SANFL 70s Pen Pix – West Torrens and Port Adelaide 1974 (plus bonus Achilles Jones and K.G.)

I’ve been on eBay again. I couldn’t resist the lure of this double-feature from the first week of the 1974 SANFL finals. Please don’t tell anyone else at home. Best $2 (plus $3 postage) I’ve spent since the last thing I bought.

 

 

Yes, that is future AFL CEO Wayne Jackson, in his role as fill-in Torrens coach (after Bill Barrot scampered back to Oakleigh mid-season). In fact, of the three coaches featured on the cover, Knuckles was the only one not in his debut season. Jacko must have missed the memo about turtle-neck jumpers.

 

The Glenelg list was featured in an earlier article, but here’s the Eagles’ pen pix, from one of their rare September appearances.

There was a pretty clear divide between the students/teachers and clerks on the one hand and those with a more commercial bent. The common call after one of Torrens’ eleven wins for the season was “all back to Fred’s place”, where the “Gary Glitter” of the SANFL, Ian “Rooster” Wallace would dispense liquid bonhomie to his team mates (and perhaps a traveller or two to Fred’s brother).

It was amazing that Steve Pavlich found time to sire one of the AFL’s most durable players, given that he was also solely responsible for our nation’s aviation industry. Pav Sr. is shown rocking one of the two dozen guernsey designs that Torrens wore between 1965 and 1985.

What did Neville (not yet Rocky) Roberts make of all of this at his tender age? What did the phrase “Complete in his ability” mean in Milan Faletic’s bio? John Graham never got over losing the captaincy, sneering his way through Football Inquest most Saturday evenings.

The Cousinses were brothers and John Keast eventually ended up at Sandringham in the VFA. Adrian Hunt spent a few seasons later on at Ingle Farm, where his skills as a solicitor were in high demand.

Was the whole SANFL green with envy when the Eags ended up with dinky-di Barry McKenzie’s signature?

This was Jackson’s last game as coach, Noel Teasdale took over for the next two last-placed seasons and Fred Bills had to wait until 1975 to bring up his 300th appearance.

 

Norwood’s 1972 pen pix appeared here, so I’ll spare you this time around.

Try as I might, I’ve scoured the Port Adelaide pix, and can’t find a single waterside worker or cockle-diver  listed. They all seemed to occupy such respectable jobs. There must have been a problem with the research behind this page.

Russell Ebert was well known at the Port Adelaide branch of the Savings Bank for motioning the older members of the fairer sex to move down to the far queue, according to someone quite close to this writer.

Gary Tredrea’s move from Collingwood was still being felt on the Channel Nine News forty years later (and if you insist, thirty years down the track at the filth Power).

Darrell Cahill was a very very very good golfer, picking an eminently suitable job. Ray Hayes was just the bloke to give your donk a seeing too, applying plenty of elbow grease.

I still can’t find Eden Hope, home of Pat Taylor, on my RAA Adelaide to Melbourne strip map. Apparently, it’s about 40 minutes east of Nara Coorte.

And how about that Port logo?

 

As an aside, this ad reminded me of the only time that I ever paid attention in Year 9 English (or any of the Humanities for that matter – it shows, don’t it?). If anyone out there knows where we can get a copy of this series, please sing out. It’s a national disgrace that all trace seems to have been lost. And a fairly prescient choice of club nickname, as it turned out.

 

Last and certainly least, I thought that this undisclosed infomercial from KG should be given a run here, as it proved quite popular when I exposed it elsewhere. It’s been a while since Racquel Welch and sumo athletic supports appeared in the Budget pages. Fortunately for all South Australians, Mr Cunm’s vocal talents were soon discovered by talkback radio and TV. His Monday night “conversations” with a “refreshed” EJ Whitten on 5DN and 5AA were must-hear radio in the 80s. His glowing praise for Dave Darcy was in no way related to any business arrangements, no siree.

 

 

About Mark 'Swish' Schwerdt

Saw my first SANFL game in 1967 - Dogs v Peckers. Have only ever seen the Dogs win 1 final in the flesh (1972 1st Semi) Mediocre forward pocket for the AUFC Blacks (1982-89) Life member - Ormond Netball Club -That's me on the right

Comments

  1. McAlmanac says

    Another great trip down Memory Lane from the Budget Bard.

  2. “More popular than Raquel Welsh at a Nudist Party”- ahh, KG, ever the elegant visionary.

    Frank Wilson as JJ Forbes in And The Big Men Fly would’ve been a nice training run for his subsequent role as Jock (my favourite on-screen Jock ever) in The Club.

    Another treasure trove Swish. Keep investing those two dollars!

  3. Diane Craig.
    Norman Gunston did ok for himself, didn’t he?

  4. Dave Brown says

    As always good fun, Swish. That is one of my favourite Budget covers of the era.

    Apparently the season before, Neville Roberts’ first three opponents as a teenager starting in the SANFL were Barrie Robran, Phil Carman and Russell Ebert. Not surprisingly, footy got easier for him after that. Another South Australian that donned the Big V in the pre-SoO period.

    Did people in other states study ‘And the Big Men Fly’ in Year 9 (or equivalent) English? I wonder if it’s one of our peculiar South Australianisms. Seems to have largely disappeared from popular memory if it ever existed there.

  5. Gold, gold, gold. Thanks Swish. 1974 – I was a 19yo public service clerk and part-time uni student fresh to the big smoke from Yorke Peninsula. (KG’s comments on your Bulldogs are less than flattering).
    Kn Cnnghm. The man that vowels forgot. Terrific cricketer and very good football umpire in the one umpire days (we should have stopped at 2). Amazing that he and Max OConnell both umpired SANFL Grand Finals and had prominent cricket careers (KG as an outstanding Shield batsman in the Chappell era , Max as an outstanding Test umpire).
    Making finals was a lifetime highlight for my West Torrens Eagles (we never won ONE). The ’74 Elimination Final against the previous year’s premiers Glenelg we were competitive to 3/4 time thanks to straight kicking, but got blown away late.
    Wayne Jackson was a great man on all fronts – ugly but effective player; outstanding coach and man manager; brilliant businessman and footy administrator; decent human being. A man for all seasons.
    They don’t make ’em like that any more.
    As for the players I thought Ian Wallace was more Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) than GG. (Can you sue for defamation retrospectively?)
    Freddie Bills (old style follower – great mark and flat punts) and hard man CHB Johnnie Graham were the residue of the unsuccesful 60’s teams of my boyhood (sadly Bobby Gibson gave it away in ’72) who hung on long enough for modest success – in a club that had much to be modest about.
    It always pisses me off that Norwood fans claim Neville Roberts (brilliant set kick for goal) and Port claim Faletic. Bloody thieves. “Mulva” was the best mark and worst kick I ever saw in a key forward. What might have been.
    Floreani, Faletic, the Pavlich brothers were much beloved players by the fans – but the popular theory at the Wheatsheaf Hotel was that Torrens were crippled by the influx of “New Australian” migrants to the area. Footy was not their “natural” sport we prognosticated in pre SBS times.
    On a sad note, these lists always bring up names long forgotten who linger in the memory for brilliant deeds of their youth. I googled Harry Puhle. One of the saddest stories you could read.

  6. Mark 'Swish' Schwerdt says

    McA – one day I’ll find those elusive Peckers pen pix

    Mickey – KG was always a bit of a fogey. I preferred Abigail. I remember Frank Wilson as one of the co-comperes of New Faces, with Terry Dear from Sydney joining him courtesy of the “co-axial cable link between Melbourne and Sydney”

    Smokie – I’ve always preferred him as Kid Eager

    DB – I’ve probably told this before, but I was there at Thebby the day Roberts got the “Rocky” epithet

    PB – You were the first person I thought of when I realised that this Budget had the Torrens pen pix. You were down 11.9 to 12.20 at lemons, final score was 12.10 to 15.28. According to the original owner of this Budget, Fred Phillis kicked 7.8 – Mulva kicked 4.0 (!). I worked with Max at ETSA for a few years but only recently realised that he had played for both Port and Sturt before umpiring. I had no inkling about Harry Puhle either – grim.

  7. charlie brown says

    Love KG’s column! So not PC. My beloved Roosters cop a deserved spray for their 1974 form (not helped by No 10’s injury at the SCG.). But the Norwood comments are gold. Wonder who he was referring to?!

  8. Mark 'Swish' Schwerdt says

    All of them Charlie, all of them.

  9. Mark 'Swish' Schwerdt says

    Matthew Pavlich tweeted

    “The Bull!! This popped up earlier today about the old boy & Uncle Mark in their glory days at West Torrens. No way he’s ever weighed 78kgs!!”

  10. I like that they have both metric and imperial measurements but I’m pretty sure “Bucky” Cunningham wasn’t 6’8″.

  11. Achilles Jones — couldn’t he kick a footy over the wheat silo?

  12. Oh, and by the way, Wayne Jackson, former red spooner and Uni Blacks player from the Early 1960s

  13. Sensational Swish love KGs column I have my suspects re the legs players but alas one is no longer with us so I will leave it at that ( have sent on Swish )

  14. I do have some of the old sanfl budgets from the 1970s , very informative and down to earth, better than the programs of today where the main emphasis is on advertising. In Victoria they use to print football life which had a large sized front colour page, always packed with player information . The SANFL also had a football times which was always good reading, that eventually faded away. I do miss reading articles from the 70s and 80s .

  15. Mark 'Swish' Schwerdt says

    Me too Dave. Me too.

  16. david n kempe says

    I have a copy of the play script And the Big Men Fly and teach it occasionally… great stuff…

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