It was 1981. Malcolm Fraser held the highest office in the land, a loaf of bread cost just 54 cents, and Darcy Moore’s old man was running around in the black-and-white stripes.
On the afternoon of Saturday September 19 that year, Geelong forward Peter Johnston arrived at VFL Park by car along with two other Cats emergencies ahead of their preliminary final clash with Collingwood.
Upon arrival at the venue, team manager Ian McKenzie informed Johnston that controversial forward – the late Garry Sidebottom – had missed the team bus, and that Johnston was to replace him in the Geelong line-up.
That was despite Peter having indulged in half a chicken, a large bag of chips, a strawberry thick shake and half a pack of durries on the way to VFL Park.
His inclusion in the side that afternoon is now a tale of footy folklore.
Legend has it that Garry Sidebottom had been sleeping at his home in the town of Lara as the team bus passed by, before it veered onto the Princes Highway en route to Waverley.
It is believed that a crucial miscommunication between the club and Sidebottom lead to the unfortunate turn of events that day.
However, a peculiar detail from the recollections of Peter Johnston himself detailed in Urban Footy Legends by Gus Smarrini and Mark Fine adds a new layer of mystery to what really happened that fateful day.
According to Johnston, when he arrived at the club on the morning of the final, coach Billy Goggin had said to him: “You’re not playing [but] bring your gear in case Sidey misses the bus”.
It’s hard to imagine the current-day Cats getting into the same mischief. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
Is it not uncanny that Goggin foreshadowed the exact events which were to transpire only a couple of hours later?
Perhaps the club hierarchy had tried unsuccessfully to inform Sidebottom of his selection in the final side?
Surely there would have been more pressing concerns which led to Sidebottom’s no-show than a mere lack of punctuality.
Turns out, there was.
The Age‘s Mike Coward wrote at the time: “Fears of a security leak at Geelong [had] inadvertently led to a communication breakdown with the club’s interchange players”.
Club officials planned to include Sidebottom on the interchange for only his eighth senior appearance of the 1981 season, but with no word from the club on the morning of the preliminary final, he assumed that he hadn’t been selected.
The club’s pursuit of secrecy meant they shot themselves in the foot.
Ultimately, Johnston went on to play around 20 minutes of the preliminary final without registering a single possession – quite unsurprising given his less-than-ideal preparation.
In the end, the Magpies emerged victorious by a margin of just seven points, which begs the question: how big an impact would Sidebottom’s participation have had in the final, and perhaps even a subsequent grand final?
Reflecting on the Cats’ preliminary final loss, coach Billy Goggin indicated a weak forward set-up.
“We were always waiting for someone to mark it and kick an easy goal,” he said.
That missing forward was at home on the other side of the city, also waiting.
It’s hard to imagine such a terrific tale in the modern age of AFL, in a world where players are monitored constantly in terms of diet, training and exercise by the innovation of sports science.
The tale also brings back the significance of VFL Park, or Waverley Park as it became known.
Waverley Park hasn’t seen AFL action since the 1999 season. (Photo: Allsport AUS /Allsport)
Those born following the turn of the millennium like myself would find it hard to imagine a packed Waverley Park, with 70,000 fans jammed in for a final.
VFL Park was once the centre of grand visions from the league. Plans for a 150,000-capacity venue were drawn up in the early 1980s, which would have made it one of the largest stadiums in the world and the obvious venue for the grand final.
But due to the shenanigans of Victorian state politics, the extension was rejected, allowing the MCG to hold its prestigious place as the home of football.
Now, with a large portion of the once-expansive venue demolished for a housing development, Waverley Park represents Hawthorn’s training base.
But even that won’t last for long, with the Hawks announcing a plan to move to a new $130 million state-of-the-art facility in Dingley by 2022.
What then for the former VFL Park?
While the members stand has been heritage listed, new housing developments have taken up almost all of the former arena.
Following the Hawks’ departure, a solitary stand will pay homage to the once mighty venue and its enduring mark on the game of Aussie rules football.
And what about the tale of Garry Sidebottom missing the bus?
His legacy remains in the town of Lara some 20 kilometres north-east of middle of Geelong, where locals still refer to the point where the main road turns into the Princes Highway as Sidey’s Corner – the place where Garry Sidebottom was supposed to board the team bus for the 1981 preliminary final.
What a marvelous tale.
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