Buck Ashby recalls Torrens' first flag
Len (‘Buck’) Ashby played his first league football for West Torrens in the last three matches of the minor round in 1921, and retired as a player after the 1933 season. He was a brilliant ruckman and half-back. He holds the distinction of being the only player to be a member of their 1924 and 1933 premiership teams. In the latest game he was brought into the team as vice-captain after Max Pontifex (1932 Magarey Medal winner) had dropped out.
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Ashby played 157 games with Torrens, was in the 1923 State team and represented South Australia again in the 1927 carnival played in Melbourne. In 1934 he began his coaching career with Port Adelaide—he considers Port's 1934 team the most evenly balanced and systematic side he has ever watched—and coached the South Australian teams in 1938 and 1939. Because of business reasons Ashby, who is still as fit physically as in his football days, retired from coaching duties last year, when he was with South.
There were two big moments in my football days which I’ll remember always, and they were 14 years apart. The first was when, as a young man just turned 21, I ran on to the Adelaide Oval with Torrens at the start of the premiership game against Sturt in 1924.
That was Torrens' first premiership, and they won it before a record crowd of 44,000. To this day I can recall the tingle that shot through me as the huge crowd greeted us with roars of applause.
The second thrill was in 1938, after I'd been out of active football for five years. The sports-master at Welland School asked me if I'd give the school team a few hints each week, so on Wednesday nights I put in an hour or so coaching them. Croydon School entered the semi-finals unbeaten, but Welland managed to scrape in, too. In the final Welland defeated Croydon.
That night, when I returned home from work, the Welland team and the sports-master were lined up outside my front gate waiting to greet me in a jubilant “guard of honor”. They made me a little speech of thanks. I shall never forget that expression of gratitude.
Brilliant handball, drilled into the team by Roy Brown (captain) and Johnny Karney gave Torrens victory in the match against Sturt in 1924. Roy Brown was a master tactician who could pinpoint another team's strong points and weaknesses. In lectures to Torrens during the week before a game he would analyse our methods of play and point out where we could be expected to gain advantages and how we could best snap through our opponents' weak links. Roy then was a junior school teacher, now he is headmaster at Nuriootpa.
Johnny Karney roved in that match. He was a strong robust type—a typical Bunton—and was a great fighter. His followers were Len Mills and Paddy Broderick, while Pat O'Grady, who played with his spectacles taped to his head, was one of the most courageous rovers I've seen. The line-up that day was (Torrens kicking up):
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As usual in those days with Torrens, we had our legs rubbed down with whisky at three-quarter time, and that probably—I say probably advisedly—gave us the little extra ‘kick’ which won us the match.
Years later I asked a doctor what effect the rub-down with whisky would have. I know we all felt a lively, tingling sensation in the legs after a rub with the spirit, which made us feel toey. My doctor friend dashed my old beliefs when he said it would probably do much more good inside the body than outside: that the effect outside was more psychological than physical.
Horrie Riley was just on the threshold of fame then. I first saw Riley in action at the old Mitcham military camp just after the last war—a black haired chap consistently flying well over the pack in a ‘kick to kick’ game at lunchtime.
In 1927 in Melbourne for the carnival, I saw him play one of the most sensational games ever on the Melbourne Cricket Ground. After the match we were at a party when ‘Jumbo’ Sharland came up and said that if he had to pick an all-Australian team Riley would be one of the first selected.
Talking of the 1927 carnival reminds me of an incident in Melbourne which kept us laughing for weeks afterwards. Melbourne at that time was in the throes of a ‘razor gang’ crime wave. When we arrived, we were told by officials that if we wanted to stay out at night, to go in pairs. Just after midnight at our hotel when some of us were chatting away, in burst two of our team—one a Norwood player and the other from Sturt. They were panting and chuckling over something. After a while we got the story out of them. They were walking home after a night spent in sightseeing, when a stranger stopped them. He asked, “Have you got a light, mates?” "Why yes", said one of them, reaching for a match. As he was fumbling, the stranger half-turned his head and muttered something to somebody apparently lurking in the shadows. Remembering the warnings about the razor gang the two sightseers looked at each other hard for a brief instant, then with mighty leaps took off for home in a non-stop dash. But what kept us laughing for weeks was the Norwood man's repeated claim that though he was reckoned to be speedy—he was a well-known competitor at Stawell—his friend, a ruckman, never noted for speed, led him by 100 yards all the way.
Until the last few years I had always maintained that Dan Moriarty was the best footballer I'd ever seen. But, granting that Dan was something out of the box, I think there is one man in the game now who is the best ever—Bob Quinn. I first watched Bob closely when I coached Port in 1934—and their team that season was the best combination I've ever had the pleasure to watch.
It will be remembered that after routing Glenelg by about 10 goals in the semi-final, Glenelg won the challenge match for their first premiership. In the first quarter of the final they found they could hold the Magpies, and, gaining confidence, paced it with them all day.
Bob Quinn has been the driving force behind the Magpies ever since. He was right at the top of his form when war broke out. He won the Magarey Medal in 1938, but there is no doubt in my mind that he would have taken at least another one, or maybe two medals, between 1940 and 1944 if war had not intervened. And for a player to come back to league football after hard war service, still carrying war wounds, and take another Magarey Medal (1945) is something I marvel at.
Quinn has a magnificent team sense, doesn't waste a kick, and is always making position for a new move, even after he has disposed of the ball. In fact, I've told my lad, who is breaking into football now with Torrens Colts, to take Bob Quinn as a model and study his methods.
At random, these are some reflections on the game:
Rules: Eliminate all pushing, either in the side or in the back, making a hip, shoulder, and thigh tackle the only legitimate method of checking an opponent. Cut the ruck down to one follower and a rover, and thereby reduce scrimmages.
Juniors: Umpiring of junior games should be given, I think, to experienced men who could give the lads guidance as well as a competent interpretation of the rules. Incidentally I think that Haydn Bunton’s exhibition of umpiring in the Torrens-West game three weeks ago was the best I'd seen in years. He overlooked technicalities and trivial breaches and controlled the game with common sense.
Coaching: I think most men drop their connection with the game far too quickly after they retire as players. Junior football particularly would gain if league men ‘adopted’ a team of youngsters in the district and gave them the benefit of even one night's coaching a week. Too many juniors concentrate on their strong points at practice instead of working on their weaknesses, and need the help of senior men of experience. Lastly, it is time that non-playing coaches of league teams were permitted to sit inside the oval fence with trainers. At present, with non-playing coaches forced to mingle with the crowd, they can be the butt of commentary from supporters of an opposing team. This happened to one non-playing coach some years ago at a semi-final. He was heckled throughout the match, and no man can keep his mind on his team's progress under those circumstances.
Footnotes
Title: Buck Ashby vividly recalls the day of Torrens' first premiership
Author: Len (Buck) Ashley
Publisher: News (Adelaide, SA: 1923-1954)
Date: Saturday, 8 June, 1946, p.5
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