Who is playing in the Legends Game??

The Don · Post by **The Don** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 5:43 pm

Just saw this game advertised for Tomorrow on the Essendon FC websiste.

http://www.essendonfc.com.au/supporters ... egends.asp

Has anybody seen a line up?

The Don · Post by **The Don** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 8:06 pm

After hunting around just found this on the EFC site:

With thanks to Don Smallgoods, we are inviting you to come back to Windy Hill to watch past Essendon greats relive the glory days!

Terry Daniher will pull down a few big screamers and Mark Mercuri will showcase his still silky smooth skills.

Confirmed players include: Antrobus, Barnard, Barnes, Blumfield, Calthorpe, Cockatoo-Collins, Cummings, The Danihers, Dunell, Ezard, Fox, Grenvold, Harvey, Kilpatrick, Long, Mercuri, Misiti, Moorcroft, Neagle, O’Donnell, Rioli, Salmon, Spencer, Van Der Haar, Wallis, Werner, Wood, Young with many more greats putting their hands up to play each day!

Don't miss out on this chance to see past Essendon greats once again lacing up the boots and running out onto the sacred Windy Hill turf. It is sure to be an afternoon of family fun, footy legends, loads of laughter and a tribute to both past players and our much loved home ground.

Gold coin donation entry or Book a seat in the Chairman's function

Due to an over whelming demand and reduced crowd capacity, registration is now required for guaranteed entry.

Due to the current re-developments of the Windy Hill precinct there is a maximum capacity of approx 4,000.

As the saying goes, there is is some good, some bad and some ugly!

A couple of question marks, Did Antrobus play enough games to qualify, and how the hell did Brad Fox or Michael Werner qualify as legends alongside the likes of Daniher, Neagle, Longy or Vander?

Great to see Barry "The Unluckiest Man in Football- Traded in 1999 to Hawthorn," Young Back in Black & Red - I would love to be there!

billyduckworth · Post by **billyduckworth** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 9:29 pm

I will be there - will post a report afterwards if someone else doesn't beat me to it.

Windy_Hill · Post by **Windy_Hill** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 1:28 pm

Anyone who has pulled on Bombers guernsey is a legend.

They all deserve to be remembered as such

Champions however are few and far between

bombers_rock · Post by **bombers_rock** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 7:08 pm

It was my first time going to Windy Hill today and it was a lot of light-hearted fun. Very much kick and giggle - much like hit and giggle cricket.

Anyone who was there can now officially say they've seen a goal umpire take a mark and kick a goal.

Gotta love Sheeds and his commentary - "play on, play on, play on, play on"

"the martians are back"
"pesky seagulls" - there were seagulls there today.

Despite it being a waste of his talents, I reckon he'd make a great commentator.

Just a few highlights.

billyduckworth · Post by **billyduckworth** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 11:29 am

Okay, here it is, as promised. My report on the legends game:

WHO PLAYED?
(in no particular order) Antrobus, Misiti, Mercuri, Alessio, Moore, Wood, Terry & Anthony Daniher, Salmon, Van Der Haar, Ezard, Dunnell, Cockatoo-Collins, Cransberg, Young, Calthorpe, Spencer, Werner, O'Donnell, Barnard (plus competition winners and a couple of other assorted ring ins)

WHO DIDN'T PLAY?
Not sure why, but several players who were listed to play in the program didn't turn up. This was quite disappointing and meant that they could only play 12 a side. No shows included Leon Baker, Merv Neagle, Michael Long, Mark Harvey, Dean Rioli, John Barnes, Dean Wallis, Gary Moorcroft.

WHO COACHED?
Sheedy coached one team (Victorians), whilst Robert Shaw looked after the other team (Bombers who started their careers interstate), with some assistance from Simon Madden. They had microphones and provided some hilarious commentary (e.g. "Vander's hamstring looks thristy").

HOW IT WAS PLAYED?
Only two 20 minute halves. Played largely as a joke - umpire Glenn James even grabbed the ball and ran with it through tackles at one stage. Although some of this was very funny, I personally would have preferred it to be played a little bit more seriously (of course, it was never going to be deadly serious, but maybe just a bit more fair dinkum would have been nice).

WHO STARRED?
Cransberg, Cockatoo-Collins and Antrobus. Predictable in some ways (all a bit younger than some of the others). Antrobus was especially impressive - makes you wonder what he might have been if not for injuries).

WHO DIDN'T GET A TOUCH?
Not sure why, but TD and GO'D both hardly got a touch!?

WHO PLAYED TO THE CROWD?
Salmon was funny - came out on crutches after half time and pretended to hit AD with them when the ball came down to the goal square - AD then lay on the ground pretending to be dead! Vander was also a crowd favourite.

WHO LOOKED GOOD?
Actually, most looked in pretty good shape for their age. Smokin' Joe looked slimmer than his playing days. Bryan Wood (probably the oldest player on the ground) looked almost the same as 1974!

WHO LOOKED NOT SO GOOD?
Calthorpe is certainly pretty big these days! Cransberg has gone grey and lost some hair.
Frank Dunnell has gone quite grey - almost didn't recognise him.

WHAT WAS THE HIGHLIGHT?
Hard to say. Maybe Barny starting a brawl with GO'D at the first bounce. Maybe re-enacting the "Battle of Wiindy Hill" as they walked off for half time.

WHO SIGNED THE MOST AUTOGRAPHS?
Some of the players stayed on the ground for a very long time afterwards, signing everything from T-Shirts to mini footies to programs. Very generous of them. Salmon, TD, Vander were the last three to leave the ground. GO'D, AD were also quite popular.

FINAL CONCLUSION?
Lots of fun, but I personally would have preferred semi-serious and I was also disappointed at the large number of no shows.

SUGGESTIONS FOR THE FUTURE?
It would be good to do it again every couple of years, but maybe next time organise a match against Bulldogs Legends ("Battle of Western Suburbs") or something like that. This would make it a bit more serious and also would make it easier to find enough players to fill ONE team (rather than trying to fill TWO, which didn't really work).

ANY OTHER QUESTIONS?
Anything else anyone would like to know, just post it and I'll do my best to answer it.

BenDoolan · Post by **BenDoolan** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 11:53 am

Good to see Leon Baker living up to his nomadic ways and disappearing without notice!

billyduckworth · Post by **billyduckworth** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 11:56 am

Maybe he and Spider headed off backpacking in the Amazonian jungle (again!?).

rockhole · Post by **rockhole** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 1:26 pm

BenDoolan wrote:Good to see Leon Baker living up to his nomadic ways and disappearing without notice!

I was devastated but the rest of the gang more than made up for it.

There was even a guy with a large bag selling peanuts!!! Fantastic

billyduckworth · Post by **billyduckworth** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 3:29 pm

Yeah, I forgot to mention the peanuts man. That was probably the true highlight of the day. I swear he even had the same voice as the old peanut seller of the 1970s. Maybe his son?

The Don · Post by **The Don** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 10:38 pm

Nice work Billy!

I watched many games at Windy Hill during the 80's and would love to have been there. I can olnly imagine like the ground, the players are very different these days, thanks for the report.

Rossoneri · Post by **Rossoneri** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 10:41 pm

billyduckworth wrote:Okay, here it is, as promised. My report on the legends game:

WHO PLAYED?
(in no particular order) Antrobus, Misiti, Mercuri, Alessio, Moore, Wood, Terry & Anthony Daniher, Salmon, Van Der Haar, Ezard, Dunnell, Cockatoo-Collins, Cransberg, Young, Calthorpe, Spencer, Werner, O'Donnell, Barnard (plus competition winners and a couple of other assorted ring ins)

I thought they said legends?

billyduckworth · Post by **billyduckworth** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 9:19 am

Rossoneri wrote:[I thought they said legends?

Maybe myths, Rosso, rather than legends?

And yes, The Don, the ground itself has changed greatly too. I used to go regularly in the 1970s and 1980s and hadn't been back for years. The main grandstands (Cookson, Hird, Reynolds) are still pretty much the same. The Showers Pavilion (or "grannies stand" as we affectionately called it) is now derelict, awaiting demolition or renovation or something.

The biggest change is the hill, which has all but disappeared. So that side of the ground (from the scoreboard right around to the grannies stand) basically no longer exists. Hence, the capacity is now limited to 4000 (though it didn't feel crowded on Sunday; felt just right).

Speaking of the crowd, one thing that I didn't expect was the age of the crowd. Being a nostalgic event, I thought it would mainly be people over 40, but there was a spread of all ages, including teenagers, little kids, young adults in their 20s, all decked out in the red and black. A sight to see!

bombers_rock · Post by **bombers_rock** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 8:18 pm

billyduckworth wrote:Speaking of the crowd, one thing that I didn't expect was the age of the crowd. Being a nostalgic event, I thought it would mainly be people over 40, but there was a spread of all ages, including teenagers, little kids, young adults in their 20s, all decked out in the red and black. A sight to see!

I fall into that category. And yep, it was great to see a huge range of ages.

There was some oldies standing near us talking about when they used to go to Windy Hill and stand on boxes and then their stories about the other suburban grounds. Where Fitzroy played they said they hated going. I couldn't help but pipe up and say "we don't have any stories like that, all we've known is Waverley Park, the MCG and Phone Dome." Although, I do remember going to Princes Park/Optus Oval and the the Western Oval.

I'd never been to Windy Hill and seeing as I was in Melbourne anyway, I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to go. I reckon it would've been great to see football at the highest level played on a suburban ground like that. Today's grounds just aren't the same.

billyduckworth · Post by **billyduckworth** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 11:12 am

Yeah, the suburban grounds were great. Even though most only held 20 or 30 thousand, they seemed to generate more noise and atmosphere - maybe because people were packed in like sardines or maybe because the crowds tended to be more biased, not sure.