The characters of the good old days

[dedja]

Dunno if there has been a similar thread before … but if so, who cares

As I watch some of the games of old as Fox usually does to fill their Footy Channel between seasons, I note that I usually I know more players back in the 70’s and 80’s then I do now. Yes, I’m a dinosaur.

Anyway, as today’s world has been sanitised to buggery (a topic for another day), I still marvel at the characters of old.

Names like Crackers Keenan, Ronnie Wearmouth, Vin Catoggio, Rod Carter, Billy Picken, Phil Carman, Mark Jackson, Wow Jones, Rene Kink, Mick Nolan, Don Scott, Bruce Duoll, Brent Crosswell, Rex Hunt, Peter Daicos, Gary Ablett (Sr), Paul Vander Haar, Dermott Brereton, Billy Duckworth, David Rhys-Jones, Tom Alvin, Derek Kickett, Doug Hawkins, Robbie Muir, Nicky Winmar, Krakouer brothers, …

I’ve just scratched the surface …there are many, many more …

[wenchbarwer]

Crackers dropping Don Scott is one of my all-time favourite highlights..

On the subject of terrible commentators, Scott is number #1.

[dedja]

Scott confused a lot of people … was one of the hardest nuts on the ground, but carried a pink handbag off it.

[wenchbarwer]

Scott confused a lot of people … was one of the hardest nuts on the ground, but carried a pink handbag off it.

The one gripe I have with the replays from the late 80's & early 90's, is that quite a lot of them feature Don and his incessant whining.

Bitched and moaned about every tiny error, adding zero to the game. Think Gerard Healy but 100 times worse.

Maybe it's because the both of them have such inflated views of themselves...

[dedja]

Lou Richards was the worst … didn’t know players names and I reckon he couldn’t see a thing for the last 20 years he commentated. All he’d say is “there’s a go now”, with no idea who had the ball.

How good was The Winners, and then The Winners Rebooted with Drew Morphett. Little known fact is that he moonlighted as Rod ‘Curly’ Austin at Carlton.

[wenchbarwer]

The Winners, featuring the off-centre camera angle at Waverly. Made kicking to the left of screen seem like it was done on a 300m oval!

[GWW]

The commentators on the ABC tv coverage, such as Doug Heywood always seemed to be better than those from the commercial stations, predominantly ch7.

Watching some of the highlights I was surprised how good a player Neil Balme was in his career at Richmond.

Interesting to see some footage of Rpyce Hart, who I've been told by at least one person, that he was better than Carey.

Enjoyable watching Jesaulenko play, plus a few others such as John Nicholls, Mick Conlan and Bosustow.

Gerard Healy is annoying as a commentator, but I really enjoyed watching him play back in the day, very skilful.