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After choosing the team I saw when I wasn’t dreaming – limited to players I’ve seen in the flesh – last time around, this week I’m taking a stab at the team I wish I had seen but didn’t, either because I was too young or because the players are of more recent vintage and I’ve only had the privilege of watching them on the box.
The names include, but are not limited to, some widely recognised all-time greats. Some of the others are players chosen for their flair, charisma or some other attribute that sets them apart.
I’ve relied a lot on my mentors and fellow commentators over the years, including my father Bert Walkley, who played with and under Ivor Warne-Smith at Latrobe in Tasmania and represented the North-West Football Union; Jack Donnelly of The Examiner in Launceston; Alf Brown and John Craven of The Herald, Melbourne; Kevin Taylor, whose love for South Melbourne/Sydney Swans knows no bounds and who maintains the invaluable Footystats website; and modern-day pundits including Mike Sheahan of the Herald Sun in Melbourne.
A couple of the names won’t be too familiar to modern fans – Percy Martyn, for example.
Martyn played 75 games with St Kilda, Richmond and Essendon between 1912 and 1921, then crossed to Devonport in Tasmania, where my father said he was known as a great exponent of the now-defunct place kick.
In a variant of the famous “Up there, Cazaly!” chant, the crowd would exhort him to “put it in the mud, Percy!” whenever he took a mark or got a free kick within scoring range, which was pretty often, as shown by the 50 goals he scored in his 21 games with Richmond.
Warne-Smith, the first man to win the Brownlow Medal twice, played in Latrobe’s 1920 premiership side, but didn’t make it into the town the next morning for the team photo, saying he was too busy working on the farm, the same reason he gave for declining selection in the Tasmanian team for the 1924 interstate carnival in Hobart.
His other achievements included captain-coaching Latrobe to premierships in 1922 and 1924, and captaining the NWFU to victory over the Tasmanian Football League, representing the southern part of the island, in an intrastate game in 1924.
One of his teammates in that NWFU side (I have a photo to prove it) was Frank “Checker” Hughes, the former Richmond champion who coached another north-west Tasmanian team, Ulverstone, for three years before returning to Victoria to coach, turning what was pretty much a rabble of a Melbourne team into premiership material.
Three present-day players I have seen only on TV – Brett Kirk, who would have made a wonderful old-style back pocket player, Jonathan Brown and Richmond’s Nathan Brown, who has been a wonderful player despite suffering a crippling injury at the height of his career – make the 22.
Some players have been chosen out of position, but would have no trouble playing in their unaccustomed roles.
For example, Bob Rose on a half-back flank? But would you pick him on the ball ahead of Bunton or Gorringe (described by Gordon Coventry as “the finest rover I’ve seen”) or across the centre ahead of Bill Hutchison, Dick Reynolds or Bob Davis? I’m sure “Woofa”, for one, would have plenty to say about that!
Likewise Roy Cazaly as a defender, and “Dickie” Lee on the bench. There’d be no worries if Coleman and Pratt both got hurt, though, would there?
Here’s the team – and don’t forget to get your own Dream Team in before the season starts next Thursday night (your blokes all have to alive and kicking, of course):
B: Neil Kerley (West Adelaide, South Adelaide and Glenelg), Albert “Leeter” Collier (Collingwood), Brett Kirk (Sydney Swans)
HB: Bob Rose (Collingwood), Ivor Warne-Smith (Melbourne and Latrobe, Tas – captain), Roy Cazaly (St Kilda and South Melbourne, plus several VFA and Tasmanian clubs)
C: Bob “Woofa” Davis (Geelong), Dick Reynolds (Essendon), Bill Hutchison (Essendon)
HF: Jonathan Brown (Brisbane Lions), Laurie Nash (City, Tas, and South Melbourne), Percy Martyn (St Kilda, Richmond, Essendon and Devonport, Tas)
F: Bob Pratt (South Melbourne), John Coleman (Essendon), Horrie Gorringe (Cananore, Tas)
Foll: Jack Dyer (Richmond), Syd Coventry (Collingwood), Haydn Bunton snr (Fitzroy)
Inter: “Dickie” Lee (Collingwood), Gordon “Nuts” Coventry (Collingwood), Frank “Checker” Hughes (Richmond and Ulverstone, Tas), Nathan Brown (Richmond)
Coach: Jock McHale (Collingwood)
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