Almanac (Creative) Footy: In the home straight with the half-back flankers

 

 

The half-back flankers are pacy, good marks, attacking or defending as the situation demands. Most of the half-back flankers are workhorses getting on with their job. Some are show ponies, which seem to be over-represented in the Carlton variety.  When the eyes of the world were on us at the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics, it was the Australian Stock Horse, a uniquely Australian breed, that charged thrillingly into the arena. Known as the world’s most versatile horse, ‘the breed for every need’, they are descendants of the nine horses that arrived with the First Fleet in 1788.

A useful reference book for this piece has been The new encyclopedia of the horse by Elwyn Hartley Edwards (Ringwood, Vic: Dorling Kindersley, 2001), while some quotes set the scene.

• Ralph Waldo Emerson: Riding a horse is not a gentle hobby, to be picked up and laid down like a game of solitaire. It is a grand passion.
• Winston Churchill: No hour of life is wasted that is spent in the saddle.
• John Wayne: Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway.
• Carl Hester: Learn from each and every horse you ride. Every horse has something to teach you, and sometimes you don’t realize what that lesson is until years later!

Back to the players. John Warren in Australian football fundamentals (Frenchs Forest, NSW: Reed, 1982) says: ‘It used to be rather unkindly said that if you can play football at all you can play on the half-back flank. In the old days it was one of the less glamorous field positions, but half-back flankers now assume great stature, frequently turning defence into attack. An attacking flanker who is a penetrating kick often by-passes the centreline and places the ball deep into the half-forward or even the full forward line. The flanker needs to be a disciplined defender who is capable of closely checking his opponent, but there is often a need for spontaneous attack. If a half-back flanker is able to successfully meet the ball by leaving his opponent, naturally he should do so. A flanker needs to be a good hard tackler and should have sufficient speed to be able to pace it with this opponent who is usually fast and elusive. It also helps if he is a sound, if unspectacular, mark.’

Someone who fits this bill is the inspirational Andrew McLeod, who lived the old saying that attack is the best form of defence, but also showed that defence is the best form of attack. Of course Andy won consecutive Norm Smiths in the Adelaide Crows premierships in 1997 and 98 as well as a string of other honours. Rain Lover, trained by South Australian Bart Cummings, won consecutive Melbourne cups in 1968 and 1969, the first to do so since Archer in 1861 and 1862. In 1968 Rain Lover won by a record eight lengths and in a then record time of 3 minutes 19.1 seconds.

Our most celebrated racehorses in recent years are all mares—Black Caviar, Makybe Diva and Winx—so it doesn’t seem appropriate to attach them to a male footballer. Nor to invoke the name of the mighty Phar Lap, who is, like Don Bradman, beyond compare.

Geelong’s coltish Ken Hinkley grew up in Camperdown where the Camperdown Turf Club was founded in 1866. It hosts an annual race meeting, the Camperdown Cup, which is held on the 3rd Saturday in January, and has developed into a hugely successful event for the town and the club, attracting crowds in excess of 3,000. Carlton’s Ken Hunter looked like a bag of bones, so goodness knows how he survived football’s rough and tumble. Kenny embodies the mountain pony ridden  in AB ‘Banjo’ Paterson’s classic bush poem ‘The man from Snowy River’ which first appeared in The Bulletin of 26 April 1890. We encounter the man and his pony in the third verse:

And one was there, a stripling on a small and weedy beast,
He was something like a racehorse undersized,
With a touch of Timor pony—three parts thoroughbred at least—
And such as are by mountain horsemen prized.
He was hard and tough and wiry—just the sort that won’t say die—
There was courage in his quick impatient tread;
And he bore the badge of gameness in his bright and fiery eye,
And the proud and lofty carriage of his head.

Of course the whole poem is a thrilling read, and the movie was pretty good too.

The flying doormat, his long locks constrained by that headband, Carlton’s Bruce Doull is in the AFL Team of the Century, and no wonder. Talk about mind on the job – never losing focus, never speaking, never smiling, just implacable, unbeatable. The word mad also comes to mind, maybe feral. Feral horses in the United States are known as Mustangs, descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish conquistadors.

Carlton’s Tommy Alvin started out as a half-back flanker. A cult figure with his shoulder-length hair flowing in the breeze like a long mane, there was something comical about him. Something else comical is a new niche activity called Hobby Horse, based on the wooden horses we used to ride around on as kids in the 1950s, except more athletic, and you make your own. Arriving in Australia in 2016, its website hobbyhorseriders.com says that ‘Hobby horsing is a hobby with gymnastic elements which uses hobby horses, also known as stick horses. Movement sequences similar to those in show jumping or dressage are partly simulated in courses, without real horses being used.’ It’s a national sport in Finland. Who knew?

 

 

From hobbyhorseriders.com

 

From the comical to the sublime, John William Crosbie Goold was known as ‘Ragsy’ for his work in the fashion industry. He decided to play with Carlton as he liked the deep blue of the guernsey. Ragsy played with flair and a sense of the dramatic, taking freakish high marks. Carlton’s website says ‘Goold’s wind-catching ebony mane, juxtaposed with the pristine white anklets and wrist guards, earned him cult status amongst those behind the fence – but it was his hard-running rebounding, take-the-game-on panache that endeared the left-footer to the good football judges more than any aesthetic.’ After his football career he began breeding top quality Polo Ponies at his property Ellerslie, and represented Australia in international polo competitions.

Hailing from country Lucindale in the south-east, Andrew McKay came second in the Magarey Medal in his first season with Glenelg. He was All-Australian in his first season with Carlton in 1993. His daughter Abbie made history being the first ever father-daughter selection in Australian Rules history. Andy was a veterinarian, so brings to mind the classic 1877 novel Black Beauty: his grooms and companions, the autobiography of a horse by English author Anna Sewell. The book was written from the horse’s perspective, teaching animal welfare and how to treat horses with kindness, sympathy, and respect.

A hardworking servant of Collingwood, Heath Shaw arrived under the father-son law, then went to Greater Western Sydney in New South Wales. Maybe he’ll be the start of a dynasty like The Silver Brumby  series of books about the adventures of Thowra, a magnificent palomino brumby and his descendants, set in the Snowy Mountains around Mount Kosciusko. The Sate Library’s Children’s Literature Research Collection has five books in the Silver Brumby series which was written by Australian children’s writer Elyne Mitchell and first appeared in 1958.

Silver is not actually an official horse colour. The most common are Bay, Chestnut, Dun, Sorrel, Brown, Black, Grey and Buckskin. The Buckskin horse has a gold or tan coat with black points: mane, tail, and lower legs. Gold and black – has to be a Richmond flanker, maybe the dashing Bachar Houli. There are also mixed colours. Pinto horses have numerous patterns, including Skewbald (patches of white and any color except black) and Piebald (patches of white and black). According to Wikipedia, the word piebald originates from a combination of pie from magpie and bald meaning white patch or spot. So that would be Collingwood’s honest Nick Maxwell who was an All Australian flanker in 2009.

The Przewalski horse is a wild stocky horse from Mongolia. Maybe a match with the wild stocky Daniel Rich who patrolled Brisbane’s defences over 14 years, specialising in long accurate kickouts from goal. Bucephalus was the magnificent black horse with a white star on his brow, who carried Alexander the Great of Macedon. With Macedonian heritage, Nick Malceski’s run and delivery from either foot out of the backline saw him kick the first and last goals with snap shots in Sydney’s last premiership in 2012. The Trojan Horse was a successful trick by the Trojans of the Greek Peninsula. In the Greek Team of the Century, Ang Christou had plenty of tricks, attracting the ‘Woof’ from the crowd. Ang was the second left-footed Carlton defender to get the ‘Woof’. First was Val Perovic from 1981 to 1985, then Ang from the mid 1990s, followed by Chris Bryan 2005 to 2006 and the latest, Adam Saad from 2022.

Throughout his career, Adam Saad has been known for his dashing pace, running long distances with the ball while confidently bouncing it. Here’s a stat. As of 2024, he holds the record for the highest average running bounces per game since statistics were first recorded in 1999, with 3.46 per game. In the equestrian world, a Bounce is a type of jump where the horse lands from one jump and immediately takes off again over a second jump. Bounce jumps are set close together so that there are no full strides between them. An average horse has a 3.6 metre stride which corresponds to 12 feet, or four human steps. For ponies, this distance is reduced to an average of 3.0 metres or 9’ 9”.

The Giants’ Lachie Whitfield has all the confidence, poise and classy decision-making required in Show Jumping, an event which is heart-in-the-mouth stuff to watch, especially when a gold medal is riding on a dropped rail. Even more heart-in-the-mouth is the Cross Country leg of a Three Day Event. I was fortunate to be at Gawler in 1986 to see New Zealander Mark Todd, now Sir Mark Todd, ride Charisma to victory in the international Three Day Event. Charisma used to get his own fan mail, so was a popular sight when he and Mark Todd entered the stadium carrying the torch at the opening ceremony of the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland. Someone as distinguished as that pairing is the flawless Barry Davis, Essendon’s Team of the Century half-back flanker, who then captained North Melbourne to its first premiership in 1975 and is also in its Team of the Century as an interchange.

From eventing to the Tennessee Walking Horse, which has a unique four-beat running-walk.  It was bred in the late 18^th century in the American South, and is a popular riding horse due to its calm disposition, smooth gait and sure-footedness. This would describe the Giants’, and now Carlton’s, Nick Haynes, who was All Australian flanker in 2020.

In my childhood, Dad subscribed to Punch magazine – my favourite cartoons being Thelwell’s Shetland ponies. The State Library has five books by Norman Thelwell in its Children’s Literature Research Collection, donated by former Rare Books Librarian and horse lover Valmai Hankel PSM. Geelong’s Darren Milburn was just as ornery as those Shelties on his half-back flank, but more useful.

 

One of Thelwell’s Shelties from Punch magazine

 

When Colin Austen joined Hawthorn in 1940 they were known as the Mayblooms, May being a common name for the English Hawthorn shrub. The Mayblooms  became the Hawks in 1943. Colin is in its Team of the Century as a half-back flanker and, in 1989, he was awarded the 1949 Brownlow that he lost on a countback. He went on to play for Richmond, where he was also well regarded, and now the Col Austen Memorial Trophy is won by the winning team in the first match between his two clubs each year. Another Austen of the Jane variety said that ‘a woman never looks better than on horseback’. She also made 400 references to horse-drawn carriages in her novels as documented in a Jane Austen Society of North America website.

 

Dean Laidley arrived at West Coast as a tough and wiry half-back flanker but couldn’t get a regular game for the Eagles because Guy McKenna and John Worsfold were the incumbents. A move to North Melbourne resulted in a premiership with the Kangaroos in 1996. Always popular, once known as a junkyard dog, Dani is now a charmer like the colourful ‘My little pony’ animated series.

 

 

The aforesaid Guy McKenna was versatile and effective like the Australian Quarter Horse. The first Quarter Horses arrived from America in 1954. Originally named because of their prowess in races of a quarter mile or less, Quarter Horses are mid-sized horses with a muscular, compact build now used for events such as Cutting, Reining and Campdrafting or more traditional areas like Pony Club, Polo and Polocrosse. Quarter Horses are also used in Rodeos, where John Worsfold’s strength and bravado would come in handy for buck jumping and tackling stock.

Shannon Hurn grew up in Gawler where he was an outstanding sportsman – cricket and footy being his favourites. The good judges reckon he could have played cricket for Australia. The only horse I can connect with cricket is one that pulled the roller at Adelaide Oval, as seen in a Samuel Sweet image from 1885, the season of the first Test match at Adelaide Oval. For West Coast, Shannon was a superb defender, a quiet heroic captain, and All Australian flanker in 2018.

 

Adelaide Oval in 1885 SLSA B3120

 

Another West Coast player, Beau Waters, was All Australian in 2012. For the last eight years he has been an ambassador for the Cancer Council of Western Australia, whose symbol is a daffodil, which evokes Wordsworth’s quiet refuge of a host of golden daffodils. In 1971 the meaning of ‘The horse with no name’ performed by America was puzzling, but its songwriter Dewey Bunnell says ‘it’s a metaphor for an escape from life’s confusion into a quiet, peaceful place’.

From a quiet place to Alessandro Angelo ‘Alec’ Eppis, nicknamed ‘Kookaburra’, was born in the Western Australian goldfields town of Boulder. Tall at 6’2”, he played for Essendon from 1958 to 1968 and is in the Italian Team of the Century on a half-back flank. The Bombers website says that Epis was ‘a tough and pacy half-back flanker with a powerful drop kick and with more than a touch of the lair about him. He never took a backward step and wasn’t above a bit of showmanship or giving a bit of lip. After taking a mark Epis would often hold the ball aloft in two hands showing it off to both the opposition and the crowd. The Bomber fans loved it. He also had the reputation for incessant chatter.’ Sounds like Mr Ed, the talking palomino horse from the eponymous 1961 to 1966 television series.

Alec Eppis mentored a young Essendon player, Glenn Manton, who was something of a rat-bagging youth before he became number 22 with the blue-bagging Carlton on a half-back flank. One of the great personalities of the Blues 1995 premiership team, Glenn now works for not-for-profit organisation Whitelion, working with troubled youth. He is a motivational speaker and writer, and is entertaining on Melbourne radio in conversation with mad keen Carlton supporter Tony Moclair. Glenn has also performed stand-up comedy, which brings to mind the comic song recorded by Spike Jones in 1948 about Beetlebaum, the racehorse who comes from behind to finish first. It’s a musical parody on Rossini’s ‘William Tell Overture’.

Talking of comedy, this is one of my favourite jokes. Three guys are having a few drinks at the bar. One says, ‘I think my wife’s having an affair with a plumber’. The others say, ‘No, what makes you think that?’ He replies, ‘Because I found a monkey wrench under the bed’. The second says, ‘I think my wife’s having an affair with an electrician’. The others say, ‘No, what makes you think that?’ He replies, ‘Because I found a set of jumper leads under the bed’. The third one, who’s Irish, thinks a bit, then says, ‘I think my wife’s having an affair with a horse.’ The others say, ‘No, what makes you think that?’ He replies, ‘Because I found a jockey under the bed.’ An oldie but a cutie.

On to a serious player. Michael Mansfield was a thumping left foot kick for Geelong during all of the 1990s, making All Australian in 1994 and 95, then a couple of years with Carlton. After footy he became a financial adviser. I found a curious finance related item in the State Library catalog, ‘Declaration made by RE Trow before TA Barlow, JP of having experienced a premonition about the outcome of a horse race’ in 1961.

Corey Enright went from Kimba to Port Adelaide before being snapped up by Geelong, where he was perpetually underrated (but not by Geelong) for 16 years. He is quoted on the AFL website: ‘I wasn’t blessed with any physical attributes like strength or power or speed or anything like that. I could run and I had OK endurance, but I think it was more my ability to understand and assess situations, read the play, anticipate, and then obviously make good decisions on the rebound.’ In the underrated stakes, the little Adelaide pacer Carclew defeated the Western Australian favourite, Pure Steel, to win the Inter-Dominion by three metres at Globe Derby Park in 1976, and I was fortunate to be there.

The nickname of North Melbourne’s Gary Cowton who played from 1971 to 1984 was ‘Crazy Horse’, and it pains me to say there’s a Crazy Horse Revue in Adelaide’s Hindley Street. It used to be known as a strip club but is a now a ‘gentleman’s club’ except they’re hosting Miss Nude Australia in August 2025. Aieee. On the other side of town in Carrington Street was the more salubrious Horse and Jockey Hotel built in 1846, delicensed in 1926 and demolished in 1955. It’s the sort of place that Essendon’s Norm McDonald might have visited, being keen on a pint. He was also a former sprinter and boxer, as we find in this Norm McDonald Tribute on the Essendon website. Don’t know if he liked his red wine, but horses feature on quite a few wine labels these days.

 

Rymill Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon wine label

 

Essendon’s Mark ‘Bomber’ Thompson was hardworking and hardy, the sort of colleague you would want beside you in the trenches. In the Middle East campaign of World War One, the Light Horsemen rode Walers, which combined the mobility of cavalry with the fighting skills of infantry. The horses were called Walers because, although they came from all parts of Australia, they were originally sold through New South Wales. They are sturdy, hardy horses, able to travel long distances in hot weather with little water.

Silver was the name of the Lone Ranger’s trusty white stallion, (Hi-Ho Silver) in the eponymous 1949 to 1957 television series. Silver was a symbol of justice and the bravery that epitomised Trevor Barker, who earned posthumous selection in St Kilda’s Team of the Century on the half-back flank, where he was ideally suited. Quoted on the AFL website, Luke Beveridge was an admirer: ‘Looking at him on the ground it was almost like seeing a polar bear in the Sahara, or a lion in the Arctic—he just stood out. He was a good-looking man and he was only medium-sized but he had amazing courage and he could virtually play anywhere.’

The Adelaide Crows have produced a herd of heroic half back-flankers, led by Ben Hart, who holds a special place in South Australian hearts like our Police Greys that are unique among mounted police units across the world. Although the South Australian Police had some grey horses in the late 1800s, their use became more prominent in World War One because the Australian Army had procured most of the available darker horses. With the establishment of the South Australian Police Mounted Cadre in 1951, it became official policy that police horses were exclusively to be greys. Rory Laird has done the heavy lifting for the Crows for years like the Clydesdales that pull the tram over the causeway to Granite Island at Victor Harbor. Brodie Smith is a running flanker noted for kicking goals from long range, so a kick like a Mule comes to mind.

In my beloved SANFL, Terry Short was as neatly turned out as a Dressage horse, never a hair or a kick out of place on the flank in Sturt’s premiership years 1966, 67 and 68.

Bohdan Jaworskyj and John Riley are half-back flankers in North Adelaide’s Team of the Century, in which each player is given a sobriquet. ‘Bugsy’ is ‘the redoubtable defender’ and being blond and cheery, deserves to be the beautiful palomino Trigger ridden by Roy Rogers in the eponymous 1950s and 60s televison series. Atomic physicist John Riley is ‘the professor’ which, in racing parlance, can only refer to Roy Higgins MBE, jockey to the stars, whose 1984 autobiography is called, you guessed it, The Professor, which I’m pleased to see the State Library holds.  Another North Adelaide flanker Darryl Webb was as tough as they come, but he had another skillset as a drummer, and amazingly there is a new British breed called the Drum Horse, which carries a drummer and drums on ceremonial occasions.

There is an interesting connection between the North Adelaide Football Club and Rain Lover. In the early 1880s Charles Nitschke started up a footy club called Medindie (the Dingoes) which changed its name to North Adelaide (the Roosters) in 1893. Charles’ son Holmesdale Carl (Jack) ‘Slinger’ Nitschke was a Test cricketer in the 1930s, and was later a horse breeder at Nook Stud (now called Wood Nook Farm) near Nagambie in Victoria. One of his horses at stud was Latin Lover, sire of Rain Lover. Another in his stable was Dayana who won four Derbies in 1972.

 

Roy Higgins and Bart Cummings with Dayana

 

Glenelg doesn’t have a Team of the Century, but has a Hall of Fame, which has quite a few sometime half-back flankers: Ted Robjent, Jim Handby, Brian Colbey and Paul Weston. Seeing as the Glenelg District Cricket Club now calls itself the Seahorses, that’s what they can be. Ted Robjent doesn’t sound like the gentle seahorse. Playing from 1938 to 1950, the Glenelg website says he was a ‘strong, gutsy half-back. His ability to make position, pounce on the ball in open spaces and deliver it to the best advantage was described as reminiscent of rugged Port Adelaide champion Allan ‘Bull’ Reval, who said of Robjent, “I was a cream puff footballer compared to Teddy Robjent”.’

 

One of those Glenelg seahorses

 

Jeff Pash selected a team of players from 1938 to 1949 for his column in The News. Westies’ Bernie Smith was on his left back flank, but we will meet him next time in the back pocket. On his right back flank was Albert Dominic ‘Don’ Taylor who played for West Adelaide, South Melbourne and Glenelg. In describing the South Australia v Western Australia game, The News of 2 June 1952 wrote, ‘Don Taylor, with another clinking mark, smashed another WA attack. The visitors should have learnt by now it was not much use trying that flank’. He sounds indefatigable like the Horse Guards in London. The Sporting Life’s half-back line for 1952 was Don Taylor, Brian Faehse (who we’ve previously met in the Ruck), and the speedy and reliable Ray Linke, who is in South’s greatest ever team. Ray came from the Nuriootpa Rovers in the Barossa Valley, where the Lindsay Park Stud set up by Colin Hayes is the most successful in Australian thoroughbred history, revered in the racing world as a training and stud complex.

Racing first took place on Kangaroo Island in 1878 and the Kangaroo Island Race Club was formed in 1883. From Kangaroo Island, Danny Jenkins is mainly remembered for playing on a half-back flank. He was outstanding in that position in Norwood’s nail-biting Grand Final victory against Sturt in 1978, especially his game saving smother in the dying stages of the match.

 

Nicole Bresnehan in 2019

 

Tasmanian Nicole Bresnehan played on the half-back flank in her 50^th AFLW game for North Melbourne. She only started playing football when she was 19 as she was a champion swimmer, which you can see in those powerful shoulders. Nicole once shared the pool with Olympic golden girl Ariarne Titmus. Someone else at the top of her game is Jamie Kah, the top-ranked female jockey in the world. Coming from an equestrian background she knows how to nurse or calm a horse, as you need to do in showjumping or cross country. Horseracing might be called the sport of kings, but Sport of Queens by Shane McNalty (Melbourne: Melbourne Books, 2017) looks at women in the industry. Curiously, The sport of Queens is also the title of the autobiography of English jockey Dick Francis, whose murder mysteries feature horses in different scenarios. They are a great read.

Born in Canberra with Maori heritage, the fabulous Stevie-Lee Thompson played her early football for the Adelaide Crows on the half-back flank. Another of Indigenous heritage, Frank Reys, was a Djiribul-Filipino man from North Queensland, and grew up on Country along the Cassowary Coast near Cairns. Frank learnt to ride wild ponies in the scrub before moving onto the thoroughbreds, and became the first Indigenous jockey to win a Melbourne Cup on Gala Supreme in 1973. His daughter Shelley Reys AO became the inaugural chairperson of Reconciliation Australia.

The All-Australian half-back flankers in 2024 were Dayne Zorko and Dan Houston. Brisbane’s lovable Dayne Zorko is the oldest All-Australian of the modern era, with a gap of seven years since his last such honour in 2017. Nicknamed ‘The Magician’ he has to be the Circus Pony that does all the tricks. Port Power’s Dan Houston came from the Oakleigh Chargers – a charger is also known as a ‘destrier’ or a ‘warhorse’, bred for strength, speed, and agility to carry knights into battle during the medieval era. Go well with Collingwood in 2025, Dan.

So the half-back flankers can be ultra dependable or a bit crazy, sometimes both, in a position that is acknowledged to initiate most of a team’s attack in the modern era. It’s a fun exercise to think who you would like to have on a half-back flank and what kind of horse they would be in a team playing in an equine heaven.

 

Moving deeper into defence, next time we meet the back pockets, the proper ones, the small gemstones that sparkle in the sunshine or light up a gloomy day, and your suggestions are welcome.

 

To read more from this series by Carolyn Spooner click HERE.

 

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Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.

 

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