Footy in the olden days

[Rosy]

I just watched the 1967 grand final on FoxFooty. Luckily we won it again. Was a close last quarter.

Does anyone know how the interchange bench worked back then? From memory there were 2 on the bench, but they often weren't used because if a player came off he wasn't allowed to take part again. Is that correct?

Goal umpires theatrics have certainly come a long way since 1967. ;D

Was a massive crowd of almost 110,000 that day. Makes me wonder if progress is always for the best.

Shining new dunnies and colourful seats are all well and good, but to me that's not worth much if supporters can't get in to watch their team in a grand final.

Does anyone know what the seating capacity of the G will be when it's finished?

(Whoops fixed my typo Gus. Had a slight case of the shawry's there, ha.)

 

[gustiger12]

I just watched the 1987 grand final on FoxFooty. Luckily we won it again. Was a close last quarter.

You had me worried there for a minute Rosy. I thought I had missed a year in my life.

 

[tigerman]

I just watched the 1967 grand final on FoxFooty. Luckily we won it again. Was a close last quarter.

Does anyone know how the interchange bench worked back then? From memory there were 2 on the bench, but they often weren't used because if a player came off he wasn't allowed to take part again. Is that correct?

Yeah that's correct Rosy.

Quite often they would only get a run late in the last quarter, if at all.

 

[MC24]

Does anyone know what the seating capacity of the G will be when it's finished?

Remember reading that it will be back over the 100,000 mark. Can't remember whether it was arouund 106-110,000 capacity.

 

[Roar34]

Rosy, the 19th and 20th men were replacements in case of injury, etc, to the picked 18. If a player came off and was replaced, he could not go back on, however he could go back on if the team continued without him ( just with 17 men playing). There was no interchange system as now.

It was common to see a team finish a game with only 17 on the field. When I say common, it was not a regular thing but it did happen. There wasn't any hurry to whip someone off because he was having a "bad hair day" because he might, just might, come good in another position. Similarly, sometimes neither 19th or 20th would get a kick, or sometimes only 19th got to play.

Sheedy campaigned very strongly for years to operate an interchange bench and also to have 4 on it. I think we owe him a vote of thanks because it does make the game more interesting.

In hindsight now, it would have been a boon for some of those past champions to have the benefit of being able to come on and off the ground in bursts in the way some players are used today. Royce Hart comes to mind as someone who was very proppy in his last years, sometimes virtually being on one leg, so to speak.

One good thing about the modern rule is that it nullified, to a certain extent, the king-hit merchant. It hasn't completely taken them out of football but their effect on any particular game is not as great as it once was. In the "old days" a coach had to make up his mind whether to replace his gun player after a hit or let him wander around with concussion (as Mike Green did in a GF for Richmond).

Eddiewood quite evidently had a plan to get Brown last Saturday but he saw out the game. Oh, and there wasn't a blood rule, either, and as the freedom of the runners were more restricted there was a lot of onfield stuff that was left to the players to fix up themselves.

 

[smasha]

Regarding the G' look here.
http://www.mcg.org.au/default.asp?pg=redevelopment.
Check the videos out too -awesome stuff .