Australian Football

Vics too strong - VFL v SA, MCG, 12 June 1971

×

Center ▼

Croweater coach Neil Kerley, whose audacious pre-game pronouncements had helped attract a record interstate match crowd to the MCG, endeavours to gee up his charges during the three-quarter time break.

×

Neil Kerley’s South Australians arrived in Melbourne in optimistic frame of mind. Despite not having beaten the VFL since 1965, it was felt that their team was the strongest to have left Adelaide in almost a decade, and during the week leading up to the match coach Kerley ruffled more than a few Victorian feathers when, with trademark belligerence, he announced:

“We have come to win. We will tackle hard and hit hard. The Victorians are in for a rough day and they will not forget this match quickly. Victoria is in for a shock. We will use plenty of aggression and every Victorian ..... will be tackled strongly. We are very confident.”

×

Left ▼

+

Such brazen conviction was as a red rag to a bull to the Melbourne media, who gave the match an unprecedented build-up. As a result, a then record interstate crowd of 66,893¹ turned up at the MCG on match day, most of whom wanted just one thing: to see the Croweaters in general, and Kerley in particular, made to eat humble pie.

If the South Australians felt they had solid grounds for optimism, so too did the Victorians, whose team did not have a visible weakness. Their goal-to-goal line of John Scarlett (Geelong), Gary Hardeman (Melbourne), Ian Stewart (St Kilda), Robert Walls (Carlton) and Peter McKenna (Collingwood) was the perfect blend of solidity and class, while ruckmen Brian Mynott (St Kilda) and Gary Dempsey (Footscray) could reasonably be expected to have too much strength and experience for the visitors. Elsewhere, the likes of Barry Davis (Essendon), John Rantall (South Melbourne), Keith Greig (North Melbourne), Des Tuddenham (Collingwood), Kevin Bartlett (Richmond) and Leigh Matthews (Hawthorn) would ensure plenty of pace, aerial ability, and bite around the packs.

×

Right ▼

+

South Australia boasted a nucleus of experienced campaigners in the shape of John Cahill (Port Adelaide), Rodney Pope (West Adelaide, right), and the Sturt quintet of Brenton Adcock, Paul Bagshaw, Malcolm Greenslade, ‘Sandy’ Nelson and Rick Schoff, but it also had many players new to interstate football, and this was felt to be its likely achilles heel. In particular, its two young ruckmen Dean Farnham (Central District) and Ian Verrier (West Adelaide) were expected to be respectively too cumbersome and too lightweight to cope with the power and dynamism of the Victorian pair. The Croweaters’ main strengths were felt to be across centre, where Tony Burgan (Sturt), Russell Ebert and Bruce Light (both Port Adelaide) boasted plenty of pace and skill, and in the effervescently talented roving duo of Ray Huppatz (Woodville) and Mick Nunan (Sturt).

The VFL side was captained by Des Tuddenham, and South Australia by Glenelg’s Peter Marker. Coach for the VFL was Tom Hafey (Richmond), who was making his debut in the role, while Neil Kerley was coaching South Australia for the fifth time.

The match, which was played in near perfect conditions, with the surface of the ground firm and dry, was umpired by Western Australian Ray Montgomery.

A tight opening phase

With adrenalin high, the South Australian ruckmen competed well during the opening phase of the game, and as a result it was players like Bagshaw, Burgan and Huppatz who were repeatedly getting the ball out of the centre. The visitors were also dominating around the ground through the likes of Adcock, Pope, Woite, Marker and Greenslade, but it was noticeable that every time South Australia broke through for a goal, the Vics were able to respond almost immediately.

×

Left ▼

As the quarter wore on, the Vic ruckmen began to get on top, bringing players like Matthews, Hawthorn’s Kevin Heath, Bartlett and Footscray wingman David Thorpe - the VFL’s top kick getter at this point in the season² - into the game. The South Australian crumbers were still winning their share of possessions, however, and at the first change the match seemed finely poised.

QUARTER TIME: South Australia 4.4 (28); VFL 4.2 (26)

The Malcolm Greenslade Show

×

Right ▼

+

The South Australians seemed a good metre faster to the ball than their opponents early in the second term, but the Vic backmen, particularly Frank Davis (Melbourne) and Barry Davis played doggedly to curtail their impact. The duel at centre between Stewart and Ebert (right) was worth going a long way to see, with the ex-Tasmanian winning marginally more of the ball, but the Port Adelaide man using it slightly better.

Vic ruckmen Dempsey and Mynott were winning the lion’s share of the hit-outs, and also making more telling contributions around the ground than their South Australian counterparts, but Huppatz was by some measure the game’s pre-eminent rover at this stage. South Australian full forward Greenslade was proving too speedy and elusive for Scarlett, and had five goals on the board by half time. At the other end of the ground, McKenna was finding it hard to break clear of Bob Kingston (Port Adelaide), and had just a couple of majors to his name, but half forwards Tuddenham and Walls were proving difficult for their South Australian opponents to handle.

HALF TIME: South Australia 6.8 (44); VFL 6.7 (43)

Hafey plugs the hole

Tom Hafey implemented a couple of tactical changes in the third quarter which were to have a significant impact on the outcome of the game. First, instead of relying on Scarlett to beat Greenslade one on one, which so far he had been signally incapable of doing, Hafey instructed his half backs and back pocket players to drop into the ‘hole’ and block off the South Australian full forward’s run. This proved a resounding success, as Greenslade did not manage a goal for the term. Secondly, in order to combat the Croweaters’ goal to goal line dominance, the VFL coach told his men to move the ball down the flanks, with the result that players like Carlton’s Vin Waite, Barry Davis, Greig and John McIntosh (St Kilda) became a reliable and regular conduit to goal.

×

Left ▼

+

In addition, the Vic roving duo of Matthews and Bartlett began to impose themselves more on the game, although Bartlett’s impact was undermined by some slipshod kicking. At full forward, McKenna stopped trying to out-body Kingston, and took a series of telling marks from behind; as a result, he booted all 4 of the VFL’s goals for the quarter, including a couple deep in the time-on period which gave the home side a 10 point break, the biggest lead either side had enjoyed for the match. Best players for South Australia in this term were wingman Light, ruck-rover Bagshaw, and back pocket Adcock, but overall it seemed that the tide was gradually turning in the Big V’s favour.

THREE QUARTER TIME: VFL 10.13 (73); South Australia 9.9 (63)

Big V weathers the storm and eases to victory

With Kerley’s highly agitated three-quarter time address still ringing in their ears, the South Australians began the final term with renewed purpose and conviction. Moving the ball crisply and accurately by both foot and hand, they achieved their most concerted spell of dominance for the game, and for a time the Vics were left haplessly chasing shadows. By the ten minute mark of the quarter a goal to Greenslade followed by two to Huppatz had propelled South Australia to an eight-point advantage, and the Big V looked to be reeling.

×

Right ▼

+

It was at this point, however, that leg weariness caught up with the visitors, whose intensity and enthusiasm correspondingly dropped. Sensing their chance, the Vics, with the crowd baying for South Australian blood, lifted their own intensity and desperation to new found levels. Suddenly, the boot was firmly on the other foot, as the Victorians surged forward time and time again. With players like Barry Davis, Matthews, Walls, and the whole centreline of Thorpe, Stewart and Greig in the thick of the action, the VFL finished the match in total control, adding 6.4 to 0.2 over the final twenty minutes to win ‘pulling away’. In some ways it was rough justice on the South Australians, who had arguably been the better side for much of the match, but whereas they had played at or close to maximum intensity for perhaps a hundred minutes, the Vics managed to do it for the entire match.

FINAL SCORE: VFL 16.18 (114); South Australia 12.12 (84)

BEST
VFL: McKenna, Stewart, Matthews, Dempsey, B.Davis, Tuddenham
South Australia: Huppatz, Adcock, Greenslade, Wynne, Light, Burgan, Bagshaw

GOALS
VFL: McKenna 7; Dempsey, Matthews, Tuddenham 2; Greig, Thorpe, Walls
South Australia: Greenslade 6; Huppatz 3; Marker, Verrier, Wynne

ATTENDANCE: 66,893 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground

What they said³

TOM HAFEY (VFL COACH) said he was happy to get away with a win. He said his players did not play desperately enough in the first half, but his side’s greater physical strength paid off. Hafey said South Australia deserved credit for its effort in outplaying the VFL early in the game.

NEIL KERLEY (SA COACH): “Today was our big opportunity. We kept the pressure on the Vics early and out-roved them. We should have built up a bigger lead in the first half. In the third term we got the worst of some umpiring decisions, especially after Tuddenham clashed with Pope and Bruce Light. Our statistics showed that after that we received only seven frees to the Vics 21⁴. Umpire Montgomery showed in the first half that he wanted players to get on with the game and earn their frees and then in the second half he completely changed and we ended up playing tiggy touchwood. I’m damned annoyed that the VFL ended up winning by five goals. On the team’s performance there shouldn’t have been more than a straight kick between the teams.”

DES TUDDENHAM (VFL CAPTAIN) paid his opponent Rodney Pope a great tribute after the game. He said he had a very tough game and described Pope as “a real Victorian footballer”. He said he was very hard and tough and he had enjoyed his encounter with him.

PETER MARKER (SA CAPTAIN) said the five-goal margin was not a true indication of the game. Only in the last fifteen minutes were the Vics on top, aided by a couple of lucky decisions by umpire Ray Montgomery. The loss wasn’t the umpire’s fault, however. It was because of the VFL’s greater overall fitness. “But we had the opportunities and should have led by more in the first half,” he said.

×

Center ▼

High-flying action featuring SA's Peter Woite (no. 9) and Malcolm Greenslade, and a partially obscured John Scarlett (VFL).

×