50 Years On

There was an article/interview with him someone posted on here about 10 years ago. He claimed that Somerville had hit him in the nuts and he had hit back in retaliation. In those days the punch was probably called a king hit, these days it is called out for what it really is, a coward punch. I called Wright’s explanation a bit of BS then and stand by it. No one at the ground, not one spectator ever claimed to have seen what happened. John Somerville was not that sort of player and probably never even fronted the tribunal in his entire career. Wright was bitter that the Pies had made him a scapegoat for the loss in a prelim final. Somerville was so badly concussed that he could not play in the Grand Final.

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Interesting they tried to lay charges against him and that Collingwood hired Frank Galbally to represent him.

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Thanks for that @Captain_Jack, was about to ask what the story behind the photo was.

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After the king hit, Ken Fraser went round to tell everyone not to retaliate.

Except on the scoreboard.

14.13-6.6

Ted Fordham 6 goals

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The OP in this thread has an article all about it. :slightly_smiling_face:

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The article in the OP says that the players were split. Some want to exact revenge, some like Fraser didn’t want to be distracted from the game. In the end, Essendon ran out comfortable winners.

Followed by 7 Fordham goals in the Grand Final the week after.

Somerville was a great player. Excellent mark and a lovely kick. He missed the 65 premiership, but he played in the 62 flag. We had a good team back then.

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