Pride restored - Tasmania v Victoria, 1990
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Traditionally acknowledged as one of football’s four major states, Tasmania was dealt an embarrassing body blow in 1988 when it was unceremoniously excluded from section one of that year’s bicentennial interstate carnival in Adelaide. The reason for the demotion had nothing to do with the state’s on field performances, but was rather, at least allegedly, the result of a subjective assessment by the National Football League to the effect that New South Wales, at the time, boasted a superior squad of players to the Tasmanians.¹
In reality, it is likely that New South Wales’ inclusion in section one had a political motivation, linked closely to the NFL’s VFL-inspired perception that the growth of the game in Australia’s largest state was crucial to its long term well-being. Or, to put it more coarsely but no less validly, Tasmania was simply too small, and too poor, to be worth worrying about.
In 1989, Tasmania met Victoria at state of origin level for the first ever time. The match, played at North Hobart Oval in front of 12,342 spectators, resulted in a win to a very powerful Victorian side by 56 points, but the home side, which stayed right in contention until midway through the third term, was by no means disgraced, and indeed the match went some way towards restoring the state pride so cruelly undermined by the NFL the previous year. It would be another twelve months, however - and, coincidentally, exactly thirty years on from arguably Tasmanian football’s greatest hour, its victory over the VFL at York Park, Launceston in 1960 - for that pride to be fully restored.
State of origin football was very much at its peak in 1990. The VFL, aggressively determined to establish itself as a genuinely national concern, with expansion into South Australia at the earliest possible opportunity top of its short term priority list, re-named itself the Australian Football League, and arranged what can only be regarded as a propaganda mission for the Victorian state of origin team, with matches in Sydney, Perth and Hobart. A key purpose of these matches, coupled with the fact that, for the first time since 1981 - and certainly not by coincidence - there was to be no game against South Australia, was to nudge the objective of procuring South Australian involvement in the pseudo-national competition forward a step or two by the graphic means of demonstrating what the South Australians were missing out on by not participating.
Such perverse political machinations aside, the purpose of the matches from the perspectives of New South Wales and Tasmania, and to a lesser extent Western Australia, was the much simpler, indeed one might dare suggest nobler, one of reinforcing state pride. On 22 May, New South Wales duly accomplished this with a stirring 10 point victory over the Vics on a rain-saturated SCG, with North Melbourne’s Balldale-born forward John Longmire booting eight goals in a best afield performance.
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Just over a month later, Longmire, along with erstwhile New South Wales team mates Bernard Toohey, Brett Allison and Steve Wright, arrived in Hobart having miraculously, or at any rate by some unknown process, become Victorians. (In the cases of Allison and Wright, the question is rather how they had come, a month earlier, to be regarded as New South Welshman, with Allison hailing from the ACT, and Wright and Toohey from Victoria.) The confusion governing state of origin eligibility regulations at the time was further exemplified by the fact that Tasmania’s captain, Darrin Pritchard, had in 1989 starred for Victoria in its 86 point demolition of South Australia at the MCG, while his team mate and fellow wingman Graeme Wright had represented Victoria at the SCG in the aforementioned game against New South Wales. Not that there was the remotest doubt as to either Pritchard’s or Wright’s entitlement to wear the rose, primrose and green; Pritchard hailed from Sandy Bay, and Wright from Devonport, and both players were quintessentially Tasmanian born and bred. However, the bewildering inconsistency in the application of state of origin eligibility criteria over the years, with pragmatism all too frequently outweighing legitimacy, must be seen as to some extent compromising the entire concept.²
Such eligibility considerations were at best of merely peripheral concern in the lead up to a game which had captured the imagination of the Tasmanian football-loving public like no other for close to twenty years.³ Despite the fact that, just as thirty years earlier, the ‘Big V’ side was officially a second string combination, with its ‘A’ side scheduled to meet Western Australia in Perth a couple of days later, the match was being regarded as the next best thing to a grand final. Moreover, the Tasmanian team itself could scarcely be regarded as first choice, given the non-availability for selection of players from Melbourne, St Kilda, Carlton, Geelong, Brisbane and Essendon who were required to participate in VFL matches the previous day. Among the individuals from these clubs who might have been in serious contention for a guernsey were Steven Febey, Anthony Lovell, David Grant, Jody Arnol, Simon Minton-Connell, Adrian Fletcher, Mark Withers and Bradley Plain. Nevertheless, Tassie coach Robert Shaw made only a couple of exceptions to his his self-enforced ‘rule of thumb’ which favoured the selection of players actually born in the island state. These exceptions were Shane Fell, a Melbourne born full forward currently with Sydney, but who had commenced his senior League career with Glenorchy, and fellow Victorian and former North Hobart and Glenorchy player Brett Stephens, who was playing in the VFL with Fitzroy. As Shaw explained, “At various stages of their careers, Shane and Brett have been discarded, gone to Tasmania, played their first senior game there, represented their state and played in finals. With them, I’m prepared to make an exception to the rule”.⁴
Idiosyncrasies, anomalies and selection restrictions aside, what seems evident is that, for perhaps the first and only time in football history, the 1990 interstate match between Tasmania and Victoria represented a fair and realistic test of strength between the respective teams, and from the Tasmanian perspective in particular its importance was hard to over-stress. “Tassie is a dinky-die football state,” Robert Shaw reminded onlookers. “It’s good the game is going national but it should be kept in mind that we are one of four traditional football states, along with Victoria, WA and SA. We believe we should be the fourth state which is involved in state of origin matches, but now we have to prove it on the ground.”⁵
As for Tasmania’s prospects in the game, “We’re not the biggest name side around,” admitted Shaw, “but we’re young and enthusiastic.” Meanwhile, and perhaps more to the point, “We are a better side than last year. We’ve got better depth.”⁶
As 18,651 spectators - the second biggest attendance ever to witness an interstate match in Tasmania - crammed into North Hobart Oval on Sunday 24 June 1990 they could only hope that such pronouncements did not represent idle boasting. As time was all too quickly to prove, they did not.
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An interesting feature of the match was that both sides were captained by Hawthorn players, with Darrin Pritchard leading the home team, and Gary Ayres the Vics. The respective teams’ ruckmen, James Manson (Tasmania) and Damien Monkhorst (Victoria) were also from the same club, in this case Collingwood, while an international flavour of sorts was provided by the presence of Tasmania’s John McCarthy (born in Wales) and Victoria’s José Romero (a Chilean). Other key players in the Tasmanian team included the Footscray pair of Simon Atkins and Steve Macpherson, dynamic Collingwood wingman Graeme Wright and his prodigiously long kicking team mate, Doug Barwick, and veteran Fitzroy centreman Scott Clayton. Moreover, by selecting the Gale brothers, Brendan and Michael, Tasmania forged a link with the great 1960 team, which had seen Don Gale - father of Brendon and Michael - line up in the back pocket.
Victoria, which was coached by triple VFL premiership coach David Parkin⁷, had eventual 1990 Brownlow Medallist Tony Liberatore from Footscray, his club team mate and dual best and fairest winner Terry Wallace, and the man who would beat both of them to the 1990 Bulldogs club champion award, Peter Foster, redoubtable key defenders in the shape of Chris Langford from Hawthorn and North Melbourne’s Mick Martyn, the 1990 Coleman Medallist-in-waiting, John Longmire (North Melbourne), and Matthew Knights of Richmond and Stevie Wright of Sydney, both of whom would win their respective clubs’ best and fairest awards later in the year.
The match took place on a cool, comparatively still (with such breeze as there is blowing directly across the ground, favouring neither side), overcast but dry day - perfect football conditions, in fact. As the ball was bounced to commence the match, the teams lined up as follows:
TASMANIA
B: M Mansfield, B Stephens, S MacPherson
HB: T Spearman, J McCarthy, M Gale
C: D Pritchard (c), S Clayton, G Wright
HF: D Barwick, B Gale, P Hudson
F: C Alexander, S Fell, A Lynch
R: J Manson, S Atkins, T Nichols
I/C: S Wade, D Noonan, S Byers, D Davies
VICTORIA
B: S Kerrison, C Langford, G Ayres (c)
HB: J Kennedy, M Martyn, B Toohey
C: M Knights, T Wallace, B Allison
HF: R Lyon, P Foster, S Wigney
F: P Dear, J Longmire, J Romero
R: D Monkhorst, A Condon, T Liberatore
I/C: B Young, S Wright, M Gallagher, B Bower
COACHES: Tasmania - Robert Shaw; Victoria - David Parkin
1st Quarter
5 mins Despite being three metres longer than the MCG, North Hobart Oval is marked out with forty metre rather than fifty metre arcs at each end, and it is from a distance of precisely 40 metres from goal, directly in front, that Colin Alexander rounds off Tasmania’s first attacking foray of the match with an elegantly accurate drop punt.⁸ Tasmania 1.0; Victoria 0.1
10 mins John McCarthy, at left centre wing, marks strongly in front of his North Melbourne team mate Mick Martyn and kicks towards a pack of players at centre half forward. Making light of the strenuous opposition afforded by three Victorian players, James Manson gets high off the ground to take a towering, one grab mark. His almost laughably ungainly kicking style is nevertheless often more accurate than the textbook approach favoured by many of his team mates, and so it proves on this occasion as his wobbly drop punt almost perfectly bisects the uprights. Tasmania 2.1; Victoria 0.2
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11 mins After a lethargic start, Tasmania are beginning to win most of the hard ball contests and clearances, prompting Victorian coach David Parkin to relinquish an attacker to bolster his midfield. Nevertheless, it is the Tasmanians who continue to dominate, as exemplified by their efficiency in clearing the ball from the ensuing centre bounce, courtesy of flame-haired ruck-rover Simon Atkins, who not only manages to get boot to ball despite intensely heavy traffic, but is also able to pick out the fast leading figure of Shane Fell at half forward right and float the ball perfectly out in front of him to facilitate the mark. Fell, who has been in disappointing form for the Swans, kicks truly from just outside forty metres. Tasmania 3.1; Victoria 0.2
18 mins Victoria at last manage to penetrate the Tasmanian back line and are awarded an obvious free kick as Trevor Spearman blatantly interferes with Bernard Toohey from behind in a marking contest. From almost dead on forty metres out on no appreciable angle, the Sydney stalwart coolly registers the Vics’ first goal.Tasmania 3.3; Victoria 1.2
23 mins Hudson at half back right for Tasmania sends a crisp, low pass to Manson on right centre wing. With acres of space ahead of him, Manson runs on, drawing Terry Wallace towards him and then handballing over the Footscray star’s head to Scott Clayton who, having just managed to keep the ball in play, pumps a high kick towards centre half forward where Shane Fell rides piggy-back on an opponent’s shoulders before marking strongly on the chest. He kicks truly. Tasmania 4.3; Victoria 1.3
26 mins Under intense pressure in the right back pocket for Victoria, Damien Monkhorst’s clearing kick wobbles off the side of his boot and out of bounds on the full some 40 metres around the boundary from Tasmania’s left behind post. The resultant free kick is taken by Graeme Wright who picks out Doug Barwick with a perfectly weighted grass burner. Despite being some fifty-five metres from goal, Barwick amply justifies his reputation as one of the strongest kicks in the game as he launches into a thumping spiral punt that travels straight through the centre at post height. Tasmania 5.3; Victoria 1.3 Shane Fell’s behind right on the quarter time siren extends the home side’s lead at the first change to 25 points.
QUARTER TIME: Tasmania 5.4 (34); Victoria 1.3 (9)
2nd Quarter
8 mins The umpire bounces the ball on Victoria’s right half forward flank, and Stuart Wigney uses his body adeptly to out-maneuver Michael Gale before directing a well-judged tap right into the path of Ross Lyon, who gathers and throws the ball onto his left boot in one smooth motion and is delighted to see it tumble awkwardly but accurately straight through the centre for a goal. Tasmania 5.6; Victoria 2.3
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10 mins Tasmania effect the quick reply as they force the ball untidily but effectively forward to just inside their forty metre arc, where a frantic scrimmage develops. As players scramble for the ball on hands and knees, it is Simon Atkins who finally manages to get a clean handle on it before firing out a telling handball to Paul Hudson, who is the only unmarked Tasmanian player in the vicinity. From roughly thirty metres out directly in front, with time to steady and measure his kick, Hudson is never going to miss. Tasmania 6.6; Victoria 2.3
16 mins As Tasmania try to maneuver the ball into space near the centre of the ground, Scott Clayton’s hefty forward thump is intercepted by his Fitzroy team mate, Ross Lyon, who returns it with interest, sending it directly into the path of Stuart Wigney. The solidly built Footscray forward gathers the ball up with the smooth aplomb of a rover before spearing out a handball to Jose Romero, who sprints on towards goal, forcing Tassie full back Alastair Lynch to run out to meet him, leaving his opponent John Longmire unattended in the process. As Lynch approaches, Romero deftly handballs over his head to the now unmarked Longmire who has the easiest of tasks to turn, and casually prod the ball over the goal line from point blank range. Tasmania 6.7; Victoria 3.6
17 mins Once again the Tasmanians concoct an immediate and telling riposte, as they win the ball out of the centre from the ensuing centre bounce and, after the ball spills off hands near centre half forward, restore their 25 point advantage courtesy of an effortless gather and telling snap from Colin Alexander. Tasmania 7.7; Victoria 3.6
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21 mins Romero’s centering kick eludes a pack of players at centre half forward and the ball tumbles away in the direction of goal. First to reach it is Allison, who spots Shane Kerrison standing unmarked in the goal square and hits him on the chest with a perfect pass. Kerrison promptly plays on and just manages to avoid the attentions of the on-rushing Steve Macpherson before firing home from a distance of about five metres. Tasmania 7.7; Victoria 4.6
26 mins After being awarded a somewhat contentious free kick right on 40 metres and straight in front, Bernard Toohey effortlessly registers his second major of the game. Tasmania 7.7; Victoria 5.6
28 mins With Victoria playing with trademark desperation and conviction, Gary Ayres vigorously soccers the ball from centre half back to just ahead of centre where Matthew Gale intercepts. However, before he can bring the ball adequately under control he is sent sprawling by Ross Lyon, and Jose Romero swoops in to collect the crumbs. Dashing onwards into the forty metre zone Romero has plenty of time to measure his options before spearing a low kick through the vacant goal square and over the line for full points. Tasmania 7.7; Victoria 6.8
31 mins Moments before the half time siren Jose Romero gathers the ball deep in the right forward pocket, almost on the boundary line, and screws a miraculous left foot snapshot around his body, over the heads of the goal line pack, and through the narrowest of apertures for a morale-boosting six pointer. For the first time since the early moments in the match the Vics are in front on the scoreboard, and deservedly so after they have completely dominated the closing stages of the term.
HALF TIME: Victoria 7.8 (50); Tasmania 7.7 (49)
3rd Quarter
10 mins Noonan’s probing kick to half forward right for Tasmania looks set to be intercepted by Chris Langford, who has come hurtling out of the goal square like an enraged bull. However, at the last moment the bouncing ball swerves deceptively, completely eluding the Victorian full back and bouncing instead straight into the hands of the stationary - and somewhat surprised - Shane Fell, who promptly off loads to the running Scott Clayton just inside the half forward right boundary. Clayton’s high, hopeful centering kick sails toward the goal square where Colin Alexander displays perfect timing and admirable calmness to out-mark two taller, higher leaping Victorian opponents. He maintains his calmness by splitting the centre from the front right hand point of the square. Tasmania 8.8; Victoria 7.11
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13 mins After marking near the rear edge of the centre square Peter Foster is awarded a fifty metre penalty after Colin Alexander fails to return the ball to him promptly. His ensuing kick for goal from some sixty metres floats harmlessly away into the left forward pocket, but the umpire rules that James Manson had transgressed the mark, and awards Kennedy another fifty metre penalty. This time, from less than twenty metres out directly in front, the Bulldog veteran makes no mistake, propelling the ball high over the grandstand and out of the ground in the process. Victoria 8.11; Tasmania 8.8
18 mins A poor kick in by Barry Young after a Tasmanian behind is marked easily at half forward left by Michael Gale. After prolonged deliberation, he elects to go short to Graeme Wright, who is standing some twenty metres in field on almost precisely the same spot as that from which Doug Barwick had goaled so magnificently in the opening term. Not to be outdone, Wright sinks his boot into a perfect drop punt which never looks like missing. Tasmania 9.9; Victoria 8.12
23 mins Momentary confusion reigns deep in the right forward pocket for Victoria as the ball which Peter Foster had earlier despatched from the ground is returned to the arena right in the vicinity of where players are contesting the ‘real’ ball.
25 mins Despite having his left arm pinned behind his back by Chris Langford, Shane Fell is able to utilise his free arm to good effect as he leaps high to drag in a spectacular one-hander, before kicking truly from some thirty-five metres out directly in front. Unfortunately for Tasmania, however, Fell badly injures a knee shortly afterwards and takes no further part in the game, while Steve Macpherson is also forced to hobble from the fray after sustaining a similar injury. Tasmania 10.9; Victoria 8.13
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28 mins To a tumultuous, cacophonous, surround-sound chant of ‘Tassie, Tassie!’ the home side has picked up its performance level several notches, and is making the hitherto poised looking Victorians appear disorientated and ramshackle. In an effort to curb the tide, Big V coach Parkin switches his key position players around, moving Foster from centre half back to centre half forward, Wigney from centre half forward to full forward, and Longmire from full forward to centre half back. The inevitable Tassie breakthrough is not long in coming, however, as Doug Barwick, who has only just returned to the ground after receiving extensive treatment for an injury, leads quickly and aggressively from full forward to half forward right to get on the end of a perfectly judged pass from Paul Hudson. From more or less the same position as that from which he had kicked his previous goal, he opts for a drop punt this time, with exactly the same result. The noise from the crowd gets louder still. Tasmania 11.10; Victoria 8.14
30 mins Paul Hudson’s set shot from 50 metres out directly in front looks to be on course to register full points before seeming to hit an invisible brick wall some five metres from goal and plummeting dramatically to earth. Fortunately for Tassie, however, the ball lands safely in the waiting hands of Brendan Gale, having sent his opponent Damien Monkhorst sprawling, has the goal square more or less to himself. He kicks truly to open up a handy 20 point lead for the Tasmanians, who have recovered strongly after having to defend determinedly for much of the opening quarter of an hour of the term.
THREE QUARTER TIME: Tasmania 12.10 (82); Victoria 8.14 (62)
4th Quarter
Rain during the lemon time interval has left the ground soggy, and quickly renders the ball greasy, but despite this the near record crowd is in for a treat of skilful, attacking football characterised by lightening quick, precise delivery and sure ball handling from players of both teams, and featuring one of the most astonishing sequences of ‘goal for goal’ action on record.
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1 min Tasmania surge forward en masse from the opening bounce of the term, and Darrin Pritchard’s probing kick into the goal square is vigorously punched away by his Hawthorn team mate, Chris Langford. Unfortunately for Victoria, however, the ball travels straight to John McCarthy in the left forward pocket, who inflicts the maximum punishment with a delightful, around the body left foot snap. Tasmania 13.10; Victoria 8.14
7 mins With Tasmania now well on top, John McCarthy nabs his second goal of the quarter and the match after taking a soaring mark in the goal square over his North Melbourne club mate, Mick Martyn. Tasmania 14.11; Victoria 8.14
9 mins The Victorians’ first incursion deep into their attacking zone of the term bears fruit courtesy of a 35 metre set shot from straight in front by Ross Lyon. Tasmania 14.12; Victoria 9.14
14 mins After taking a clever, one-handed grab on right centre wing, Brendan Bower plays on quickly with a short pass to Tony Liberatore near the boundary line at half forward right. ‘Libba’ swings around onto his left foot and sends a high drop punt into the teeth of the goal square where Damien Monkhorst briefly gets both hands to the ball before it spins away over the goal line. Somewhat controversially, however - although it scarcely matters in the context of the ultimate result of the game - the goal umpire indicates that the ball had already crossed the goal line when Monkhorst got his fingers to it, a contention which a slow motion video replay of the incident disproves pretty conclusively. Nevertheless, Liberatore is visibly ecstatic, as are most of his team mates, and the concern in the crowd over this sudden surge by the Vics is almost palpable. Tasmania 14.12; Victoria 10.16
16 mins The crowd’s trepidation is quickly reinforced as the Victorians pour forward in numbers yet again, and Brett Allison’s high kick to the goal square is marked strongly by Damien Monkhorst less than a metre from the line. He makes no mistake. Tasmania 14.12; Victoria 11.16
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16 mins 30 secs Within seconds, Tassie have concocted a telling riposte with arguably the goal of the game so far. An indeterminate centre bounce sees the ball go to ground, whereupon Simon Atkins pounces on it and sends a high, looping handball into the air ahead of the running Trent Nichols who, in one fluent movement, grabs the ball and feeds Graeme Wright before being ridden vigorously to the ground by Monkhorst. Spotting Michael Gale running past on his left, Wright shoots out a handball which Gale has to sprint hard to collect, but the extra momentum proves a blessing as he is able to just avoid the desperate lunge of Anthony Condon before straightening up and, from about 35 metres out on a 45 degree angle to the left of goal, steering a low, purposeful drop punt right through the centre to tumultuous acclaim. Tasmania 15.12; Victoria 11.16
17 mins Tasmania once again win the ball out of the centre, forcing it forward on this occasion with less apparent cohesion and purpose, but ultimately no less effectiveness. Colin Alexander’s snapshot from centre half forward is smothered off the boot but John McCarthy is backing up superbly, and having collected the ball he kicks truly for his third major of the term. Tasmania 16.12; Victoria 11.16
17 mins 30 secs Victoria win the clearance this time, with Ross Lyon gathering the ball some 55 metres from goal before running on, and on, and on as the Tasmanian defenders inexplicably back off like the walls of the Red Sea. When he gets to within 35 metres, perhaps sensing that his amazing good fortune is certain to run out soon, Lyon gratefully steers the ball through for a goal. Tasmania 16.12; Victoria 12.16
18 mins James Manson thumps the ball forward some 20 metres from the ensuing centre bounce whereupon John McCarthy, having gained possession, kicks high towards centre half forward where a huge pack of players succeeds only in completely missing the ball, enabling Michael Gale to pounce on it and squeeze out a handball to Colin Alexander. As a morass of bodies converges on him, Alexander prods a low kick forward which, almost miraculously, fails to elicit a touch from anyone, and bounces through for a goal. Tasmania 17.12; Victoria 12.16
**18 mins 30 secs **For the sixth consecutive time a goal emanates directly from the centre bounce after Atkins, having collected the ball after another indeterminate ruck contest, handballs to McCarthy whose low tumble punt somehow manages to elude about half a dozen intervening Victorian defenders before being collected by Hudson. Unable to believe his good fortune, Hudson promptly throws the ball onto his left boot and reaps the seemingly inevitable consequences. Tasmania 18.12; Victoria 12.16
21 mins Ross Lyon, who has been one of the few genuine four quarter contributors for the Vics, finds Bernard Toohey at centre half forward and the Swans stalwart, who to this stage in the match has booted 2.6, on this occasion does not let his side down. Tasmania 18.12; Victoria 13.16
**21 mins 30 secs **The sequence of quick fire goals resumes courtesy of Trent Nichols, who makes no mistake after gathering the ball of the hands of the pack some 30 metres out on a 45 degree angle to the left of goal. Tasmania 19.12; Victoria 13.16
24 mins As a pack of players soars for the ball at centre half forward for Tasmania, Paul Hudson is alone in electing to remain rooted to the ground, a decision which proves justified as the ball tumbles off hands directly into his lap and he is able to swing round almost casually onto his right foot and steer through his third major of the afternoon. Tasmania 20.12; Victoria 13.16
30 mins Ross Lyon rounds off the scoring for the afternoon with a tired looking snap from 30 metres out directly in front which just manages to clear the goal line thanks partly to an adroit shepherd on Alastair Lynch by Peter Foster. The siren sounds moments later. FINAL SCORE: Tasmania 20.14 (134); Victoria 14.17 (101)
Match Summary
1ST | 2ND | 3RD | FULL TIME | |
Tasmania | 5.4 | 7.7 | 12.10 | 20.14.134 |
Victoria | 1.3 | 7.8 | 8.14 | 14.17.101 |
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BEST
Tasmania: Manson, Pritchard, Lynch, Wright, Alexander, Hudson
Victoria: Toohey, Kerrison, Ayres, Langford, Liberatore
GOALS
Tasmania: Alexander 4; Fell, Hudson, McCarthy 3; Barwick 2; B.Gale, M.Gale, Manson, Nichols, Wright
Victoria: Lyon 4; Toohey 3; Romero 2; Foster, Kerrison, Liberatore, Longmire, Monkhorst
ATTENDANCE: 18,651 at the North Hobart Oval
Aftermath
Thirty years after its spectacular victory over the VFL at York Park, Tasmanian football had achieved another, equally memorable success, and if the predominant response was justifiably proud and ecstatic, there were also some disingenuous statements from people who ought, perhaps, to have known better.
To deal with the former first, Tassie coach Robert Shaw spoke for just about every one of his compatriots when he said, “Our guys were just fantastic today. Every time something went wrong for us, such as when Steve Macpherson and Shane Fell had to go off just when they were playing really well, we always found that bit extra. Doug Barwick who had come off concussed came back on and gave us a lift when we needed it. And John McCarthy, who had a dog of a day till three quarter time....really fired up with three goals in the last quarter, when I put the acid on him”.⁹
Tasmanian centreman Scott Clayton, a veteran of over 150 VFL games and eight finals with Fitzroy, said of the win, “It certainly is as good if not better than a finals game”. The former Hobart star then went on to declare, “Beating the Vics for the first time in 30 years was history making and it certainly is a great thrill. They invited a lot of the 1960 Tasmanian side which beat Victoria into the room before the game and it was great to win for them.” As for the significance of the win, “I am absolutely delighted....as the public over here is a real traditional football state. They love their football, and the support they gave us was really amazing. They were fantastic. Everyone is saying it’s the best thing that has happened to the state for years. The place is just absolutely delighted, you’ve no idea what it’s like”.¹¹
Ruckman James Manson concurred. “It’s like a dream come true,” he enthused. “It means so much more than you can imagine. That probably rates as the biggest game I have played in.”¹¹
The response to the result in Victoria was by and large to dismiss it as of no real consequence. For example, Victorian chairman of selectors Ted Whitten declared, “Football fans should not read too much into the Tasmanian defeat of Victoria” in that “the Victorian selectors were hamstrung because of restrictions imposed by the fixture”.¹² Ken Piesse agreed, suggesting that “half the (Victorian) side should not have been there”¹³, while Kevin Sheedy believed “that Victoria needs to restructure its methods and find players who really want to play for the state”.¹⁴
However, perhaps the most contentious response of all to the game emerged from the mouth of the AFL’s Executive Commissioner, Alan Schwab, whose suggestion that there was a genuine prospect of Tasmania having a team in the national competition in the near future - “1995 is a date by which we’d be realistically looking at Tasmania joining”¹⁵ - was presumably either a classic case of candy-floss diplomacy, or pure fatuousness. (Either that, or it was a remark obliquely aimed at South Australian ears.)
Victory in this match set Tasmania on the road to arguably its most concerted spell of representative success in history, with home wins at state league level following over South Australia (1995), Western Australia (1997) and the VFL (1998). However, with the concept of senior representative football, and particularly the state of origin format, having seemingly fallen out of favour, Tasmania’s chances of making a concerted impression on football’s national stage appear to have disappeared, perhaps for good.
One noteworthy statistic to emerge from the match was that Tasmania’s tally of 20.14 (134) was not only its best in matches against Victoria, but the state’s highest ever tally against any of the other three major football states. Its highest score against Western Australia was 18.10 (118) in a two-point win at North Hobart Oval in 1970, while its best against South Australia was 17.15 (117) in a 10-point loss at the 1953 Adelaide carnival.
The photographs used in this article are copyright 'The Mercury' and Robin Lane. I am indebted to David Harding for supplying me with scanned copies of the images, most of which are clickable. - John Devaney
Footnotes
- If taken to its logical extreme, such flagrantly groundless bureaucratic stage management would obviously eradicate the need for any football to be played. Simply feed all the numbers into a computer and, with a couple of mouse clicks, you have a result. As for the criteria used by the NFL in determining New South Wales’ alleged superiority, these are unclear, although the fact that New South Wales had more VFL players on its list than the Tasmanians (21 as against 15) might well have been cited as a tiresomely spurious reason. The fact that New South Wales ultimately enjoyed a highly successful carnival, losing only narrowly to eventual champions South Australia, and beating Western Australia for the first time ever, is of course completely irrelevant when considering the question of whether or not the NFL’s decision was morally justifiable.
- Examples of such inconsistency are legion. In the 1989 Victoria-South Australia match already mentioned, for example, the Victorian side contained a Queenslander (Jason Dunstall, who booted four goals) and a New South Welshman (Terry Daniher, who was a widespread choice as best afield). Indeed, three of ‘Victoria’s’ four best players hailed from outside the state. When the Vics travelled to Perth later that same year, Dunstall was best afield with nine goals in a winning team, while Daniher was once again named among the best players. In 1990, Victoria’s losing team at the SCG contained a Tasmanian (Steven Febey), a Queenslander (Gavin Crosisca), and a Northern Territorian (Russell Jeffery), while blurring the situation still further was the fact that, in South Australia’s 13 point defeat of Victoria at Football Park in 1992, one of the home team’s most noteworthy performances came from North Melbourne’s Wayne Carey, who hailed from Wagga in New South Wales.
- In 1971, Tasmanian football was on a ‘high’ following the state’s spectacular display in downing Western Australia - ‘Polly’ Farmer, Bill Walker, Greg Brehaut, Malcolm Brown et al - by two points at North Hobart Oval the previous year. Enticed by the prospect of a repeat performance, an all time record crowd for an interstate match in Tasmania of 20,548 turned up at the same ground on Monday 14 June 1971 for the meeting with South Australia, which had endured a tough and closely fought match against the VFL at the MCG just two days earlier. Unfortunately for Tasmania, the croweaters had just enough left in the tank to resist what was nevertheless a concerted and formidable challenge, but this was probably the last occasion when the Tasmanians could approach such a match on more or less equivalent terms; over the ensuing couple of decades, the state’s three senior competitions would be systematically denuded of talent by the VFL, a state of affairs which made the prospect of the 1990 clash with the ‘Big V’ all the more alluring and exciting - it was much more than a mere football match, it was an opportunity for revenge
- ‘Inside Football’, 20/6/90, page 3. In the interests of wholesale accuracy, however, it should perhaps be pointed out that Paul Hudson, the son of former Tasmanian-born Hawthorn champion Peter Hudson, was in fact himself born in Melbourne, while John McCarthy was from Wales.
- Ibid., page 3.
- Ibid., page 3.
- Parkin, a dour but highly proficient and estimably courageous defender with Hawthorn over 211 VFL games between 1961 and 1974, later coached the Hawks to the 1978 flag, before moving to Carlton where he achieved further premiership success in 1981 and 1982. After a stint at Fitzroy, he returned to the Blues and succeeded in masterminding the club’s re-emergence from mediocrity (11th place in 1991) to a premiership four years later.
- According to John Stoward’s Australian Rules Football in Tasmania, page 90, North Hobart Oval is 162 metres long by 113 metres wide, compared with 159m x 138m for the MCG, 171m x 127m for Subiaco Oval, 165m x 133m for Football Park (‘AAMI Stadium’), 131m x 135m for the SCG, 170m x 149m for the Gabba, and 165m x 135m for York Park.
- ‘Inside Football’, 27/6/90, page 29.
- Ibid., page 12
- Ibid., page 28
- Ibid., page 5
- Ibid., page 5.
- Ibid., page 10.
- Ibid., page 29
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