Geoff Blethyn (now interviewed by Damian Barrett)

The AFL website has an interview with one of the most remarkable Essendon players I have ever seen. Kicked half the team’s goals in the 1964 [CORRECTION 1968] Grand Final while still only 17. The third youngest ever to kick 100 goals in a season.

Geoff Blethyn was hardly bigger that Robert Flower, but he was fast enough to play on a wing and terrific overhead. It is a great aggravation to me that there is no highlights reel to show you what it was like to watch such a skinny specimen take a pack mark.
Anyway, memories.

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1968 GF?

Glasses held on with a rubber band. Able to scale a pack like a rat up a drainpipe.

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BTW I can also point you back to the Essendon website for an interview from 2022:

Read this if you want to learn how to kick straight. Geoff Blethyn was one of the last forwards to use a torpedo for set shots, and he did it all the time, and his range was 65 metres.

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Er, yes, fumlbe fingerx

you can edit the opening post.
I was there :frowning:

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Favourite player as a new supporter

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Me too. And fixed now

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He could kick them from a long way out too.

I loved him as a kid. Wore his number 11 proudly on my footy jumper. Champion of our club and a humble, champion human being.

He could seemingly defy gravity to jump on people’s shoulders and just hover there.

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Beautiful interview. Really decent human being by the sound of him.

I remember watching a game against Melbourne when Blethyn was playing on the wing. He was matched against Robbie Flower, and for those who don’t know, Flower was an all-time great. Blethyn beat him. He was as talented a player as James Hird, but playing in a different era in a very weak team.