Friday 18 July 2014

2014 Round 19, Three quarter time.

19th July Birthdays.
 
Robert Ahmat '77, Allan Holmes '52, Darren Hulme '77, Ted Larsen '23,
Peter Light '60.

 PLAYER OF THE DAY. Andrew Bews, born 19th July 1964.
Andrew will probably be best known as a nuggety little tagger who managed to get a lot of the ball himself.

Joining Geelong in 1982 he played 207 games for the Cats and kicked 132 goals up to the end of the 1993 season. Whist he did have an injury interrupted time at Geelong he was still Captain for 1990  and 1991. 

In 1994 he moved to Brisbane where he stayed until finishing his career at the end of 1998.  During this time he played 75 games and scored 2 goals. 

He was also a Victorian representative on 12 occasions.

Source: The Encyclopaedia Of AFL Footballers.

 
Melbourne TOC Back Line.
John Beckwith was named as one of the back pockets in the Melbourne team of the century. With the team from 1951 to 1960 he played 176 games for 19 goals and was a dab hand at being able to find the boundary line when clearing the ball from defence.
Though he started as a centre man, he moved back and found his place in the back pocket.  He was a part of the clubs Premiership teams in 1955, ’56, ’57, ’59 and ’60 and was Captain from ’57-’59.

Robert ‘Tassie’ Johnson, full back, was at Melbourne for 11 seasons (’59-’69) and was in 202 games, scoring 20 goals.
Despite playing most of his junior football in the forward line, he seemed a natural at full back being cool under pressure and having a long kick.
He played in 3 flag sides and represented Victoria on 12 occasions.

Don Cordner played 166 games and kicked 23 goals for Melbourne from 1941 to 1950 and was named as the other back pocket in their team of the century.
Don had been playing football at Melbourne university where he was studying to be a doctor and his first game with the Demons was the 1941 semi-final.
This ruck man/defender captained the club in 1948-1949, was in the Premiership sides of 1941 and ’48 and won the Brownlow medal in 1946.
Source: The Encyclopaedia Of AFL Footballers and the Melbourne Football Club website.
 
 
AKA!
There is no doubt that one of the most out spoken, colourful and controversial players of the past 20 years has been Jason Akermanis.
Joining the Brisbane Lions from QAFL club Maine in 1995, he played 248 games for the club and kicked 307 goals.
He was a dashing wing come forward who liked to take long, bouncing runs before taking a shot on goal.
Playing in the clubs 3 flags (2001-2003), he was also club Best and Fairest twice, All Australian 4 times and won the Brownlow medal in 2001.
Unrest between Jason and coach Leigh Matthews saw him move to the Western Bulldogs in 2007 where he played 77 games for 114 goals.
Never being far from controversy or an opinion, he was delisted by the club during the 2010 season.
Source: The Encyclopaedia Of AFL Footballers and Wikipedia.

 
3 Cricketers Who Tried Footy.
A lot of professional sportsmen are good at more than one discipline and a lot of the time Aussie rules wins out due to its excitement or money. But sometimes it goes the other way and these 3 top Australian test cricketers tried footy but ended up in Cricket.

Simon O’Donnell was on St. Kildas list from 1982-83 and played 24 senior games for 18 goals.
Originally from Deniliquin in NSW he was at Assumption College when drafted by the Saints.
At 21 he decided that cricket was the game for him, and despite almost being coaxed back in 1984, he concentrated on that game.

Max ‘Tangles’ Walker played 85 games for Melbourne between 1967 and 1972 and kicked 23 goals.
Max played footy in Winter and cricket in Summer and though he was quite a good footballer, being a good mark and playing ruck/defender, he eventually settled on cricket.

Shane Warne first played football for the St Kilda under 19’s in1987 (5 games).
In 1988 he came back for more under 19 games and was promoted to the reserves but was delisted at the end of that year.
He of course then went on to become one of the greatest wicket takers of all time.
Source: The Encyclopaedia Of AFL Footballers and Wikipedia.


An Almost Merger.
North Melbourne were desperate to get into the VFL, so much so that in 1921 they looked at merging with Essendon.
Essendon were going to lose their home ground, the East Melbourne Cricket Ground, and North offered them use of Arden St in return for a merger.
So sure were North that it would happen they didn’t play their last 3 VFA games in 1921.  But of course the union did not eventuate and North had to wait until 1925 to get into the VFL. Meanwhile Essendon moved to the Essendon Recreation Reserve (Windy Hill).
Source: Our Game by Jim Main.

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