2014 Round 11, Three quarter time.

24th May Birthdays.

 

Aaron Keating 1974, Mark Kennedy 1972.

 PLAYER OF THE DAY. Ryan Murphy, born 24th May 1985.

In 7 years at Freemantle  (2004-2010), Ryan was only able to rack up 48 games and kick 50 goals.

He got a taste of the big time with 2 games late in 2004 then played another 10 in 2005. Spending most of his time in the WAFL in 2006, he came back for 7 games in 2007 and 9 in 2008.

Source: The Encyclopaedia of  AFL Footballers.

George Doig –WA Sharpshooter.

It was seen from an early age that George Doig had something special about him.  Playing for an East Fremantle team in a local league he once scored the teams entire score (26.20) off his own boot!

As the first West Australian to kick 100 goals in a season it is not surprising that he was named as Full Forward in the state team of the century.

He started his first grade career with East Fremantle in 1933 and was initially with them until 1941 and then returned for part of the 1945 season.  Overall he played 202 games for a return of 1103 goals.

Not only was he the first to kick 100 goals he did it for 9 years in a row from 1933 to 1941. Captaining the club in 1940-1941, he was also in their premiership sides in 1933, 1937 and 1945.

Due to a WANFL decision to only allow under 18’s to play during the war he had to stand out as he was both too old to play and too old to enlist.  He made his return in round 14 of 1945.

Playing 14 games for WA and kicking 62 goals, he is a legend of  the WA Hall Of Fame and was inducted into the Australian Football Hall Of Fame in 2002.

Source: AFL Record Season Guide 2013 and Wikipedia.

The Junction Oval.

The St Kilda cricket ground, affectionately known as the Junction Oval, was opened in 1852 and has seen football games played there since the late 1800’s.

St. Kilda made it their home from the first year of the VFL (1897) until 1964.  They hosted 564 games there before moving to Moorabbin.

South Melbourne played 29 games there as their home ground in 1944-1946 and Fitzroy were based there from 1970 to 1984 for 135 games.

The ground not only saw the first women’s game in 1921 it also hosted a number of VFA finals matches, including the grand finals of 1898, 1899 and 1944, all of which were won by Fitzroy.

With a current capacity of just 8,000 the largest crowd of 46,973 was for a game between St. Kilda and Carlton.

It has also been home to VFA club Sandringham and Old Melburnians amateur club as well as being an administrative and training base for the Melbourne Football Club.

 Source: Wikipedia.
 

Top 3 Draft Picks 1989.

1989 was the first year of the pre-season draft, which of course allows established players to be traded instead of having to go into the national draft.

These players however were the top three in the national draft.

Anthony Banik at number 1 was selected by Richmond.  He was a big bodied half back flanker with good ball skills and played 49 games from 1990 to 1994.

Matthew Croft was next and out of the 3 top picks had the most influence on the game in his 186 games for Footscray and kicking 72 goals from 1991 to 2004.

He was a no frills defender who went about his business quietly but effectively and was unfortunate to have his career interrupted by niggling injuries.

In his farewell game in 2004 he kicked 5 goals.

Jodi Arnol was recruited to St. Kilda from North Hobart as a tall forward but was only able to be part of 13 games for 6 goals over 2 seasons (1990-1991).

Peter Matera just missed out on the top 3 by coming in at number 4 and some other notable names that year include Brad Rowe, Dale Kickett, Gavin Wanganeen, Ben Allan and Matthew Campbell.

Source: AFL Record Season Guide 2013 & The Encyclopaedia of  AFL Footballers.
 

The Early Years Of Richmond FC.

The Richmond Football Club was established in 1860 by the 2 men who were pivotal to the development of the game of Australian Rules, Tom Wills and his cousin Henry Harrison.

Unfortunately when the 2 men left the club shortly after interest fell away and the club went into recession for 20 years.

1885, however, saw a resurgence and the Tigers played their first game, a practice match, on 25^th April. Having been admitted to the VFA, they played their first official match, against Williamstown, the following week.

By 1900 the club had become a force to be reckoned with and coming third that year they bettered it to second in 1901 and then first in 1902.

Source: The Clubs (The Complete History Of Every Club In The VFL/AFL).