his first goal – in round 19, 2010, his debut season. Shaun Burgoyne was a teammate in both games.
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FINALS WEEK 1
HIGHLIGHTS
u Week one of the finals could
not have delivered four better matches, both for the games that were produced and the storylines that came out of them. All four contests were tight, intense and played in front of sizeable crowds which seemed a remote possibility when the season was suspended in March. First up, Port Adelaide made its dominant season count when it mattered, edging out Geelong in a frenzied final at Adelaide Oval on Thursday night to book its spot in a preliminary final. Up north on Friday night, Richmond was eyeing a 16th
straight victory over the Lions in the other qualifying final, but after withstanding a barrage of Tigers pressure in the second term, the Lions prevailed by 15 points in front of a deafening home crowd at the Gabba. But the highlights of the weekend came in the elimination finals on Saturday, where the Saints held on by just three points against a fast-finishing Bulldogs outfit and then at night, Collingwood pulled off one of the great finals upsets after a week of hard quarantine in Perth, beating West Coast by one point in front of more than 32,000 fans at Optus Stadium. It was the closest finals opening weekend in history.
u ODD SPOT
FINALS PASSION: Magpies Brody Mihocek and Jaidyn Stephenson (left) and Lion Lachie Neale let their emotions run wild in impressive first-up wins.
u RESULTS Thursday, October 1 PA 9.4 (58) vs. Geel 5.12 (42) (AO) (N) Friday, October 2 BL 10.9 (69) vs. Rich 8.6 (54) (G) (N)
Saturday, October 3 StK 10.7 (67) vs. WB 9.10 (64) (G) (T) WCE 11.9 (75) vs. Coll 12.4 (76) (OS) (N)
FINALS WEEK 2
FINALLY, A FINAL Port Adelaide’s Tom Rockliff played his first final in his 205th match, the eighth most before a finals debut. St Kilda’s Paddy Ryder became the 15th player to play in a final at a third club. It was his first finals win in his 257th match.
HIGHLIGHTS
u If week one of the finals was
highlighted by tight finishes, semi-final weekend was all about the best sides in the competition flexing their muscle and bouncing back from disappointing qualifying final losses. There was plenty of talk about Richmond and where it stood heading into the Friday night clash against St Kilda. If not for the Saints’ horror night in front of goal, the game could’ve been well within their grasp. But the Tigers coasted to an easy win on the back of a four-goal-to-one second term thanks to usual suspects such as Bachar Houli, Dustin Martin and
Shane Edwards. Saturday night saw Collingwood put in its worst display of the year at the most inopportune time, kicking just one goal in the first three quarters. After its qualifying final loss to Port Adelaide the previous week, Geelong was back in business, completely dismantling the hapless Pies to the tune of 68 points as Patrick Dangerfield and Tom Hawkins (four goals each) led the charge. Mitch Duncan controlled the midfield, collecting 30 disposals at an amazing 86 per cent efficiency. The best four teams of 2020 made it into the preliminary finals as fans prepared for the final two weeks of the most tumultuous season in AFL/VFL history.
u ODD SPOT
u RESULTS Friday, October 9 Rich 12.8 (80) vs. StK 6.13 (49) (MS) (N) Saturday, October 10 Geel 15.10 (100) vs. Coll 5.2 (32) (G) (N)
DOMINANT: Tiger spearhead Tom Lynch (left) and Cats champion Patrick Dangerfield were unstoppable in big wins over the Saints and Magpies.
COLD PIES Geelong dominated Collingwood to move into its 10th preliminary final in 14 seasons. The Pies had registered only one scoring shot by half-time – a goal. It was a record 25th time the clubs had met in a final.
AFL.com.au AFL RECORD 137
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AFL RECORD GRAND FINAL TRIVIA
GRAND FINALFOOTY QUIZ
With AFL stats guru COL HUTCHINSON
1 2 3 4
Name the Richmond player who outscored the entire GWS team in last year’s Grand Final.
List the six coaches who have guided their current club to at least one premiership. Which club won its first AFL premiership in 1992? During World War II, due to the unavailability of the MCG, three clubs won Grand Finals played at Princes Park. List them.
OFF HIS OWN BOOT: Which Tiger outscored the Giants by himself in the 2019 Grand Final?
8 9 10 11
Which premiership coach has a grandfather who was a member of Collingwood’s victorious 1927-30 Grand Final teams? Who kicked all five of his goals for the 1997 season in the Grand Final?
Who were the coaches and captains of the 2018 Grand Final teams?
In the 2013 Hawthorn-Fremantle Grand Final, a pair of brothers were members of the opposing teams. Name them.
MIGHTY MAGPIE: Which Collingwood star holds the record for most career goals in Grand Finals?
5 6 7
Which Collingwood champion kicked 35 goals in 10 Grand Final appearances between 1920 and 1937? Name the year and venue of Fitzroy’s last Grand Final victory.
In 1972, 1988 and 2011, the premiership teams were led by first-year coaches. Name them.
SOAKING UP THE GLORY: Robert Walls and Bruce Doull with the 1972 premiership cup. Who coached the Blues?
138 AFL RECORD Pressure quiz.indd 1
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FAMILY AFFAIR: The AFL Record cover for the 2013 Grand Final.
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AFL.com.au AFL RECORD 139
ANSWERS – 1. Jack Riewoldt (5.1 to the GWS’ 3.7); 2. Alastair Clarkson (Hawthorn 2008, 2013-15), Chris Scott (Geelong 2011), John Longmire (Sydney 2012), Luke Beveridge (Western Bulldogs 2016), Damien Hardwick (Richmond 2017, 2019), Adam Simpson (West Coast 2018); 3. West Coast; 4. 1942: Essendon d Richmond, 1943: Richmond d Essendon, 1945: Carlton d South Melbourne; 5. Gordon Coventry; 6. 1944 at the Junction Oval – Fitzroy 9.12 (66) d Richmond 7.9 (51); 7. John Nicholls (Carlton 1972), Alan Joyce (Hawthorn 1988), Chris Scott (Geelong 2011); 8. Luke Beveridge (Western Bulldogs 2016), whose grandfather Jack represented the Magpies; 9. Shane Ellen (Adelaide). During his 65-game career at the Bulldogs and Crows, he kicked just 16 goals; 10. Adam Simpson and Shannon Hurn (West Coast), Nathan Buckley and Scott Pendlebury (Collingwood); 11. Stephen (Fremantle) and Bradley Hill (Hawthorn); 12. Damien Hardwick (Essendon 2000, Port Adelaide 2004), Stuart Dew (Port Adelaide 2004, Hawthorn 2008); 13. C – he was the field umpire, officiating in just his ninth match; 14. Jack ‘Skinny’ Titus (Richmond losing Grand Final teams 1928, 1929, 1931, 1933, 1940, 1942); 15. In 1953, he became the youngest premiership player (17 years, 222 days). In 1958, he became the youngest captain of a winning Grand Final team (22 years, 216 days). Frank Tuck, the appointed skipper for that season, missed the match due to injury; 16. Gary Ayres, Andrew McLeod, Luke Hodge, Dustin Martin; 17. Dustin Martin (2017); 18. Melbourne (1954-60), Hawthorn (1983-89); 19. There was no opening bounce – a free kick was awarded after Hawthorn had five players in the centre square; 20. B (1963)
Who played in a record six losing Grand Final teams? He also played in premierships in 1932 and 1934.
14
Alec Mutch played 144 matches for Collingwood between 1911-21. What was his role in the 1923 Essendon-Fitzroy Grand Final? A Captain-coach of the premiership team B Non-playing coach of the losing team C The officiating field umpire
12 13
Name the two current senior coaches who played in winning Grand Final teams for two clubs.
16
Name the four dual Norm Smith medallists.
Murray Weideman was a member of both the 1953 and 1958 Collingwood premiership teams. List the two unique premiership player records he holds.
15
RIDING HIGH: Murray Weideman is chaired from the ground after Collingwood’s 1958 premiership. What Grand Final records does he hold?
Which one of the following years did not include a drawn Grand Final? A 1948 B 1963 C 1977 D 2010
19 20
BACK HERE NEXT WEEK: What year produced this Grand Final draw?
What unusual occurrence happened at the start of the 1987 Grand Final?
UNUSUAL: What happened at the start of the 1987 Grand Final?
17 18
Which two clubs hold the record for most consecutive Grand Finals (seven)?
Who is the most recent player to play in a Grand Final in the same season he won the Brownlow Medal?
QUESTIONS?
Ask Col via email at col.hutchinson@afl.com.au or write to him at AFL House, PO Box 1449, GPO, Melbourne, VIC 3001
ANSWER MAN
with COL HUTCHINSON
When I was in grade six, I remember listening to a radio description of the 1961 Grand Final. My hero, Brendan Edwards, had about 30 kicks and helped the Hawks win their first premiership. What records are available regarding players with outstanding statistical tallies in Grand Finals of the past?
LEATHER POISONING: Lions star Simon Black had 39 touches in the 2003 Grand Final; Magpie Ron Todd (below right) took 10 marks in the 1936 play-off.
NORMA ANDERSON, KEW, VIC
GRAND FINAL SUPER STATS: 1925-2019 PLAYER
CLUB
Gordon Coventry
Coll
SEASON STAT 1928
9.4
RESULT Premiers
Donald Don
Rich
1928
10 frees for
Runners-up
Joe Murdoch
Rich
1931
10 frees for
Runners-up
Len Thomas
SM
1933
33 kicks, 10 marks
Premiers
Ray Martin
Rich
1933
28 kicks, 10 frees for
Runners-up
Phonse Kyne
Coll
1935
30 kicks, 14 marks, 2.3
Premiers
Alby C. Pannam
Coll
1936
32 kicks, 7 marks, 5.3
Premiers
Ron Todd
Coll
1936
20 kicks, 10 marks, 4.9
Premiers
Wally Buttsworth
Ess
1947
15 marks
Runners-up
Bill Hutchison
Ess
1949
31 kicks, 9 marks, 2.3
Premiers
Hugh Mitchell
Ess
1957
30 kicks, 1 handball
Runners-up
Brendan Edwards
Haw
1961
30 kicks, 3 handballs
Premiers
Gary Ablett snr
Geel
1989
9.1
Runners-up
Simon Black
BL
2003
39 disposals (16 kicks, 23 handballs)
Premiers
140 AFL RECORD
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CH: In 1925, newspapers started publishing Grand Final statistics, such as behinds scored and frees for and against. Six years later, kick and mark tallies were included. During the 1940s and early ’50s, with some exceptions, such information was not revealed. The outbreak of World War II resulted in restrictions to print media sporting coverage and some years passed before statistical information was again gathered. From 1953 onwards, almost full information again became available to the football public. Disposals by hand were first incorporated in 1956. Previously, players usually handballed only if they could not put foot to ball. A pair of Collingwood teammates accumulated a fascinating set of statistics in the 1936 Grand Final. Small forward/rover Alby Pannam had 32 kicks, took seven marks and kicked five goals from eight scoring shots. His 19-year-old teammate Ron Todd, positioned at full-forward in the absence of Gordon Coventry due to suspension, took 10 marks and scored 4.9 from 20 kicks. His nine behinds remain a record for a Grand Final. Eleven years later, Essendon key defender Wally Buttsworth took an amazing 25 marks in the Grand Final. Despite his outstanding performance, the Bombers lost to Carlton by a point in a nail-biter.
NAME GAME PERFECT FIT FOR CATS
KEVAN CARROLL
u In his fourth season,
Geelong midfielder Brandan Parfitt has “done his apprenticeship”. This would be in accord with his surname. Parfitt derives from the Latin perfectus (“thoroughly finished” – i.e. perfected) through the Old French parfite (modern French parfait). Like many surnames, Parfitt began as a nickname; in this case, it indicated someone who had completed his apprenticeship. Brandan is the first Parfitt to play at senior AFL/VFL level. He is well on the way to becoming a “skilled tradesman”, a “perfect” player. Brandan (several meanings, the best for a footballer: “sword”) is also a unique name, at least with that spelling.
CAN YOU ASSIST? u The AFL is keen to know the preferred kicking foot
of the following players from the 1950s and ’60s who played in Grand Finals: John Benetti, Martin Cross, John R. Gill, Murray Kick (all Carl); Denis Dalton, Graeme Fellowes, Arthur Gooch, Bob Greve, Bob Kupsch, Bill Rose, Peter Rosenbrock, Les C. Smith, Bill Thripp, Terry Waites (all Coll); Neil Evans, Bruce Lake, Keith McDonald, Bill Snell (all Ess); Col Thornton (NM); Brian P. Gilmore, Alan Martin, Ron McCarthy, Doug Reynolds, Ron Stockman (all Foots).
u If you have knowledge of any of these players,
please contact Col Hutchinson via email on col.hutchinson@afl.com.au.
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SPOT THE DIFFERENCE
Can you find the NORM SMITH MEDAL winners? Byron Pickett Chris Judd Andrew Embley Steve Johnson Luke Hodge Paul Chapman Lenny Hayes Scott Pendlebury Jimmy Bartel Ryan O’Keefe Brian Lake
Cyril Rioli Jason Johannisen Dustin Martin Luke Shuey
FACE SWAP Can you figure out the premiership coaches who make up these faces? 142
AFL RECORD
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J V E L V M K R U M E V U
U Z B Y A U F Y S B G T D
N J B Z A K B G X L D B D
R D A W X H E A S E O H S
R Y N P O M R T R Y H X X
G J J Q B T C T N T O E N
Z Z I K F H T G Z Y E G E
U H Z B A D O E R M H L S
G V N P I Y I U K X R H I
H B M B Z N B V U C U X N
C A Y H I E I P X E I Z N
N J G T L N E Q Y G V P A
D Z R D Y N O S N H O J H
D
D A N I M J Y R N P X N O
M E I L O I R O P R U U J
P P L X C O Y K N T X W J
O K E E F E K M J Q I N Q
SPOT THE DIFFERENCE: The Tiger logo on Tom Lynch’s shorts has been removed; teammate Jason Castagna’s boots have changed colour; the yellow hoops on his socks have been moved further apart; the Puma logo on his guernsey has been rotated; Giant Adam Kennedy’s left sock is now all white. FACE SWAP SOLUTION: LEFT – Damien Hardwick, Adam Simpson, Luke Beveridge. RIGHT – Alastair Clarkson, John Longmire, Chris Scott.
WORD FIND
J S N R W H S M T E T A J
TO FIN
SEN.com.au
16/10/20 8:40 am
Congratulations to the 2020 AFL ALL-AUSTRALIAN TEAM
Fill in the missing surname of the 2020 All-Australian player. Answers at the bottom. THE BENCH Get ready to come on...
FULL BACK
Harris _ _ _ _ _ _ _ INTERCHANGE
Caleb _ _ _ _ _ _
BACK POCKET
BACK POCKET
Brad _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Luke _ _ _ _
CENTRE HALF-BACK
Darcy _ _ _ _ _ INTERCHANGE
Taylor _ _ _ _ _
HALF BACK
HALF BACK
Nick _ _ _ _ _ _
Darcy _ _ _ _ _ - _ _ _ _ _
RUCK
CENTRE
Nic _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Travis _ _ _ _
WING
WING
Cameron _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Jack _ _ _ _ _ _
THE BENCH Get ready to come on...
INTERCHANGE
MIDFIELD
MIDFIELD
Lachie _ _ _ _ _
Christian _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
HALF-FORWARD
HALF-FORWARD
Patrick _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Marcus _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Jack _ _ _ _ _ _
CENTREHALF-FORWARD
Charlie _ _ _ _ _
INTERCHANGE
Max _ _ _ _
FORWARD POCKET
FORWARD POCKET
Liam _ _ _ _
Dustin _ _ _ _ _ _ FULL FORWARD
Tom _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Thank you for supporting AFL Team 2020 Game Cards ANSWERS: BP: Brad SHEPPARD, FB: Harris ANDREWS, BP: Luke RYAN, HB: Nick HAYNES, CHB: Darcy MOORE, HB: Darcy BYRNE-JONES, W: Cameron GUTHRIE, C: Travis BOAK, W: Jack MACRAE, HF: Patrick DANGERFIELD, CHF: Charlie DIXON, HF: Marcus BONTEMPELLI, FP: Liam Ryan, FF: Tom HAWKINS, FP: Dustin MARTIN, FOLLOWERS-R: Nic NAITANUI, M: Lachie NEALE, M: Christian PETRACCA, IC: Jack STEELE, IC: Taylor ADAMS, IC: Caleb Daniel, IC: Max GAWN GF ad_V02.indd 1
15/10/20 11:21 am
TUNE IN TO WATCH SATURDAY 24 OCTOBER
AFL.COM.AU/FINALS
AM 7380-0920 2020 Toyota AFL Grand Final_Print_AFLRecord_d02.indd 1
15/10/20 3:28 pm
GRAND FINAL HONOUR ROLL DATE 1897* 24/9/1898 16/9/1899 22/9/1900 7/9/1901 20/9/1902 12/9/1903 17/9/1904 30/9/1905 22/9/1906 21/9/1907 26/9/1908 2/10/1909 1/10/1910 23/9/1911 28/9/1912 27/9/1913 26/9/1914 18/9/1915 2/9/1916 22/9/1917 7/9/1918 11/10/1919 2/10/1920 15/10/1921 14/10/1922 20/10/1923 1924* 10/10/1925 9/10/1926 1/10/1927 29/9/1928 28/9/1929 11/10/1930 10/10/1931 1/10/1932 30/9/1933 13/10/1934 5/10/1935 3/10/1936 25/9/1937 24/9/1938 30/9/1939 28/9/1940 27/9/1941 19/9/1942 25/9/1943 30/9/1944 29/9/1945 5/10/1946 27/9/1947 2/10/1948 9/10/1948 24/9/1949 23/9/1950 29/9/1951 27/9/1952 26/9/1953 25/9/1954 17/9/1955 16/9/1956 21/9/1957 20/9/1958
RESULT
VENUE CROWD
Ess premier, Geel runner-up Fitz 5.8 (38) d Ess 3.5 (23) Fitz 3.9 (27) d S Melb 3.8 (26) Melb 4.10 (34) d Fitz 3.12 (30) Ess 6.7 (43) d Coll 2.4 (16) Coll 9.6 (60) d Ess 3.9 (27) Coll 4.7 (31) d Fitz 3.11 (29) Fitz 9.7 (61) d Carl 5.7 (37) Fitz 4.6 (30) d Coll 2.5 (17) Carl 15.4 (94) d Fitz 6.9 (45) Carl 6.14 (50) d S Melb 6.9 (45) Carl 5.5 (35) d Ess 3.8 (26) S Melb 4.14 (38) d Carl 4.12 (36) Coll 9.7 (61) d Carl 6.11 (47) Ess 5.11 (41) d Coll 4.11 (35) Ess 5.17 (47) d S Melb 4.9 (33) Fitz 7.14 (56) d St K 5.13 (43) Carl 6.9 (45) d S Melb 4.15 (39) Carl 11.12 (78) d Coll 6.9 (45) Fitz 12.13 (85) d Carl 8.8 (56) Coll 9.20 (74) d Fitz 5.9 (39) S Melb 9.8 (62) d Coll 7.15 (57) Coll 11.12 (78) d Rich 7.11 (53) Rich 7.10 (52) d Coll 5.5 (35) Rich 5.6 (36) d Carl 4.8 (32) Fitz 11.13 (79) d Coll 9.14 (68) Ess 8.15 (63) d Fitz 6.10 (46) Ess premier, Rich runner-up Geel 10.19 (79) d Coll 9.15 (69) Melb 17.17 (119) d Coll 9.8 (62) Coll 2.13 (25) d Rich 1.7 (13) Coll 13.18 (96) d Rich 9.9 (63) Coll 11.13 (79) d Rich 7.8 (50) Coll 14.16 (100) d Geel 9.16 (70) Geel 9.14 (68) d Rich 7.6 (48) Rich 13.14 (92) d Carl 12.11 (83) S Melb 9.17 (71) d Rich 4.5 (29) Rich 19.14 (128) d S Melb 12.17 (89) Coll 11.12 (78) d S Melb 7.16 (58) Coll 11.23 (89) d S Melb 10.18 (78) Geel 18.14 (122) d Coll 12.18 (90) Carl 15.10 (100) d Coll 13.7 (85) Melb 21.22 (148) d Coll 14.11 (95) Melb 15.17 (107) d Rich 10.8 (68) Melb 19.13 (127) d Ess 13.20 (98) Ess 19.18 (132) d Rich 11.13 (79) Rich 12.14 (86) d Ess 11.15 (81) Fitz 9.12 (66) d Rich 7.9 (51) Carl 15.13 (103) d S Melb 10.15 (75) Ess 22.18 (150) d Melb 13.9 (87) Carl 13.8 (86) d Ess 11.19 (85) Melb 10.9 (69) drew with Ess 7.27 (69) Melb 13.11 (89) d Ess 7.8 (50) Ess 18.17 (125) d Carl 6.16 (52) Ess 13.14 (92) d NM 7.12 (54) Geel 11.15 (81) d Ess 10.10 (70) Geel 13.8 (86) d Coll 5.10 (40) Coll 11.11 (77) d Geel 8.17 (65) Foots 15.12 (102) d Melb 7.9 (51) Melb 8.16 (64) d Coll 5.6 (36) Melb 17.19 (121) d Coll 6.12 (48) Melb 17.14 (116) d Ess 7.13 (55) Coll 12.10 (82) d Melb 9.10 (64)
N/A JO JO EM LO MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG N/A MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG PP PP JO PP MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG
N/A 16,538 4823 20,181 30,031 35,202 32,263 32,688 30,000 44,437 45,477 50,261 37,759 42,790 43,905 54,536 59,556 30,495 39,343 21,130 28,512 39,262 45,413 53,908 43,122 50,064 46,566 N/A 64,288 59,632 34,551 50,026 63,336 45,022 60,712 69,724 75,754 65,335 54,154 74,091 88,540 96,486 78,110 70,330 79,687 49,000 42,100 43,000 62,986 73,743 85,793 86,198 52,226 88,718 85,869 84,109 81,304 89,149 80,897 88,053 115,902 100,324 97,956
PREMIERSHIP COACH ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Jack Worrall Jack Worrall Jack Worrall Charlie Ricketts George Angus Jack Worrall Jack Worrall Percy Parratt Norman Clark Norman Clark George Holden Jock McHale Bert Howson Jock McHale Dan Minogue Dan Minogue Vic Belcher Syd Barker snr Syd Barker snr Cliff Rankin Bert Chadwick Jock McHale Jock McHale Jock McHale Jock McHale Charlie Clymo Frank Hughes Jack Bisset Percy Bentley Jock McHale Jock McHale Reg Hickey Brighton Diggins Frank Hughes Frank Hughes Frank Hughes Dick Reynolds Jack Dyer Fred Hughson Percy Bentley Dick Reynolds Percy Bentley
PREMIERSHIP CAPTAIN George Stuckey Alec Sloan Alec Sloan Dick Wardill Tod Collins Lardie Tulloch Lardie Tulloch Gerald Brosnan Gerald Brosnan Jim Flynn Jim Flynn Fred Elliott Charlie Ricketts George Angus Dave Smith Alan Belcher Bill Walker Billy Dick Alf Baud Wal Johnson Percy Wilson Jim Caldwell Con McCarthy Dan Minogue Dan Minogue Chris Lethbridge Syd Barker snr Syd Barker snr Cliff Rankin Bert Chadwick Syd Coventry Syd Coventry Syd Coventry Syd Coventry Ted Baker Percy Bentley Jack Bisset Percy Bentley Harry Collier Harry Collier Reg Hickey Brighton Diggins Allan La Fontaine Allan La Fontaine Allan La Fontaine Dick Reynolds Jack Dyer Fred Hughson Bob Chitty Dick Reynolds Ern Henfry
Frank Hughes Dick Reynolds Dick Reynolds Reg Hickey Reg Hickey Phonse Kyne Charlie Sutton Norm Smith Norm Smith Norm Smith Phonse Kyne
Don Cordner Dick Reynolds Dick Reynolds Fred Flanagan Fred Flanagan Lou Richards Charlie Sutton Noel McMahen Noel McMahen John Beckwith Murray Weideman#
DATE 26/9/1959 24/9/1960 23/9/1961 29/9/1962 5/10/1963 19/9/1964 25/9/1965 24/9/1966 23/9/1967 28/9/1968 27/9/1969 26/9/1970 25/9/1971 7/10/1972 29/9/1973 28/9/1974 27/9/1975 25/9/1976 24/9/1977 1/10/1977 30/9/1978 29/9/1979 27/9/1980 26/9/1981 25/9/1982 24/9/1983 29/9/1984 28/9/1985 27/9/1986 26/9/1987 24/9/1988 30/9/1989 6/10/1990 28/9/1991 26/9/1992 25/9/1993 1/10/1994 30/9/1995 28/9/1996 27/9/1997 26/9/1998 25/9/1999 2/9/2000 29/9/2001 28/9/2002 27/9/2003 25/9/2004 24/9/2005 30/9/2006 29/9/2007 27/9/2008 26/9/2009 25/9/2010 2/10/2010 1/10/2011 29/9/2012 28/9/2013 27/9/2014 3/10/2015 1/10/2016 30/9/2017 29/9/2018 28/9/2019
RESULT
VENUE CROWD
Melb 17.13 (115) d Ess 11.12 (78) Melb 8.14 (62) d Coll 2.2 (14) Haw 13.16 (94) d Foots 7.9 (51) Ess 13.12 (90) d Carl 8.10 (58) Geel 15.19 (109) d Haw 8.12 (60) Melb 8.16 (64) d Coll 8.12 (60) Ess 14.21 (105) d St K 9.16 (70) St K 10.14 (74) d Coll 10.13 (73) Rich 16.18 (114) d Geel 15.15 (105) Carl 7.14 (56) d Ess 8.5 (53) Rich 12.13 (85) d Carl 8.12 (60) Carl 17.9 (111) d Coll 14.17 (101) Haw 12.10 (82) d St K 11.9 (75) Carl 28.9 (177) d Rich 22.18 (150) Rich 16.20 (116) d Carl 12.14 (86) Rich 18.20 (128) d NM 13.9 (87) NM 19.8 (122) d Haw 9.13 (67) Haw 13.22 (100) d NM 10.10 (70) Coll 10.16 (76) drew with NM 9.22 (76) NM 21.25 (151) d Coll 19.10 (124) Haw 18.13 (121) d NM 15.13 (103) Carl 11.16 (82) d Coll 11.11 (77) Rich 23.21 (159) d Coll 9.24 (78) Carl 12.20 (92) d Coll 10.12 (72) Carl 14.19 (103) d Rich 12.13 (85) Haw 20.20 (140) d Ess 8.9 (57) Ess 14.21 (105) d Haw 12.9 (81) Ess 26.14 (170) d Haw 14.8 (92) Haw 16.14 (110) d Carl 9.14 (68) Carl 15.14 (104) d Haw 9.17 (71) Haw 22.20 (152) d Melb 6.20 (56) Haw 21.18 (144) d Geel 21.12 (138) Coll 13.11 (89) d Ess 5.11 (41) Haw 20.19 (139) d WCE 13.8 (86) WCE 16.17 (113) d Geel 12.13 (85) Ess 20.13 (133) d Carl 13.11 (89) WCE 20.23 (143) d Geel 8.15 (63) Carl 21.15 (141) d Geel 11.14 (80) NM 19.17 (131) d Syd 13.10 (88) Adel 19.11 (125) d St K 13.16 (94) Adel 15.15 (105) d NM 8.22 (70) NM 19.10 (124) d Carl 12.17 (89) Ess 19.21 (135) d Melb 11.9 (75) BL 15.18 (108) d Ess 12.10 (82) BL 10.15 (75) d Coll 9.12 (66) BL 20.14 (134) d Coll 12.12 (84) PA 17.11 (113) d BL 10.13 (73) Syd 8.10 (58) d WCE 7.12 (54) WCE 12.13 (85) d Syd 12.12 (84) Geel 24.19 (163) d PA 6.8 (44) Haw 18.7 (115) d Geel 11.23 (89) Geel 12.8 (80) d St K 9.14 (68) Coll 9.14 (68) drew with St K 10.8 (68) Coll 16.12 (108) d St K 7.10 (52) Geel 18.11 (119) d Coll 12.9 (81) Syd 14.7 (91) d Haw 11.15 (81) Haw 11.11 (77) d Frem 8.14 (62) Haw 21.11 (137) d Syd 11.8 (74) Haw 16.11 (107) d WCE 8.13 (61) WB 13.11 (89) d Syd 10.7 (67) Rich 16.12 (108) d Adel 8.12 (60) WCE 11.13 (79) d Coll 11.8 (74) Rich 17.12 (114) d GWS 3.7 (25)
MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG WP MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG MCG
103,506 97,457 107,935 98,385 101,209 102,471 104,846 102,055 109,396 116,828 119,165 121,696 118,192 112,393 116,956 113,839 110,551 110,143 108,224 98,491 101,704 113,545 113,461 112,964 107,536 110,332 92,685 100,042 101,861 92,754 93,754 94,796 98,944 75,230 95,007 96,862 93,860 93,670 93,102 98,828 94,431 94,228 96,249 91,482 91,817 79,451** 77,671** 91,828 97,431 97,302 100,012 99,251 100,016 93,853 99,537 99,683 100,007 99,439 98,632 99,981 100,021 100,022 100,014
PREMIERSHIP COACH Norm Smith Norm Smith John Kennedy John Coleman Bob Davis Norm Smith John Coleman Allan Jeans Tom Hafey Ron Barassi Tom Hafey Ron Barassi John Kennedy John Nicholls Tom Hafey Tom Hafey Ron Barassi John Kennedy
PREMIERSHIP CAPTAIN John Beckwith Ron Barassi Graham Arthur Jack Clarke Fred Wooller Ron Barassi Ken Fraser Darrel Baldock Fred Swift John Nicholls Roger Dean John Nicholls David Parkin John Nicholls Royce Hart Royce Hart Barry Davis Don Scott
Ron Barassi David Parkin Alex Jesaulenko Tony Jewell David Parkin David Parkin Allan Jeans Kevin Sheedy Kevin Sheedy Allan Jeans Robert Walls Alan Joyce Allan Jeans Leigh Matthews Alan Joyce Mick Malthouse Kevin Sheedy Mick Malthouse David Parkin Denis Pagan Malcolm Blight Malcolm Blight Denis Pagan Kevin Sheedy Leigh Matthews Leigh Matthews Leigh Matthews Mark Williams Paul Roos John Worsfold Mark Thompson Alastair Clarkson Mark Thompson
David Dench # Don Scott Alex Jesaulenko Bruce Monteath Mike Fitzpatrick Mike Fitzpatrick Leigh Matthews Terry Daniher Terry Daniher Michael Tuck Stephen Kernahan Michael Tuck Michael Tuck Tony Shaw Michael Tuck John Worsfold Mark Thompson John Worsfold Stephen Kernahan Wayne Carey Mark Bickley Mark Bickley Wayne Carey James Hird Michael Voss Michael Voss Michael Voss Warren Tredrea# Barry Hall#
Mick Malthouse Chris Scott John Longmire Alastair Clarkson Alastair Clarkson Alastair Clarkson Luke Beveridge Damien Hardwick Adam Simpson Damien Hardwick
Nick Maxwell Cameron Ling Jarrad McVeigh Luke Hodge Luke Hodge Luke Hodge Easton Wood#
Chris Judd Tom Harley Sam Mitchell Tom Harley
Trent Cotchin Shannon Hurn Trent Cotchin
* In 1897 and 1924 the round-robin finals series did not allow for a Grand Final. # Replaced injured appointed captain. ~ During the first two decades of League competition clubs did not always appoint a coach. ** Capacity reduced due to MCG reconstruction. Venues: JO (Junction Oval), EM (East Melbourne Cricket Ground), LO (Lake Oval), MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground), PP (Princes Park), WP (Waverley Park).
ARGF p144 HonourRoll (single).indd 145
16/10/20 8:24 am
thoughts with Ashley Browne
The day to talk the talk and walk the walk A normal Saturday football routine has turned into a healthy family outing.
S
aturday has long been my favourite day of the week. Saturday is footy day. There was always a familiar and lovely rhythm to my Saturdays, especially between March and September. A slower start, a read of the papers, and then switching between the various radio footy post-mortems and pre-game shows and trying not to miss anything, all while doing the various Saturday-specific errands. Saturday afternoons were reserved for the games themselves, either in the stands or on the couch. If the AFL fare lacked appeal, then a catch-up with mates while watching our local footy team play was the next best thing. Then along came COVID-19. Saturday footy was wiped out. It also curtailed my better half’s regular Saturday activity, one that would keep her occupied for much of the day. And here’s some marriage counselling for free. One key is to give each other some ‘me-time’ every week. For us, it has long been our respective Saturdays. So without the footy, what to do? We decided that the regular Saturday errands could wait. I was on leave while the AFL season was shut down, so they were left until during the week. Instead we decided to make Saturday our walking day. We’d set off about 11am and we’d walk and walk, talk and talk, for at least a couple of hours.
146 AFL RECORD
Then it was home for a late lunch, followed by a book or Netflix. That was my new Saturday and the new normal for both of us. The problem was, when footy came back, I found I now preferred parts of my new Saturday to the old. There was always footy to watch, but the walk beforehand had become addictive. I had weaned myself off the radio gabfest in the lead-up to the games. Perhaps for good. But there was a melancholy aspect to the Saturday walk. Our route took us through the home grounds of two nearby amateur footy clubs. The goalposts were standing and the grass beautifully manicured. During that period in early to mid-June as the daily virus numbers in Melbourne plummeted towards zero, for a few weeks there was hope that local footy would resume. The council was optimistic enough to mark the grounds in anticipation. But then along came the second wave in Victoria. All footy other than the AFL was cancelled for the year and even that packed itself up and moved to warmer and healthier COVID-free climes. But the goalposts were never taken down. That’s been a constant sight on the Saturday walks. As the trees shed their leaves, sat dormant and then bloomed once more, and as we added the black puffer jackets to the weekend wardrobe to ward off the chill and then packed them away again as the weather warmed, the goalposts were still there well into October.
STILL STANDING: The goalposts have remained in place at most community ovals despite the cancellation of football this year.
I hope the goalposts remain standing all through summer
I’m not sure whether they did so as a carrot for people to get out and exercise during the mandated one to two hours of outdoor time each day. Sales of Sherrin footballs have held up OK this year despite the lack of actual games. But perhaps there was something deeper. Perhaps they served to remind the boys and girls who would have started their footy journeys through AFL Auskick that the wait until next year will be worth it, or to the grizzled veterans who were thinking of calling it quits to defy their creaking bodies and come back in 2021 for one last year. Grand Final day is the best day of the year, but I never wake the following morning aching for the next season to start. I might feel differently this Sunday morning, however. Victorians had an AFL season of sorts this year, but didn’t have a proper football season. With apologies to the cricketers whose own delayed season will start shortly on those very same ovals (with centre wickets that didn’t turn to mud this winter), I hope the goalposts remain standing all through summer. Football will be back in 2021. It might be a tad different to what we’re used to, but it will return. And it cannot come quickly enough.
@hashbrowne
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ARGF p146 Ashley Browne 275.indd 146
16/10/20 8:15 am
Victorian-born footy fans
Celebrate a lifetime of love for your team! Get your Mark Knight illustrated AFL/AFLW commemorative birth certificate today
bdm.vic.gov.au/footy BIRTHS DEATHS AND MARRIAGES © AFL 2020
Vic Gov Birth Deaths Marriages.indd 1
14/10/20 4:12 pm
WHAT AN EXTRAORDINARY YEAR Thank you to our wonderful partners for their incredible support in what has been a truly extraordinary year.
This year kicked off with unprecedented adversity for the Australian community, and I’m so proud of how the football community rallied together. Together we produced an incredible State Of Origin fundraiser for bushfire relief, supported the NAB AFLW competition as it rode the wave of the first COVID-19 restrictions, and then supported the Toyota AFL competition during a
AFL Corporate Partners.indd 1
historical season of firsts, changes and adversity. When we look back on the 2020 season, we reflect on sacrifices made by so many and the amazing twists and turns which led to this extraordinary year – a season where we had suspended games, no teams in Victoria, quarantines, high-performance centres and a historical Queensland Grand Final.
WE ARE BETTER TOGETHER In a year when we were fighting to keep the code alive, we learned that together we can get through anything. We couldn’t have done it without the support and partnerships of these great organisations. It’s with gratitude and pride that we conclude the 2020 Toyota AFL Premiership Season.
KYLIE ROGERS – AFL GENERAL MANAGER COMMERCIAL
17/10/20 3:39 pm