SA LEGENDS: Do you remember.........."Two Eight"

John Francis Wynne (born 24 September 1947) is a former Australian rules footballer who played 193 games for Norwood in the SANFL as well as 84 games with WAFL club West Perth.

He is on the interchange bench in Norwood's official 'Team of the Century'.

Speaking of interchange benches, this is probably his most famous foray onto a "bench" during the 1978 Grand Final.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUi4FG8y748

Wynne started his career at West Perth where he was a centre-half forward and played in their 1969 premiership team. The following season he transferred to Norwood where he would spent his next 13 years, often being used as a ruck-rover. He was a regular in the Norwood team during the 1970s and was a member of premierships in 1975 and 1978, the former as captain. In the 1978 SANFL Grand Final they had trailed Sturt by 29 points at three quarter time but came back to win.

In 1985 and 1986, Wynne was coach of West Perth but the team struggled.

He also appeared in 12 interstate matches during his career, four of them for Western Australia and the other eight for South Australia. Aside from representing Western Australia at the 1969 Adelaide Carnival and South Australia at the 1972 Perth Carnival, Wynne had earlier played for his country at International rules football in the Australian Football World Tour of 1968.

As a kid I watched "28" and "Fab" (Phil Carman) strut into the Pizza Palace on Anzac Highway one Saturday Night. This was the mid-70s and these dudes were "Uber-Cool" with their girls on their arms. Hard for an impressionable 12 year old not to notice them.

And 28's run through Oatey in the 78 GF is the stiff of legend. Double Blue insiders say that JO just wasn't the same that day after this incident. Certainly ruffled his feathers and certainly played its part in the final result.

John Wynne, exuded charisma on the field and lifted the blokes around him and has his special place in the hearts of Norwood fans, but certainly left his mark on SA Footy.

the flamboyant trots driver, trainer & character the late Graeme ''percy the punter'' Silke was a staunch Norwood man & he called one of his horses (which went ok) 'two eight'

Johnny Elbows Two Eight Wynne.
There used to be a disco the Norwood club called Sams.
Johnny was a bouncer there for a while.
I was making an impression on this sweet looking lass , and so was Johnny.
There I was competing for the affections of a girl against my idol.

To cut a short story shorter , the girl could not decide who she wanted, she asked.
" I'm going to ask you both a question and then decide, John will you have sex with me 6 times a week.?"
" Yes, on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays , I cant Saturdays because I play League football for Norwood."
" Scrappy will you have sex with me 6 times a week
" Put me down for Friday mornings."

This one is actually a true story.
It involves the late Jimmy Thiel and Johnny Wynne.
For whatever reasons the two Norwood strong men at times did not get on well.
There was an incident at a training session at the Parade.
Johnny and Jimmy were at each other on the training track.
The referee ends up being another strong man,the coach Neil Balme
Balme told them to settle things in the club rooms.
Back in the club rooms Johnny and Jimmy had it out.
They brawled in the club rooms.
There are claims that when the fight was stopped that Jimmy was slightly winning the fight.

Would have been some fight
If I was framing odds on the fight I would have had two eight favorite to wynne the stoush

Apparently Wynne never drank
Imagine if he had