Gazza pinch drama:
TWENTY four years prior to Ben Stratton’s brainfade, Collingwood defender Craig Kelly made an artform of pinching opposition forwards.
It reached its zenith on August 6, 1995, when Collingwood hosted Geelong at the MCG and upset one of the premiership favourites by four points, in part due to five goals from wily veteran Dermott Brereton.
Up the other end Kelly was combining with Gary Pert and Gavin Crosisca to restrict Geelong’s key forwards in Gary Ablett, Bill Brownless and David Mensch. And in doing so he decided “pinching” would be a useful tactic in establishing a mental and physical superiority over opponents who knew retaliation wouldn’t be a viable excuse if they fronted the tribunal.
Ablett, who kicked six goals in a season where he would end with 122, never forgot the incident and later spoke of his contempt for Kelly’s actions.
“I didn’t have a lot of time for Craig Kelly. He came across as being very arrogant. The way he played on ‘Menschy’ (David Mensch) and myself one day, just pinching all the time. ‘Menschy’ was black and blue,” recalled Ablett.
“I said to him ‘Craig, I don’t have time for any of this sh-t.....this is bullsh-t’ (excuse the French). I wanted to snot him.
“I didn’t respect him as a player and I didn’t like the way he handled himself on the ground.”
Kelly was quickly dubbed ‘Pinchy Pinch’, but he decided to drop the tactic prior to Collingwood’s finalround encounter against Sydney at the MCG.
“The following week I was playing on (Tony) Lockett and I didn’t go anywhere near him,” Kelly said, adding “clearly it is (banned), the AFL has said it is by the rules in place, so you can’t do it”.