The Billy Duckworth story…
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What a fantastic read.
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You scared me with this new thread…
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that was great reading! thanks for sharing 
Excellent read
Excellent read. Very interesting what he said about Sheedy’s approach to making sure that players got the basics right and ensured that Billy learned to kick off both feet.
I believe the first thing he did with every new player at Windy Hill was make him do 500 handballs with each hand.
I sometimes wonder if with the modern approach of having a coaching team of 6 or more coaches we’ve lost a bit of that human touch.
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I saw Billy and his brother, John, play at West Perth, when I was a kid, and him going to Essendon was one of the reasons I started following Essendon in the early 80s.
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What a fantastic read. Sheeds really was a visionary and fabulous coach. Billy was such a tough and lovable block to follow. What an era.
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I was at a Fitzroy game at Junction oval when John Duckworth kicked the ball out after a point to centre half forward. After the games we paced it out and it was nearly 100 metres. Long kick I ever did see.
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Billy showed up at a supporter’s function in Perth before the West Coast game a couple of months ago. Lovely, modest bloke. He and Sheeds obviously have a lot of time for each other and it was great to hear them trading quips together. Great yarn too, btw.
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Billy always went hard and could give it a roost too.
He wasn’t a thug like L Matthews though.
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Yep Billy was not the same level of thug as Lethal, but he still was a bit of a thug.
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Another thank you from me. A great read which brought back many wonderful memories from that era. Loved Billy- a real character of the game.
Now John Duckwork could throw a punch.
One of my faves as a kid. Loved Billy. He, Fish, Vanders and little Alan Ezard. Sadly growing up in NQ we didn’t get many games of footy on tv back then so rarely got to see them in action.
Good read. Thanks for posting.
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And a hip and shoulder too. Sometimes with friendly fire.
The only time I sat in the West Perth members stand was the day he ran through his own teammate and my idol as a kid, Peter Menaglio, was directly in front of us. We thought he’d killed him as he lay prone on the turf for quite a number of minutes. Menags was tough for his build and played out the rest of that game.
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Before he went home, he used to drive a school bus. The feral school kids on that bus were unusually well behaved.
Peter Menaglio, now that’s a name I haven’t heard for years. Great little player.
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Smooth mover, quick, highly skilled and tough despite his slight frame.
Just a shame that he played in mostly struggling Cardie teams as he would’ve been a superstar in the WAFL. Also rejected overtures from Fitzroy to olay in the VFL.
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My other favourite was Rod Alderton, who kicked 11 in a game against Subiaco. I remember running with the crowd to the end we were kicking to to see him kick is 10th.
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