Almanac Teams: The Zoo team
I’ve been thinking about selecting a team of animals. Though the spelling of the names aren’t always accurate of the particular species, they are pronounced the same as the name of animals.
I did not include nicknames thus ‘Horse’, ‘Snake’ and the ‘Whale’ etc. are all missing. Ditto names like Hawkins and Hawken which include an animal.
B: D Salmon, Collingwood. J Hogg, Richmond. N Crowe, Richmond.
HB: M Pike, Melbourne/North Melbourne/Fitzroy. I Salmon, Footscray. C Bird, Sydney/Essendon.
C: A Swallow, North Melbourne. D Swan, Collingwood. D Swallow, Gold Coast.
HF: G Lyon, Melbourne. M Crow, Essendon/Footscray. R Lyon, Fitzroy/Brisbane.
F: S Gull, South Melbourne/Melbourne. P Salmon, Essendon/Hawthorn. N Cockatoo, Geelong.
Foll: R Crow, Fitzroy. P Hawke, Sydney/Collingwood. C Cockatoo-Collins, Essendon/Port Adelaide.
Inter: M Hogg, Footscray/Carlton. D Chick, Hawthorn. W Fox, Footscray. T Fox, Footscray.
Emerg: Da Cockatoo-Collins, Melbourne. Do Cockatoo-Collins, Melbourne.
Who better coach than Paul Roos. He’s a monty for selection in this team, but I thought the coaching caper suited him better.
Glen!
About Glen d
Typical Victorian bias. No Nathan Eagleton (Port Adelaide and Bulldogs) or more recently Matt Eagles (Brisbane). (Great team idea but).
What a menagerie! Loved this, Glen!
Valid point PB re me missing out on Matt Eagles.
Nathan Eagleton, like Jack Hawkins, etc does not meet the criteria as his name is not solely based on an animal.
Glen!
Scott Crow was a handy player for the Pies during the ‘Tony Shaw years’.
Highly original concept. Who would’ve thought you’d be able to get 22 from that theme – although it seems that the majority are of the bird variety, with a few fish thrown in. Would love to see more mammals.
Robert Lamb of Richmond and South, plus the other Lambs that have gambolled across our playing fields over the years
Great idea Glen !
Always enjoy a trip to the zoo.
From Collingwood:
Arthur Leach
Trevor Steer
Eric Cock
Bill Buck
Leo Bird
Some more Eagles suggestions Glen! (Isn’t an Eagleton a baby Eagle?) Don Pyke sounds a bit fishy. Dwayne Lamb (151 games & 2 flags – not Tom – 1 game). Adam Cockie (running the zoo or in the bird cage?)
Adam Hunter would be urgently traded out.
A few extra mammals. Tony BULL played 311 games for the Demons in the fifties. Jack KIDD played for Essendon, Carlton and Fitzroy in the twenties and thirties. Tim COLLEY (yes, I know that is not how it is spelt) played six games for Geelong in 1970-71. There are 16 footballers with the surname Russell listed in the Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers but not one of them is named Jack or even John.
There was a bloke named Doug Panther at Monash in the 60s and I worked with a man named Jim Badger in the 80s but neither of them played football or had namesakes playing VFL/AFL.
Make that 31 games for Tony Bull. I should have checked for typos before I posted.
Hello Glen.
Harry Dolphin – 15 games for Footscray (1940/1942). Two year stint as President of the club (1961-62)
MCR
PB, i ‘ll retract my earlier comment. If Nathan is a junior eagle he can pad out the emergency listing with the Cockatoo-Collins brothers.
Damian, can you find any reptilian surnames, like monitor or something similar ?
Glen!
Glen
May be a bit obscure but the self-proclaimed greatest CHF of all time, Royce Hart must get a run here.
A hart is another word for deer.
And on the reptile front, does “Snake” Baker get a place in the goal square??
G’day Stainless.
Valid point re Royce Hart.
Not so re Phil Baker as i didn’t pick on the basis of nicknames just surnames. It does get me thinking of a team of players with animal nicknames. Hmm, maybe a future posting.
Glen!
What fun. Thanks for researching these
The Almanac Music theme of songs concerning animals, got me thinking about this Zoo team, named above.
The Zoo team will play a match against a team of the other recent Almanac theme of songs concerning food, drinks, rivers and clothes. I left out jewellery because I couldn’t find any relevant surnames.
The criteria is that the surname of the players must exactly resemble the theme in question. The spelling can be different, as long as it sounds the same. No nicknames or first names are permitted.
The Salmon surname was ineligible to be used for this team as part of the food theme, because it was already used for The Zoo team.
Here is the AFL/VFL team of Food, Drinks, Rivers and Clothes:
B: Gordon Waters (Haw), Jared Rivers (Melb/Geel), Terry Waters (Coll)
HB: Bailey Rice (St Kilda), Beau Waters (West Coast), Trent Rivers (Melb)
C: Leon Rice (Hawthorn), Ollie Wines (Port Adelaide), Dean Rice (St K/Carl)
HF: Brian Beers (C/wood), David Cloke (Rich/C/wood), Luke Beveridge (Melb/Foots/St K)
F: Mark Beers (C/wood), Travis Cloke (Coll/West Bull), Bert Drinkwater (Ess, 1918-20, 27 games, 15 goals)
R: Cameron Cloke (Coll/Carl), Clinton Wines (Carl, 1945-46, 39 games, 10 goals), Colin Rice (Geel, 1957-63)
Captain Coach: Luke Beveridge
President: Rod Butters
The match between this team and The Zoo team will be played at Moorabbin.
Spectators are welcome to barrack for their team from the animal enclosure.
Transport will be provided by horse and carriage, as well as food trucks.
The captain of the Zoo team will be Gary Lyon.
The team Doctor for the Zoo team will be Dr Dolittle.
The Assistant Coach for the Zoo team will be Ross Lyon.
The theme songs will be “The Brisbane Lions theme song”, for the Zoo team and “Duncan” by Slim Dusty for the Food, Drinks, Rivers and Clothes team.
Entertainment will be provided by the greatest hits from the pop group The Animals and the song “Strawberry Fields Forever”, by The Beatles.
The after match meal will include food and drinks.
Let’s hope for a good game of football, with no animal like behaviour!
As it’s now official that Brendan Doggett (Dog) will make his Test debut today in the 1st Ashes Test against England in Perth, it got me thinking of doing a cricket team where each player has either a first name, surname or a first name and surname (eg Jack Russell, Chuahuahua) of an animal or a breed of dog.
The criteria is that the name can only be used once, the spelling doesn’t matter and that the animal can be part of the name (eg Duck for Duckett, Panda for Pandya, Chuahuahua for Chauhan). The names for the 2nd team (a World cricket Team of Animals where it didn’t matter if every player had played Test cricket, one day or T20 for their country was enough) could be used more than once. Animal nicknames of players were not allowed.
This is the World Test Cricket XI Team of Animal Names:
Ben Duckett (Duck)
Chetan Chauhan (Chuahuahua/40 Tests India 1969-81)
Martin Crowe (c) (Crow)
Allan Lamb (Lamb)
Robin Smith (Robin)
Hardik Pandya (Panda/11 Tests India 2017-18)
Jack Russell (wk) (Jack Russell Terrier)
Graeme Swann (Swan)
Neil Hawke (27 Tests Australia 1963-68)
Nathan Lyon (Lion)
Rodney Hogg (Hog)
This team can play a pretend exhibition match against a 2nd World XI Cricket Team of Animal Names:
Aaron Finch (c) (Finch/5 Tests/146 ODIs/103 T20s Australia 2013-2022)
Robin Uthappa (Robin/46 ODIs/13 T20s India 2006-15)
Simon Katich (Cat/Catfish/56 Tests Australia 2001-10)
Jeff Crowe (Crow/39 Tests New Zealand 1983-90)
Robin Singh (Robin/1 Test/136 ODIs India 1989-2001)
Brad Hogg (Hog/7 Tests/123 ODIs Australia 1996-2014)
Arthur Dolphin (wk) (Dolphin/1 Test England 1921)
Robin Jackman (Robin/4 Tests England 1981-82)
Umar Gul (Gull/47 Tests Pakistan 2003-13)
Jackson Bird (Bird 9 Tests Australia 2012-17)
Brendan Doggett (1 Test Australia 2025-present)
Umpires: Harold “Dickie” Bird and Daryl Hare
Playing Match Referee: Jeff Crowe
Team Doctor: Dr Dolittle (hopefully he can do a lot, not do a little)
Venue: Moorabbin in front of The Animal Enclosure
Entertainment: The Animals rock band
Let’s hope for a good game of cricket, where spectators are strongly advised not to behave like animals!