Australian Football

1964 VFL Grand Final: Melbourne v Collingwood - Gabbo's run in vain

"The last quarter was the most agonising I have ever experienced in football."
- Melbourne coach Norm Smith, speaking directly after the match.

The Dees In '64

In 1964, Melbourne qualified for the VFL finals for a club record eleventh successive time. Equally impressively, the Demons won their seventh minor premiership during that period. However, had it not been for a freakishly improbable goal from makeshift rover Hassa Mann it could all have been very different.

Mann's goal came during the closing moments of Melbourne's clash with Hawthorn at Glenferrie Oval in the penultimate round of the season. The Demons went into the match knowing that a win would secure their finals participation for 1964, while a loss would leave them needing to beat Footscray at the Western Oval the following Saturday. The match was equally important for the Hawks, who needed to win both their last two fixtures of the season in order to be certain of making the finals.

Melbourne was not travelling particularly well at the time and Hawthorn, which had not lost at home all season, was marginally favoured to win. Exceptionally heavy rain during July and August had transformed the Glenferrie Oval surface into even more of a quagmire than usual, and indeed for a time the Hawks had been unable to train on it. The heavy ground was expected to be to Hawthorn's advantage, as it would effectively negate the Demons' acknowledged edge in pace.

At quarter time the Hawks led by 5 points, but by the main break it was the Demons by the same margin. The third term saw the home side seize the initiative, adding 3.5 to 0.2 to eke out a handy, if not quite match-winning, 16 point lead.

After receiving a predictably impassioned 'fire and brimstone' homily from coach Norm Smith (left) during the lemon time break, the Melbourne players showed much greater energy, desperation and purpose during the opening minutes of the final term, but the Hawks refused to be cowed. It was 1960s VFL football at its most uncompromising, brutal and frenetic - not pretty, but utterly engrossing. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the Demons began to chip away at Hawthorn's lead until, deep into time-on, they edged to within a couple of points. Then came Mann's goal. With less than ninety seconds on the clock he collected the ball just inside the boundary line, twenty-five metres from goal. Despite the fact that there would have been scarcely any daylight visible to him between the goal posts he elected to take a ping - the football equivalent, it might almost be suggested, of 'twisting' on 20 in blackjack. The ball seemed actually to weave in the air as though searching for an opening before, miraculously or heart-breakingly, depending on whether you were wearing navy and red or brown and gold, it floated through the central uprights for full points.

The Demons had no trouble bottling up the play for the final minute or so, and they were home. The following week, with nine first choice players missing through injury, they went down to the Bulldogs by 40 points, but of course it no longer mattered. The Hawks, meanwhile, surged to a 43 point win over Richmond after scores had been deadlocked at the final change, but it was to no avail: Mann's goal the previous week had effectively consigned them to mothballs for season 1964, whereas a Hawthorn win in that match would, as it turned out, have clinched the minor premiership.

The 'Pies In '64

The return to Collingwood of the club's former champion rover Bob Rose as senior coach had transformed a mediocre combination, which had missed the finals in 1961-2-3, into a genuine premiership threat. Rose's feat was all the more impressive when you consider that he had made no significant additions to the Magpies' playing list. However, under Rose the team had gradually rediscovered the sort of passion, tenacity and grit that had always fuelled Collingwood's successes in the past, but which had been so woefully absent since the humiliating grand final loss to Melbourne in 1960.

Although there were many pundits who still claimed they lacked the pace and skill necessary for a flag-winning side, the Magpies were undeniably the 'form' team going into the 1964 finals. Since losing to Hawthorn in round 10 they had carried all before them, and although they had ultimately only managed to procure the double chance on percentage, the fact that they had beaten both of their chief rivals for that distinction (Essendon and Geelong) during the run-in arguably made them worthy of it.

The Magpies had tuned up for the major round with what was, to all intents and purposes, a 'mini final'. In round eighteen they had travelled to Arden Street to meet North Melbourne knowing that a win was necessary to secure finals participation. In a gruelling match, North tested Collingwood to the limit for three quarters, but in the final term the Magpies pulled away to secure a gutsy and impressive 31 point victory. Given the way the 'home and home' series had ended, even some of the hitherto sceptical pundits were beginning to suggest that the Magpies might possess the necessary ammunition to overcome a beleaguered looking Melbourne in the 2nd semi final.

The Ladder

The closeness of the battle to contest the 1964 VFL finals series is clearly shown by the end of season premiership ladder:

1964 VFL Premiership Ladder

The Finals Series

The finals got underway with Geelong scoring an unexpected, and unexpectedly easy, 1st semi final win over Essendon. The Bombers had trounced South Melbourne by 165 points the previous week, and were many people's favourites for the flag. The Cats meanwhile, needing to win against St Kilda to secure the minor premiership, had looked depressingly out of sorts in going down by 12 points, a deficit which frankly flattered them. In front of 92,231 screaming fans at the MCG, however, Geelong had come to life, and after overcoming early inaccuracy in front of goal had eased to a 19 point victory, 12.12 (84) to 10.5 (65). As reigning premiers, the Cats knew what it took to win a flag, and the imposing form of the likes of Alistair Lord , 'Polly' Farmer and Bill Goggin against the Dons represented ominous news for the other finalists.

It may be a cliché, but there is more than a kernel of truth in the observation that finals football is a different ball game altogether from the 'bread and butter' routine of the home and away season. No doubt thoughts along these lines must have passed through the minds of many Collingwood supporters after the inexplicable calamity of their side's embarrassing 2nd semi final capitulation to Melbourne. After an opening term that showcased finals football at its best - vigorous, tight, intense and frantic - Melbourne led by just a single point, and the 93,010 crowd must have been collectively drooling in anticipation of a cliff-hanger. The remaining three quarters, however, resembled a practice match outing for the Demons, who did virtually as they pleased in adding 17.17 to 4.7 to win by 89 points, which constituted the widest margin in VFL finals history up to that point.¹

Collingwood's recovery in the following week's preliminary final against Geelong was as much a tribute to the players' mental application and pride in the jumper as to their undoubted skill. That said, the Magpies were also perhaps a trifle fortunate in that the Cats lost their 1st semi final match-winner Alistair Lord early on after he injured a leg, while late in the game, with only a straight kick separating the teams, Geelong forwards inexplicably missed three goal scoring chances from distances of less than forty metres. However, on the credit side of the ledger, Collingwood's centreman John Henderson - no doubt aided to some extent by the absence of Lord - was in irrepressible form all day, while ruck-rover Kevin Rose (left) and wingman Ricky Watt were skilful, tenacious and untiring. Moreover, in Ian Graham the Magpies had easily the best forward on view. Collingwood ultimately got home by four points, despite having half a dozen fewer scoring shots, 7.6 (48) to 5.14 (44).

Grand Final Preview

After Collingwood's improved showing against Geelong most people expected a somewhat closer game than the 2nd semi final. However, Melbourne was still widely and warmly favoured. The Demons biggest advantage, it was felt, was their superiority in pace - wingmen Brian Dixon and 'Bluey' Adams (right), in particular, were faster than anyone in the Magpies' line-up, although they were sometimes let down by slipshod disposal. The Melbourne defence was also felt to be a stronger all round unit than Collingwood's, although the return of full back Ted Potter undoubtedly enhanced the Magpies' defensive credentials. Potter had missed the 2nd semi final clash between the two teams with injury, but had resumed against Geelong when, with the Magpies' backs against the walls during a torrid closing fifteen minutes or so, he had been the pre-eminent footballer on view.

A potential weakness for Melbourne was in the ruck, given that the entire burden was likely to fall on the shoulders of 'Mr. Stamina', Graham Wise - if he had an 'off day' then so, it was reasoned, would the Demons. The Magpies, by contrast, had the relentless 'man mountain' Ray Gabelich and high-flying Trevor Speer to share the ruck duties, while their roving pair of Mick Bone (left) and Dennis Dalton were snappier and more aggressive if slightly slower than the Demons duo of John Townsend and Hassa Mann, with Mann in particular yet to truly convince as a rover having spent the majority of his career either on a half forward flank or in the centre. Melbourne's biggest prospective trump card was its indefatigable ruck-rover and skipper Ron Barassi, although his likely Collingwood opponents in Kevin Rose and Terry Waters were both footballers of high quality in their own right.

Across centre the Demons were expected to win on the wings, just as they had done in the 2nd semi final, but Collingwood centreman John Henderson, who had been one of his side's few winners on that occasion, was predicted to get the better of Don Williams once again.

Another potentially critical factor to which many pundits made reference during the week leading up to the big game was that Melbourne was going into the grand final fresh, having enjoyed a week's rest, whereas the Magpies had just endured an intense, gruelling battle of attrition on a boggy, energy-sapping ground, and might therefore be expected to tire more rapidly than their opponents. Drawing on this point among others, Harry Beitzel more than adequately summed up the feelings of many when he wrote:

Line for line and player for player, there is not a great deal between the teams and this has been the year for the underdog. But Melbourne's edge in pace, its tremendous defence, plus experienced wingers should win the day. In the final analysis the tough hard game in last week's heavy ground may take its toll on the Magpie players and allow the Demons to break clear for another flag.²

As things turned out, Beitzel's general prediction of the match result was accurate, but no-one could possibly have predicted the dramatic, exhilarating and at times bizarre sequence of events which would combine to produce it.

Other than the 2nd semi final, Collingwood and Melbourne had met only once during the 1964 season. That had been at the MCG in round 9, when the Demons had led all day in grinding out a grimly efficient 10 point win, 10.13 (73) to 8.15 (63). Not that anyone was prepared to draw any important conclusions from that; a grand final, as has so often been proved, is a game apart, and, on the afternoon of Saturday 19 September 1964, not even Melbourne's 89 point drubbing of the Magpies a fortnight earlier carried any legible significance as the two teams prepared to battle one another for football's principal honour for the fifth time in a decade.

The Teams

Melbourne

Collingwood

The omission of Max Urquhart from Collingwood's starting eighteen was perhaps the biggest selection surprise. Centreman Urquhart had finished 4th in the 1964 Brownlow Medal count, and would later win the Magpies' best and fairest award, but the Collingwood selection committee perhaps felt that his lack of pace would find him out.

1st Quarter

Ron Barassi won the toss for Melbourne and elected to kick to the Jolimont end of the ground, which appeared to be favoured by a slight breeze.

Collingwood swept straight into attack from the opening bounce and proceeded to dominate the first few minutes of the game. The Demons defence stood firm until the three minute mark when Terry Waters marked strongly deep in the left forward pocket and made light of the acute angle to register the game's first goal.

Play was mistake-ridden and disjointed owing to the intensity of the pressure, with Collingwood obviously believing that the best way to beat the Demons was to hit them often and hard (an approach that had worked impeccably in 1958, only to fail dismally two years later). The Melbourne players, however, seemed equal to everything their opponents could throw at them, and with five minutes having elapsed they managed to force the ball untidily forward to within twenty metres of their goal, whereupon a desperate melee developed. After a couple of seconds the ball popped out to Melbourne big man John Lord (left) who just had time to take a snapshot for goal before being tackled. His kick was accurate, and the Demons drew level. The goal would be like a gift from heaven for Lord, who prior to the match had confessed "I have never been more nervous than I was in the second semi".³ With an early goal under his belt, he could now be expected to settle down and produce the vibrant, purposeful football of which he was capable, but which he had only intermittently managed to produce since suffering a serious shoulder injury just over a year earlier.

Moments later Melbourne added a second goal, only for the Magpies to hit back almost straight away courtesy of a long, drop-kicked goal on the run from Mick Bone. The terrier-like Bone, whose place in the Collingwood side had been in some doubt in the week leading up to the match, was black and white to the core. When asked how he would feel if omitted from the team, having played so well after coming on as a reserve in the preliminary final, he remarked, "whatever is best for Collingwood is what I want".⁴ No doubt there was more than a fragment of circumvention in this statement, but at least he was making the right sort of team-orientated noises.

Bone's goal occurred after eight minutes. For the remainder of the quarter, clean possessions were at a premium as play proceeded at a frenzied, almost manic tempo. No further goals were recorded for the term, with the players' inaccuracy being jointly attributable to nerves and the unremitting pressure under which they continually found themselves.

QUARTER TIME: Melbourne 2.6 (18); Collingwood 2.5 (17)

2nd Quarter

Vagg's behind for Melbourne seconds after the resumption was the 12th in succession for the match.

Early in the term the Demons seemed to be playing with greater pace, purpose and cohesion than Collingwood without being able to trouble the scorers. Magpie defenders Ted Potter (right) and Trevor Steer in particular were proving near impassable, either sweeping up or marking virtually everything that came their way.

A Melbourne breakthrough seemed inevitable though, and when it finally arrived at the ten minute mark of the quarter it was via the simplest, most direct piece of football of the day so far. A series of long kicks through the central corridor, starting at full back, culminated in a towering drop kick by Don Williams that was marked superbly in the goal square by 'Hassa' Mann. The Demons rover was then able to spin around quickly and run into an open goal to register his side's third.

As so often happens, the breakthrough, so difficult to achieve and so long in arriving, was capitalised upon almost immediately. Gabelich's tap at the ensuing centre bounce was snared by Melbourne and another prodigious Williams drop kick was comfortably marked by John Lord near the true centre half forward position. Lord sank his boot into a perfect torpedo punt that never deviated as it extended the Demons' lead to 14 points, the biggest margin of the match so far.

The Magpies responded by producing their best football of the game, attacking repeatedly and relentlessly for about five minutes. Melbourne's defenders, however, were equal to the challenge, albeit that the Collingwood forwards did not help their cause by some wayward kicking. Sixteen minutes into the term the Magpies were punished for their waywardness when the Demons' first attack in several minutes produced their fifth goal.

Aware that the match was in danger of slipping away from them, the Collingwood players redoubled their efforts and intensity, and as time-on commenced they were rewarded with two quick goals to reduce the margin to four points.

Then, with only seconds left on the clock before the main break, Waters soared high to take a finger-tip mark just inside the boundary line at half forward left. His high punt kick travelled to the left forward pocket, a couple of metres away from the behind post, where it tumbled off the hands of the waiting pack and was snatched up by Ian Graham. Running away from goal, the Magpie full forward hooked the ball back over his left shoulder with his right foot for an elegantly snapped six-pointer. Collingwood had hit the front for the first time since the early moments of the opening term, and after the way they had dominated play for most of the quarter it was no more than they deserved.

Seconds after the resumption the siren blared out with the scoreboard showing the Magpies 2 points to the good. Being in front at the halfway point of a grand final is nothing to get excited about, however, as Collingwood fans would learn to their cost both later that afternoon and, on more than one occasion, in years to come.

HALF TIME: Collingwood 5.9 (39); Melbourne 5.7 (37)

3rd Quarter

The Demons dominated the opening exchanges of the third term, but after an easy goal to Townsend early on they found themselves repeatedly repelled by the well organised last line of Collingwood's defence. The longer the quarter went on, the more untidy and slipshod the play became, with some of the unforced skill errors by both teams being almost laughable by today's standards. The deadlock was finally broken after twenty-two minutes when Melbourne full forward Barry Bourke collected the ball some forty metres from goal, almost straight in front, and kicked truly with one of the few drop punts seen so far in the match. This proved to be the last major score of a quarter which, after a frenetic opening, had degenerated into a dour, unkempt arm wrestle.

With only 11 points separating the teams it was still anybody's game, but the Magpies entered the three quarter time huddle looking appreciably more fatigued than their opponents - hardly surprisingly, given their exertions of the previous week - and one felt that it would require a sensational effort for them to turn things 'round.

Melbourne's best players so far had been their wingmen Adams and Dixon, although Dixon in particular had been let down by some woeful disposal. On several occasions he had managed to collect the ball, burst clear into space, have time to look up, steady, and pick out his target, and then pass the ball straight to the opposition. Once, after marking the ball in the clear on his wing, he had looked downfield and spotted a team mate standing unmarked near centre half forward. With consummate deliberation and care he had steadied himself to pass the ball with his favoured left boot, only to send a fifteen metre grubber scudding away towards the centre of the ground, a good thirty metres away from his intended recipient.

Also doing well for the Demons were 'Tassie' Johnson (left), a tower of strength in his back pocket, and Don Williams, who had been playing wide of his rival centreman in John Henderson, and had picked up plenty of kicks.

For Collingwood, red-haired half back flanker Laurie Hill - a future dual Liston Trophy winner with Preston - had been arguably the most assured and poised performer on view, while ruckman-defender Trevor Steer, rover Mick Bone, and centreman John Henderson had frequently featured in the action to good effect.

THREE QUARTER TIME: Melbourne 7.10 (52); Collingwood 5.11 (41)

4th Quarter

The last quarter would prove to be one of the most sensational in VFL grand final history, but it opened innocuously enough with a flurry of 3 behinds to Melbourne to push the margin out to 14 points.

The first goal of the term arrived five minutes in when Tuddenham received Chapman's pass at half forward right, some forty metres from goal, and unleashed a perfectly executed drop kick to reduce the margin to eight points.

Melbourne hit back strongly, but could only manage behinds to Barassi (right) and Kenneally. The Magpies respond with a behind of their own, and then, with seventeen minutes of the quarter having elapsed, Ray Gabelich, after catching the ball cleanly from a boundary throw-in adjacent to Collingwood's left point post, slammed the ball through for a goal to bring his team to within three points. The 'Big Bear', or 'Gabbo', as he was popularly known, was featuring in the play more and more - in complete contrast to the Magpies' two previous finals, when he had noticeably tired after half time, and faded from the game as a consequence.

The next significant incident of the match has entered football folklore. With most of the players from both sides congregated in Melbourne's forward lines, Collingwood broke away along northern side of the ground. When Tuddenham gathered the ball just ahead of left centre wing he looked up and saw, presumably almost to his disbelief, that Ray Gabelich was standing unattended some forty metres downfield, and about the same distance from goal. He promptly kicked to the 193cm, 109kg ruckman who, having marked, galloped, or rather trundled, towards goal, bouncing the ball as he went, while Melbourne players converged on him from all directions. By the time of his fourth bounce, which almost saw him lose control of the ball, Gabelich had entered the goal square, with the nearest Demons defenders still five metres away. From almost on the goal line the burly West Australian pumped the ball deep into the crowd (above right), and the Collingwood fans went wild. However, with time-on still four minutes away, it was much too early to begin celebrating. Moments after the resumption Bourke's thumping kick from right centre wing was marked by Mann just twenty metres from goal, almost straight in front. However, astonishingly his kick skewed off the side of his boot for a minor score - Collingwood 8.12 (60), Melbourne 7.16 (58).

With just over twenty-three minutes gone Dixon marked at half forward left, and sent a high, left foot, centering kick to within twenty-five metres of goal, where a huge pack of players was waiting. A Collingwood fist then thumped the ball away from goal, only for it to be seized upon by Melbourne back pocket Neil Crompton (left), who, in direct contravention of coach Norm Smith's pre-match instructions, had followed his opponent, Denis Dalton, upfield. Surrounded by rapidly encroaching enemy forces, Crompton's only real option was to throw the ball hurriedly onto his boot, and to the astonished delight both of the Melbourne fans and most of the neutrals in the crowd, his low, wobbly tumble punt somehow managed to elude about half a dozen intervening defenders and float through for a goal - his first of the season.

The Demons were now back in front, but with six or seven minutes still left to play it could scarcely be expected that the drama, let alone the game, was over.

Most of the closing phase of the match was dominated by the Magpies, who attacked determinedly, but with little system. Saving marks by Wise and Bourke (who had been moved from the goalfront to full back) brought a halt to two of the 'Pies most promising forward thrusts, while Ian Graham, running in towards goal unattended, somehow conspired to miss everything when a goal looked certain. Collingwood also suffered some bad luck when umpire Brophy waved 'play on' after Graham was unceremoniously felled within easy scoring range.

After close to four minutes of time-on the siren blared out, and the Demons had won. Theirs had been a performance replete with courage, determination and tenacity - not to mention no small amount of good fortune. Nevertheless, all things considered, it would be hard to deny that victory was warranted. Of the six premierships won by the side between 1955 and 1964, this was by some measure the hardest fought - a hint perhaps, although it is always easy to infer such things in retrospect, that the most successful era in the history of the club had come to an end.

For Collingwood - brave, defiant, almost noble in defeat - nearly three decades of further disappointment lay ahead, giving birth to a 'collywobbles' myth that is still expounded to this day, despite the fact that the Magpies managed to break through for a premiership in 1990. If you look at the 1964 grand final in isolation, however, it is clear that Collingwood made a significant contribution to what was acclaimed at the time, and remains in hindsight, one of the most memorable matches in football history.

Match Summary

BEST
Melbourne: Adams, Dixon, Johnson, Wise, Williams, Mann
Collingwood: Hill, Steer, Bone, Potter, Henderson, Dalton

GOALKICKERS
Melbourne: Townsend 3; Lord 2; Bourke, Crompton, Mann
Collingwood: Gabelich, Waters 2; Bone, Dalton, Steer, Tuddenham

ATTENDANCE: 102,469 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground

Postscript

After the match, Demons mentor Norm Smith remarked, "The last quarter was the most agonising I have ever experienced in football".

Delight for the Demons as the siren sounds to end the game. Coach Norm Smith is on the right.

That might well have been the case, but at least Smith ultimately had the satisfaction of seeing his team procure its sixth flag under his tutelage. Poor Bob Rose, who had experienced football's greatest disappointment twice as a player, had just endured the first of three such disappointments as a coach. The fact that the aggregate margin of defeat in those three grand final defeats was a mere fifteen points lends credence to the frequently proffered observation that Rose was the unluckiest coach in VFL history.

Not that Norm Smith would have all that much to crow about after 1964 either. Within weeks of the grand final, VFL football was hit by arguably its biggest post-war bombshell, when it was revealed that Melbourne's skipper, Ron Barassi, a man presumed to have navy and red blood flowing through his veins, had decided to jump ship and join Carlton as the club's new captain-coach (right). Without Barassi, life would swiftly become a good deal more difficult for Smith, as well as for the Melbourne Football Club as a whole. In 1965, Smith was actually sacked at one stage, only to be swiftly reinstated, but his two further seasons at the helm saw the once proud club beginning a gradual decline into two decades of frustration, disappointment and mediocrity. The Demons indeed have never remotely looked like securing flag number thirteen, although grand final appearances in 1988 and 2000 may, briefly, have got the hearts of their more optimistic fans fluttering. To football supporters of the early twenty-first century, the sight of Melbourne struggling or flattering to deceive has become so commonplace as to be taken for granted. Four decades ago, however, precisely the opposite was the case: Melbourne was, incontrovertibly, the pre-eminent football force in the land, having just won its sixth flag in ten years. Many of the club's supporters can doubtless still recall celebrating that achievement on the night of the grand final, as well as over the days and weeks that followed. Some, perhaps, are secretly celebrating it still.