Carolyn Spooner continues her amazing series examing players in specific positions on the footy field. Carolyn’s creative juices this episode flow to those who inhabit the interchange bench.
The interchanges sitting on the bench are in a state of readiness to enter the fray, but they could be passing the time productively by playing a game or doing a puzzle to keep themselves relaxed but alert. I’ve found some historical background in a couple of State Library of South Australia books, The Oxford history of board games by David Parlett (Oxford: OUP, 1999) and Hoyle’s games modernized 20th edition (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1950).
Every living Aussie Rules footballer has surely been named on the bench at some time, except maybe one. When this player arrived in Adelaide, he was played at centre half forward, which by his own admission he didn’t find easy but applied himself. That first year he shared the club best and fairest award, then won the next six best and fairests on his own, playing wherever the side needed him, from ruck to rover. ‘Only position he couldn’t play was 19th man’, said West Adelaide’s Doug Thomas. No prize for guessing it was Barrie Robran MBE.

Football Budget 2 September 1972
In North Adelaide’s game on 2 September 1972, Robran’s teammate, Rob O’Shannassy, was named as one of two reserves, while Sturt named a 19th and 20th man. As well as playing footy with Barrie, Rob played cricket with him for Prospect. To match Barrie’s three Magarey Medals, Rob won three Bradman Medals and played four Sheffield Shield matches. We know that cricketers traditionally play cards while waiting to bat or during rain, but in these new age times you’re just as likely to see them doing a crossword. So I reckon Rob would tackle the Puzzle pages that can include a general knowledge Crossquiz, a Sudoku and a Codewords, where you are given one letter and have to figure out the rest. The Age on Saturday has the best puzzles going around.
No prize for guessing who this is: on his debut in 1968, this player spent most of the game where he was destined to be most of his career—on the bench. By the 1970 grand final he’d played 19 games, 11 of them starting on the bench. Trailing by 44 points at half time, Ron Barassi decided to bring on his 19th man as a strategic move, rather than as an injury replacement, leaving Carlton exposed with only one reserve. ‘Get ready Teddy, you’re on’, and in front of a record 121,696 crowd, he ran amok in the forward pocket to kick four goals and snatch an 11 point victory over Collingwood. Ted Hopkins found the leap from backroom reserve to celebrity status unsettling, so after playing only one more game in 1971, and having achieving the ultimate reward, he quietly retired at the age of 22.
But Hopkins was so much more than a reserve. As Nathan Burke said, ‘football is what I do, it’s not who I am.’ Ted had twice been Australian Junior Water Skiing Champion, then he became a publisher, designer, journalist, broadcaster, environmentalist, poet and writer as seen on Trove. In 1995 he founded Champion Data which is still used to record player statistics and movements. The boardgame to match this scenario has been played for some 2,500 years. Originating in Asia, and simply called Go, it’s an abstract strategy game played on a board with 361 squares. Curiously, the game proceeds until neither player wishes to make another move, when captured black or white stones and territory are counted to find the winner. It is said there are more positions in Go than there are atoms in the universe.
When the laws of Australian Rules were drawn up in the football universe, there was no provision for an injured player to be replaced. The earliest edition of the laws that the State Library holds: Laws of the Australasian game of football as adopted by the Australasian Football Council issued by the South Australian Football League Ltd (Adelaide: Lonnen & Cope, 1924) specifies 18 players but does not mention reserves. Many would have agreed with ‘Sentinel’ writing in the Advertiser on 14 July 1924:
I would like to draw attention to a weakness in big football. When a league player is forced to retire from the field with injury his club has to carry on the play with one man short, which is most unfair. Either allow a reserve man to replace his injured clubmate or make the injured player’s opponent go off the field with him for the remainder of the match, or allow the captain of the opposing team to decide which member of his side shall go off.
It was not until March 1930 that a 19th man first appeared in league football, after the majority of states in the Australian Football Council voted to allow captains to make one substitute, the replaced player being unable to return to the field. Even so, this move was not universally approved. ‘Clubs Disagree On Use Of 19th man’ headlined The Register News-Pictorial of 16 April 1930.
Before this, in South Australian newspapers as seen on Trove, teams would be named with 20 players. Sometimes one would be shown as 19th and other times two would be shown as reserves. South Australian football historian Trevor Gyss tells me these players were named in case one of the 18 players was injured before the game started. In 1946 a second reserve or 20th man was introduced. Then in 1978 the reserves became interchanges, increased to three in 1994. As of 2025 there are four interchange players and one substitute in the AFL. A curious amendment to AFL Regulations was introduced on 6 February 2024 prohibiting ‘whistling from the Interchange bench’. Evidently coaches whistling was interfering with the audio broadcast, and confusing players and umpires!
I would like to see a trial of five or six non-replaceable reserves instead of interchanges, which I think would lead to less injuries, as players won’t be running flat out for the whole game, and would see players hold position more, producing more one-on-one contests, less packs and more attractive play.
Back in the early days, Maurice Allingham played for Port Adelaide from 1919 to 1931. The State Library has an interview with him from 1990 which you can read online at OH 111/6.

Allingham and Wilkins lived in Carlisle Street, Glanville as seen in the Sands & McDougall directory for 1928
Maurie, how did you get selected to play with the Magpies?
“Oh, I had a good name round here as a footballer [playing for Ethelton], and one Sunday morning, we were playing Little Penny Poker down at Old Lon Wilkins Fruit Shop, a couple of doors away from where I used to live. Mrs Wilkins came in saying, ‘Maurie, somebody wants to see you out there’. It was the Chairman of the Selectors of the Port Adelaide Football Club, Henry Eaton. He said, ‘Maurie, we want you to come up and play for Port Adelaide’. I said, ‘I’m happy where I am. Anyway, I might go up there and train two nights and not even be in the side’. He said, ‘You come up and train and I’ll guarantee you’re in the side next Saturday’. And I was in that side next Saturday, and I wasn’t out of it for twelve years.”
That’s how players were recruited in those days. Maurie’s last game was in 1931 when he won Port Adelaide’s best and fairest at the age of 35. Penny Poker is so-called because players only put a few pennies in the pot.

Shine Hosking
Another Glanville boy, Sampson Hosking, played centre, wing, rover and forward for Port Adelaide from 1907 to 1921, two matches in 1927 and one in 1936. After dislocating an elbow as a youngster, Hosking got around his father’s edict that he was not to play football, by playing under an assumed name, H Sampson, with Marist Brothers, and later Semaphore Centrals. While at Semaphore Centrals he started wearing a short-brimmed hat, similar to that worn by Adelaide comedian Harry Shine, and Hosking was subsequently given the nickname ‘Shine’. Winning two Magarey Medals, he qualifies for this story because when he was coaching Port in 1936 he made himself 19th man at the age of 48 years and 154 days. The Register said he had ‘a football brain of rare fertility’, while in the Sporting Globe. Shine Hosking advocated that players should ‘study the game and the moves of your opponents as a chess player would’. So he’d be playing Chess on the bench, if he could find a taker.

Living chess in Adelaide Town Hall SLSA B 47758 20 December 1882
Chess has been played in its current form since the 16th century. Sir Charles Todd of Overland Telegraph fame was a chess enthusiast. He would play with his counterpart in Victoria down the telegraph line which Todd established in the 1850s. He started Adelaide’s first chess club in 1864 and also played a game of living chess in the Adelaide Town Hall in 1882 where the pieces were society worthies, and amazingly the Library has a photograph of it.

Register 21 March 1914, and Edgar and Jane Wigg playing Cribbage legally in 1880 SLSA PRG 476/76/1
Not quite so salubrious as the Adelaide Town Hall was the Port Hotel on North Parade at Port Adelaide, where ‘Ike’ Brown and ‘Big Jack’ were discovered by the coppers betting on a game of Cribbage at a hotel. The Port Hotel was licensed on 23 March 1839 and was demolished in 1951.
Someone who may have patronised the Port Hotel was Port’s 2001 greatest team interchange Harry ‘Tick’ Phillips who played from 1886 to 1900, winning three consecutive best and fairests. I wonder if he played Cribbage, which is a terrific game as long as you can add up to 15 and 31. In 1893 a writer for the Express and Telegraph wrote:
‘Tick’ Phillips is one of the most respected and gentlemanly footballers in the colony. He is not an in-an-out player, but one who is loyal to his club and trains consistently in order that the team he plays for should have the full benefit of his abilities. He has been connected with the Ports for a good many years, and during this period has earned the goodwill of not only the supporters of the club, but those outside the magenta ranks [which were Port’s colours at that time until 1902]. As a ruck player there are few his equal not only in this colony, but in Australia. He is remarkably clever, very modest in his performances, and quite unselfish.
Geelong’s 2019 team of the century interchange Alec Eason was a talented and hard-working player between 1909 and 1915, nicknamed ‘Bunny’ because of his speed. He was considered one of the finest rovers in Victoria in the early 1920s despite missing two fingers on his right hand due to an accident. His accuracy with stab-kicking and handpassing were highly regarded, as was his ability to win the ball from either his or his opponents’ ruck tap-outs. He was also known for talking constantly on the field, annoyingly wittily to boot. Bunny might like to play the 2024 Raising Rabbits board game where you breed and show your way to victory with 40 breeds [there are more than 300 rabbit breeds in the world] while gathering points and rabbit droppings.

Tommy Quinn, Allen’s 1934 Football Card from Wikipedia
Geelong named four emergencies in its team of the century, one of whom was recruited from Port Adelaide. This was Tom Quinn, whose father John and three brothers Jack, Bob and George, also played for Port. Geelong spotted Tommy at the 1930 Adelaide Carnival and figured this tenacious, skillful, tank-like rover was just what they needed to win the 1931 premiership, which they did, and he was best on ground in their 1937 premiership. Nicknamed ‘Maggie’ he was popular with players and supporters at Corio Bay, just as his younger brother Bob, also a rover, was popular at the Port. Bob won a Magarey Medal on either side of World War Two, where he was awarded the Military Medal at the Siege of Tobruk, but was saddened by the loss of younger brother George in the war. Bob’s younger son Greg played Reserves footy, but was better known as a cricketer. While playing for East Torrens, Greg won seven Charlie Walker Trophies for wicket-keeping, named after his wicket-keeping uncle, who lost his life in World War Two. Greg was recently a guest at our Cricket Lovers Society, regaling us with a mix of hilarious and poignant family and sporting stories. The whole family would qualify as a category in the card game of Happy Families, which dates back to the 1860s.
In the days before everyone had cars, football teams and supporters would travel to games by train, and sometimes special trains would be put on. Being out in the country, Geelong was such a team. Tickets could be had at Mr C Brownlow’s office in Malop Street, Geelong. And yes, this ‘office’ was the watchmaking shop of Charles Brownlow of medal fame. One of the players who would have travelled on these trains in 1911 was Leo ‘Dodo’ Healy—and of course there’s a Dodo board game. So versatile he could play on the half forward flank, wing or back pocket, ‘Dodo’ played 75 games with the Pivotonians. This nickname was supposedly due to Geelong’s pivotal point for shipping and rail in Victoria. The cumbersome nickname stuck until 1923, when a cartoon in the Herald of 28 August depicting an incident involving a stray black cat in a Geelong huddle supposedly sparked the change.

Reg Rosewarne in the Advertiser 3 May 1929, Advertiser 16 May 1929, Train Game SLSA South Australian Collection
Special trains ran in Adelaide as well. Bay supporters on the train from Semaphore might have watched 1934 premiership rover Reg Rosewarne doing his thing. Reg was uncle of Lawrie, son of Clem and brother of Geoff (thanks Peter Cornwall). Train buffs will be interested to know at this time there was a direct line, as you can see in the 1926 Semaphore and Henley maps by WH Edmunds, about whom I am writing a biography. The State Library has The train game (Melbourne: The Train Game®, 2024) described in the catalogue as ‘A fast paced card game for 2-7 players based on the Adelaide train network. Collect a full hand of train stations from the same train line, plus the correct train card, to win. But watch out for ticket inspectors—if you don’t have a ticket, you pay the fine!’
Essendon’s 1997 team of the century interchanges are Mark Thompson, William Griffith, Francis Maher and Keith Forbes. We’ve met Bomber Thompson before as a half back flanker so let’s look at the others.

SLSA Children’s Literature Research Collection
If you want a reserve to be versatile then Billy Griffith at 5’9” fits the bill. Playing from 1899 to 1913, he was a rover in Essendon’s 1901 premiership side and a fullback in their 1911 and 1912 triumphs. He may well have played The National Football Game (Melbourne: National Game Co, circa 1910) for two to four players which is held in the State Library. The National Game Company was established by W Owen in Ballarat in the early 1900s, and is considered to be the first large scale manufacturer of board games in Australia. You can download and print a PDF of the game with the rules from the Library’s website.
Frank Maher only began playing football when serving as a machine gunner with the AIF in World War One. He was awarded the Military Medal for gallantry in May 1918 for his actions in France during the Battle of Broodseinde. In The Sporting Globe of 21 May 1938 Gordon Coventry described the 5’6” Maher:
a brainy little tactician. Maher made a study of football, and his brilliance, pace, tricks and anticipation were all backed with glorious passes which, literally speaking, went down a comrade’s throat. Maher came out of a crush and instinctively put the ball in the right direction. He had a swerve that invariably got him out of trouble. Never at any time did he play the man, and he hated to give away a free kick. His play left nothing to be desired.

Holden Card Game, SLSA BRG 213/171/1/7 Courtesy GM Australia & NZ Pty Ltd
Being brainy, he was employed with the Commonwealth Statistician in Melbourne, but when the office was transferred to Canberra, he joined General Motors Holden where he was appointed Victorian sales manager. He would be interested to play the Holden card game which was produced in 1960 by GM Holden. The State Library is the custodian of the Holden Archive, all 170 metres of it, and has an exhibition on its rich history until 22 June, complete with an FJ Holden ute in the foyer.
Keith Forbes was one of Essendon’s greatest and most decorated players. Quick, skillful and an excellent mark, although primarily a rover, Forbes was capable of playing in a number of different positions. During World War Two, Forbes was on leave from Tobruk when it was surrounded by the Germans, leading his comrades to regard him as ‘lucky’ and they would stand near him in dangerous situations, believing they would be safe. If he’s lucky then he needs to be playing a game of pure chance, like Snakes and Ladders, which arrived in England from ancient India in the 1890s. The phrase back to square one is from this game. Snakes & Lattes is a board game café which opened in Toronto in 2010, and now has three venues in the city and five United States franchises.

My set of Tasmanian playing cards features its casino
North Launceston and North Hobart’s socks-down left-footed ruck rover John Leedham was a Tasmanian legend, maybe the best Tasmanian never to play in the VFL/AFL. He was named in the inaugural All Australian team in 1953. ‘John L’ was a larger-than-life character who might have enjoyed a few hands of Blackjack in Hobart’s Wrest Point casino in Sandy Bay, which opened in 1973 as Australia’s first legal casino.

Advertiser 25 May 1953
In the old days the reserves would wear a dressing gown to keep warm while sitting on the bench, but in 1953 the tracksuit became the thing. The Advertiser shows North’s 20th man and 1952 premiership player, AH Odgers, wearing a track suit on the bench. On the same day, the Tiser’s Round the Pickets column wrote that ‘Stan Wickham almost won the match for Glenelg when, shedding his black track suit, (worn by Glenelg’s 19th and 20th men), he went on for the last quarter’. Being all snuggly and warm they might like to do a Jigsaw puzzle.
Writing in The Advertiser’s World of Sport column on 10 July 1954, John Mehaffey said:
West Adelaide Football Club talent scout Bill Hicks will watch with interest two young players he recruited from Onkaparinga when they play against West Torrens at Adelaide Oval today. Kingsley Spoehr, 20, will play his first full game. He has been 19th and 20th man previously this season. Jack Muller, 21 and 6’5” is named as a reserve for his first game, but it would not surprise if he were used to counteract West Torrens ruckman Coverlid.
I reckon they might have played with a Yo-Yo, which was registered as a trademark in 1932 although it has been around since 440 BCE. The Yo-Yo had a resurgence in the 1960s—my favourite was a small dark-red Coca Cola one, which was adept at walking the dog. Remember the days in the playground at school in the 1950s and 1960s when games would mysteriously appear, be played for a while, then disappear when the next one came along. Yo-Yos and Marbles were mainly for the boys, while Knucklebones and Swap Cards were for the girls. Marbles date back to ancient Egypt, generally made of glass, some called cat’s eyes, the best ones made of agate or alabaster. Knucklebones are also an ancient game. I had a clunky set made of bone, as well as a beautiful set made of pastel coloured plastic. Skipping ropes were mainly for girls, but when there were two long heavy ropes going in opposite directions, it was a challenge for anyone to get through.
In a couple of Sturt’s premiership years in the 1960s, coach Jack Oatey—ever unorthodox—would bring Malcolm Hill down from Berri in the Riverland to sit on the bench in the final series, and it worked. Mal ran the Berri pub, where you could imagine a game of Backgammon going on. Dating back to the 17th century it’s a mix of strategy and luck from rolling dice. Can’t say it’s a game I warmed to, too tricky by half.
Jim Michalanney was nicknamed Piano for his perfect white teeth. It didn’t stop him playing for Norwood from 1974 to 1986, winning four flags as a tall forward and handy tap ruckman. He had to take the whole of 1980 off with a pelvic bone injury, but instead of idly passing the time he joined a a couple of mates at the Norwood Croquet Club, and ended up winning the South Australian All Grades Doubles Handicap event! Having played Croquet for 20 years myself, including games at Norwood Club, I know it’s good exercise for bending, stretching and walking—when I stopped playing I put on half a stone in weight. Because of his doubles prowess, Jim can be playing Bridge, which is a fabulous game for two pairs, although stressful if your mind doesn’t run to counting trumps. Being a teacher, and Principal at Murray Bridge High School, he would be quite smart enough. I also like the more relaxed three hand, with the highest bidder playing the dummy. As well there is a two player version called Honeymoon Whist. The Library has some 90 books on Bridge. The play of the hand by William Root (London: Hale, 1991) has an introduction by the movie legend Omar Sharif, who was a world class player, and there’s an Omar Sharif Bridge App, of course. To cap it off, Jim is the father of Max Michallaney, who has played strongly as a tall defender with the Adelaide Crows since 2023.

Mount Gambier Quartets Game, SLSA South Australian Collection
Adelaide’s Matthew Clarke grew up in 1970s Mt Gambier, where his father was the local veterinarian. As well as playing basketball Matthew played with West Gambier in the Western Border Football League. He went on to play for Richmond, then Brisbane then Adelaide and finished at St Kilda. He’s coached Adelaide’s AFLW team with great success, 2025 being his last year. His family might like to play the Mount Gambier Quartets Game which was created in 1896 by local boy Alexander Ralph Walker, who sadly lost his life in World War One.

My set of Pick-Up Sticks from the 1950s
Solidly built Fraser Brown was, according to Wikipedia, ‘known for his fierce style of play. He will long be remembered for his gripping tackle on Dean Wallis in the 1999 Preliminary Final against Essendon. With Carlton desperately hanging on a one point lead, and with just seconds remaining, Brown laid a bear hug on Wallis as he tried to baulk around him and run into an open goal. Carlton won the match by a solitary point.’ As Leigh Matthews said, tackles win premierships. A challenging game for someone with such a strong grip might be the delicate game of Pick-Up-Sticks, which was one of our family favourites in the 1950s. You released the bundle of wooden or plastic sticks on the floor and player took turns to remove a stick from the pile without disturbing any of the others. Whoever managed to extract the black stick could use it to remove the others, so had the advantage.
Six interchanges were named in the Indigenous team of the century. Two we haven’t met so far are Edward Kilmurray and Michael McLean.

Ted Kilmurray
Ted Kilmurray played 257 games for East Perth between 1953 and 1966. He could play half forward flank, full forward or ruck rover. He won East Perth’s best and fairest in 1958 and broke teammate Polly Farmer’s sequence of four awards in a row. That year he also won a Sandover Medal. It is said that it was his mastery of the ‘flick’ pass that saw the rule changed. The AFL website says:
Kilmurray could also lay some claim to the modern day ‘snap’. Playing full forward, Kilmurray would meet the ball at speed, gather or mark it at full pace and keep running away from the goal and snap the ball back over his shoulder. So quick was Kilmurray out of the goal square he got the nickname ‘Square’.
With his skill at snapping for goal, he’d be a shoo-in for the card game Snap, which would get a bit willing with all those kids’ hands thumping the table and shrieking Snap.
Michael McLean played for the Brisbane Bears/Lions from 1991 to 1997, and is described on its website:
a key pillar on which the post-merger success at the Brisbane Lions was built. A dual club champion on the field and a champion 24/7 off the field. A courageous voice in the early AFL fight against racism in football, he taught right and wrong, and had a profound influence on the club as a player and coach.
Known as ‘Magic’ McLean for his inspirational skills, what magic game would he be playing on the sidelines? Maybe something from Expert card technique: close-up table magic by Jean Hugard (New York: Dover, 1974) held in the Library. It’s all of 448 pages, covering secret lifts, false deals and shuffles, palming, the sideslip, the glimpse and sundry sleights. I had a look at them, but the sleights were too complicated by half, so Michael can play a game originally called the Magic Cube in 1974 which then became Rubik’s Cube. It’s one of 88 toys in the National Toy Hall of Fame in Rochester, New York. Not all the toys in this list are high tech; inducted in 2008 was the humble stick. ‘Almost certainly the world’s oldest and longest-running toy, upon picking one up off the ground, a kid can become a swordfighter, a pirate, a rifleman, a bandleader, a Jedi, an astronomer, a ninja, a pro baseball player, or anything else that the imagination can associate with.’ There’s now an Instagram account with reviews on sticks that people find in nature!
Jerry D’Antiochia was a consistent performer for Norwood from 1986 to 1989. The Redlegs Museum website tells us, ‘Whether as a creative on-baller or later as a no fuss defender, the popular D’Antiochia got the job done.’ He won the club’s EA Johnson service award and its Jim Tummel Outstanding Qualities award. He might be a good person to play Scrabble against. Invented in 1931, Scrabble can be a fun game if you don’t take it too seriously. Otherwise it can be slow grim death and no fun for people who don’t want to extract every last point from every last word. You could play Scrabble with a theme, so only words relating to football, or you might have done enough French at school to play scrabble using French words only, or another variation.

My set of Solitaire from the 1950s
Recruited from Eyre Peninsula, Geoff Phelps was a close checking defender with a penetrating kick, and whose versatility allowed him to play up forward and in the ruck. Port Adelaide often used him off the bench to plug holes, as in the 1990 grand final, when he came on during the second quarter to play full forward after Scott Hodges was carried off the ground. Being someone who could fill holes, he would enjoy playing Solitaire, where you remove a peg when you jump over it, hopefully finishing with one peg on the board.

First move in a game of Mastermind – five moves is par for us, Games World in Gawler Place, Adelaide
Caleb Daniel was an All Australian interchange in 2020 at the Western Bulldogs. He’s one of the most effective short kicks in the game, matched with brilliant decision-making, ball-handling, agility and running ability. He’s still using that decision-making with the Kangaroos, which would be very handy in playing Mastermind, a game of logical thinking and educated guesswork. It’s my favourite game, and we also play variations where you put out two rows to begin, then three, then four, then a random four. Board games had something of a renaissance in 2010. You can now get an Adelaide Edition of Monopoly or a Shane Warne Legacy Edition. There’s even academic subject called Game Studies—they’ll be handing out Nobel Prizes for them next
Midfielder Darcy Parish was an All Australian interchange in 2021, which was his breakout year, He also won the Anzac Day Medal and the Yiooken Award for best on ground in the Dreamtime at the ‘G with 44 disposals, the most ever recorded in one match by an Essendon player. Since Essendon are the Bombers, he might have a go at the retro Battleships, which my brother played in the 1950s. You drew a grid on paper, marked the location of your ships, then tried to locate the enemy ships by calling out grid numbers. Nowadays there’s a plastic version and it’s online, of course.
In the AFLW, Penny Cula-Reid only played a couple of games for Collingwood in 2017, one on the interchange bench. But she made an impact before that. She was one of three girls who challenged Football Victoria’s rules that prevented girls from playing in mixed gender teams after the age of 12. The case changed the rule to the under 15s, which still prevented Cula-Reid from playing in mixed gender teams. She has been credited with effectively forcing AFL Victoria to create a youth girls’ competition. The documentary, Even girls play footy, was made about the case. As if that isn’t enough, she played Victorian Second XI Cricket, and Gridiron with the Victorian Maidens in the Lingerie Football League! Penny’s advanced to a successful coaching career. If you were allowed to take your mobile phone onto the bench, Penny may well play Wordle, and when she gets that out she might play another fabulous game in the New York Times stable, Connections.

In Wordle I start with a different word each day and my par is four, Connections is trickier than Wordle
The All Australian interchanges for 2024 are the Lachies Whitfield and Neale, Adam Treloar and Zac Butters. The only one who hasn’t appeared in this series is midfielder Adam Treloar, who won many friends with his stoic acceptance of his move from Collingwood, where he landed in the welcoming arms of the Western Bulldogs in the final minute of the trade period. He’s also heroic, winning the Anzac Day medal in 2018. He’s such a sweetheart, he might enjoy playing Categories, where you name a category like Dogs and everyone on the bench in turn has to name a breed of dog starting with each letter of the alphabet. So Afghan Hounds, Beagles, Collies and so on. The X just has to be a letter within the word, like Foxhound. You then move onto the category suggested by the next person, maybe Western Bulldogs players. It’s a good way to pass the time in a car trip to the footy.
So the reserves and interchanges contribute in no small way to the fortunes of their teams. It’s a fun exercise to think who you would like on the bench and what sort of game they would enjoy in a team playing in a games room heaven.
Next time we look at the Captains and find out who might be their inspiration among the famous captains of the world—whether from the maritime, defence, sporting or literary worlds. Suggestions for Captains and captains welcome.
To read more by Carolyn Spooner click HERE.
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Absolutely brilliant Carolyn. Thank you.
I’m not sure if your mind is crazy or creative.
And the connections you found, which moved you from one topic to the next, gave the piece a real dominoes feel.
A tour de force this piece!
I need to read it again.
Wow Carolyn, this is so complex but oh so readable. Very well played.
Absolutely epic, Carolyn.
Well played!!
I like the way you think Carolyn. Keep them coming!
Captivating & extraordinary Carolyn!
The games from our past brought back lots of joyful (if sometimes overly strategic) memories.
Brilliant Carolyn.
I see the Footy Budget struggled with the correct spelling of O’Shannassy.
Wonder who will be playing that Sir Ross Smith Aeroplane Race Game you introduced us to?
Superb Carolyn I loved Jerry’s mention have time this morning to call in to his work and show the
D’Antiochia clan ! Thank you