brian taylor – Collingwood Forever

brian taylor – Collingwood Forever https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au The complete history of Australia's greatest sporting club Tue, 30 Jan 2024 23:13:09 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.0.21 Taylor’s ton https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/when-taylor-topped-the-ton/ Wed, 17 Aug 2016 02:06:09 +0000 http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=10649 By: Glenn McFarlane of the Herald Sun It looked like being the simplest of tasks for a player in white-hot form. Brian Taylor needed two goals in the final game of the home-and-away season (round 22) to become the fourth Collingwood player to reach a century of goals in a season, a mark reached by Magpie full forwards just nine times in the previous 89 seasons. Given that the 24-year-old powerful full forward, in only his second season in Black and White, had kicked 10 goals against his old side Richmond the previous week; it seemed as if it was a fait accompli. What could possibly go wrong? What seemed less assured was whether Collingwood’s 1986 season would be extended into the finals? That equation wasn’t just predicated on the Magpies beating St Kilda at VFL Park on the last day of the regular season; it also had to rely on second-placed Sydney beating fifth-placed Fitzroy at the Magpies’ home base of Victoria Park on the same afternoon. That result would elevate Collingwood into the finals on percentage in what was Leigh Matthews‘ first year as senior coach, having taken over after Bob Rose‘s resignation following losses in the first three rounds. So the Collingwood fans who traipsed out to Waverley that August afternoon were almost certain Taylor would join the likes of Gordon Coventry, Ron Todd and Peter McKenna as Magpie centurions, but somewhat less convinced that the team would be required to play the following week. A crowd of 30,442 turned up for the match that saw the Magpies take on the bottom placed Saints, who had won only two games for the entire season. Collingwood was in the midst of reshaping its playing list, but there was still a core group of senior players in the team. It was David Cloke‘s 249th game, and the likes of Tony Shaw (170^th game), Ricky Barham (151st), Peter Daicos (132nd) and, Mark Williams (135th) brought considerable experience to a team that had nine players yet to reach the 50-game mark. A few of those relatively young players would go on to become decorated Magpies, including Darren Millane, playing his 45th game. Others would have relatively shorter careers in the Black and White. One of them, 22-year-old Peter Adams, was playing his second game for the club. It would be a day that he would never forget, kicking four goals. As far as the Saints go, Trevor Barker was playing his 197th game. Geoff Cunningham and Greg Burns had been around for a long time, and plenty of the focus was on a burly full-forward in his 71st game, a 20-year-old called Tony Lockett, who had already kicked 235 goals.

‘BT’ on the lead, out in front of his former club, Richmond, during the 1980s. As highly regarded as Lockett was, few would have believed this kid with the strong hands, powerful frame and a prodigious punt still had more than 1000 goals left in him. Or that he would, in 13 years, overtake Coventry as the most prolific goalkicker in VFL-AFL history. A 23-year-old called Ricky Nixon was playing his 14th game. His future in the game would be off the field more than on it. And a 22-year-old from Bungaree, Danny Frawley, was developing a reputation as one of the toughest full-backs to beat in the competition. A date with Taylor awaited ‘Spud’ Frawley. Taylor, himself, had been in rare form. He craved the history that stood before him – becoming a 100-goal kicker – but speaking in the lead-up to the game said that the chance to play finals was more important to him. “Goals don’t mean anything to me,” Taylor said. “If we don’t play in the finals it will be a disappointing year. We have to win on Saturday if we have any chance of making the five.” But he knew he had his work cut out on Frawley: “Danny is a very, very good player, and he has always played well against me and given me a hard time. I am expecting a tough contest.” Three decades on, Taylor and Frawley are firm friends, and a part of Triple M’s football team, but there wasn’t a lot of love lost between them back then. Taylor recalled years later in the Herald Sun: “I was playing against a 22-year-old potato farmer named Danny Frawley. We had taken an instant dislike to each other a couple of years earlier (1984) when I kicked seven on Danny. He reminded me of Rick Kennedy and Danny Hughes, never leaving you alone.” In that same article, Frawley said of his 1984 encounter: “He had three (goals) by half-time and a teammate of mine, Stephen Pirrie, who had played with Brian at Richmond, said to give him a whack because Brian was a big sook. So naive old Danny from Bungaree whacks him behind the ear after he marked early in the third quarter. He kicked the goal then came back and drove me into the ground, throttling me until I was blue.” So the pair was wary of each other as they locked horns in the round 22, 1986 clash. Taylor needed two goals to reach the ton, Collingwood need four premiership points and some luck elsewhere, and Frawley simply wanted to annoy the hell out of the most productive full-forward of the season – without turning blue again. However, Taylor’s afternoon did not go to plan. In an early passage of play, he suffered a groin injury, and there were fears he might be done for the day, left stranded on 98 goals. He tried to hide his injury. And fortunately, 21 minutes into the opening quarter, he managed to shove Frawley out of the way and take a mark in the goal square. The goal was his 99^th … only one major to go. However, coach Leigh Matthews knew the extent of the injury, and wanted him off. He told Taylor so at quarter-time. There was still a game to be won – and potentially a finals series to be a part of – and if the club’s main spearhead could not run, that was a serious problem. Taylor recalled: “Leigh Matthews said, ‘You are off’. I insisted I was OK and pleaded for five minutes.” The coach reluctantly agreed. The burly forward was relieved when he marked a few minutes into the second term. Fans began to leap over the fence, preparing to run out, and the bluecoat security staff realised there was nothing they could do. But it was a false alarm, as Taylor explained in an ABC TV interview after the game. “It was a shocking kick actually. I think I was in two minds … first of all, what to do with the ball and secondly, was my injury going to affect my approach. I wasn’t concentrating on the correct things,” he said. His kick sailed to the right, and didn’t even score. It was out of bounds on the full. Taylor feared he might not get another chance. Collingwood’s runner was soon out on the field, trying to get him off. Matthews knew he was lame and couldn’t run. However, Taylor was having none of it, and limped the other way when the runner came out. Frawley was gaining in confidence that he could deny Taylor. He recalled: “I could tell ‘BT’ was struggling with injury early and thought, ‘Hang on, I’ve got him here’. I started to think I would go down in folklore.” Enter umpire Peter Cameron. Taylor somehow threw everything into this passage of play late in the second term. He led Frawley to the ball – but only just – when the whistle sounded. It was a free kick to Taylor within kicking distance … right in front.

Carlton great Stephen Silvagni and Brian Taylor square off during the late 1980s. “I thought I deserved it, I thought I was a chance 20 yards out and dead in front,” Taylor said after the game. Years later, he told a different story, when he said to the Herald Sun: “Peter Cameron, who was a good bloke, gave me a dubious free kick. The players didn’t know whether it was downfield or what and Danny, who was five metres away, couldn’t believe it. This time I was only 25m out. It was about as far as I could kick.” Cameron, perhaps putting a little mayonnaise on the events, said in 2008: “We knew that Brian was injured and I could tell it was fairly serious, so the whole thing was pretty well set up.” “In those days there wasn’t the same scrutiny there is today and you could get away with something like that. I think I paid the free kick for hands in the back. “Was the free there? I don’t think so, but Brian needed only one goal for his century, so what was I going to do – let him limp off on 99? That was a time when the circumstances were such that we looked after each other.” This time Taylor could not miss. His kick sailed through the middle for his 100th goal of the season – the first time in 14 years since a Collingwood player had reached that milestone. And on cue hundreds of the Magpie faithful rushed out on the ground as Taylor’s teammates, led by Mark Williams and David Cloke, circled around him for protection. Huge numbers of kids with banners and streamers, teenagers eager to be a part of it, and older supporters simply living in the moment crowded around the Magpie players to celebrate Taylor’s feat. The game was held up for more than five minutes. When the crowd reluctantly began to leave the ground, so too did Taylor. The message had come from Matthews that it was time for him to come off. The game was still to be won, and given Taylor could barely run, the coach wanted him on the bench. Other than a short, brief run in the third term, his day was done. “I was really of no benefit to the team, I wasn’t able to run properly,” he said. “I was able to jog a bit, but not run how the coach wanted me to.” Taylor had achieved what he wanted – 100 goals – and the Magpies would end up doing what they needed to do – win the game by 52 points, off the back of a seven-goal to one third term. But, on the other side of town, the Lions upset the party. They proved a little too strong for the Swans, winning by 10 points, as disheartened Magpie supporters listened forlornly on the radio to the progress scores. Collingwood’s finals were sadly over before they started. The only consolation for those Magpie fans headed home from Waverley that night was the fact they had seen Brian Taylor reach the magical three figures.

MAGPIES WHO TOPPED THE TON

1929 – Gordon Coventry (124) 1930 – Gordon Coventry (118) 1933 – Gordon Coventry (108) 1934 – Gordon Coventry (105) 1938 – Ron Todd (120) 1939 – Ron Todd (121) 1970 – Peter McKenna (143) 1971 – Peter McKenna (134) 1972 – Peter McKenna (130) 1986 – Brian Taylor (100) ]]> A final quarter comeback https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/a-final-quarter-comeback/ Wed, 03 Aug 2016 04:12:15 +0000 http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=10621 By: Glenn McFarlane of the Herald Sun It was 23 minutes into the third quarter of Collingwood’s round four Easter Monday clash with Richmond in 1987, and more than a few frustrated Magpie fans began to make their way towards the Waverley Park exits. After three successive losses to start the season, a fourth seemed a foregone conclusion for Leigh Matthews‘ Magpies. The scoreboard showed the discrepancy; but general play seemed to make it look ever worse. And when David Palm kicked the Tigers’ 14th goal at that stage, the difference was out to 51 points. So you could hardly blame some sections of the crowd from trying to cut a break early from the ‘notorious’ car park at what was then VFL Park. Blue coats were always aplenty in the lead-up to matches at the venue, but they were almost non-existent when it came time to go home. And few thought they were going to miss much on that public holiday Monday as Collingwood’s injury-riddled, young team appeared to be headed for defeat. The Magpies had not been able to take a trick in the first month of the season as injury after injury had hampered their preparations, and allowed a host of fresh faces to be tried out of necessity than willingness. Those who came to watch the curtain-raiser at least had the chance to watch Peter Daicos make his return from a troublesome foot injury. He did well enough to suggest a senior recall sooner rather than later, saying immediately after the match: “I had 16 or 17 touches in the first half, I was reasonably happy.” Eleven of the 20 players who took the field for the VFL match against Richmond that day had played 26 games or fewer. Eight of them had played less than 10 games – interstate recruits Michael Christian, Craig Starcevich and Grantley Fielke, as well as home-grown Magpies Gavin Brown (Templestowe), Jason Croall (Bundoora), Terry Keays (St Marys), Paul Rizonico (Bundoora) and Matthew Ryan (Eltham). The powerfully-built Keays was playing his first game that day, in the No.60 jumper. His grandfather, Fred, one of 57 ANZACs to have worn the Black and White before and/or after World War One, played three games with Collingwood in 1922, joining the club after two seasons at Fitzroy. Incredibly, Terry Keays was less than two weeks out from his 17^th birthday when he ran out against the Tigers, even if he looked considerably older. Only three players in the side against the Tigers had played 100 or more games – David Cloke (253), Paul Morwood (157, but only his second in Black and White) and Denis Banks (101). And three Magpies to take the field had originally played with Richmond – Cloke, full-forward Brian Taylor and defender Michael Lockman, who started on the interchange bench before playing a big role in the game. Taylor, who had kicked a century of goals a year earlier, was playing his 88^th VFL game. But he had been soundly defeated in the opening half by first-year Richmond defender Michael Laffy, failing to register even a kick let alone a goal until midway through the third quarter. In fact, Taylor had even been dragged for a period at one stage of the second term. His frustration, and the frustration of others, boiled over in the shadows of three-quarter-time, and it would prove to be the spark that the Magpies, and their forward, needed to launch a comeback from the dead. The fight had come almost from nowhere, and the pushing, shoving and whatever else lasted almost five minutes before the umpires could restore some order. Taylor was, according to one journalist, “right in the middle of it” and with his blood pumping again, he was in the thick of the action when the play resumed. He took a strong mark to set the scene and two goals to Collingwood in the dying moments cut the difference to 39 points. No Collingwood team in history had ever trailed by as much as three-quarter-time and come back to win. Still, that wasn’t a part of the message Matthews gave his young team before the resumption in the last term. The Age’s Harvey Silver could sense a momentum shift. In his match report, he noted: “: “If a turning point had to be found, it was probably the brawl which erupted in Collingwood’s forward zone.” All of a sudden there was hope, but it was only a flicker. Those who had already left the game, and were listening on the radio on their way home, felt no compulsion to turn around and come back again. Still, Matthews spoke passionate to the Collingwood huddle, expressing a belief that a few early goals could turn what had looked like a disappointing defeat into the most unlikely of victories. But did they believe him, and believe enough in each other? That remained to be seen. But Matthews made a few changes to try and dull the Tigers’ dominance. He switched Paul Morwood onto Terry Wallace and used Shane Kerrison on Dale Weightman. And the coach knew that the fight had lifted the spirit of his team, saying later: “Sometimes it takes something like that to change the course of the game.” And Matthews’ words gained more traction when Taylor, revitalised after being in the middle of that third term stoush, kicked the opening goal of the final term to give the Magpies a sniff of what was to come. But Richmond’s Maurice Rioli pushed the margin back out to 40 points with a fine goal at the seven-minute-mark as a quick reply to Taylor’s opening major of the final term. It would, however, be their only goal for the quarter. Collingwood was on its way to kicking nine for the term, leaving those who had left early to avoid the traffic snarl cursing their impulsiveness. A few flashes of brilliance for Collingwood helped to spark the revival – a smart intercept and some strong play from Darren Millane, Lockman’s hard work in defence after coming off the interchange bench, some clever play in attack from Starcevich and Rizonico, and the powerful work of Taylor deep in the forward line. In his first year at the club, Starcevich launched a long bomb from half forward that looked for a moment as if it had been touched by Taylor in the goal square. Fortunately, the umpire said he hadn’t, and in the days before goal reviews, the six points were on the board. The margin was now back to 33. Lockman set up a chain that provided the next goal, with a clearing kick from half back finding Starcevich, who handballed off to Paul Morwood. He then ran forward and gave it off to a clear Fielke at half-forward, and he had a bounce and spotted Ryan at the top of the goal square. Ryan’s goal brought the Magpies to within 27 points. It wasn’t quite game on, but the momentum was in Collingwood’s favour at the 10-minute-mark of the final term. There was still plenty of time to spare, too. Millane was stiff not to be paid a holding the ball decision, but never gave in. He fought hard to win the ball back soon after, and his long boot into attack ended up in the arms of Taylor, who made no mistake from 50m. It was the full-forward’s 350th VFL goal, and it reduced the margin even further. Collingwood’s desperation levels were ramped up in the belief it could now win this game. One of Rizonico’s long kicks deep into attack gave Taylor the opportunity to take a spectacular mark, dragging it in at the second attempt. He kicked truly to make it a 15-point margin at the 19-minute-mark. Cloke’s aggression with David Palm in one passage of play showed just how much Collingwood meant business, although it ended in a free-kick to the Richmond player. But a crucial miss from Weightman a few moments later left the door ajar, and the Magpies were intent on barging straight through it. Lockman, in only his third game for Collingwood, played inspired football, continually running the ball out of defence. And Cloke was enormous against his old side. He took a strong mark from a Richmond kick-in, and drove it long, with Fielke roving and giving it off to Ryan on an acute angle. Ryan’s snap from an almost impossible angle produced his second goal for the quarter, cutting the margin back to nine points at the 23-minute-mark. A minute later Taylor lost his mouthguard in a passage soon after, and the ball funnelled out to Rizonico. He ducked and weaved around an opponent, and steadied himself from 45 metres and nailed the goal. Three points was the difference; there was still time left on the clock. Richmond went forward and Maurice Rioli looked as if he was a chance to get one back the other way. But two Collingwood players, Ryan and Paul Morwood, made a desperate lunge to stop him. Two things happened. Rioli was stopped, and the collision between the three players saw Ryan, fall to the ground, with blood streaming from his mouth, and his sternum injured. As the Magpies cleared the ball out of defence, Ryan remained on the turf. Croall took a strong mark and gave off to Mick Gayfer, who handballed to Jamie Turner. His kick landed in the arms of Starcevich at the other end of the ground. The West Australian missed, and the margin was two points, as Ryan was assisted from the field. The ball was up for grabs in Collingwood’s attacking zone when Graeme Atkins found space. His right foot snap brought the crowd to its feet, putting his team in front again from what had been a hopeless position. Collingwood fans danced on the Waverley seats, the Magpie players rushed to Atkins and Paul Morwood who had taken a critical mark a few moments earlier after the ball appeared destined to sweep out of the zone. The Pies were four points up at the 28-minute-mark, with only a few minutes remaining. Trevor Poole tried to rally the Tigers and sent the ball long, only to see it marked strongly by Millane. There would be no passing him in this instance. A long kick by Starcevich found a pack of players including Taylor, who read the ball superbly, and out the back, snapped around his shoulder. It was Collingwood’s ninth goal, and the sealer. And it was Taylor’s sixth goal – all of them in the second half, including four in the last term. Taylor had been, according to Silver, “possibly the worst player on the ground for almost three quarters, (but) his form epitomised the change in Collingwood.” Keays had the ball when the final siren sounded, symbolic of the fact that the Magpies’ younger players had played a strong role in the comeback victory. He booted it high in jubilation as fans stormed out onto the Waverley Park ground to greet their heroes on their way to the dugout change rooms. The Sun said: “Move over Lazarus”. And when he was introducing the replay for the ABC, who had the sole television rights that season, Tim Lane didn’t cop any flak for suggesting: “Now for the comeback almost as big as the one that prompted the day that we celebrated yesterday … Easter Sunday.” Richmond coach Tony Jewell was devastated by the result, describing the loss as “sickening”. Leigh Matthews was happy, but still mindful that 1987 – the year of the VFL expansion, which included the introduction of West Coast and Brisbane – was going to be a tough year for the young Magpies. He said: “As a team, we have a long way to go. One performance does not make the season, but at least the players will gain confidence. One terrific quarter has got us four points, and it will help club morale.” It would end up being a difficult season for Collingwood, but that 10-point victory over Richmond still sits as the club’s best last-term comeback – and a great memory for those who were out at Waverley that afternoon. Collingwood 2.4, 4.10, 7.11, 16.14 (110) Richmond 3.5,7.7, 14.8, 15.10 (100) The Herald Sun’s best Best – COLLINGWOOD: Ryan, Millane, Starcevich, Cloke, Turner, Taylor, Lockman, Atkins, Fielke Goal kickers: Taylor 6, Ryan 2, Starcevich 2, Banks 2, Atkins, Fielke, P Morwood, Rizonico]]>