2014 Round 28, Half time.

18th September Birthdays.

 

   Chris Tarrant 1980.

 PLAYER OF THE DAY. Jay Van Berlo, born 18th September 1988.

As a player for West Perth Jay won a Best and Fairest in 2008 before being picked up by Fremantle as a rookie in 2009. 

He was lucky enough to be elevated to the senior side as a nominated rookie and played his first game in round 17 2009 against the West Coast Eagles. 

In that game he kicked 2 goals out of the 10 he scored for his club in 32 games from 2009 to 2012; his highest tally being 4 goals in a 2011 match against the Western Bulldogs.

Source: The Encyclopaedia Of AFL Footballers.

Melbourne – The First Club.

It is a bit hard to actually establish when things occurred in the formation of Australian Football; though we do know Thomas Wills wrote to the editor of Bells Life in July 1858 when he was secretary of the Melbourne Cricket Club.

Sometime after that he was asked to officiate in the first recorded game between Melbourne Grammar and Scotch College. Doubt arises as to whether the game had been formed by that time or whether he got some of his ideas for the game from that event.

However, the Melbourne football club has an establishment date of 1858 and Wills was definitely the driving force behind it.  In fact, the footballers, which were almost certainly members of the cricket team, were known as the ‘Invincible Whites’ as they wore their cricket whites in matches.

By the early 1860’s they were the strongest team in the Association, and in 1870 they won the first ‘official’ premiership by being on top of the ladder at the end of the season; winning 7 out of 12 games and drawing the other 5.

Around 1872 the club changed their uniform to include red stockings (socks), blue knickerbockers and sweater and a red cap. The use of the red cap led them to be known as the ‘Fucias’.

Source: The Clubs, Complete History Of Every Club In The VFL/AFL.

 

Graeme and Lance Whitnall.

Graeme managed 66 games for Carlton and kicked 20 goals over his 2 sessions at the club (’74–’79 and ’80-’81).

 

He was a utility player who was best suited to the role of ruck rover, voted best first year player in 1974.

Though he averaged 9 games per season, mainly due to a wealth of good players at the club, he was 1 of only 2 players to be in all games of the 1977 season.

 

Lance was actually the third Whitnall to be at Carlton, his older brother being on the reserves list for a while.

From 1997 to 2007 Lance played 216 games and kicked 348 goals as a big bodied, strong marking forward.

Showing a great deal of maturity for his age he was leading goals scorer for the Blues from 1998 to 2000, was All Australian in 2000 and Best and Fairest in 2006.

Source: The Encyclopaedia Of AFL Footballers.

A Game In 2 Halves.

It seems VFL Park at Waverley had its share of lighting problems with another power cut interrupting the game between Essendon and St. Kilda in Round 10 1996.

The game started that Saturday night with Essendon being ahead by 20 points near the end of the third quarter when the lights went out.

After a 50 minute wait the AFL decided to abandon the game and after deliberation deemed that the balance of the match would be played over 2 12 minute halves the following Tuesday night.

The Saturday night session had drawn a crowd of 40,000, the Tuesday night only attracting around 18,000 who saw Essendon outscore the Saints, 4.2 to 3.6 and win the match by 22 points.

Source: Our Game by Jim Main.