2014 Round 21, Quarter time.

29th July Birthdays.

 

Glen Coghlan 1974, Nick Holland 1974, Dean Howard 1976,
Michael Osborne 1982.

 PLAYER OF THE DAY. Mark Kellett, born 29th July 1960.

Mark was a 150 game player. Alas, it took him time at 3 different clubs to achieve it. 

Playing his first game at St. Kilda in 1979, he was there until 1982 for a total of 55 games and 7 goals. He was drafted to the club from Melbourne fourths and was a rangy defender that made life hard for opposing forwards.

When he was delisted by the Saints he moved on to Footscray and between 1983 and 1986 he played another 63 games and kicked 3 goals.

Following this stint he moved to Sydney to work and the Swans approached him to see if he would like to resurrect his career. He did join them, and from 1988 to 1990 kicked 1 goal in 37 games.

Source: The Encyclopaedia Of AFL Footballers.

Glenferrie Oval.

The Glenferrie Oval was home to the Hawthorn Football Club from 1906 to 1973 and hosted 584 VFL matches.

Having narrow wings the ground is an odd shape and cannot be widened as it is built between a railway line and suburban streets.

The main grandstand (pictured left) was erected in 1938 and is named  after Hawthorn champion and games record holder Michael Tuck.

Built in the mid 1960’s, the other stand at the ground is named the Ferguson stand after ‘Sandy’ Ferguson who became the clubs medical officer in 1950 and was President from 1952 to 1967.

The largest crowd at the ground was 36,786 for a game between Hawthorn and Carlton in 1965.  However, the current capacity is only about 10,000.

Source: Austadiums  and  Wikipedia.

VFA & EARLY CLUBS.

By the early 1860’s actual football clubs were becoming more common with the main ones  being Melbourne, South Yarra, St Kilda, Richmond, Emerald Hill (which became South Melbourne), Prahran, University and Collingwood. Some of these teams are not those of the same name in the current competition.

By 1877 people realised that there needed to be a central body to help organise and control the competition and so the VFA was formed on 7^th May that year.

At that time the association was split into two divisions with the senior clubs being Carlton, Melbourne, Hotham (which became North Melbourne), Albert Park and St Kilda. Geelong also played against these clubs though it was not officially recognised as a senior club until the following year.

Some of the junior clubs were Essendon, Hawthorn (not current club as this one was disbanded in 1888) and South Melbourne.  Essendon and West Melbourne became senior clubs in 1878 and South Melbourne in 1879.

By this time there had developed a gap between the richer, more prosperous clubs and their ‘poor neighbours’ so some of the clubs got together and decided to form another competition and so the VFL came into existence in 1897. 

The breakaway clubs were Carlton, Essendon, Fitzroy, Geelong, Melbourne, South Melbourne, St Kilda and Collingwood. Meanwhile the VFA were left with Richmond, Port Melbourne, North Melbourne, Footscray and Williamstown, some of which eventually made their way into the VFL.

For a number of years there were attempts for the two groups to work side by side but there was always some ill feeling and eventually the VFL became the more well supported competition.

Source: More Than A Game and  A National Game.

Danny Frawley – Player & Coach.

Danny ‘Spud’ Frawley played 240 great games, mainly in defence, for St. Kilda from 1984 to 1995 and kicked just 13 goals.

When he joined the Saints he had been on a potato farm in East Ballarat, hence the nickname, and after a few games in the forward line he moved to full back.

Playing his first of 11 games for Victoria in 1987 that was also the year he became Captain of the club.  He held that post for 9 years and led them into the finals in 1991, the first time they had been there for 18 years.

He won the club Best and Fairest in 1988 and was All Australian that year as well.

After hanging up the boots he had a couple of years as assistant coach at Collingwood before taking up the reins at Richmond.

Coaching the Tigers in 113 games between 2000 and 2004, he managed to get them into the finals in 2001 where they were beaten in the Preliminary Final.

This was their best result during his time there and the results in the following years saw the end of his tenure.

His record at Richmond was 113 games for 45 wins and 68 losses.

Source: The Encyclopaedia Of AFL Footballers and AFL Record Season Guide 2013.