Almanac (Creative) Footy: In the lockers with the small forward pockets

 

Carolyn Spooner resumes her series comparing the positions on the Aussie Rules Football field with other things. She is up to the rovers. You can read more of Carolyn’s delightful stories HERE including her  accounts of the fishy full forwards, the motoring centre half-forwards, the canine centres, the heroic centre half-backs, the skyline full backs, the treetop ruckmen and the weaponised ruck rovers.

 

The forward pocket used to be where rucks and rovers went to ‘rest’. Since the advent of the interchange in 1978 it is a position in its own right, but its incumbents are usually called tall or small forwards, and can be hard to identify. So here goes with my take on some of the small forwards and resting rovers who have made their mark on the position, and what apparel they would bring to mind.

 

I delved into the language of clothes in The Fashion Resource Book: Men by Robert Leach (London : Thames & Hudson, 2014) for some background.

 

There are a couple of legendary cases of forward pocket craft.

 

The picket fence below the scoreboard at Adelaide Oval should have a plaque reading The Eddie Betts Pocket, where Eddie kicked two of his four Goals of the Year. With his sunny outlook and those baggy shorts he could for all the world have been having fun on the beach wearing Boardies. Even when playing for Carlton, Adelaide crowds loved him. And in the cricket season, the radio commentators sometimes forgot themselves and described a shot being hit to the Eddie Betts pocket. By the way, it’s interesting that Adelaide is our only capital city with an oval not a cricket ground.

 

Although he played in the back pocket, Carlton’s pocket battleship Wayne Harmes made the forward pocket famous or infamous for a piece of inspiration that dubiously kept the ball in play, going on to win the inaugural Norm Smith Medal in the 1979 Grand Final against Collingwood. With that slide on the muddy ground Harmes would have benefited from a Drizabone, made by iconic South Australian outfitter RM Williams. In 2023, football historian Rhett Bartlett discovered some new footage of a different angle of the incident that appears to show the ball was kept in play.

 

Another couple of pieces of legendary forward pocket lore involve Port Adelaide’s blond defender Ivan Eckermann, firstly in the SANFL grand final against Glenelg in 1977. By half time the Magpies were down to 16 fit players out of 20. Full forward Tim Evans was concussed but remained on the ground, while Eckermann was plonked in a forward pocket with a huge pressure bandage on his torn hamstrung thigh. Nearly immobile, he heroically kicked three goals in the second half to get Port over the line by eight points. The second incident occurred in the 1982 state of origin game South Australia v Victoria when the lad from Blyth laid a bump on Leigh Matthews, who, in his autobiography Lethal, recalls going after the ball from the forward pocket. ‘My next memory was being steered around the boundary line by a couple of trainers. For the only time in my career, I had ‘lost’ a few minutes.’ Channelling Ivan the Terrible, Eckermann deserves to relax in some comfy Sweats after those efforts.

 

Allen Aylett writes about the evasive skills that a rover or a forward pocket player needs in the chapter ‘Let’s go roving’ in High Mark edited by Jack Pollard (Sydney: Murray Publishing Company, 1967).

 

‘They just have to be exceptionally adept in dodging, turning, swerving. Few aspects of the game are as important as turning. This is an art you can perfect with experience, but you can speed up the process of learning it by working on it assiduously at training, working with a team-mate so that you can adhere to the golden rule of keeping an eye on opponents. The most effective is the blind turn, where you stop suddenly, feint to the left with the left shoulder and then swing abruptly on the right foot in a right-hand turn. If you have feinted well enough, your pursuer will be thrown off balance and your right-hand spin will give you that vital yard or two break on him. You can also practise side-stepping, propping, dodging and spinning with a team-mate in the role of an opponent you are seeking to pass. The key to success with these aids is that they should surprise. Always carry the ball in the hand furthest from the man you are attempting to get past.’

 

These skills were embodied in someone I hadn’t even heard of, Horrie Gorringe, named as forward pocket in Tasmania’s team of the century, and you have to be good to get that gig. He played from 1914 to 1930 for Cananore Football Club, known as the Canaries for their gold and black strip. It later became Hobart FC, so is topical with the advent of the Tassie Devils into the AFL, of which I am proud to be one of 200,000 founding members, Hobart being my favourite city and having spent many years backpacking in the Tasmanian highlands. Membership is a steal at $10 so why not?

 

Getting back to Horrie, the Brownlow Medallist Ivor Warne-Smith wrote an article on ‘Swerving and dodging’ in The Argus of 4 June 1937 which you can read through the magic of Trove. He wrote:

 

‘There is another rather rare method of obtaining a clean breakaway. It is to step backward. It is the last thing opponents expect you to do, and it is a very difficult feat to accomplish. But many of the finer points of football are difficult until you learn them. I once knew a player in Tasmania, named Horrie Gorringe, who could run backwards out of a pack just as fast as he ran into it’.

 

He sounds so light on his feet he could dance around the ground wearing Top Hat and Tails, maybe because his training regime included skipping and boxing with his brother in their farm shed. Playing on the muddy grounds of the olden days, players would have needed some of those handknitted woollen socks that women across Australia made in thousands to send to our troops during World War One. Those socks saved our boys from the debilitating scourge of Trench Foot that affected less well supported countries.

 

Mark Tandy played for South Melbourne from 1911 to 1926 as a sometime rover to Roy Cazaly. The story goes that Tandy’s quiet and easy-going nature led to the great ruckman calling him ‘Napper’ because of his alleged propensity for switching off during games. If that’s so, then he would have patronised a Peter Alexander store for some of their fabulous Pyjamas, in various weights for the season, but always with pockets. I just about live in mine.

 

Scottish born George Bisset was named in the forward pocket in Footscray’s team of the century, where he played for nearly ten years from 1963, then a couple of years for Collingwood. At 5’ 6” he was known as ‘Wee Georgie’ so we can find a Kilt for him to wear.

 

Unsurprisingly, Tony Buhagiar was known as the budgie, so he can’t avoid the Speedo Budgie Smugglers that everyone used to wear, but now make you feel a bit squeamish. He was in Essendon’s night premiership in 1981; a curious mid week VFL competition, played usually on a Tuesday night, that ran from 1979 to 1986.

 

In the Collingwood ranks, the Macedonian Marvel Peter Daicos scored 97 goals playing mostly from the forward pocket in 1990. His skills in scoring from seemingly impossible angles, as well as his ability to get round defenders are legendary. He might be the player who perfected the dribbled shot for goal. Macedonia has many different versions of its National Costume, but we might think of the red and black textured vest over a voluminous white shirt and pantaloons. Daics would perform just as well in this garb as in his footy duds. Another Pie, Leon Davis kicked the 2008 goal of the year. Known as Neon Leon an appropriate garb for him would be one of the out-there outfits of Alexander McQueen. Tony Francis got six weeks for kicking on his debut for Collingwood, good thing he wasn’t wearing Steel Blue Boots.

 

Silvio Foschini is best known for taking the VFL to court in 1983 over its refusal to grant him a clearance from Sydney to St Kilda, which led, among other things, to the end of the zoning system. He was just 17 in 1981 when he kicked three goals on his league debut for South Melbourne and finished the season with 37 goals. The club relocated to Sydney the next year when Foschini kicked 42 goals. With his Italian background he might wear those elegant high waisted Naples trousers with a white linen shirt.

 

Jeff Farmer, Melbourne then Fremantle, was known as the Wiz long before Hawthorn’s Nick Watson. Jeff kicked the AFL goal of the year in 1996 and 1998, but was involved in some controversial incidents, for which he could have done with a wizard’s disappearing Cloak.

 

It is fair to say that Stephen Milne was a confident, some would say cocky player, maybe dressed like a bovver boy with cropped hair and Bomber Jacket. He served St Kilda well for many years, but probably unfairly, my recollection is that his tentative approach to the ball in the goal square in the final minutes cost St Kilda the winning goal in the 2010 grand final. Instead it was a tie and you just knew that Collingwood would win the replay.

 

In 2010, Mark Le Cras as a small forward kicked 12 goals for West Coast against Essendon at Docklands Stadium. It broke the previous record of 11 (kicked by Stephen Milne) for the most goals kicked by an individual in a game at that venue, and led to his selection at forward-pocket in that year’s All-Australian team. With his French sounding name he might be wearing a black Beret. The Eagles Phil Matera was a neat player who quietly went about his business like the private eyes who wore Trench Coats to escape attention.

 

In contrast, Fremantle’s Hayden Ballantyne kicked the AFL goal of the year in 2011 en route to becoming known as the chief pest, always verbally and physically niggling opponents and occasionally being on the retaliatory receiving end. Being part of the purple haze he might wear a crushed velvet purple Smoking Jacket.

 

Korean born Peter Bell was one of the first two players signed for the Dockers and kicked goals with his first two kicks, but was delisted after a year. So of course he then played in two North Melbourne premierships in 1996 and 1999. Fortunately for Freo he asked to be traded back—they should be so lucky. Opposition players must have been irritated by the ringing of the bell by Freo supporters every time Peter got the ball, but it would have made life easier for the stats guys. I have actually rung the bells in the Bell Tower on the Perth foreshore, an amazing experience. I can see the worldly Peter Bell wearing a Lounge Suit and a Cravat.

 

After several concussions, Rod Ashman took to wearing a padded bicycle helmet, continuing his bold and sometimes foolhardy attack on the ball. He reminds me of the manly Chesty Bond. He was forward pocket in Carlton’s team of the century as a member of the Blues’ famous Mosquito Fleet which was pivotal to the club’s success in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

 

You couldn’t miss the peroxided Jason Akermanis in Brisbane’s forward pocket, flashy like the Hawaiian Shirt that suits the warm Queensland climate. Aker was everything a forward pocket should be and won the goal of the year in 2002.

 

In the SANFL, Gilbert Roche Andrews Langley AM made his debut as a rover for Sturt in 1939, playing 163 games and kicking 341 goals, captaining the club, and becoming rover in Sturt’s team of the century, resting in the forward pocket of course. While stationed in Melbourne in the Munitions Department during World War II, Langley played four games for Essendon and played in the 1943 Grand Final. He was more famous as an Australian wicketkeeper, making the headlines in England when he had a wardrobe malfunction just before meeting the Queen. His trousers split, forcing teammates Keith Miller and Ian Johnson to hurriedly effect a repair with safety pins. He would have been in his Creams, but if he’d been wearing a 1970s Safari Suit the jacket would have covered the offending part. Gil survived this indignity to enter the South Australian Parliament and even become Speaker.

 

Alf Skuse was a speedy rover/small forward for South Adelaide. He grew up in Gawler where at school he had part time work at a racing stable rising at 5.00am so he knew about discipline. He was so speedy he won the Bay Sheffield in 1964 in the Panthers premiership year, and was the first player to wear Adidas Football Boots. Having worn Adidas when I played lacrosse, I know how comfortable they are.

 

The Duffle Coat was popular when I was growing up as it kept the elements out when you were standing in the outer, and you could put the number of your favourite player on the back, and sew badges all over it—known as ‘passion fashion’. A female social media poster remembered wearing number 17 for Sturt’s blond bombshell rover Jim Derrington, ‘best legs ever’, whose first kick in the SANFL was a goal. Wearing the Duffle Coat was mainly a South Australian and Victorian phenomenon I think, up until the 1980s, along with the scarf and beanie in club colours. The Duffle Coat was first made in England in the 1850s for mariners, using a heavy woollen cloth made in the Belgian town of Duffel, with a wool lining, for some reason tartan. The modern versions are likely to be wool or alpaca with a quilted tartan lining. The distinctive toggle and rope fastenings remain the same.

 

Terry von Bertouch among other awards won Most dedicated to Training for North Adelaide in 1970. Who knew there was such an award? He won premierships for North and Norwood as a rover, but younger people may only know of him for his netballing daughters, Natalie and Laura. Always dapper I can see him wearing a Polo Neck Skivvy underneath a blazer, a la Roger Moore.

 

 

 

 

Mark Naley was a slick rover with a cheeky grin who loved playing for his state, winning the Tassie Medal in 1987, its penultimate awarding. With every reason to be full of himself, Mark was a good stick, sadly no longer with us. Winner of the 1991 Magarey Medal, he played in the navy blue for South Adelaide and also at Carlton in its 1987 premiership. He brings to mind the heroic Tintin in the comic books by Hergé wearing his sky blue jumper over red knickerbockers with his jaunty haircut. If you haven’t read any of the books, they’re a hoot.

 

In the AFLW Ellie Blackburn is my quintessential small forward who has snapped some incredible goals from the pocket, as well as being such a hard worker for the Western Bulldogs. I can see her wearing a Prue Acton Jump Suit by day and a Dior Little Black Dress in the evening. Adelaide’s Danielle Ponter was named in the forward pocket for the recent clash against the Power. Another dynamo, with Rioli/Long family heritage, I can see her wearing one of the beautiful pieces of contemporary Indigenous fashion that I saw at the Piinpi exhibition in Bendigo in 2021.

 

In current AFL playing ranks Sydney’s Tom Papley revels in being in the limelight of the harbour city, named the 2021 All-Australian forward pocket. Fun fact about Tom: His grandfathers, Jeff Bray and Max Papley, were teammates with South Melbourne. Growing up in the Gippsland town of Bunyip (true) it’s a good thing Tom didn’t continue with his plumbing apprenticeship or he might be wearing the dark blue Yakka shirt and shorts of the tradie, hopefully sans bumcrack.

 

In Brisbane I have a vision of the intense Charlie Cameron wearing full Motorcycle Leathers gunning the handles of a Ducati as he drives along a ‘Country Road’. I love that Brisbane crowds have to taken to singing the player’s favourite song after a goal, joining in wholeheartedly like the English Premier League crowds. I first came across the singing phenomenon a few years ago at the SCG at quarter time. Naturally I sang along with ‘Sweet Caroline’ ‘uh uh uh’ and was amazed that everyone else was doing the same thing. A fabulous experience was hearing it sung by Neil Diamond at a concert at Footy Park in March 1976.

 

The small forward pocket in the 2024 All-Australian Team, Hawthorn’s Dylan Moore describes himself as an ‘outside little goalsneak’ and has speed and endurance from his school athletics days, when he won a state steeplechase title. The All-Australian blazers were made by Melbourne bespoke menswear boutique Sam and Ko on Chapel Street, but I see the young Dylan more at home in a Denim Jacket and Jeans.

 

So the small forwards are intent on running amok in the forward pocket, snagging goals or giving them off, and making their presence felt when the opposition has the ball.

 

Next time the focus is on the sometimes wild and woolly tall forward pockets and their re-incarnation as wild critters, so feel free to nominate players who haven’t been mentioned in my earlier pieces.

 

In the meantime, it’s a fun exercise to think who you would like to have as a small forward pocket in the team you would want to watch in a sartorial heaven.

 

 

Read more of Carolyn’s delightful stories HERE

 

 

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