The 1970s and 80s were among the most brutal in the history of the game. The John Greening, John Somerville and Geoff Southby incidents were just a few of the decade’s most vicious clashes. As a young star full forward Kelvin Templeton had a front row seat to the carnage and more than his fair share of the aggression directed at him.
He survived to tell the tale.
Those acts of violence have percolated in Kelvin’s mind for more than half a century and contributed to his fantastic debut novel, Collision.
“John Greening got a nod in the story when the main character, Joshua Shamrock, kicked seven goals in the match before he was hurt,” Templeton said. “John kicked seven in the game before he crossed paths with Jim O’Dea (St Kilda). I also had a quote from John Sommerville in my notes. He said getting knocked out is a mystery, one minute you’re here and the next minute you’re not.”
Kelvin’s introduction to the VFL wasn’t as severe as these cases but had a similar tone. In the opening minutes of his first game, Collingwood ruckman Len Thompson gave Kelvin a proper Victoria Park welcome when belted him in the back of the head.
“Luckily for me the free kick was in the goal square so it made my first goal relatively quick and easy,” Kelvin said.
He went on to kick another five goals in the 13-point loss in a stunning start to his career.
One of Kelvin’s aims with Collision is to capture the atmosphere of footy in Melbourne in the mid-1970s and `80s and his Victoria Park debut was the perfect entree.
“Back then the game was characterised by fierce tribal loyalties, muddy suburban grounds, a casual attitude to violence on the field and lots of sex and booze off the field,” Kelvin said at his recent book launch. “It was a significant time because it’s the era the modern game emerged from and when many players seeking compensation for concussion related damage played.”
Anybody who played or watched footy in this era is familiar with the harshness of the game.
“The casual attitude to violence was a feature,” Templeton said.
“It was celebrated. There were compilations of the worst hits put on to VHS and DVD. Kids would buy them for Father’s Day presents and fathers would buy them for birthday presents.”
The Greening, Somerville and Southby were all high profile clashes but they were just the tip of the iceberg when it came to concussive blows. They happened literally every weekend. But there were two that were very close to home and impacted Kelvin more than others.
Both involved his old club Footscray and happened at the Western Oval (now the Whitten Oval)
The Neil Sachse incident happened in the round two match between Footscray and Fitzroy in 1975. The South Australian was playing in just his second game for the Bulldogs. A front-on clash with Lions opponent Kevin O’Keefe left Neil a quadriplegic. It wasn’t O’Keefe’s fault. The simplicity of the contact underplayed the grave consequences.
It remains the most catastrophic injury in the history of the VFL/AFL.
Three years earlier, in the round 15 match in 1972 between the Bulldogs and St Kilda, an 18 year old named Stephen Boyle was playing in his sixth senior game.
Boyle was a young star on the rise but an elbow to the eye brought his career to a sudden halt and cost him his sight in one eye.
The life changing event was barely reported nor the outcome. Imagine the furore that would have unfolded with the current media coverage of the game.
Kelvin recalls the first time he saw Stephen as a 15 year old visiting the Western Oval with the Victorian Schoolboys team.
“I didn’t meet Stephen Boyle but not long after his accident I was at Footscray’s training when I was with the State Schoolboys team. I looked across the room and watched him for a few moments. It made an impression on me. He looked lost. It had an impact on me. He was at the club for some time after the injury and there was something about him that was amiss. It was a quick glance but it stayed with me, as did the other cases like Neil (Sachse) and John Greening. They were all stored there, in my head.”
Playing football at the highest level is an enormous mental challenge in itself but watching all these terrible injuries at close hand, made playing the game a massive psychological test.
“If you thought about it then it would have been very destructive to how you played,” Kelvin said.
“But it was in the back of your mind. I was talking to Jeff Gieschen the other day and we were comparing battle scars. He has a lot of scar tissue over one eye because he’s had so many cuts there and under my right eye it’s quite lumpy because it’s been stitched up so often. It’s only a few centimetres lower or higher with an elbow and the same thing that happened to Stephen could have happened to us. It’s such a fine line.”
So how did these experiences affect Kelvin’s writing and in particular Collision?
“Those thoughts are stowed away back in the deep part of my mind when I’m writing this,” Kelvin said. “I couldn’t think about these things when I was playing because you just couldn’t, you had to take lots of risks and hope nothing happens. Afterwards you think “gee, it was a really dangerous time.”
While these events of the past have played their role in Kelvin’s novel it is only part of the story.
In fact Collision isn’t a footy book.
The setting is a football environment but the real story is about a search for identity when Joshua Shamrock loses his dream of being a football star.
It’s an issue many former athletes face when they retire from the game. Adding to Shamrock’s problems is the skill set that has served him well during his career doesn’t work as well outside that environment. His stubbornness, hiding his feelings and not complaining doesn’t work as well after his career is over. In fact they undermine his relationship with his wife, Justine.
There is also the complication of not knowing his parentage thrown into the mix.
Collision is a great read and the end result of Kelvin’s love of reading, brilliant imagination and his talent as a writer.
As the great historian and author Don Watson said: “It’s outrageous that a Brownlow medallist should write a novel as good as this.”
Read more from Neil Cordy HERE.
Read an extract from Collision HERE.
Copies are available directly from Wilkinson Publishing, from the usual online sellers and some bookshops such as Readings (Melbourne), Gleebooks (Sydney) and Dillons (Adelaide).
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About Neil Cordy
I played football for Traralgon before playing at Footscray (1977-86) and Sydney (1987-93). I coached East Sydney in 1994. After teaching Phys. Ed and working in sales I began working in the media. I started as a contributor to the Sydney Morning Herald and then as a boundary rider for the Seven Network (1994). I then worked for Galaxy /Fox Sports (1995) and Network Ten (1996-2011). I moved to the Daily Telegraph in 2011 and worked as an AFL reporter (2011-2020) and then was a contributor to Code (2021- 2024)
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Nice work. Learnt some new things there and was reminded of others.
Thanks for an excellent interview, Neil, and I look forward to reading Kelvin’s book.
The “casual attitude to violence” in the 1970s that Kelvin mentions was reflected by Channel releasing a video titled “Violent Saturday”, with a book of the same name following a few years later.