With the real season only three weeks away, and time running out for entries in the Dream Team competition, I thought I’d have some fun this week choosing a team from the best players I’ve seen.
In the flesh, that is. Which rules out the period from 1968-74, when I was living in either pre-Swans Sydney or Fiji before going back to Melbourne, and players who have made their debuts since 1997, as I’ve physically been to only one game since Sydney lost the 1996 grand final to North Melbourne.
Just for fun, the eight from whom the interchange bench would come include three players who never kicked a ball in the VFL/AFL, but would, I believe, all have had distinguished careers had they done so.
And I saw some of the other interchange players as they approached, or in some cases, were hot on the heels of, the ends of their careers, playing in lesser competitions.
Former Carlton strongman Bob Chitty, for example, was going around for Ringarooma in Tasmania’s North-East Football Union when I saw him in a representative game against the Fingal Football Association in either 1958 or 59, when he was either 44 or 45 years old.
Another former Blues champion, Arthur Hodgson, had a distinguished late-career as coach of Ulverstone in Tasmania, as did St Kilda’s Jim Ross with North Launceston. Ross won all-Australian selection playing for Tasmania in 1958.
Richmond hard man Don “Mopsy” Fraser blighted his one-year player-coach stint with East Launceston, whom he took to a rare semi-finals appearance with four- and six-week suspensions.
John Leedham (North Launceston), Lindsay Webb (East Devonport) and Haydn Bunton jnr (Launceston) are the three bench-warmers who never played in the VFL. Leedham was one of the best players Tasmania has produced, while Webb, a classy centreman or onballer, is best known as the coach who threw Darrel Baldock into senior football when he was 15.
I saw Bunton play only one game, but that was enough to recognise his genius.
After spending all the 1959 home-and-away season, when he coached Launceston, on the sidelines with a shocking knee injury from a car crash, Bunton played in a losing semi-final, in which he had four kicks and about 30 handballs, many of which bounced off the chests of teammates whose thought processes were too slow to see them coming.
One Tasmanian, back pocket Don Gale, another all-Australian, makes it into the run-on Dream Team side.
B: Don Gale (Wynyard and Burnie), Verdun Howell (City in northern Tasmania and St Kilda), John Nicholls (Carlton)
HB: Kevin Murray (Fitzroy), Ted Whitten (Footscray), Paul Roos (Fitzroy and Sydney)
C: Francis Bourke (Richmond), Ian Stewart (St Kilda), Keith Greig (North Melb)
HF: Darrel Baldock (Latrobe and St Kilda), Royce Hart (Richmond), Alex Jesaulenko (Carlton)
F: Leigh Matthews (Hawthorn), Tony Lockett (St Kilda and Sydney), Carl Ditterich (St Kilda)
Foll: Graham Farmer (Geelong), Ron Barassi (Melbourne and Carlton), Bob Skilton (South Melb)
Interchange (from): Kevin Bartlett (Richmond), Don Fraser (East Launceston; ex-Richmond), Arthur Hodgson (Ulverstone; ex-Carlton), Jim Ross (North Launceston; ex-St Kilda), Haydn Bunton jnr (Launceston; ex-Norwood), Bob Chitty (NEFU; ex-Carlton and Scottsdale), John Leedham (North Launceston).
Coach: Allan Jeans (St Kilda; later Hawthorn)
My next effort will be to pick a team of the best players I never saw, based on the opinions of players, coaches and commentators I respect, some sadly no longer with us.
sheek
Guest
This constant crap about current teams beating those from yesteryear, is dunderhead stuff. Today's teams would win because they're bigger, faster, stronger, etc, etc. Well, durrrr..... Besides, most of yesteryear's champions are either old men, or dead. So cop that. Back in 1988, Don Bradman brilliantly baited Windies paceman Patrick Patterson, suggesting he would struggle against their pace attack - Marshall, Ambrose, Walsh & Patterson. "Really", a chuffed Patterson replied. "Yes", said Bradman, "but you must realise I'm now 80 years old". Boom, boom! The point is, selecting teams from different eras is about imagining a level playing field. Bring all the players from the past to the present, give them all the advantages of present-day players. Now you have your comparison.
Redb
Guest
BW admitting to attending only one game since 1996 confirms my suspicions. Redb
Brett McKay
Expert
el_capitan, I can't believe no-one has piped up with something about missing the deadline for the Capper selection!!!
el_capitan
Guest
What no Warrick Capper?
Bruce Walkley
Guest
MC - I rate Carey very highly - about on a par with Ken Fraser of Essendon - similar types in the way they moved etc, too - but Hart stands alone as a CHF in my book. And yes, champion TEAM certainly describes the North of the 90s. Simpson was only just outside my team, BTW - wonderful game in the 96 GF and consistently good over the years. And Big A - I never cease to be astounded by how you young people underrate Big Nick. The way he used his body at boundary throw-ins was something to behold. You're probably right about a present-day team beating mine - they'd be fitter and faster. But they wouldn't get much ball at the stoppages with Farmer, Nicholls, Ditterich and Ross feeding Skilts, Lethal and Half-Beak.
BigAl
Guest
Bruce . . . you are obviously displaying your age mate ! - It would appear you feell that the 60s 70s was THE GOLDEN ERA of Aussie rules (with a couple of exceptions). . . . John Nichols ? no! no! NO! - as I've said before on this forum ... a 6'1" ruckman with Sumo like mobility who wouldn't make the list of any current AFL club. In fact, (& I know it's hard to compare eras etc.), but I would love to be able to wager big money that your team would be MINCED by any current AFL team in full flight
Michael C
Guest
Teams of champions or champions teams - one thing for sure is that the North Melb team of the 90s that contested 3 GFs, won 2, and played in every prelim week from 1994 to 2000 - - - would NOT have been a dream teamers friend. Winning via efficient play. More often than not, having less possession than the opposition, often by a reasonably large margin. But - if there were extra points for forwards taking marks inside 50, then Carey would never be topped by Richo or Riewoldt. btw - where do you rate Wayne Carey (the player - not the person).