North Melbourne – Collingwood Forever

Four of the best

Luke — Wed, 29 Jun 2016 06:21:03 +0000

By: Glenn McFarlane of the Herald Sun Collingwood won its 1500th game against Fremantle in round 14, 2016. But would it surprise you to know that, statistically, the Magpies’ most productive quarter came against Carlton? That came with a blistering 12.5 (77) in the third quarter against the Blues in Round 4, 1969 at Princes Park, bringing about the first defeat of the reigning premiers. It was also a bruising game that resulted in four reports (including two Magpies), coach Bob Rose rated it as one of the most complete victories in his time at the club, and it also featured a fine performance from a shooting Magpie star. Here is a quarter-by-quarter breakdown of Collingwood’s highest scoring terms from its first 1500 wins, including that famous victory over Carlton. FIRST QUARTER 11.2 (68) V Footscray, Round 1 1971 at Victoria Park Was it any wonder that Collingwood took the field with a point to prove in the round one game against Footscray in 1971? The previous game had been the 1970 Grand Final, a game that could have – and should have – been one of the crowing glories of Bob Rose‘s tenure as coach of a star-studded team. Instead, after leading the premiership decider by 44 points at half-time, the Magpies were overrun by the Blues. What had looked as an unlosable situation became another embarrassing chapter in the club’s quest for its 13th VFL premiership. So, as The Age described it, “the Magpies burst all their pent up 1970 Grand Final frustrations into a 30-minute mauling that left Footscray a beaten side at quarter-time.”

Captain Des Tuddenham, playing his 148th game, set the scene by kicking the opening goal of the game, and he slammed home five of his team’s 11 goals of the first quarter. By game’s end, Tuddy had nine goals.

The Magpies had kicked an accurate 11.2 (68) by quarter-time, to lead by 42 points, and they extended that even further to 69 points to sit at 16,.6 (102) at half-time. It was described as “some of the most devastating of football seen at Victoria Park in a long time” with Tuddenham clearly the best man afield. Mike Smith, from The Age, said of 28-year-old Tuddenham that “his ruthless, marauding play around the packs … set the example which was followed by every other Collingwood player.” He had 40 disposals, and kicked 9.1. Wayne Richardson and Len Thompson each kicked four goals. So, too, did Peter McKenna, but it was said that his opponent Dave Darcy held him relatively in check. The half-time margin of 69 points was extended to 83 by the end of the game, but all anyone wanted to talk about was the devastating first-term that remains the Magpies’ best start to a game in history. Coach Bob Rose said after the match: “I was happy with the game, apart from a natural lapse after we built up a big lead … I thought we had Footscray well covered.” SECOND QUARTER 12.3 (75) V Essendon, Round 3 1977 at Victoria Park Collingwood went to the quarter-time break of its round three clash with Essendon five points in front after a hard-fought first term. Tom Hafey asked for something extra from his team. It was his third game in charge of the club, and he knew his team could do better after a solid but unspectacular opening half hour. He could hardly have believed what came next. In a second term that would go into the club’s record books, the Magpies piled on 12.3 (75) to the Bombers’ 3.4, to open up a half-time lead of 58 points. The Age described the second quarter as a moment in which the Magpies – who had finished last the previous year – proved “to all its fanatic followers that season ’76 is a forgotten nightmare.” Twenty-four-year-old Graeme Anderson, playing his 32nd game, was the dominant player that day. He excelled in that “dream” second term, kicking 8.2 in his best performance with the club. Ross Dunne booted four goals for the game, while four others – Murrie Batt, Peter McCormack (a future full-back), Max Richardson and Len Thompson – each kicked two goals. But if Hafey was so pleased with the second term, he would be less than impressed with the second half. The Bombers came out and kicked seven goals to one in the third term, and the final margin was 51, The coach expressed his frustration after the game, saying: “Yes, we won today, but I warned the boys at half-time not to relax, but it just didn’t sink in.” He warned a four-quarter effort would be required for the next game, against his old side, Richmond, on ANZAC Day, and this time around, he would get what he was after. Des Tuddenham played a key role in Collingwood’s twelve-goal third quarter against Carlton in round four, 1969. THIRD QUARTER 12.5 (77) V Carlton, Round 4 1969 at Princes Park Reigning premiers Carlton held onto a five-point lead at half-time of the round four clash with Collingwood in 1969. The Blues hadn’t lost since round 16, 1968, and as evenly matched as the two teams had been during the first two terms, most people expected the home side to win the points on the resumption of play. That was far from the case. The match was turned on its head in the most unlikely of scenarios – a blistering third term that would be the most prolific in the club’s long and proud history. As The Age’s Ron Carter described it, “the third quarter … was the best 25 minutes play a Collingwood team has put together for many a day. To score 12.5 to Carlton’s two behinds in that one term revived memories of Collingwood’s great teams of the past.” The turnaround seemingly came from nowhere, with Carter saying: “the first half was just like any other game of football … tough, hard and close scoring.” “As the teams came out for the start of the second half, there was nothing to indicate Carlton was about to have its big reputation well and truly rubbed into the Princes Park mud. “The speed and method by which Collingwood took control of the game so completely came as a shock to everyone.” Coach Bob Rose compared the performance to when Collingwood overcame Geelong in the 1953 Grand Final, after earlier knocking the Cats off at Kardinia Park. “We had Carlton tabbed after a big meeting last Thursday night,” Rose said after the game. “All our players knew exactly what was wanted and what we had to do.” He acknowledged it was clearly the best team effort of his coaching career to that date. Of Collingwood’s 12 goals kicked in the third term, one came in the first minute, four within nine minutes, eight in the first 17 minutes, 10 goals came in 20 minutes and 12 goals were on the board by three-quarter-time. The difference at the last change was 70 points – incredibly, a 75-point turnaround in a quarter. And while the Blues outscored the Magpies marginally in the last term, the final margin was 64 points. Collingwood’s 23.15 (153) was – at that time – the highest score Carlton had conceded. In the rooms after the game, Magpies President Tom Sherrin told the players: “I’ve never been prouder of a Collingwood side … I’ve never seen the Magpies play better.” Eighteen-year-old John Greening, in his 19th game, showed a sign of his enormous potential, kicking 7.3 in the same jumper that his coach had made famous. Greening kicked three goals in that third term, as did Des Tuddenham and Wayne Richardson. Richardson’s treble of goals came within a three-minute period. There were more than a few fights to go with the goals, and four players, including Magpies Len Thompson and Ted Potter, had their numbers taken by the umpire in charge. But the third quarter was the only thing that mattered. FOURTH QUARTER 11.5 (71) V North Melbourne, Round 9 1990 at Victoria Park Seven goals to Peter Daicos; seven goals to Gavin Brown in one of his first significant moves from the wing to full-forward; and 11 goals in one remarkable final term. That was a day to remember in a year to remember for Collingwood fans. The Magpies held sway at three-quarter-time against North Melbourne in round nine, 1990, leading at the last change by 29 points. But the game was far from done, with Magpie fans still on edge at the break. Daicos explained later: “When you go out there at three-quarter time two or three goals up, you never know what’s going to happen.” The fans need not have worried, thanks to Daicos’ magic, and an extraordinary 11-goal final term that pushed the final margin out to 80 points. Daicos almost didn’t play in the game. He had been crook the previous day, spending it in bed with the flu. But he dragged himself out of his sick bed and helped the Magpies to their best last quarter-ever. Two minutes into the final term, the star forward set the scene for what was to come. He swooped on the ball near the boundary line and slotted it through the middle with a banana from the pocket. The Sun’s Michael Davis said: “It should have been worth two goals.” Incredibly, the feat won what appeared to be a standing ovation, and was the highlight of a day full of them. Coach Leigh Matthews could barely believe it: “I wasn’t quite sure what I saw. I’m still not quite sure. It was unbelievable, wasn’t it?” But just as significant in the long-term was the fact that Brown was played deep in attack, instead of on the wing, and he was unstoppable, kicking 7.0. It was a template for the rest of the season. Daicos’ goal at the two-minute-mark was followed by further goals at the five, eight, seven, 15, 18, 20, 22, 26, 27 and 29 minute marks. Following on from 10 goals in the final term the previous week against Fitzroy, Matthews’ team stormed home with 11 in the clash with the Kangaroos, showing just how exciting this team was when at its best.

Daicos helps the Pies draw with Roos

Jonathon — Mon, 04 Aug 2014 09:48:53 +0000

By: Glenn McFarlane There were so many moments that live in the memory from the 1977 Grand Final: the absence of Phil Carman due to his suspension from the second semi-final; Collingwood’s remarkable rise from last in 1976 to being the minor premier; the first pre-game entertainment for a Grand Final; the Magpies’ 27-point lead at three quarter-time; North Melbourne’s early inaccuracy and stunning fight back in the last term; all culminating in Ross “Twiggy” Dunne’s famous pack mark and torpedo goal from close range which levelled the scores on 76 each – Collingwood 10.16 (76) to North Melbourne 9.22 (76). The other draw played out between the two teams came 11 years later, and none of the players who been out there for the first draw were out there for the second. The Round 17 clash in 1988 is recalled with less clarity and less colour than the 1977 draw. Contrasting occasions and conditions; the same result, if you like, though there were a few similarities between the two games. In 1977 it was the Magpies who had led by 27 points at three quarter-time before the Kangaroos stormed home with five goals to one in the final term. In 1988, it was North who led by 25 at the last change before Collingwood managed five goals to one in the last quarter. Played out on a wet and windy winter’s afternoon at Victoria Park, the match between Leigh Matthews’ Magpies and John Kennedy’s Kangaroos was witnessed by 16,082 hardy souls -more than 90,000 fewer than those who attended the previous draw between the two sides. And instead of Barry Crocker singing “The Impossible Dream” to a stadium full of people as he did in 1977, the only pre-game entertainment before the Collingwood-North Melbourne clash in 1988 was a bit of old-fashioned reserves watching. There was plenty to see, too, with three ruckmen – David Cloke, who had been dropped a few days earlier, 1986 Copeland Trophy winner Wes Fellowes and a developing kid with plenty of talent called Damian Monkhorst – attracting a fair bit of attention in the “twos”. Matthews had dropped Cloke (as well as Tony Elshaug and Paul Tuddenham) after the club suffered bad losses to Fitzroy and Melbourne in successive weeks – leaving James Manson as the sole ruckman against the Kangaroos. A week earlier, he had dumped full-forward Brian Taylor, only to recall him for the game against North Melbourne. In fairness to Taylor, retired Hawthorn great and newspaper columnist Don Scott wrote at the time: “I’d have hated to be full-forward at Collingwood this season with the time it has taken to deliver the ball and the poor manner in which it has done (so).” But clearly the pressure was on the Pies heading into this Round 17 game. Two weeks earlier Fitzroy had beaten Collingwood by an almost inconceivable 90 points; the previous week it was a 46-point loss to Melbourne. That loss to the second placed Demons brought out plenty of criticism for a team that sat fourth on the ladder, but was looking more than a little susceptible. Former captain Des Tuddenham said after the Melbourne loss that he was “ashamed” by the effort. He added: “The double chance was at stake, but what happened? They wimp it.” Eleven minutes into the first quarter of the game against North Melbourne, Collingwood looked even more vulnerable. The scoreboard at the Yarra Falls end told a sorry tale – crediting the Kangaroos with 4.2 (26) while the operators had so far failed to post a score for the home side. The first three goals came from Peter German after an “inspirational” start for the visitors with a strong breeze. It looked like it wasn’t going to turn out to be much of a 28th birthday for Collingwood’s captain, Tony Shaw, who was playing his 199th game in black and white. As busy as Shaw was on the field, the Magpies were finding it very hard to get on the scoreboard. Only two goals came in the first term to North’s six, but by 17 minutes into the second term, and with some fine work from Taylor in front of goal, the scores were back to level. However, the Kangaroos kept coming and regained the lead soon after, taking the margin to 18 points by the time the two Little League teams came out to play. Taylor had redeemed himself with a brilliant first half, keeping the Magpies in the contest with five goals heading to the main break He had “outbustled” young defender Mick Martyn, who was one of five teenagers on the ground that day. The others were: Collingwood’s Gavin Crosisca and North Melbourne’s John Longmire, Brenton Harris and Dean McRae. The Sun’s chief football reporter Peter Simunovich wrote: “By half-time North Melbourne had re-asserted its superiority with two goals to Longmire (in only his sixth game) and another to the brilliant German.” Simunovich added: “But in the third quarter the wind dropped and with it appeared to come an increased propensity by both sides to increase their already-high number of mistakes.” Still, Collingwood made more than North Melbourne, and two of them – “critical errors” – threatened to cost the Magpies dearly. The first came when Mick McGuane, in his 19th game, “paddled” the ball over the boundary line deep in defence. The umpire deemed it to be deliberate and the resulting free kick to 20-year-old Alastair Clarkson was slotted through on an acute angle. Not long after, Magpie Matthew Ryan grabbed the ball and ran too far as he was trying to extricate himself from the crowded backline. The free kick to Matthew Larkin ended in a goal, and the margin was out to 25 points at three-quarter-time. Seemingly, the game was looking beyond the home side. The only thing in Collingwood’s favour was that it was coming home to the scoring end and that North Melbourne had not taken advantage of all of its opportunities. The Roos had 24 scoring shots to the Magpies’ 14, leaving the door slightly ajar as the parochial home crowd tried to urge their heroes on to stage a revival. The Collingwood comeback started in the middle of the ground – with Manson starting to assert his authority, “rucking his heart out in the last quarter.” Jamie Turner was playing his best game to date, Darren Millane was strong on the wing, Taylor was dangerous in attack and Doug Barwick finished up with two goals, including one in the last term that came about after a 50m penalty that must have infuriated Kennedy in the opposition coaches’ box on the outer side of the ground. Unusually, Peter Daicos had been reasonably held through, but when the difference was back to a point in the visitors’ favour late in the game, he stepped forward for one of the most important moments of the match. Speaking about it this week, Daicos’ memories of the game are two-fold. “It was just one of those really wet and muddy days at Vic Park, that’s the thing that I recall about that game,” he said. “I remember we were a point down and we were kicking to the Yarra (Falls) end. I got the ball deep on the boundary line on a tight angle and I just got my boot to ball. I think I went with a torpedo and just tried to drill it home. I kicked it really hard.” For a moment, Daicos’ kick looked like conjuring one of the miracles that he had become renown for. The crowd looked on in nervous anticipation as the Sherrin spun towards goal, almost as if it was played out in slow-motion. At the last moment, it diverted towards the nearest goalpost, and slammed into the woodwork. It was a behind; the point that would level the scores. “I thought it was home for a few seconds, but it ended up hitting the post,” Daicos said. Daicos’ behind squared the scores – Collingwood 14.8 (92) to North Melbourne 13.14 (92). Not all that many minutes later, and with no addition to the score, the timekeepers reached over and pushed the final siren. It was over. In the confusion, leading ABC commentator Graham ‘Smokey’ Dawson told listeners not long after the end of the game: “And now we’ll go down to St Kilda for details of the closest match of the day.” It wasn’t. Collingwood and North Melbourne had staged a draw. At Moorabbin, Sydney had beaten St Kilda by seven points. As darkness descended over the ground, up in the social club, Brian Taylor was being presented with an award for Collingwood’s best player after kicking seven goals. Taylor said: “In terms of goals, it was my best match for awhile, but I think I’ve been doing a lot of other work which people don’t notice.” His teammates toasted their captain, Tony Shaw, on his birthday and looked ahead to his 200th game the following week. And as disappointed as Magpie fans were as they lingered around for a chat, before streaming out of the ground and heading out across the footbridge, with many of them heading to the Victoria Park train platform, they knew that Collingwood had fought exceptionally hard to come back. They also knew that a draw, as tough as it was to deal with, was better than a loss. And this time there was no need for a replay.

Tony Shaw brings up 300 matches

Jonathon — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 01:05:01 +0000

Tony Shaw became the second Collingwood footballer to play 300 games, when he ran out onto the MCG against North Melbourne on May 20, 1994. It’s one of the anomalies of Black and White history that only two Magpie players – Shaw and goal kicking machine Gordon Coventry – have reached the triple ton. Collingwood’s long and storied history suggests it should never be seen as a given that a player seemingly sailing 300 games will actually get there by the end of his career. Whoever becomes the third Magpie to make it will unquestionably be afforded more attention than Gordon Coventry had on July 31, 1937, when he became the first VFL player to reach that long-awaited milestone. Coventry got some congratulatory messages before the game against Footscray at the Western Oval and was even afforded three cheers from the Bulldogs players before the start of the match. But for a club that celebrated team achievements far more than individuals ones, Coventry’s feat was admired and respect, but wasn’t something that overshadowed the contest that was about to take place. He might have had some ‘folding kind’ slipped into his massive palms from long-time benefactor John Wren, but coach Jock McHale wasn’t about to put the goal kicker ahead of the rest of the team. On that day, Coventry – six weeks away from his 36th birthday and final game – was upstaged by a kid almost 20 years his junior, Magpie wunderkind Des Fothergill, who kicked five goals to the full-forward’s two. And the match was highlighted by one of the most remarkable first terms in the history of the game. In the space of less than half an hour that day, Collingwood amassed 10.5 (65) to Footscray’s 0.2 (2). It was the third highest greatest margin at quarter-time to that stage, and remains the equal eighth highest. There was time for a brief celebration in the rooms after the game before the Collingwood team had to scurry away in order to catch the Taroona to depart for Tasmania that night, for a mid-season sabbatical. Some of the more rowdy elements of the team no doubt toasted Coventry’s achievement on the trip across Bass Strait, but the gentle, humble full-forward would likely have been playing it very low key. Coventry wasn’t much given to hype. When Richmond’s Jack Dyer became the second VFL player to reach 300 games 12 years later, the long-retired Coventry boarded a train at Diamond Creek and travelled into Punt Rd almost anonymously. Quietly and without a fuss, he congratulated Dyer, wished him all the best and promptly climbed back on the rattler to take him home again. Coventry would never see another Magpie reach 300 games in his lifetime. He would die in 1968, and it would not be until 1994 that Shaw became second – 57 years after the champion full-forward became the first. Shaw had fireworks and festivities to salute his 300th game, though they were not specifically for him. They would coincide with North Melbourne’s celebrations of its 125th birthday. That came in Round 9, 1994, but it was not the result that Shaw or the Magpies would have wanted. Still, the record of the kid that had grown up with a steely determination and a fierce will to win – not to mention a passion for proving people wrong – was worth celebrating win, lose or draw. Shaw had followed his brother Ray to Collingwood in the late 1970s. He overcame doubts about him, and question marks about his height and his speed to become one of the club’s favourite sons. The kid from Reservoir-Lakeside graduated to be Collingwood’s 1990 premiership captain and Norm Smith Medal winner. By 1994, though, he was into his final season. He had handed over the captaincy reins to Gavin Brown and was intent on playing one last season without restrictions. Brown almost didn’t play in Shaw’s 300th game. He had been suspended for two matches after being found guilty of striking St Kilda’s Dean Greig, before some new video evidence came to light which saw the case thrown out on appeal. Still, it didn’t stop football manager Graeme Allan copping a $2000 fine for saying that the original penalty had been a “slur” on Brown. North Melbourne was feeling the heat, too. Their skipper Wayne Carey had been banned from playing after being nailed for striking Fitzroy’s Peter Sartori, and there was no wriggle room or new video to stop it. Kangaroos coach Denis Pagan said Carey’s absence would fire his team up ahead of the clash with the Magpies, while his counterpart Leigh Matthews insisted that Shaw’s milestone match would act as a “spur” to his men. Shaw meant so much to the men around him. His story was, as The Age said, “a football parable” about a young man from the wrong side of the tracks who had to fight to make his mark in the game. He did all of that, and more, as he become an inspirational to his teammates, and his club. For all of his self-confessed limitations, Shaw had triumphed and the club wanted to honour him with a good performance in his milestone game against a team undoubtedly on the upward spiral to success. As he said at the time: “I have got a lot of weaknesses, but I’ve got some strengths, too. I love playing the game. I am a bit of a competitor. I hate losing.” Some of Shaw’s quirks and tricks of the trade came to light on the eve of his milestone match as everyone from himself, his wife, teammates and friends regaled stories about what made him tick. The club doctor, Shane Conway, told The Age: “I’ve sutured almost every part of his face over the years. He is the toughest person at Collingwood…for his ability to withstand punishment. His first coach, Tom Hafey, said: “You’d always hear his voice all over the ground, in games, in training, and not just when he was captain. He was like a general marshalling his troops on the ground, telling them to go, urging them on, giving them confidence.” His brother, Ray, added: “He’s a Rolls Royce, in a Volkswagen. There’s Seven Wonders of the World, and he’s probably the eighth. In 1981, they (Collingwood) reckoned I was too slow and I could beat him. He’s still going strong. “The competitive spirit came from the streets, because Reservoir is a tough area.” His wife, Debbie, summed up her husband as “a competitor.” She said: “I never thought Tony would play 25 games, let alone 300. When he got to 50, it was a great effort, and so too 100, and 200, and 300 – wow. But just because he wants to finish his career on a good note this milestone becomes secondary. It’s like the Norm Smith Medal and the Copeland Trophy meaning nothing at all in the context of the (1990) premiership.” Collingwood’s team that milestone night had six 100-game plus players – Shaw (300), Brown (133), Shane Kerrison (121), Graham Wright (120), Mick McGuane (119) and Damian Monkhorst (104). North had nine 100-plus gamers. The least experienced Magpies were Damian Houlihan (third game), Brett James (fifth), Jon Hassall (eighth) and Kent Butcher (11th). Nathan Buckley, in his first season in black and white, was playing his 28th AFL game, but only his eight in Collingwood colours. The promised fireworks almost didn’t happen. Three hours before the game an electrical fault saw a few of the fireworks go off prematurely. One observer said: “It sounded like an atomic bomb” as the fire brigade from the nearby East Melbourne station rushed to the MCG. Still, it ended up being all right on the night, as the MCG light towers went out briefly before the sky burst into a spectacular light show. Collingwood produced a good start to Shaw’s 300th game, gaining the early ascendancy and looking as if it had the upper hand on North Melbourne. Four goals to three in the opening term was a solid start for the Magpies, but it got better early in the second term as the lead burst out to 34 points in Collingwood’s favour not too long before half-time. Then, the Kangaroos cut it back a couple of late goals, to trail by only 17 points at half-time. Mike Sheahan, of the Herald Sun, wrote: “The Magpies threw the game away during the third quarter with a performance that raised serious doubts about both their depth and their spirit.” Sadly, for Collingwood, and for Shaw, the Kangaroos kicked 11 goals to four in the second half to secure the victory by 33 points. Shaw, as always, tried his heart out. But in many ways, his performance mirrored that of his team. The Age said: “He matched his side in starting well, but missed an easy shot for goal at the end of the third term and began the last on the bench. He played out the match with typical spirit, acquiring 25 possessions, but was powerless influence the outcome.” It wasn’t the result that anyone at Collingwood wanted, but at least Shaw fought it out to the finish, as he would do for the next 13 games, leading into the Elimination Final loss to West Coast. In one of their most courageous performances of the season, the Magpies almost knocked off the Eagles, but went down by only two points as the siren sounded with the ball in their forward line. Shaw had a tear in his eye as he came off the WACA that day, but he and his teammates – and the legion of Magpie fans across Australia – knew he had given his all and extracted every bit out of himself.