The day the Tigers Mangled North
MANY A TIME over the last 53 years have League teams "gone down to crushing defeat. They have experienced those black days when few or none of their players could do anything right, and the opposing side could do nothing wrong. They have fumbled marks and mulled passes. They have found the bounce and the run of the ball against them. They have missed goals and left their own sticks wide open. They have been outbumped and outpointed and overwhelmed by an inferiority complex until they longed for the bell to end their agony.
Most football followers of a later generation have often sniggered whenever St. Kilda's great debacle of 1899 have been recalled in record books. In that year the Saints kicked only one behind—the lowest League score on record—against Essendon's 23.24. There were those who declared with great emphasis that the Dons' winning margin of 161 points would stand as the record for all time.
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They argued that if any League side was to be beaten by a greater margin it would have to lie down or have half of its players in the dressing-room. Yet, just as in cricket there is also a glorious uncertainty about football—in 1919 South beat St. Kilda by 171 points—29.15 to 2.6.
Nobody can predict with certainty how long any League record is likely to stand. Some good ones have been toppled over the years.
ON a crisp autumn day—May 9, 1931—North Melbourne, led by that iron man Johnny Lewis (right), met Richmond at the Punt road ground. It was the second round of the season. Richmond had beaten Carlton in a hard struggle by nine points on the opening Saturday. North had been outpaced by South Melbourne, but by no means disgraced.
That year the Tiger line up was formidable, and it carried them into the Grand Final to become runner-up to Geelong. In 1930 the Shinboners had gone through a very lean season with only one win in 17 games, and on paper they did not appear to be any stronger in 1931. Actually they fared even worse, losing all 18 matches.
Richmond had Heifner, Murdoch, and Kevin O'Neill on the back line, and Martin Bolger, Gordon Strang, and Basil McCormack at half-back. Eric Zschech was in the centre, with Stan Judkins and Allan Geddes on the wings. Half-forwards were Weidner, Jack Titus, and Jack Baggott, and the forwards Tom O'Halloran, Doug Strang, and Ford. Bissett and Foster were the followers, with Hunter roving. Young Jack Dyer was nineteenth man.
Huggins, McCabe, and Knott formed North's backline, with Gregory, Brodie, and Barker at half-back. Cameron, Kemp, and Cusack were across the centre, with Weir, Lewis, and Matthews at half-forward, and O'Shea, Peters, and Hook forward. Jerram and Jackson were the first ruck, with Moir roving.
In the second term the Northerners' morale began to crack badly When they got the ball, which was not often, they kicked it wildly anywhere. All sense of position was lost, and a creeping paralysis set in. Richmond raced into the game with ruthless determination. Never for a moment did they let up in great bursts of dashing football.
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One would have imagined that the Tigers were playing in a tense grand final. Marking over North as they liked; they kept driving relentlessly to Doug Strang, then an Albury youth, playing in only his second League game. This rangy and lissome young forward pulled down beautiful marks, and his long, raking drop-kicks were remarkably accurate.
Eleven thousand people turned up at Punt road, and, while few thought that North would win, none expected the extraordinary and historic game they were to see. In the first ten minutes Richmond outmarked the Shinboners and brushed their ruck aside with ease. Almost before North had handled the ball a dozen times the Tigers ran up 5.7 to one behind.
By half-time the scoreboard in this crazy game read Richmond 17.9, North 0.4. The Tigers had piled up 12.2 in the second quarter by football that left their opponents not only standing, but dazed and gasping. Out ahead of Strang was Jack Titus at centre half-forward picking "up odd goals with long shots. North players, shattered and bewildered, went in at half-time for a rub down more or less as a formality.
WITH Johnny Lewis battling like two men, North steered within range in the third quarter for the first time in 30 minutes' play. Hook got their first goal and brought a cheer from the small boys who were fanatical supporters of the Shinboners. Lewis, mowing his. way through a pack, got another. At the last change Richmond had totted up 22.14 to 2.5.
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It needed courage for a team with such a staggering deficit to face up at all to a last quarter. Yet the Northerners pranced off for two early goals and then wilted completely. Richmond, with devastating position play, and with Strang and Titus scoring goals from various angles and ranges, shimmed on another 8.5. They did it with all the breathless resolve of a team that was trying to reduce a lee-way. Strang's 14th goal from 16 shots made the Tigers' final score 30.19 to North 4.7—victory by 168 points.
That 30.19 still stands as the record score in a League match. It beat South Melbourne's 29.15 recorded in July, 1919, when H. Robertson kicked 14 goals for South.
In 1934 Essendon seriously threatened the Richmond record. On July 30 of that year the Dons ran up 29.16, also against North, but the Shinboners scored 15.13. For seven years the total points scored that match-295-remained a League record.
In 1940 a new aggregate record was created when, in a really remarkable game, Geelong and Melbourne piled up 305 points. Geelong, with 24.10, won by only three points. Melbourne rattled up 22.19 the highest losing score ever recorded in the League. But even that amazing aggregate record lasted only two seasons.
Richmond again went out after records on May 16, 1942. Their opponent was a wartime weakened Melbourne team. The Tigers kick 30.16 and just missed beating their own record League score of 11 years earlier. Melbourne in that match scored 18.9, and the match aggregate of 313 points exceeded the 19 record by eight points.
So it is that Richmond is the only the League side that has ever kicked 30 goals in a match, and the Tigers have accomplished the feat twice—in 1931 and 1942. Essendon again this year threatened that record when they piled up 29.7 against South Melbourne in their second game of that season.
Highest scores in League games now stand as follows:
- Richmond, 30.19 (199 points) in 1931.
- Richmond, 30.16 (196 points) in 1942.
- Essendon, 29.16 (190 points) in 1934.
- South Melbourne, 29.15 (189 points) in 1919.
- Essendon, 28.21 (189 points) in 1949.
- Collingwood, 28.16 (184 points) in 1926.
- Essendon, 29.7 (181 points) in 1950.
Footnotes
Title: The day when Tigers Mangled North
Author: Hugh Buggy
Publisher: The Argus (Melbourne, Victoria, 1848-1957)
Date: Saturday 22 July 1950, page 12
Web: http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/22914481
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