Almanac (Creative) Footy: In the razzle dazzle with the small back pockets

1. Some back pockets are born, but more seem to be made, often moving from roving, the wing or the half forward flank. They are a special breed, dashing fearlessly out on the attack or defending their patch grimly, down to earth like the gems in the ground they evoke.

 

So what sort of gems or precious minerals might our back pockets be associated with? My reference book is Precious stones and gems by Edwin Streeter 4^th edition (London: Chapman and Hall, 1884) held in the State Library. I confess to a penchant for old reference books, but it turns out this 1884 edition has no mention of opals being found in South Australia! Beyond the gems themselves, sadly, I can’t find a connection to the dysfunctional family sitcom of Righteous Gemstones or to the Warooka Gems Cricket Club in Yorke Peninsula.

 

Geoscience Australia tells us that Australia, with its long geological history, has some of the world’s oldest rocks and minerals, and a wide variety of gemstones. We are the world’s biggest producer of diamonds and opals, a major supplier of sapphires, rubies, emeralds, garnets and topaz, and we also produce jade. In Indigenous lore, gemstones hold spiritual and cultural significance.

 

The four Cs of gemstones are clarity, cut, colour and carat weight, but I reckon the four Cs of backpocketship are canny, calm, collaborative and courageous. Perhaps more than any other players the back pockets need extraordinary judgement to tell them when to go and when to stay, because if they get it wrong there’s hell to pay, or at least a goal.

 

 

 

Someone who almost never got it wrong was Gavin Wanganeen. He was such fun to watch, but heart in the mouth stuff, dashing recklessly for the ball as though he had no opponent. There seemed to be nothing of him but he compensated by being strong, skilled and smart. Gav played 300 senior games at Port Adelaide and Essendon, winning premierships at both clubs, and he was the first Indigenous player to win a Brownlow. You don’t get a grandstand at Adelaide Oval named after you for nothing. He’s a Board Member of the State Theatre Company and a practising artist, very much a part of Adelaide’s arts scene. With this profile, Gav has to be Australia’s national stone, the world famous Opal, which ranges in colour from milky white to almost black via vibrant green, blue and red. In Indigenous lore, opal is regarded as a stone of prophecy and is believed to enhance intuition.

 

The back pocket seems to suit First Nations players down to the ground—here are three more.

 

Sonny Morey started his Central Districts career in 1976 as a wingman and half forward, then in the second half developed into a dashing back pocket, having a wonderful understanding with fullback Bill Cochrane. Many of the great small back pockets had close collaboration with their fullbacks. Sonny’s journey through football and life is sensitively told by Centrals’ historian Rob Laidlaw with Robin Mulholland in Sonny (Thebarton, SA: Finsbury Green, 2020). In the book, Sonny shows how you can make the most of your life even through the pain of the Stolen Generations. He is like the Pearl that grows from the irritating grain of sand in the shell, creating a whole new life around it. Fun fact: pearls are one of the three non-crystalline organic materials classified as gemstones, along with red coral and amber. They are so fabulous, especially my favourite fresh water pearls, and of course, fashion icon Jacquie Onassis once observed, ‘pearls are always appropriate’.

 

Twenty-year-old small forward Chris Johnson was one of eight Fitzroy Lions players chosen to become Brisbane Lions. It wasn’t long before his creative play and composure became more valuable in the back pocket, where he was also Brisbane’s designated kicker-in. The Brisbane website says, ‘There were few more exciting sights in football than ‘Johnno’ dashing out of defence, taking a string of bounces and throwing in the occasional baulk as he effortlessly weaved his way through the opposition before banging the ball deep inside the Lions scoring zone. He was an attacking weapon wherever he played, and an excitement machine of the highest order.’ He was the last Fitzroy Lion to play in the AFL, and is the back pocket in the Indigenous team of the century. With the Lions dark red jumper, Johnno can be the Garnet, whose name has origins in the dark red seeds of the pomegranate. Australia is the leading producer of garnets, found in the northern states and territories. Known as diamonds in the rough they are useful industrially as abrasives.

 

 

 

Yorta Yorta man David Selwyn Burralung Merringwuy Galarrwuy Wyal Wirrpanda played his first game for West Coast at the age of 16 years and 268 days, the youngest to play a senior game for the club. When I first saw David Wirrpanda I thought he was a potential Brownlow winner, such a smooth and classy back pocket, but it wasn’t to be. He played between 1996 and 2009 and was All Australian in 2005. Yorta Yorta country includes Shepparton where there is a Gem Club, one of some 35 across Victoria.

 

Hawthorn’s David Parkin was a tough, no-nonsense, straight ahead back pocket player who epitomised the approach to the game of his coach, John Kennedy. Because of the Hawthorn colours, he can be associated with Amber, made from fossilised resin from trees. If you’re lucky you might acquire a piece that has preserved insects and flora in it, which tells a story that a gem found in the earth simply cannot. Parkin wrote the chapter on ‘The back pocket: the most important supporting role’ in How to play football Australian style, edited by John Dunn (Kent Town, SA: Rigby, 1973):

 

Once, rovers split the job between them. Ten minutes on, ten minutes rest. The back pocket usually had to mind a player wheezing for breath and praying for a decent rest. Alas, these good old days are gone forever. Most clubs now have a specialist rover who, like a town hall clock, goes all day. The other rover rarely gets a sniff of the pack’s job and spends most of his time tormenting the back pocket. Because he doesn’t rove much he is always fresh and very keen. He is a shark for goals, always on the alert. Also rovers are now quite tall, clever, strong, quick and a good mark … So the back pocket has to be able to match this. Of all the physical qualities he needs to be strong, and know how to tackle without giving free kicks away. Having said that, ideally a back pocket should not have to tackle. He should always try to stop his opponent getting the ball, and the way to do that is to stay in front.

 

The back pocket that the old timers rate the highest is Bernie Smith.

 

 

 

Bernie Smith started playing footy at Sturt Street School in Adelaide as a full forward or centre, as stars often do, then it was to Westies, where he was moved to half back and was best on ground in the club’s grand final win over Norwood in 1947. He was spotted by Geelong scouts on the muddy grounds in Hobart at that year’s carnival. He started at centre for the Cats but was moved into the back pocket as a highly skilled ball handler, high flying and fast. His partner in crime was the equally dashing full back Bruce Morrison. ‘Bernie Smith had a big smile, fair curly hair and looked like a country boy playing a country game of football. It seemed, however, that everywhere that Bernie went the ball was sure to go,’ wrote John Ross in The Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1999. ‘He was immensely popular around the club and his adopted city of Geelong.’ Geelong’s website says that Bernie Smith ‘was a brilliant reader of the play, revolutionising the reputation of defenders by setting up attacking moves rather than simply negating his opponent.’ He won the Brownlow in 1951, the first South Australian to do so. He was impassable in Geelong’s premiership win over Collingwood that year and backed it up with another triumph over Essendon in 1952. Bernie is the back pocket in the AFL/VFL team of the century. Playing for the blue and white, the most dashing blue is the Sapphire. The gem fields of central Queensland – towns like Anakie and Sapphire – are some of the most renowned sources in the world of sapphires, formed geologically from ancient river beds and volcanic activity.

 

 

 

Charlie Sutton was a tough nuggety rover and half forward who really made his name as a back pocket, finishing third in the 1950 Brownlow. He captain-coached Footscray from 1951 to 1955, including the 1954 premiership. Journalist Hec de Lacy reckoned that Sutton was the best back pocket going, ‘combining excellent judgement with a robustness that only a man of his build can supply. He’s the nugget and knows how to use his shoulders and hips.’ Such an earthy nuggety player has to be Gold, which everyone loves, but we need to be mindful that Shakespeare said ‘all that glisters is not gold’.

 

Bruce Comben was snared to Carlton from Werribee, where he would trap rabbits and bring any extras to the club, so he was known as Bugsy Rabbit, shortened to Bugsy. He started out in 1950 as a rover – fearless, creative, a glorious long drop kick on the run – and was then asked to play a defensive role on damaging rovers like Bob Rose and Bob Skilton. This was a kind of transition in 1954 to the back pocket where Comben became an even better player, relentless, committed and a superb reader of the play. Bugsy Comben is the small back pocket in Carlton’s team of the century. In the Chinese horoscope, the birthstone of the Rabbit is Malachite, which is a dark green-banded copper carbonate mineral, found in several copper deposits across the country including Burra and the Flinders Ranges in South Australia.

 

John Beckwith’s first team was in suburban Melbourne, Black Rock, named after Blackrock in Dublin. Technically black isn’t a colour, but a popular name for it is Obsidian which is a naturally occurring black glass formed as a result of volcanic activity. During Beckwith’s playing years with Melbourne from 1957 to 1966 he won five premierships, two as captain, and is back pocket in Melbourne’s team of the century

 

 

 

Many opposing resting rovers regarded another Melbourne player Neil Crompton as the toughest player to beat in the VFL. He typically didn’t pick up many possessions, but neither did his opponents. He was also a tough nut playing cricket for Victoria. Curiously he is most remembered for a goal he kicked in the Demons 1964 grand final win over Collingwood. Trailing with just minutes remaining, Crompton followed his opponent up the ground and managed to pick up a loose ball in front of goal. It floated through for his only goal of the season giving Melbourne the lead. It was the last goal of the match. The blue of the Demons’ jumper is quite dark, rather like the versatile Lapis Lazuli, which was used to make the pigment ultramarine in Renaissance frescoes and oil painting.

 

 

 

Ian Nankervis initially played as a forward pocket or rover for Geelong, scoring 203 goals before coach Rodney Olsson shifted the six footer into the back pocket, where he became one of the finest in the VFL. Being a Cats player, he has to be a Cat’s Eye, which is a rare variety of Chrysoberyl, a stone of extreme hardness second only to diamond and sapphire. Its colours are browny olivey with inclusions (material trapped inside a mineral during its formation) creating an optical effect of the slit of a cat’s eye, white or gold. The effect is known as chatoyancy from the French oeil de chat.

 

 

 

Kevin Sheedy’s preferred position when he joined Richmond was centre, but it was well and truly occupied by Billy Barrot. Being the resilient competitor he is, Sheeds made the most of being moved to the back pocket in the late 1960s. But maybe because he wasn’t where he wanted to be – literally the centre of attention – Sheeds added to his game some physical and verbal niggle of his more fancied opponents, gaining attention as the villain of the piece. Being a Tiger he has to be the Tiger’s Eye, which is a type of quartz with inclusions of crocidolite asbestos fibres (aieee). These inclusions give the stone its characteristic golden to reddish-brown color with its black or yellow stripes, silky lustre and its chatoyancy.

 

Two Sydney players credit their longevity in the game to a move to the back pocket, one following the other into his position—David Ackerley and Ian Roberts – who remembers them? They can be Red Beryl which is one of the rarest minerals on earth, its red colour coming from manganese ions embedded inside beryllium crystals. It’s found only in the Wah Wah Mountains in the American state of Utah.

 

David Ackerley lined up on the wing in his debut match for Sydney at Windy Hill. He only performed reasonably in his first year, Ackerly told the Swans website. ‘But the club had a policy at that time that a young player would be given a couple of games if selected in the firsts before he was dropped. Somehow, I stayed in the team, although by the end of the year, I was in the back pocket.’ He was a revelation. Ackerly played in the Swans’ final match at the Lake Oval in 1981 and then played in the club’s first home match at the SCG in 1982, the year he made All-Australian.

 

Although Ian Roberts also started his Swans career on the wing, he eventually gravitated to a half back flank. He told the Swans website: In that era, clubs liked playing two smallish players on the half forward flanks, so I invariably picked up one of these players. Then, when Tommy Hafey was coach in 1986, I realised my chances in that position were limited because Bernard Toohey had joined the Swans from Geelong and he and Mark Browning were natural half back flankers. Hafey therefore asked me where I wanted to play and I suggested the back pocket because David Ackerley, who previously held that position against the ‘smalls’, had gone to North Melbourne. Roberts was so impressive on the last line of defence that he became regarded as one of the best specialist back pockets in the competition.

 

 

 

Mark Thompson was a determined competitor for Essendon from 1983 until 1996, and was selected in Fox Sports’ team of left-footers in the back pocket. Bomber’s last match was at Waverley Park the night the lights went out – it became jet black. Jet is a gemstone but is actually a form of coal, a mineraloid formed from wood under extreme pressure. High-quality jet gemstones are rare, particularly the famous variety from Whitby, England.

 

Brad Hardie played for South Fremantle, Footscray, Brisbane and Collingwood, but he was much more than a journeyman. Hardie was a versatile, attacking footballer who could play either as a forward or a defender, leading the goalkicking at Brisbane and South Fremantle. He stood out with his red hair, stocky build and long-sleeved jumper, and caused a sensation by winning the 1985 Brownlow Medal after a series of eye-catching, tearaway performances from the back pocket for Footscray. A year later he created history by becoming the first, and to date only, player ever to win two Tassie Medals. We don’t play Carnivals any more, so he may well be the only one ever. The Tassie Medal is named after South Australian football administrator Eric Tassie rather than the state, but Tasmania has a gem found only on Flinders Island in Bass Strait, the Killiecrankie Diamond, which is a form of brilliant white topaz.

 

Andy Collins was a tough, durable and highly skilled player who has the distinction of being the first player chosen to wear the iconic number 5 jumper since the late Peter Crimmins. Collins developed into a superb and courageous back pocket, teaming with Chris Langford and Gary Ayres to form one of Hawthorn’s finest backlines. With gold in his jumper he can be the Citrine which is an energising vibrant yellow, a colour that means motivation, creativity and self-expression

 

The SANFL has had a rich vein of back pockets.

 

George Mulcahy was one of the foremost specialist back pocket players of the 1930s at club and state level. He’s in South Adelaide’s greatest team in that position. He was short and strong, and didn’t give an inch to resting rovers, like Port’s mercurial Bobby Quinn, in South’s premiership sides of 1935 and 1938. A carpenter by trade, Mulcahy was a great team man who liked his game of poker on trips away. You have to be able to fake the real thing as a poker player, so the canny George might have liked Zircon, whose exceptional brilliance and fire look like diamond, but at much less cost. Genuine zircon is sourced mainly from locations in Queensland, but there are synthetic variants for the unwary.

 

Port Adelaide’s Dick Russell was so effective in his position he was known as ‘the rock’, so maybe he’s Moonstone, not to be confused with Moon rock. When former player and journalist Jeff Pash selected a team of his contemporaries from 1938 to 1949, his permanent back pocket was Dick Russell, ‘A complete footballer whose distinguishing quality is superb judgement. His eye for the erratic course of a football is well nigh infallible; and a long, persuasive reach gather in the few that try to get past.’ During the 1950 Brisbane Carnival, Russell’s performances in the back pocket for South Australia gained him a spot in the Sporting Life team, a forerunner to the modern All-Australian team.

 

In the brilliant Sturt teams of the 1960s, no-one was more quietly brilliant than Brenton Adcock: handsome, not a hair out of place, but stockily built to pack a punch. Not literally, heaven forfend. Adcock was a dashing and reliable key member of Sturt’s five consecutive premiership wins from 1966 to 1970. His last SANFL game for Sturt was their 1974 Grand Final win to finish his career with six premierships and back pocket in Sturt’s team of the century. Adcock was a former representative in the Linton Cup (Australia’s junior inter-state teams competition) and he continued to play pennant tennis in summer, which was deemed sufficient pre-season training for football. Players today should be so lucky! Sturt colours are Oxford and Cambridge Blue, so Brenton can be Turquoise which is found in Broken Hill in a variety of shades of blue, with a distinctive flat finish.

 

 

Michael Taylor, a six footer from Kingston (so he became ‘Kingo’) in the south east, played for Norwood from 1972 to 1987 with a mid-career stint at Collingwood. Michael was so loved by Redlegs supporters he exemplifies their red and blue colours which appear in Tourmaline. He recalls Neil Kerley saying the only reason back pocket players don’t kick many goals is simply that they are usually too far out to score, which says something about the skills and enthusiasm of back pockets. As the back pocket in Norwood’s team of the century, Michael is well qualified to write the chapter ‘The back pocket: the most important supporting role’ in the updated edition of How to play football Australian style edited by Jim Main (Currey O’Neill, 1980):

 

From the outset it should be made clear that a back pocket is an attacking player. If he is not, frankly, he shouldn’t be occupying the position. He must be able to both attack and defend, expertly read the play, be blessed of speedy feet, have tremendous recovery, possess the courage to meet an on-coming body, the ability to closely check his rovers (invariably fast and talented) and offer his teammates tremendous rebound and penetration. As important as it is to be an attacking player, it is vital to know exactly when, and when not, to attack. Only from experience will you learn when to gamble, to muster your confidence and courage, and back your judgement to the hilt. This is when you become a recognised attacking player.

 

 

The story goes that Big Bob McLean once travelled from Port Adelaide and sat patiently in the East Perth Football Club lobby to give the message he was not leaving until he had signed Carl Fragomeni, who duly became a wily back pocket working closely with 1975 Magarey Medallist Peter Woite. Carl was a fan favourite at both clubs, maybe because of that luxurious mo’. With the black in the jumper I’m associating Port Adelaide with the Black Diamond Hotel at the corner of Commercial Road and St Vincent Street. The Black Diamond shipping line was begun in the late 1850s to transport coal from Newcastle to the copper mines of South Australia, as opposed to coals to Newcastle!

 

 

 

 

 

Another shipping line was The Gem Navigation Company, begun in 1909 to ply the River Murray trade with the paddle steamers Gem and Ruby, and the barges Emerald and Pearl. A recruit from Loxton on the Murray was Rex Voigt, known as Noddy, who arrived at Glenelg as an energetic rover fearlessly boring into packs. He kicked seven goals for Glenelg to win the grand final against North Adelaide in 1973, then transformed himself into a strong rebounding back pocket player.

 

Geoff Paull was a reliable underrated back pocket who combined seamlessly with full back Bob Hammond to give the Roosters the most solid last line in the league in the late 1960s and early 70s. Born on 14 February he deserves to be a romantic gem like Ruby, which is a variety of the unromantic mineral corundum, found at various sites in New South Wales, mainly New England. Ruby is one of the five traditional cardinal gems, alongside amethyst, sapphire, emerald, and diamond. Its brightest and most valuable shade is called blood-red or pigeon blood. That sounds sinister, but the Romance Writers of Australia’s annual awards are called the Ruby Awards.

 

Arriving from West Perth, Ross Gibbs was entrusted with the Glenelg kickouts for eleven seasons and rewarded with premierships in 1985 and 1986. He was one of those immaculately turned out back pockets, like Brenton Adcock, and so cool under pressure he appeared almost casual, but he could turn defence into attack with his rebounding style and spectacular marking. Swish Schwerdt wrote in the footyalmanac, ‘the recruitment of Ross Gibbs from West Perth introduced extra poise in defence, not to mention the suavest mo’ since the ’73 premiership photo. Gibbs’ day job as an armed guard saw many a bank teller swooning during the week.’ A match for such a suave sophisticate would be Peridot, one of the few gemstones to occur in only one colour, likened to lime green jelly. It’s the birthstone for August and is said to bring the wearer joy and protection.

 

 

 

 

Woodville Football Club competed in the SANFL from 1964 to 1990 when it merged with West Torrens to become the Woodville-West Torrens Eagles. Peter Schwarz, tough, tenacious and hard-working, played from 1983 to 1990, then captained the Eagles to its first premiership in 1993. He was the team of the decade’s back pocket. In his life after football, Peter was CEO at the YMCA of South Australia for nine years, then had a stint as Eagles CEO. Having green in the jumper, Peter would be the lovely Jade which is still being mined at Cowell on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula. We know jade is a cultural emblem with spiritual significance for the Maori in New Zealand, but it is also for Indigenous Australians.

 

Lindsay Heaven, who gloried in the nickname Pennies, was the archetypal loyal clubman over 227 games for Woodville from 1970 to 1985 with only one finals appearance and seven wooden spoons. His early footy was played on the wing without making an impact, so coach John McInnes put him in the back pocket so he could run straight at the ball. Soon, ‘I became stronger and better at it. Then you’d learn, instead of always defending, to get a kick. Run behind to get a cheap kick. Start bouncing the footy. If the full back’s 10 metres out, say I’ll kick it out and kick it to yourself … anything to get a kick.’ And the green boots helped him to get noticed. We learn all this, and that his hero as a youngster was Brenton Adcock, from the fabulous club history Best of both worlds: the story of West Torrens, Woodville and the Eagles Football Clubs by Peter Cornwall and David Burtenshaw (Adelaide: The Authors, 2010), held in the State Library. With such devotion to the club and with the green in his jumper he deserves to be the Emerald. The gem’s lush green has soothed souls and excited imaginations since antiquity. Good old Pliny the Elder wrote that ‘nothing greens greener’ than emerald in his Natural history written in AD 77. He also said its ‘soft, green colour comforts and removes weariness and lassitude’. Today we know green is restful to the eye, that being in nature gives your eyes a break, and calms you emotionally.

 

 

 

Chloe Molloy is the nearest thing I can find to a back pocket in the AFLW. As a youngster, Chloe played basketball for Diamond Valley then arrived via Nunawading into the Melbourne Boomers in the WNBL, culminating in selection in the Under 19 Australian Gems squad. She turned down several American college scholarships to pursue her football dream, being drafted by Collingwood in 2017. She was the All Australian back pocket the next year, and now plays for Sydney. With a resume for Diamond Valley and the Australian Gems, Chloe has to be our Diamond, the most famous of which is the Hope diamond, a 45.52 carat blue beauty from India. Since its recorded history in 1653 it has had 23 owners, and is now displayed in the National Gem and Mineral Collection of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. Of course popular culture has the last word: ‘diamonds are a girl’s best friend’ according to Marilyn Monroe in the 1953 movie Gentlemen prefer blondes, while according to Ian Fleming in his 1956 novel, Diamonds are forever, although James Bond never actually says those words.

 

The 2024 men’s All Australian back pocket is Fremantle’s Luke Ryan. Being from the purple haze, Luke has to be Amethyst, its mauve colour known for its relaxing qualities. Amethyst is the birthstone for February and Luke just happens to be born on 6 February. It’s a sign of the times that the 2024 small back pocket is 6’1” and the tall back pocket is 6’6”.

 

So the small back pockets are an intriguing and colourful mix. It’s a fun exercise to think who you would like to have as a small back pocket and what sort of gemstone they would be in a team playing in a sparkling heaven.

 

Next time we meet the tall back pockets and find out what songs they might be singing while waiting for the ball to get to their end of the ground. Suggestions for players and songs welcome.

 

 

To read more by Carolyn Spooner click HERE.

 

 

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