2014 Round 8, Three quarter time.

3rd May Birthdays.

 

Peter Green 1974, Sam Jones 1974, Terry Keays 1970, Damian Lang 1976.

 PLAYER OF THE DAY. Daniel Healy, born 3rd May 1974.

St Kilda recruited Daniel as they believed his style would suit the large ground at Waverley park. However, he got off to a slow start as he only played 1 game in his first year (1996).

He fared much better from then on and by the end of his time with the Saints in 1999 he had played 38 games for 24 goals. The club used him as a long kicking half forward flanker  with his best haul being 6 goals in a game against West Coast.

Source: The Encyclopaedia of  AFL Footballers.

A Port Legend.

Foster or 'Fos' Williams, as he is known, started his football journey at West Adelaide where he played 54 games and kicked 112 goals from 1946 to ’49.

He moved to Port Adelaide in 1950 and was there until 1958 as captain-coach notching up 151 games for 240 goals.

Fos won his first premiership as a player at West Adelaide in 1947 but it was at Port that he really shone.  In his time there they won the flag in 1951 and then 5 in a row from 1954 to 1958. The club won another 3 premierships with him as non-playing coach in 1962, ’63 and ’65 after he had a 3 year break from the club.

His personal achievements, in addition to the premierships, include 2 times Port Adelaide Best & Fairest, 3 times leading goal kicker, Hall of Fame Inductee, 34 state games for South Australia being captain on 5 occasions and coach from 1955-58, 1960-66 and 1968-69.

Source: Wikipedia. 

The Coulter Law.

Times were tough in the late 1920’s and when the American stock market crashed in 1929 it affected just about the whole world. Australian Rules was no exception, and the gap between the richer and poorer clubs seemed to widen.

By 1930 the League saw the need to do something to try and even up the payments made to players and thus the Coulter law was introduced.

Gordon Coulter was a past player and official of the Melbourne Football Club who was charged with looking into the situation and the result was a maximum payment of 3 pounds ($6) per week per player and the same for injured players.  It was also made illegal for any incentives to be paid to players for signing with a club.

Whilst it sounded good in theory some players were paid a lot less as their clubs could still not afford the 3 pounds. There were always ways around the rules though, such as payments made to top players by wealthy supporters or from other areas.

Source: The Old Dark Navy Blues by Lionel Frost and Wikipedia.

 

What’s In A Name?

Dermott Brereton’s nickname was ‘the kid’ and it came by chance from his coach Allan Jeans.  It appears that Dermie was not always as well-known as later in his career and in one of his first games he was on the bench when Jeans sent down a message to put ‘the kid’ on and the name stuck.  

 

John Newman was another who earned his nickname from his coach.  Geelong legend and coach Bob Davis was a fan of the Jackie Gleeson show and the band leader on the show was named Sam.

At the start of each show Gleeson would say ‘here we go’ and that was also what ‘Sam’ Newman said to his team mates as he led them up the race.
 

Paul Vander Haar is probably best remembered as a blond streak racing down the ground and he earned himself the nickname ‘the flying Dutchman’.

This was obviously in reference to his playing style and his surname. The Flying Dutchman is actually a legendary ghost ship that it is said can never enter a port and is destined to always sail the seas.

Source: Wikipedia & Big Footy website.


 

Fitzroy’s Team Of The Century Fullback Line.

'Bill' Stephen, who’s name was actually John, was selected in the back pocket.  He played 162 games for the Lions between 1947 and 1957 and kicked just 4 goals.

Renowned as one of the best back pockets in the league he was fearless and had good judgement as well as being a strong mark and fast on his feet.

He was the Best and Fairest in 1950 and played for Victoria 14 times.

Fullback Fred Hughson started out as a full forward and was a little worried when moved to the back line but he thrived in that post.

Playing 164 games and kicking 95 goals, he was with the club from 1938 to 1947 and led them to the premiership of 1944.  He also played a number of state games for Victoria.

Frank Curcio was named as the other back pocket and was a servant of the club in 249 games in 3 different stints from 1932 to 1948.

He was able to throw his 92 kilo frame around and used it to bowl over opposition players on his runs out of the back line.

Captain of the club from 1938 to 1941 he also played 3 games for Victoria.

Source: The Encyclopaedia of  AFL Footballers and the Fitzroy Football Club website.