Footy Flashbacks – Round 2, 2007
By Richard Allsop
Hawthorn’s score of 6.8.44 last Saturday night was the Club’s lowest opening round score for 54 years.
Back in Round 1, 1953 Hawthorn traveled to Geelong and managed only 5.8.38 to the reigning premier’s 12.15.87. In that season, the Hawks did not manage a win until Round 6 and collected the Club’s tenth wooden spoon by season’s end. Three players made their debut in Round 1, 1953 – Alf Chown, Kevin ‘Skeeter’ Coghlan and Graham Peck.
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One does not have to go back so far to find the most recent occasion that Hawthorn was on the bottom of the ladder after Round 1 – only to 2005, when the opening round saw a heavy loss to Sydney at the SCG. However, the instance prior to that when the Club was on the bottom after a full round of opening matches was much longer ago, in 1965.
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Hawthorn has won only two of its past 13 Round 2 matches – in 2001 and 2003. Overall, the round is one of the Club’s poorest with 32 wins, one draw and 49 losses.
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Melbourne is the only Victorian club that Hawthorn has not played in a premiership season game at Telstra Dome. Since that venue opened in 2000, this coming Monday’s game will be the twelfth Hawthorn v Melbourne match at the MCG. Since 1925, the two clubs have met at five venues – Glenferrie, MCG, Punt Road (during World War II, when Melbourne had to vacate the MCG), Princes Park and Waverley Park.
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Melbourne leads Hawthorn 74 to 72 in the head-to-head battle between the two clubs.
Melbourne’s lead dates back to Round 11, 1925 when they won the first meeting by 56 points at Glenferrie. The Redlegs won the first nine games before Hawthorn scored a breakthrough win in Round 18, 1930 at Glenferrie. Hawthorn’s first MCG win did not come until 1938.
In recent times, results have tended to alternate. The last sequence of two consecutive wins was by Hawthorn in Round 16, 2003 and Round 1, 2004, as was the last sequence of three, back in 1996-97.
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Hawthorn’s greatest ever winning sequence against another club is the run of 22 consecutive victories against Melbourne from Round 13, 1973 to Round 3, 1984.
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The Hawks and Demons last clashed in Round 2 in 1994. Both went into the Waverley Park clash coming off big opening round wins, but with Dunstall missing and Langford injured in the opening term, the Hawks were thrashed by 54 points.
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Peter Hudson holds the club record for the most goals versus Melbourne with 16 in Round 5, 1969. Jason Dunstall holds the club’s Round 2 record kicking 9 twice – in 1988 v Richmond and 1991 v Sydney.
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1957 – Fifty Years On
The Hawks start training on Monday 4 March under coach Jack Hale, assisted by Seconds’ coach ‘Tubby’ Edmonds and Viv Randall. Secretary Bill Newton has posted 256 invitations to train and expects other local recruits along also. All will be met by a reception committee and handed on to the coach. The committee extended an open invitation to any local lad to train.
- Sporting Globe 27.2.1957
Yes that’s right. Pre-season training began in March; a mammoth 256 players had been invited to train and if you had not scored an invite, but felt you were a chance of a game, you could turn up and try to show your wares. In fact, you did not even have to turn up on 4 March. The Age reported on 12 April that the previous evening “newcomers were Ron Moncrieff, a centre man from Crib Point, and Paddy O’Brien, a centre half forward from Croydon”.
These were not the only differences. Not only was there no pre-season competition, there were no inter-club practice matches at all. Less than two weeks after the commencement of training Hawthorn was one of seven clubs to play its first intra club games, which it did on five consecutive Saturdays (16 March to 13 April) - two per Saturday at Glenferrie.
One of the stars in the early weeks of the pre-season was John Winneke. However, by early April, the press was reporting that his League debut was likely to be deferred, as his parents wanted him to concentrate on his studies and play amateur football. He did not make his Hawthorn debut until 1960.
One of the key issues for the 1957 pre-season was identifying the best players to fill the key forward posts. Attention was focused on 17 year old Garry Young who had made four appearances in 1956, Robert Nisbet from South Warrnambool and Terry Ingersoll from Sydney. Their fortunes fluctuated in the practice games (Young kicked 9 one week and later Ingersoll booted 8), partly due to whether they had the likes of Don Gent as an opponent or a Seconds player.
Ingersoll was featured in the Sporting Globe as the “Hawks High Hope” an unusual status for a player from Sydney. The article documented some of his record breaking feats in the Sydney competition for Western Suburbs. At the time the piece appeared, in early March, Ingersoll had been living in Melbourne for four months and had satisfied residential qualifications. He was working in furniture business, but hankering to get back to former job as a slaughterman. The Herald also had a story about Ingersoll and reported that secretary Newton had seen him play three times and compared him to former Carlton great ‘Soapy’ Vallence.
Ingersoll was to win the battle for selection, with the younger of the Young brothers not breaking into the side until later in the season, while Nisbet did not make his debut until 1958.
Also attracting attention were two other recruits – Len ‘Mick’ Carter and Cyril Collard.
Carter a follower from Strathmerton played well in the 30 March practice match, but the following week sent a telegram to the club saying “Will not be down”. The club was unclear whether this meant for that week, or the season. He did reappear the following week, but it was agreed the club would only acquire three match permits, rather than a full clearance, until he was certain he would stay.
Collard had come across from Subiaco in the 1956 pre-season, but been denied a clearance. This time he had been cleared after an appeal to the ANFC and was seen as providing a boost to the team’s roving division. After an early injury, his form in later practice games made him a likely Round 1 inclusion. This season, the player being denied a clearance was Ray McVilly from North Hobart, who was not to appear in a league game until 1958.
After the final practice match on 13 April, the final list was announced. This comprised 26 old players, 9 new players (including Len Crane returning from a season at Wagga), 3 subject to clearance (Carter, McVilly and Ted Mackay), and 6 to be considered when available.
Ten players from the 1956 list were listed as “Off”. One of these was Clayton ‘Candles’ Thompson of whom The Herald’s Alf Brown wrote:
Candles Thompson will be no loss. He never displayed his 1953 Carnival form in Melbourne and every time Hawthorn leaned on him, they found he was unable to support them.
Brown’s overall assessment in his preview of the season was that while Hawthorn was expecting to make football history, he did not think they would, but believed “they will give most sides a headache”. He identified some things that needed to be improved from 1956 including the home ground record (only three wins and a draw in 1956), a couple of key positions and the roving, plus Graham Arthur’s form – “a young player of tremendous ability, but his first year in 1955 was much better than his second”. Brown also noted that the team had a tough draw, playing four of the top five sides from 1956 twice.
So the Hawks completed their 1957 pre-season with a desire to make history (and prove Alf Brown wrong).
Next week – Round 1: Easter Saturday, 20 April, 1957 – away to Carlton.
