Magarey Medal runners up.

[am Bays]

Yeah, I knew I was on dangerous ground and I am merely asking the question (wouldn't dare pose this question on The Roost!!! ).

Yes North had great players then (one only has to watch the 1973 GF to realise that) but it seemed to me that the Port and North players were less of a competition for votes for Ebert and Robran compared to the Sturt players for say Bagshaw.

Or, were Robran and Ebert that much better than their team mates?? Seems strange that not one Sturt player one a medal in that era when they clearly dominated it as a team.

[Leaping Lindner]

Barry Stringer actually outpolled Barrie Robran in the 1972 medal. Mind you between state games and injury Barrie R missed at least 5 games.

[Magpiespower]

Should be noted that during Sturt's dominance, Trevor Obst (1967) and Peter Woite (1975) also won Magarey Medals while John Cahill and Max James were runners-up...

[robranisgod]

Yeah, I knew I was on dangerous ground and I am merely asking the question (wouldn't dare pose this question on The Roost!!! ).

Yes North had great players then (one only has to watch the 1973 GF to realise that) but it seemed to me that the Port and North players were less of a competition for votes for Ebert and Robran compared to the Sturt players for say Bagshaw.

Or, were Robran and Ebert that much better than their team mates?? Seems strange that not one Sturt player one a medal in that era when they clearly dominated it as a team.

Sturt may have dominated the finals as a team - and were clearly the best team, but they didn't dominate the minor round every season. North were minor premiers in 1967, I think Glenelg in 1969 and Port in 1970. They may have had more depth than the other teams, but as I said before I don't think the SANFL has ever seen players to match Robran and Ebert. As an aside Murray Weidemann coached West for a number of those years. He has often stated that if he had Robran in his side he would have won the flag!!!! All sides had some great players, but Robran and Ebert were something else again.

[on the rails]

Or, were Robran and Ebert that much better than their team mates??

The defence rests your honour - I think you answered it yourself!

[GWW]

Bagshaw has been mentioned in this thread...i'm curious to know how close he came to winning a Magarey. Also did Michael Graham generally poll well? I would imagine his style of play would have attracted votes.

[Adelaide Hawk]

Bagshaw has been mentioned in this thread...i'm curious to know how close he came to winning a Magarey. Also did Michael Graham generally poll well? I would imagine his style of play would have attracted votes.

Michael Graham was runner up to Barrie Robran in 1973 but finished 9 votes behind him. Paul Bagshaw finished 3rd in the same season. It was generally accepted that Sturt's team had several players worthy of a medal but they had to share votes which minimised their chances.

[robranisgod]

Bagshaw has been mentioned in this thread...i'm curious to know how close he came to winning a Magarey. Also did Michael Graham generally poll well? I would imagine his style of play would have attracted votes.

Michael Graham was runner up to Barrie Robran in 1973 but finished 9 votes behind him. Paul Bagshaw finished 3rd in the same season. It was generally accepted that Sturt's team had several players worthy of a medal but they had to share votes which minimised their chances.

The other thing that stopped Baggy was that he seemed disinterested if Sturt were winning easily. Thus he wouldn't get 3 votes in games against the lesser teams.

[Magpiespower]

Sturt may have dominated the finals as a team - and were clearly the best team, but they didn't dominate the minor round every season. North were minor premiers in 1967, I think Glenelg in 1969 and Port in 1970.

Port were also minor premiers in '74 and '76 when Sturt won the flag...

[Pseudo]

Didn't Chiggy come runner up twice?

In 1990 weren't there like 3 or 4 equal runners up polling one vote behind Scott Hodges?

[Magpiespower]

Didn't Chiggy come runner up twice?

In 1990 weren't there like 3 or 4 equal runners up polling one vote behind Scott Hodges?

IIRC, there were four...

Simon Tregenza (Port)
David Marshall (Glenelg)
Eddie Hocking (Central)

And the fourth? Maybe Scott Lee?

There were about three more on 14 votes including Matthew Robran (Norwood)...

[Adelaide Hawk]

Bagshaw has been mentioned in this thread...i'm curious to know how close he came to winning a Magarey. Also did Michael Graham generally poll well? I would imagine his style of play would have attracted votes.

Michael Graham was runner up to Barrie Robran in 1973 but finished 9 votes behind him. Paul Bagshaw finished 3rd in the same season. It was generally accepted that Sturt's team had several players worthy of a medal but they had to share votes which minimised their chances.

The other thing that stopped Baggy was that he seemed disinterested if Sturt were winning easily. Thus he wouldn't get 3 votes in games against the lesser teams.

I'd never thought about that before, but it could be fair criticism. Certainly he had an aloof air about him sometimes and appeared to be firing on less than 8 cylinders. I tended to put it down to his casual style, but you may be right.

[robranisgod]

Bagshaw has been mentioned in this thread...i'm curious to know how close he came to winning a Magarey. Also did Michael Graham generally poll well? I would imagine his style of play would have attracted votes.

Michael Graham was runner up to Barrie Robran in 1973 but finished 9 votes behind him. Paul Bagshaw finished 3rd in the same season. It was generally accepted that Sturt's team had several players worthy of a medal but they had to share votes which minimised their chances.

The other thing that stopped Baggy was that he seemed disinterested if Sturt were winning easily. Thus he wouldn't get 3 votes in games against the lesser teams.

I'd never thought about that before, but it could be fair criticism. Certainly he had an aloof air about him sometimes and appeared to be firing on less than 8 cylinders. I tended to put it down to his casual style, but you may be right.

It was no criticism of Baggy. If you were beating Woodville by 15 goals on a wintery day at Woodville Oval in front of 3,000 people, why bust a gut? Robran and Ebert couldn't help themselves, they would still be best on the ground but Baggy would just enjoy the stroll.

Rick Davies certainly should have won the 1974 Magarey Medal. He won every single media award, but apparently his mouth cost him many, many votes.

[CK]

Bagshaw has been mentioned in this thread...i'm curious to know how close he came to winning a Magarey. Also did Michael Graham generally poll well? I would imagine his style of play would have attracted votes.

Michael Graham was runner up to Barrie Robran in 1973 but finished 9 votes behind him. Paul Bagshaw finished 3rd in the same season. It was generally accepted that Sturt's team had several players worthy of a medal but they had to share votes which minimised their chances.

The other thing that stopped Baggy was that he seemed disinterested if Sturt were winning easily. Thus he wouldn't get 3 votes in games against the lesser teams.

I'd never thought about that before, but it could be fair criticism. Certainly he had an aloof air about him sometimes and appeared to be firing on less than 8 cylinders. I tended to put it down to his casual style, but you may be right.

Phil Gallagher was once quoted as saying something along the same lines - that he wasn't driven to bust his boiler in the last quarter, chasing kicks to get a vote.

[Adelaide Hawk]

Phil Gallagher was once quoted as saying something along the same lines - that he wasn't driven to bust his boiler in the last quarter, chasing kicks to get a vote.

Phil Gallagher, now there was an interesting character. He played footy because he was good at it, and because he liked it. He got out of footy precisely what he wanted from it.

He was a richly skilled player who possibly could have won a medal, but he put into footy as much as he needed to, nothing more, nothing less. None of this gym work or that little bit extra with Gags, there was time to play footy, and a time to get on with the rest of his life.

I can just imagine he would have been out there some days, in the final term, Norwood 10 goals up .. or down, depending on the situation, and Gags would have been thinking what he was going to do that evening But when the stakes were high, we saw the magician at work. A brilliant player.

He once told me he understood why he played league football, but couldn't understand why people paid to watch. That's Gags

[nickname]

He once told me he understood why he played league football, but couldn't understand why people paid to watch. That's Gags

I hope he understands now, he's on the Football Commission.

[on the rails]

Rick Davies certainly should have won the 1974 Magarey Medal. He won every single media award, but apparently his mouth cost him many, many votes.

Sadly had Barrie not been cleaned up by Matthews in that State Game he would have romped to his 4th MM and in terms of your post robranisgod, it was Davies pass that Barrie marked when Matthews cleaned him up and many a times I have heard Rick Davies say he felt partially responsible for what happened which is of course absurd but shows the level of aclaim that his fellow SA players held him in.

[JK]

Rick Davies certainly should have won the 1974 Magarey Medal. He won every single media award, but apparently his mouth cost him many, many votes.

I was only a young kid at the time and just starting to warm to footy, but I remember my old man saying "Kingo should be a monty for the medal" back in 1980 ... Ultimately he was unsuccessful, but did he get close?

[Adelaide Hawk]

Rick Davies certainly should have won the 1974 Magarey Medal. He won every single media award, but apparently his mouth cost him many, many votes.

I was only a young kid at the time and just starting to warm to footy, but I remember my old man saying "Kingo should be a monty for the medal" back in 1980 ... Ultimately he was unsuccessful, but did he get close?

Yes, Kingo was close, damned close. He was sitting in the lead with (for memory) Kym Hodgeman close behind. Then the SANFL had done their usual trick of shuffling the votes and holding them back for a grandstand finish, and there was a Tsunami of "Port Adelaide ... R .... Ebert". votes. Ebert got up by 4 votes in the 2 umpire vote system ... so in the old language the equivalent of 2 votes.

I will always remember Russell getting up from his table and going to Kingo and shaking him by the hand. Later, Russell had a go at the organisers for once again setting someone up only to have them mown down in the end. I think this was the catalyst for them reverting to reading out the votes round by round as we see today.

Kingo was unlucky, but that's the nature of the award. Many other players have been just as unlucky over the years. The list of runners up from 1945 to 1990 who never won a medal reads like a who's who of SANFL football. Players such as Doug Olds, Alan Crabb, Fos Williams, Ray Hunt, Haydn Bunton, Clayton Thompson, Peter Obst, Jeff Bray, Peter Darley, Neil Kerley, Bob Simunsen, Robert Oatey, John Cahill, Peter Marker, Rick Davies, Michael Taylor, Craig Bradley and Peter Motley amongst them.

IMHO, the unluckiest runner up would have to be Peter Cloke in 1979. I went to Prospect Oval one day to watch a mate of mine Mark Doherty play his first league game for North Adelaide. I was standing around the grandstand side wing when I saw John Duckworth clearly strike Cloke with as clenched fist. It was about 20 metres from where I was standing and I had clear view.

Duckworth should have gone, didn't, and went on to win the medal in front of Cloke. Oh, and Cloke was giving Duckworth the greatest bath of all time that day as well.

[on the rails]

IMHO, the unluckiest runner up would have to be Peter Cloke in 1979. I went to Prospect Oval one day to watch a mate of mine Mark Doherty play his first league game for North Adelaide. I was standing around the grandstand side wing when I saw John Duckworth clearly strike Cloke with as clenched fist. It was about 20 metres from where I was standing and I had clear view.

Duckworth should have gone, didn't, and went on to win the medal in front of Cloke. Oh, and Cloke was giving Duckworth the greatest bath of all time that day as well.

Yep! IMO Jonas was a much better player for Centrals that year and to this day I am still to work out in a League as it was then, how a player with Duckworth's style could win a MM???