Hmmmm

I have gone through the Herald Grand Final editions for 1950, 51, 52 & 53. For 50, 51 & 52 I have been able to find the WEG cartoon but not for 53. I haven’t checked the 54 edition to see if there was a WEG Grand Final cartoon but I do know that this was the first year of the WEG grand final poster, so it’s reasonable to think that he may not have done a cartoon for the Herald. I am curious as to why there was no cartoon for the 53 Grand Final and whether the Herald poster given away after the match with ‘the Magpie’ on it could in fact be unofficially the first WEG poster, with the 54 one being the first one that they decided to sell. Hmmmm!!!!

1950

1951

1952

1954

 

Newsreel 1939 VFL Grand Final – Melbourne Vs Collingwood

AUSTRALIAN RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP (aka RUGBY FOOTBALL FINAL AT MELBOURNE) – British Pathe. To the left is a link to footage of the 1939 VFL Grand Final between Melbourne & Collingwood. I wish that the AFL would get all of these and put them onto DVD but I don’t think that would happen. I am actually very surprised with the lack of respect that the history of the sport gets by the AFL on DVD. Apparently in 1990 Channel 7 deleted a whole lot of their football library which does make things hard. The earliest Grand Final on DVD is from1961, while the 1962-1964 ones were considered missing for a long time but are available only on the Grand Finals of the 60s DVD (and even then I don’t think they are complete). I guess that from 1956 onwards there should be some footage available, as parts of the game were broadcast as a replay on TV (either Channel 7 or 9). Would be good to see them.

Wells Looks At Collingwood’s 1950 Team

This is from The Age, June 2, 1950 before the Magpies played the Bulldogs.

Image via Wikipedia

This would have been Phonse Kyne‘s first year as coach of Collingwood. Also featured are Bill Twomey, Jack Hamilton, Des Healey, Lou Richards, Bernie Shannon, Peter Lucas, Stan Smith, Charlie Utting, George Hams, Bob Rose, Bill Rose, Bill Nolan, Jack Thompson, Gordon Hocking, Neil Mann, Jack Purdon, Bill Tebble, Neville Broderick and head trainer Ern Reay.

By the way Collingwood beat the Bulldogs by 72 points in this round 7 clash, although later in the year Footscray almost caused an upset when in round 18 they lost to the Magpies by just 2 points.

1950 was not a great year for either Collingwood or Footscray. The Magpies would finish the season in 7th place whilst the Bulldogs would finish 10th. Essendon was premiers in 1950.

More Wells’ Cartoons From 1958

Here are a few more cartoons from The Age from September 1958 by Wells.

The first one is from September 5th 1958 and is a preview to the big semi-final clash between the Magpies and the Demons. Melbourne were the overwhelming favourites for the flag that year and it was considered a major upset when Collingwood beat them in the grand final.

(Why is Phonse Kyne beating full forward Ian Brewer with a shoe?)

The second is from September 8 1958 after Melbourne beat Collingwood in the 1st Semi-Final by 45 points.

Obviously Wells didn’t have high hopes for the Pies, with Phonse passed out claiming “We’re gone”. Was this Graeme Fellowes first senior game?

This cartoon is a preview of the preliminary final between Collingwood & North Melbourne. It’s from September 12th and shows just how much of an overwhelming favourite Melbourne was for the premiership that year.

The fourth cartoon is from September 15th 1958 after Collingwood defeated North Melbourne by 20 points in the Preliminary Final.

Unfortunately there is not a digital copy available of Wells’ Grand Final Preview cartoon from the 19th of September. The online version of that newspaper is a little screwed up.

I do however have the premiership cartoon from September 22nd which I will post again.

It would be good if Rupert Murdoch would allow the Herald and the Sun to be digitised and put online but alas he would only do that if he could find a way for people to pay for the honour of viewing the archive. The least he could do is compile all of the Hook & WEG and Wells (pre-1950 before he was sacked and started at The Age) cartoons and publish them in book form. I’m sure there would be a few people interested in seeing these cartoons.

Go Pies

Rigged Or Fair Dinkum

Some people may read this and think that I am a little bitter (which is partly true), but there is something a bit fishy with Foxtel’s win free Grand Final tickets competition that they were running the last two days at Federation Square. They had been encouraging people to fill out an entry form and stick it into a big barrel, telling entrants that they would be drawing the winner live on their shows Teams (Thursday night) and Before The Bounce (Friday night). They did announce who the winners were on air but we did not see them pulling the winning entries from out of the barrel, which makes me think that things are a little bit suspect. Worse still is that when someone congratulated the girls who won tonight’s competition they said “We knew that we had won this morning.”  Is this true or were the girls just a bit too excited at winning the competition? The Foxtel people were encouraging people to enter the competition all day right up until 6:30pm, but why would they do this if these girls already won? Of course we do all know that this is just a way of Foxtel getting people’s details so they can call them up with offers, but I would like to think that I had a slight chance of winning the competition. Surely if they want people to know that the competition was above-board they would show the winning entry being drawn from the barrel?

Up There Cazaly

2010 AFL Grand Final Drinking Game

This Saturday is AFL Grand Final day with Collingwood taking on St Kilda for the premiership. I know that watching the Magpies smash the Saints is excitement enough for some of us, but for those who may get a little bored during Channel 7s telecast there is always the 2010 AFL Drinking Game. Here are a few of the rules to the game…

1. Anytime that 1966 is mentioned – take a drink
2. Anytime Bruce McAvaney says the word ‘special’ – take a drink
3. Anytime the cameraman focuses on ‘Molly’ Meldrum or Eddie McGuire in the crowd – take a drink
4. Anytime that the name Barry Breen is mentioned – take a drink
5. If we get the tips of Channel 7 celebrities like Kochie, Matt White, Larry Emdur, Alf from Home & Away or any other person who knows nothing about AFL footy – take a drink
6. Anytime that Channel 7 talks about the latest betting trends and the odds for the match – take a drink (If it is David Schwartz doing this then you have to skol a full stubby)
7. If Channel 7s production value has not improved since 1989 – take a drink
8. Anytime the camera focuses on Joffa Corfe and his gold jacket – take a drink
9. If in the pre-game telecast anyone talks about Lou Richards or Darrel Baldock – take a drink (Have an additional drink if they are interviewed)
10. Anytime that Denis Cometti makes one of those smart-arsed, off the cuff comments that you know that he’s rehearsed all week – take a drink
11. Anytime the umpire stuffs up bouncing the ball – take a drink
12. If Steven Baker hits a Collingwood player – take a drink
13. Anytime a commentator talks about X-Factor – take a drink
14. If Sandy Roberts is commentating – take a (very big) drink (of something with a high alcohol content). Believe me, it’s the only way you’ll make it through the telecast with your sanity intact
15. Anytime that umpire ‘Razor’ Ray Chamberlain decides he wants to be in the spotlight and gives a contentious free-kick – take a drink
16. Anytime that Travis Cloke misses a goal – take a drink
17. Anytime that Justin Koschitzke accidentally injures one of his team mates through his own unco-ordination – take a drink
18. Anytime that Stephen Milne throws a punch – take a drink
19. Anytime that Nick Reiwoldt berates his team-mates for not kicking the ball to him – take a drink
20. Anytime Dayne Beams misses a goal – take a drink
21. If Cometti uses the cliche ‘the Magpies swoop’ – take a drink
22. Anytime the commentator use the phrase ‘Saints footy’ – take a drink
23. Anytime Dane Swan gets a possession – take a drink
24. If the pre-game entertainment is crap – take a drink (If it involves Angry Anderson and the Batmobile  – take another drink)
25. Anytime a commentator mentions the new 7Mate TV channel – take a drink bonus drink if they talk about Jersey Shore or Family Guy
26. Anytime the commentators mention how unlucky Dane Swan was to not win the Brownlow Medal – take a drink
27. If Jim Stynes is interviewed during the pre-game telecast – take a drink
28. If Nick Riewoldt cries after the match – take a drink (same goes for Mick Malthouse)
29. If Channel 7 cuts off the telecast at 6pm to go to the news, regardless of whether the winning team has sung their theme song – take a drink
30. If you wish that Channel 10 were televising the game instead of Channel 7 (I empathise with you) – take a drink

This is probably all of the rules that I have come up with so far, although there are undoubtedly many more. I don’t advocate anyone actually following this by the way, because if you did you’ll be suffering alcohol poisoning just by following rule number 1 alone, as I know that 7 will mention 1966 hundreds of times before the game actually starts. You may have gathered that I am not impressed with Channel 7s football coverage and you would be correct. In my opinion the biggest problem with 7 is that their coverage is the same as it was in 2001. It learnt nothing from the innovative ways in which 9 telecast the footy from 2002-2006 or the way that Channel 10 has broadcast the football since 2001. They just picked up from where they left off and have not added anything of substance to their coverage. Hopefully Channel 9 will regain some of the rights in 2012 after the current deal finishes.

As for my prediction for the Grand Final, I hope Collingwood win but I am not willing to tip them that as it would be bad luck. (I’m very superstitious!)

One More Game To Go

Collingwood are into the Grand Final where they will play… we won’t find that out until tonight but I suspect it will be St Kilda. Last night the Magpies had an easy win over Geelong. Earlier in the week I said that Mark Thompson’s ‘mind-games’ smacked of desperation when he talked about the other finalists being jealous of Geelong, and I was proved correct.

Collingwood was a far better team last night and while it would be unlucky of me to predict victory in the Grand Final, I do think that they will be very difficult to beat. Last night the Magpies pace made Geelong look very slow and the Collingwood pressure made the Cats’ passing look inept. Despite Gary Ablett getting a lot of possessions he really didn’t have much influence on the game as he would always be kicking or handballing to a team-mate under pressure, who would inevitably turn the ball over to a Collingwood player.

Too many Geelong players went missing last night. Tom Hawkins was useless in the ruck, while James Podsiadly played like a VFL player.

One thing I found interesting is that the Collingwood team only had two players, Alan Didak and Ben Johnson, playing last night who were from our 2002/2003 losing Grand Final teams. Of the other players still at the Magpies from those years, both Leon Davis and Simon Prestigiacomo were omitted from the side because of injury, while Josh Fraser was overlooked. Shane O’Bree retired earlier in the season. For the Collingwood team to have changed so much over the last seven years and to still be regular finalists is amazing. I wonder whether Leon, Presti, Josh and Paul Medhurst will still be at Collingwood next year. I think that Fraser will be traded to another team for sure, while I think that Leon may stick around. I cannot see any of those guys being able to force their way into the team next week, especially since Tyson Goldsack, who replaced Leon at the last moment last night, played very well. Neon Leon isn’t known for playing well in finals and the Grand Final is not the place for him to try to get some finals form.

I think that St Kilda will easily beat the Bulldogs tonight but who knows. I thought that Collingwood vs Geelong would be a close match.