BEST SANFL players

Scrunch wrote:

Chambo Off To Work We Go wrote:Here are my top 4 based only players I have seen at Sturt for their length of career at the club. IE from about 1969 onwards.

Davies
Bagshaw
Graham
Motley

The fifth spot could go to any of Sandy Nelson (7 premierships in 12 years ain't a bad return), Colin Casey, Brendan Howard or Robbert Klomp. I didn't see a lot of Adcock.

I was only thinking last night, that for all greatness of Sturt's glory years, from 1970 - late 1980's there must be a sense of underachievement given you had so many great players in that timeframe, and were regularly around the mark. I know there were flags in 74' and 76', and 78' is well documented, but that Golden period at Unley really could have stretched on a bit longer, because you had some absolute champions. I guess given it was such a great period for the SANFL, there were plenty of great players across all clubs.

I think if you read the book Triple Blue that came out after the 1978 season, it poses quite a few questions about backroom goings on that were occurring at the time. There was conflict around the club. You just have to look at how many of the older players that defected at that time. Nunan, Winter, Barton who all went to Norwood. But there were a couple of others too and also retirements.

I got the impression after that, that the Oatey mantra that had been so successful was being questioned by wider circles around the club.
I suspect Oatey had "lost" quite a few players even amongst those that remained.

As you say Sturt were around the mark, but just couldn't capture the magic after that. You look at our 9th position in 1979 after the regular season success of 1978 and I think that says it all.

I think you would really isolate Sturt's glory years to 1965 - 1980 or thereabouts. 1983 was good, but by the late 80s it was a forgettable mess!

I didn't realise they'd dropped so low in 79' - That's staggering on paper given how dominant they were in 78'.

I always remember being fearful of Sturt in the first half of the 80's - They were almost unbeatable on their day when they put it all together, just they never seemed to do it consistently enough.

Scrunch wrote:I didn't realise they'd dropped so low in 79' - That's staggering on paper given how dominant they were in 78'.

I always remember being fearful of Sturt in the first half of the 80's - They were almost unbeatable on their day when they put it all together, just they never seemed to do it consistently enough.

It was an interesting rollercoaster ride at that time.

1974 1st
1975 4th
1976 1st
1977 7th
1978 2nd
1979 9th
1980 3rd

After they sacked Merv Keane after finishing 5th in 1988, that was when the real rot set in.

Chambo Off To Work We Go wrote:Fitzgerald and Davies certainly above Bagshaw.

Baggy certainly had his great games. But I think I remember more of the flashiness of what he did, rather than the amount of it.

In terms of overall taking games apart the other 2 would have been better.

Interestingly, Davies 7 club champs, Bagshaw 5 and Fitzgerald 3.

I think number 5 on the list is flattering to Baggy.
Unfortunately from a Magarey perspective, in the period he was at his peak (1966-1976), 2 blokes by the names of Robran and Ebert kept dominating more.
I don't think he would trade any of his 7 premierships in this period for a medal somehow!

I bet Halbert is quietly spewing he retired half way through the 5 premiership era!

Baggy could never have won a medal. He never played enough good games during a season. If Sturt were playing Woodville Baggy would lean against the behind post and wave to Murphy or Chessell to remain on the ball. He used to enjoy the stroll in those games.

He could turn a big game though with his flashes of brilliance.

D Jarman was a bit like Baggy in his explosiveness and ability to turn a big game.

If they awarded Jack Oatey medals in Baggy's era, he may have won 3.

Marker was probably an unlucky player regarding medals in the late 60s to mid 70s. Certainly a good enough player to win a medal.

Davies of course should have won a medal if only he had learnt to shut his mouth.

Flag No.10 wrote:In terms of Port's Team of the Century, was Lloyd Zucker really a better footballer than Ron Elleway?

Different players. One was a knock ruckman, one was a full back. Everyone of these composite sides has two knock ruckmen
For all of its dominance over the years Port have not had many outstanding ruckmen but have had an incredible number of great rovers. I have a friend who played at the Port under Fos and Cahill and he tells me that both believed that you just needed a ruckman who could nullify the opposition but you needed the rovers to get the ball out of the centre.

robranisgod wrote:

Flag No.10 wrote:Diamond Jim Tilbrook hasn't got a mention yet. My memory of him is of a very dangerous half forward but too often had long quiet patches. But he was one of very few who went over and played in the VFL in those days, so he must have been highly talented?

Fantastic player in finals for Sturt but never really made it in Melbourne.

Not that his lifestyle was like a couple of players mentioned in this post before but let's just say he enjoyed the high life. He could get away with it at Sturt but not in Melbourne.

On his Sturt form certainly a player worthy of beong in any top 10 liat of players of "our era" at Sturt.

didn't ''Diamond'' Jim Tilbrook end up living in the USA after trying out as a kicker in gridiron ?

as for picking the eyes out of peoples lists of judgement, one must remember that basically every game (until what ? the late 1970's) was on a Saturday at the same time & therefore you would only see the opposition twice a year plus possible finals & with this in mind these judgments are neither right or wrong they are just judgments on what people have seen

bayman wrote:

robranisgod wrote:

Flag No.10 wrote:Diamond Jim Tilbrook hasn't got a mention yet. My memory of him is of a very dangerous half forward but too often had long quiet patches. But he was one of very few who went over and played in the VFL in those days, so he must have been highly talented?

Fantastic player in finals for Sturt but never really made it in Melbourne.

Not that his lifestyle was like a couple of players mentioned in this post before but let's just say he enjoyed the high life. He could get away with it at Sturt but not in Melbourne.

On his Sturt form certainly a player worthy of beong in any top 10 liat of players of "our era" at Sturt.

didn't ''Diamond'' Jim Tilbrook end up living in the USA after trying out as a kicker in gridiron ?

as for picking the eyes out of peoples lists of judgement, one must remember that basically every game (until what ? the late 1970's) was on a Saturday at the same time & therefore you would only see the opposition twice a year plus possible finals & with this in mind these judgments are neither right or wrong they are just judgments on what people have seen

But in the late 1960s and very early 1970s three tv stations covered different games thus you could see your own game plus a lot of highlights from at least a couple of other games.

Furthermore there were always a few holiday games, generally featuring the strong clubs with the majority of the best players so if you were keen like my family you certainly saw a lot of the best players go round.

30-60 minute highlights are just that highlights, you only get the good bits anyway, ok granted a Monday holiday you'd get some neutrals but my point still stands no opinion is right or wrong because no one could possibly have seen the majority of all players play dozens of times to make an accurate judgement & we'd all have our clubs players higher as we saw them more often than the others & therefore i'll throw out a name or two but to put it on a list as ''this is it'' is false it would be just my opinion, not right, not wrong, just my opinion..............here's a name i'll throw out Ralph ''Zip Zap' Sewer, the only player to play over 4 decades, that should be enough to say to last that long he had to be that good

robranisgod wrote:

Chambo Off To Work We Go wrote:Fitzgerald and Davies certainly above Bagshaw.

Baggy certainly had his great games. But I think I remember more of the flashiness of what he did, rather than the amount of it.

In terms of overall taking games apart the other 2 would have been better.

Interestingly, Davies 7 club champs, Bagshaw 5 and Fitzgerald 3.

I think number 5 on the list is flattering to Baggy.
Unfortunately from a Magarey perspective, in the period he was at his peak (1966-1976), 2 blokes by the names of Robran and Ebert kept dominating more.
I don't think he would trade any of his 7 premierships in this period for a medal somehow!

I bet Halbert is quietly spewing he retired half way through the 5 premiership era!

Baggy could never have won a medal. He never played enough good games during a season. If Sturt were playing Woodville Baggy would lean against the behind post and wave to Murphy or Chessell to remain on the ball. He used to enjoy the stroll in those games.

He could turn a big game though with his flashes of brilliance.

D Jarman was a bit like Baggy in his explosiveness and ability to turn a big game.

If they awarded Jack Oatey medals in Baggy's era, he may have won 3.

Marker was probably an unlucky player regarding medals in the late 60s to mid 70s. Certainly a good enough player to win a medal.

Davies of course should have won a medal if only he had learnt to shut his mouth.

All true my friend.

I remember a few of his Woodville games.

Particularly 2 incidents in 1973 when I was a lad.

The first, he was on the wing going for a mark to intercept a Woodville pass.
He initially misjudged the ball and was "under" it.
So he simply put his hands behind his back and caught it that way.

The second, again on the wing and with the ball. He was surrounded by Woodville players in front of him with nowhere to go.
So he put his hands behind his back and laced off a handball to a player running past.
The umpire (a mere mortal) called him for a throw. In reality the ump simply could not have seen it from where he was. Just panicked because nobody could have done that.

But Baggy was flashy in a very good team. I concede it is severely questionable whether he would have won a medal without Robran and Ebert being around. A question we will never have to answer now!

bayman wrote:30-60 minute highlights are just that highlights, you only get the good bits anyway, ok granted a Monday holiday you'd get some neutrals but my point still stands no opinion is right or wrong because no one could possibly have seen the majority of all players play dozens of times to make an accurate judgement & we'd all have our clubs players higher as we saw them more often than the others & therefore i'll throw out a name or two but to put it on a list as ''this is it'' is false it would be just my opinion, not right, not wrong, just my opinion..............here's a name i'll throw out Ralph ''Zip Zap' Sewer, the only player to play over 4 decades, that should be enough to say to last that long he had to be that good

Yeah he was, but admittedly it was the late 60s to the early 90s.
I remember going to Peckers Disco and Ralph had his "moments" there.
And that was in the 80s.
It was a common joke that the grass never grew on the north eastern HF flank.
That was where Ralph did his best work!

Unzip Zap.