7 Likes
Geez the number of turnovers due to doing drop kicks must have driven supporters and coaches mad. Even good kicks like Barry Davis, Daryl Gerlach and Jack Clarke were 50/50 propositions at best and sometimes they were just dribblers.
Watching it now, you wonder why drop punts weren’t made mandatory a lot earlier, as disposal efficiency was always a lot higher.
1 Like
Many thanks for posting this great footage, it warms the heart to see boyhood heroes plying their trade once more at Windy Hill. Too bad there isn’t any commentary to go with it. While l would like to see more of this team in action, l am hanging out for someone to find vision of the 1962 premiership team with vice-captain Geoff Leek who was a neighbour playing in his last game. Someone, somewhere, somehow!
4 Likes
4 Likes
I would prefer The Captain and The Major.
7 Likes
The absolutely loved them 
Edit…3KZ ?
Possibly. I can’t recall that specific.
Yer, I had the show intro song in my head which finished with 3KZ.
I just Googled the Major.
He teamed with Dyer on 3KZ from 1970-1991.
Sadly, he passed away from Cancer at 65yo (2009).
Man…he was a great caller !
2 Likes
Agree about Ian Major as a caller, he was superb.
1 Like
6 Likes
I was probably at that game in 1963.
2 Likes
Same for me Captain. The 1962 GF would be so good to watch again.
1 Like
Not that I remember, and while Ken Fraser and Alec Epis were average kicks most of the Bombers from that era were very good kicks. The stab passes of Jack Clarke and John Birt, and the massive drop kick goals from Hugh Mitchell in particular.
Some players always kicked drop punts from early days like Jack Dyer, but Peter McKenna was first in my memory to use it for shots at goal in the mid 1960s with great success.
Reason drop punts became flavour of the month was mostly Barassi and his need for the ball to be moved on quickly and he dragged players from the field if they did a drop kick. I remember a game about 1975, when Barassi was coaching Kangas and Malcolm Blight kicked a massive dropkick goal. Barass dragged him.
1 Like
Yes, my recollection is that the drop punt was a rarity in that era. Most punts were torps or flat punts. I certainly don’t recall any Essendon player using a drop punt.
2 Likes
3KZ is football!
3 Likes
Many full-backs used drop kicks to kick out with - for the extra distance. Lindsay McGie was an awesome drop kick. But you really needed solid footing.
And it was the somewhat random results of drop kicks that caused their banning (by coaches).
In a 1972 final out at Waverley, Jezza marked about 75-80m out on the siren with the scores tied. He realised his only chance to score was with a drop kick. Hit it well, but failed to make the distance. And on Jezza…Jerkin Jenkin tried a drop kick with Jezza confronting him. Miskick, fair in the Salada crackers. Put paid to Jezza’s fatherhood potential for a few years.
I
2 Likes
Disagree about Epis being an average kick. He and Davis were both prodigious kicks. Davis once lost the WOS kicking comp with a drop kick of 74+ yards.
That final quarter was great to watch but only fuels my appetite to see the other 3 quarters. Essendon had plenty of winners that day, Clarke, Birt, Davis, Blew & Doran foremost among them.
1 Like
Thank you - loved it.
I miss the old Showers stand. Should never have pulled it down.