I agree. He’s a player who worked as hard as he could and did his best. There are heaps of players like that, good enough to rack up around 50 games over 4 or 5 years, and occasionally doing something that draws a cheer from the crowd, but unfortunately just not quite gifted enough to become a regular automatic pick.
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Anzac day
then Ten minutes later
some match play 
I met him at the footy one night (the game Lecras kicked 12) as he’s a good friend of my cousin’s husband. A really nice fella, I was a bit bummed for him that he didn’t get to 100 games…
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Gumbleton was the one that actually hurts. Gee whiz he would have been good if he actually got a chance.
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1.5 goals a game and never seen again…
It’s a shame Gumby had the ‘injury curse’. It’s quite possible he could have been the key forward we were looking for (are still looking for?) after Lloyd retired.
As for Henry Slattery: 96 games is no mean achievement. He wasn’t the best but far from the worst. (After all, it’s 96 games more than most of us will play!)
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I’ve never met anyone called Henry that wasn’t a nice fella…
Do footy forums count?
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I’ll get flamed the fk out of for this but I never really thought Gumby did enough when he did play. Although it might be the case of the Pears/Laverdes where they miss too many crucial development years to hit the heights that they could have.
As for Cupido, there was an anonymous letter sent to a local club who was considering recruiting him a few years ago. It detailed the sort of guy he was including a laundry list of all of his misdemeanours over the years - the bloke had some demons if even half of it was true.
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In what universe is Rioli a “forgotten” Bomber?
He played 100 games FMD.
No way he deserves to be on any list alongside potatoes like Steinberg and Johns.
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Maybe he’s a sweet potato.
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Slatts wasn’t the most gifted and had his fair share of cockups on field, but I clearly remember the effort he put into every game I watched him play.
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Slatters was an honest battler. Dropped into a hoke in front of a leading Fev train and copped a double knee in the face.
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Gumby reminded me of Peter Cransberg, tall and skilled but never carried enough bulk to be a true chf type. I still wish i could have seen what he could have become
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slattery playing 96 games shows how poor our list was. I’m sure he was a great bloke and I’d never question his courage but geez if he was the best small defender we could dish up for 96 games it says a bit. he was the definition of ordinary for the majority of his career
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Kepler hasn’t been forgotten, he made sen’s best 22 from the 2003 draft… as full forward!
I bring up to anyone that will listen that the club’s downward trajectory of the last ten years began at that exact moment.
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To be fair, it worked really well for James Hird in round 16 of 2001.
Henry reminded of Paul Thomas & Glen Kilpatrick before him, as mentioned before, good honest effort always given, just lacking at the top level
OTOH it didn’t work so well for Lloyd when he marked in the goalsquare and tried to play on early in the first quater against the Doggies R13, 1999. Kretiuk read him, and in the ensuing play Lloyd missed the completely missed kicking ball and sprained his ankle under Kretiuk, badly enough to put him out for the rest of the game.
Was the arch-type Mr Essington.