Carolyn Spooner resumes her series comparing the positions on the Aussie Rules Football field with other things. She is up to the tall forward pockets. 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 role of the tall players who find themselves in the forward pocket is to be a strategic foil for the full forward and to scramble the defence, but also to kick goals any way they can. They often take the bounces and throw ins and, in the old days, they would have been resting ruckmen. Imagine having Roy Cazaly resting in South Melbourne’s forward pocket. It can be tricky to identify the pocket dwellers, but since 1982 the online list of All Australian teams shows the playing positions on the field, although players are often placed in a pocket just to get them into the team.
I have learned something about wild things in The minds and manners of wild animals: a book of personal observations by William T. Hornaday (New York; Scribner’s, 1922). But ‘wild things’ can take different forms of course—wild rice is black and nutty and delicious—and who would have thought ‘The Wild Robot’ would be such a wonderful and hilarious animated movie?
Russell Robertson is almost the quintessential tall forward pocket player. At 6’2” he was considered too small to be Melbourne’s designated full-forward, but was their leading goalkicker on four occasions. Growing up in the small town of Penguin on the north coast of Tasmania, a charming spot, he has to be an Emperor Penguin, but with a huge leap. Robbo went on to a singing and acting career as befits a handsome charmer, even performing with Olivia Newton-John at the MCG in 2011.
Hawthorn has a proud tradition of strong forward lines. Jarryd Roughead won four premierships and was club captain for two years as an admirable hard worker, surviving a serious health scare. Puts me in mind of the mighty but unassuming Bison which has come back from the brink. In 2013, Roughy was the Coleman Medallist with 68 goals while spending considerable time in the ruck as well as in the midfield. Fun fact: the boy from Leongatha’s home ground is on Roughead Street, named after Jarryd’s great-great grandfather.
Lion hearted, high flying Nick Riewoldt was born in Hobart but moved to the Gold Coast when he was nine years old, excelling in school athletics, cross country, cricket, soccer and touch football. He was no slouch academically either. In a stellar career for the Saints, Riewoldt took the most marks of any player in the 2009 season, averaging nearly ten a game and kicking 65 goals in the home and away season, in the year he was named All Australian captain. And, of course, we all remember that foolhardy mark jumping into the pack like a Lion launching at its prey.
Sydney’s Michael O’Loughlin provided a potent attacking option anywhere on the field, culminating in the thrilling 2005 Grand Final victory over West Coast when he played in tandem with Barry Hall. With a proud Indigenous family history, the Magical Micky O moved with the grace and power of the Greater Glider which is found only in eastern Australia. It can glide half the length of a soccer pitch in one foray, when the patagium flight membrane between the hind limbs is outstretched. Barry Hall twice kicked goals after the siren to win a game for Sydney, and escaped the tribunal’s wrath to play in a Grand Final. He might claim an affinity with the boxing Kangaroo, but he had the hide of an Armadillo.
Richmond has a Top Tigers Per Position section on its website, nominating John Donaldson, Brad Ottens, Greg Stafford, Ty Vickery and Neil Balme as tall forward pockets. Balmey is described as a ‘robust, aggressive big man, who provided Richmond with excellent service as a strong-marking, goalkicking forward pocket and later as the team’s number 1 ruckman’. He was one of the participants in the infamous 1973 Grand Final win over Carlton where, among other contretemps, the long-haired number 21 threw himself around like a Whirling Dervish. Off the field, Balmey has become a respected mentor, coach and football director.
Geelong’s Cameron Mooney wore his heart on his sleeve, and could have gone feral after showing a lack of discipline on more than one occasion, but then turned it around, like Max from Where the wild things are by Maurice Sendak, who goes a bit crazy but then realises how important home and family are. ‘Moons’ matured for Geelong and became a wonderful player who brought a smile to the face, as he does in the media.
Some of our tall forward pockets were wild things indeed at various times, but what sort of advice could a mentor give them? Oscar Wilde famously said ‘The only good thing to do with good advice is pass it on; it is never of any use to oneself.’ Ain’t that the truth? Oscar Wilde also said, ‘There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating: people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.’
Brendon Fevola was a bit fascinating. Some of his goals from the pocket on the boundary in critical moments for Carlton were breathtaking, and he was named in the forward pocket in the 2008 All Australian team. After the AFL he played for Yarrawonga in the Ovens and Murray League. It was said that such was the Fev’s ability to draw a crowd that some rival clubs paid him to play against them in Yarrawonga’s away matches. He also played one-off matches for other clubs, earning appearance fees financed by the large crowds he drew. For Tasmanian club New Norfolk in 2012, he drew a record home crowd for the club and kicked 18 goals to set a new club record. Showy, on the move, a bit mad, could be a Komodo Dragon – keep out of the way.
Fraser Gehrig was known as the G-Train for his locomotive-like leads and strong marking, kicking 103 goals in 2004. Weighing in at 109 kg, he holds the bench press record at West Coast and St Kilda, and was as fast as they get over 30 metres. Sounds like a Rhinoceros in full rumble that you wouldn’t want to have running full tilt at you.
The next three choices started playing in the 19th century—Albert Thurgood, Vic Cumberland and Taffy Waye.
Albert ‘The Great’ Thurgood is considered to be Aussie Rules’ first icon, named forward pocket in Essendon’s Team of the Century alongside John Coleman. Albert was voted Champion Player of the Colony in 1893 and ’94 and again in the Bombers’ premiership of 1901. He has an entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, one of 36 players whose main claim to fame is Aussie Rules. At 6 foot, he was a spectacular high mark and could run 100 yards in close to even time. But his special talent was kicking – one of his drop kicks was measured at more than 90 yards and a place kick at more than 98 yards. With a kick like that he has to be a Wild Brumby (tautology, sorry) which sounds like the Rolling Stones 1971 hit ‘Wild horses’ (couldn’t keep me away) or maybe Daryl Braithwaite’s 1990 ‘The Horses’ (that’s the way it’s going to be little darlin), which is one of Australia’s unofficial national anthems at sporting events.
Harold Vivian ‘Vic’ Cumberland was a football journeyman, playing in Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and for the Auckland Imperial Football Club in New Zealand. He joined Melbourne in 1898 where he won the 1900 premiership. Vic then ventured to South Australia to play for Sturt, winning the 1911 Magarey Medal and playing in the victorious 1911 Carnival team, the 66 page souvenir program for which has been digitised by the State Library. He then played for St Kilda, helping the club make its first Grand Final appearance in 1913 before enlisting in World War 1, where he was wounded twice. He was 43 when he returned to St Kilda in 1920, the oldest player to ever play VFL/AFL football. But not as old as the Galapagos Giant Tortoise which can live up to 100 years, although somewhat less mobile!
Known as the mighty Cumberland, Vic is a member of Sturt’s Team of The Century, an inaugural member of the AFL Hall of Fame and a member of the Tasmanian Hall of Fame whose website says that:
“Cumberland was a master of all crafts as a player. Standing 5’11”, he possessed a great leap, very strong hands and excellent judgement in the air, and was said to have few, if any equals in regards to his tap work. Renowned as a superb exponent of the place kick, he was regarded as a very safe shot for goal, while he was also deceptively quick for a big man”.
Hendrick Stanbury ‘Taffy’ Waye was born in Willunga in rural South Australia in 1877, one of 14 children. He developed strength working in the family blacksmith shop, so was right at home in his Willunga club, the Demons, who were so full of tough customers since their formation in 1874, that the club was barred from playing in its Southern Association one year. Taffy then appears playing for Sturt, as described in The Advertiser of 15 August 1908 in a piece on The Youngest Club.
“The season of 1902 (Sturt’s second year) saw the advent of one of the finest players the Adelaide public has seen. A member of the Sturt committee visited Willunga on a holiday, and saw a match between the local club and another country team. He returned with golden opinions of a certain long-legged youth who could kick like Daly and mark like George Rowley of other days. Enthusiastic supporters clubbed together to pay travelling expenses, and from that our ‘Taffy’ Waye has battled like a Trojan for Sturt.”
With his raw-boned strength, Taff became an attacking, bullocking ruckman for Sturt for 71 games up to 1910, during which time he continued to play for his local club. The Fleurieu News website recalls:
“Every Thursday arvo during the 1903 footy season, a man stood sentinel on the road between Adelaide and the Fleurieu. His eyes scanned the horizon for just one thing: the horse and cart of Willunga Football Club legend, Hendrick ‘Taffy’ Waye. If Taffy was spotted heading for the city, it meant he’d suit up for Sturt that weekend, robbing Willunga of their best player and offering their opponents a sliver of hope against the otherwise unstoppable team. Or so the legend goes.”
Willunga team circa 1902 with Taffy Waye in the back row, fourth from right, looking modestly away,
the only player identified in this State Library image B 37235
Taffy topped Sturt’s goalkicking five times, played eight interstate games and won the 1903 Magarey Medal. No wonder number 45 on Sturt’s list of capped players is forward pocket in Sturt’s Team of the Century. And of course he was selected in the Southern Football League’s 125th anniversary team in the forward pocket and second ruck.
Taffy was a popular, even tempered young man, described by Quiz as ‘Taff Waye, the consistent player, who bucked in like a tiger, and an earnest tiger too’. So he can be our Tiger, maybe more like William Blake’s fantastical ‘Tyger tyger burning bright, in the forests of the night’. Bernard Whimpress, the coordinator of our Australian Society for Sports History group, wrote articles on Taffy and Vic among others, for the South Australian Football Budget in the 1980s, which have morphed into his recent book SA footy stars of the past which is available via The Footy Almanac.
Three SANFL good blokes in our story are sadly no longer with us.
I remember when Sturt brought in Greg Wild as support ruckman. Unlike the other members of Jack Oatey’s hand picked Double Blues teams of the 1960s, he seemed to be a fumbler lacking talent. Within a year I wondered how I could have questioned the coach’s judgement. Greg became a giant of the club, winning four flags. With that surname he’s the Wild Man, not of Borneo but of Unley.
North Adelaide’s ruckman Mike Parsons came from a basketball background but ended up winning two premierships with the Roosters. In 1987 he kicked six goals to win the Jack Oatey Medal for best on ground against the Bays. The 1991 Grand Final was a bloodbath against Westies which was like a pack of Dingoes going at it, ‘Bristles’ Parsons included. Interestingly, North Adelaide started out as the Medindies, whose mascot was the Dingo – bring it back – much better mascot than a Rooster, sorry.
For several years Port Adelaide had two great forward options in Randall Gerlach and Tim Evans. Known as the Big Bear, Gerlach had kicked 90 goals in 1976 as Port charged into the losing Grand Final, but Tim Evans was the designated full-forward. Gerlach played on in 1977 even with a debilitating chronic kidney condition that ended his career after that year’s Grand Final win against Glenelg at age 24.
In the AFLW, midfielder Alison Drennan has been named in the forward pocket for West Coast on at least one occasion. Ali is 5’9” so is that tall for a female player? She is a strawberry blond, so with National Redhead Day on 5 November, she can be the beautiful Golden Lion Tamarin.
The recently retired Joe Daniher was Mr Versatile at Essendon, then Brisbane. What a player he’s been. He might ambush your thoughts unexpectedly like the proverbial Bunyip, but I see him as everyone’s favourite Australian critter, the adorable Wombat, and a beloved member of the loveable Daniher family. Another in this ilk is the Giants’ Jesse Hogan, who has a singular gait running in to kick goal, just like another unusual mover, the Echidna. Go well next year, Jesse. Some clubs have a surfeit of riches in the forward line, so the Western Bulldogs’ Aaron Naughton sometimes has to make it up as he goes along. Mixing metaphors, the AstroNaught has the fair hair and leap of a Mountain Goat.
Collingwood’s forward line includes the showy Mason Cox and Brody Mihocek. Black and white suggests Pandas, but that won’t work, so they have to be Zebras, which are so showy their collective name is a dazzle. The purposes of their stripes isn’t fully known—it may be for thermoregulation or it may be to confuse biting insects.
Growing up in rural Victorian Bellbrae, Charlie Curnow ran wild along with his four siblings. With that woolly hair and those good looks, Carlton’s star forward could be ‘Wild thing’ (you make my heart sing, you make everything groovy) sung by The Troggs in 1966, and number 257 on Rolling Stone’s 500 greatest songs of all time.
The tall forward pocket in the All-Australian Team is West Coast’s Jake Waterman. At 6’ 3” and ideally built, the dude from the Wild Wild West somehow snuck under the radar until suddenly everyone was talking about his goalkicking performance in a struggling team.
Next time we meet the half forward flankers who come in as many flavours as there are cakes in a patisserie, suggestions welcome. But for now, the tall forward pockets have to be versatile, kick goals when the full-forward is indisposed, and generally be a nuisance. It’s a fun exercise to think who you would have as a tall forward pocket and what sort of wild thing they would be in the team you would want to watch in a carefree heaven.
Read more of Carolyn’s delightful stories HERE
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Neville Roberts for mine the quintessential forward pocket – 108 games -413 goals for Norwood
as well as being the leader of the forward line superb by foot re passing the ball off as well