2014 Round 5, Half time.

10th April Birthdays.

 

William Armstrong 1892, David Johnston 1969, Darren Morgan 1965,
Kevin O'Brien 1932, Brian Taylor 1962, David Wittey 1966.
 

PLAYER OF THE DAY. Simon Garlick, born 10^th April 1975.

Playing under 19 football with Richmond under 19's Simon was a hard worker which led to him being ready for first grade football when Sydney picked him up in 1994.  He was there until 1997 but was probably underutilised as he only played 44 games and kicked 27 goals.

Moving to the Western Bulldogs in 1998 he was able to play 137 games for 114 goals before his retirement at the end of 2004.

He was predominantly a forward, spending some time in the midfield and though not overly tall at 177cm he even played as a decoy full forward on occasions.

Source: The Encyclopaedia of AFL Footballers.

Writers Choice.

Laurie Nash is the second player selected by all 4 football writers questioned about their top 6 players.

Laurie was another one team player from the 1930’s and a favourite of the South Melbourne fans.  He was with the club from 1933 to 1937 and again in 1945.

Over just 99 games for the club he kicked 246 goals.  In his first year he was played at centre half back in a flag winning side but felt he was more suited to centre half forward.

He was moved from centre half forward to full forward in a state game when the full forward was injured and ended up with 18 goals for the match.

With a strong mark and long kick on either foot he was a treat to watch and as well as his games for South he also played 4 games for Victoria.

 Source: Great Australian Football Stories by Ken Piesse & The Encyclopaedia of AFL Footballers.

The Hocking Brothers.

Steve Hocking is the older of the two brothers and paved the way at Geelong for his younger sibling.  They were at the club together from 87-94 with Steves career being from 1984 to 1994. 

He was a no frills but consistent player who represented the club 199 times and scored 10 goals.  Playing mainly on the half back line he was involved in an incident with Hawthorne great Leigh Matthews, flattening him after Matthews had hit Geelongs Neville Bruns.

Gary joined Geelong in 1987, and in contrast to his brother was a hard at the ball mid fielder. In his 274 games until retiring in 2001 he kicked 243 goals.

Though some people were concerned about his physicality he certainly sparked his team and opponents knew to be wary of him.

He won Geelongs Best and Fairest 4 times, was in the Victorian team 6 times and was also an All Australian on 4 occasions.

Source: The Encyclopaedia of AFL Footballers.

Charlies Horse and Cart.

Footscray great and premiership captain Charlie Sutton was only a young player at the club when the Western Oval curator decided to play a prank on him.

At that time, it appears, Charlies mode of transport to training was a horse and cart. On this particular night, while he was in the change rooms after training, the prankster undid the traces on the horse placing it on one side of the fence and the cart on the other and then re hitching it.

When Charlie appeared after dark and got up onto his cart he wondered why the horse did not want to move.

Source: Great Australian Football Stories by Ken Piesse.