Australian Football

Heroes come in different shapes and forms: some impress us because we see ourselves reflected in them, if only palely; others are demi-gods whom we admire for perhaps the opposite reason.

Fred Bills, who played 313 games for West Torrens and 7 for South Australia between 1959 and 1975 was quintessentially of the former type. Definitely heroic, at least to Eagles fans, he nevertheless seemed to imply that heroism was almost universally attainable. Whereas Gary Ablett or Haydn Bunton senior might invite awe-struck admiration at their ability to perform the unlikely or even the ‘impossible’, Freddy Bills persistently served to reassure the onlooker that effectiveness and high achievement in football were within the grasp of anyone with even a modicum of ability. One-paced to the point of seeming plodding, almost half-heartedly aggressive, as though enacting a role, and so bereft of subtlety that one sometimes wondered if he understood the game at all, Bills was nevertheless an automatic choice for the Eagles for seventeen seasons, during which time he won four club best and fairest awards and arguably attracted more affection and esteem than any other Torrens player, even including that most illustrious of ‘demi-gods’, Lindsay Head.

Of course, the impression conveyed by players like Bills that the playing of football at league level is ‘easy’ and requires no special talent is an arch deception. Bills had talent, and plenty of it, albeit that it was serenely and modestly packaged. When South Australia was looking down the barrel against the West Australians at three quarter time of a 1962 interstate clash at Subiaco Oval, 12 points adrift and with only sixteen fit men on the field, it was not the ‘demi-gods’ who came to the rescue, but ‘our Freddy’, an heroic manifestation of the common man, who regarded the fact that he was bleeding profusely from the mouth as a minor distraction of scant importance, and who summoned up literally the quarter of his life to help steer his team to victory.

The following year, Bills was a member of the famous South Australian combination which scored a seven-point victory over the VFL in Melbourne. Although not conspicuous in terms of statistics, he undertook the vital role, along with Neil Kerley, of ensuring that the Victorians did not ‘crowd’ the ruck contests and thereby limit the effectiveness of SA’s potential match-winner, ‘Big Bill’ Wedding. Given a free run at the ball, Wedding was unstoppable, but it was only the surreptitiously energetic solicitude of Bills and Kerley that enabled this to happen.

In contrast to his interstate exploits, there was little at club level for Bills to enjoy, with the Eagles qualifying for the major round only four times during his career without winning a single finals match.

Author - John Devaney