COVES IS BACK!
NOT even coronavirus — or COVID-19 to use its proper name — could stop the 2020 AFL season getting under way, albeit for just one weekend.
But way back in 1963 an entire round in the good old VFL was called off because of, wait for it, rain.
That’s right, a week of wet weather in the middle of July caused a halt to proceedings.
We all know footy is a winter sport but who would have thought it could get that bad?
The Cats had already endured a shocker against Fitzroy at the Lions’ Brunswick St home ground in Round 10 on Saturday, July 6, finding themselves bogged down in the heavy going.
Geelong’s star back pocket player Terry Callan remembers it well.
“The ground was one big mud heap and it stunk,” he recalled this week. “There were pools of water lying in the hollows of the mud and they had green slime on top of them.
“We had to tiptoe around them as we ran out before the game and I thought ‘What the heck are we doing playing footy here?’.”
Champion pair Doug Wade and Alistair Lord were absent, representing Victoria which was coached by Cats mentor Bob Davis, but the Geelong team still boasted the likes of Polly Farmer, Billy Goggin, Fred Wooller and John Sharrock.
And Fitzroy had been winless for 34 games.
The Lions proceeded to cause one of the alltime great upsets, toppling the eventual premiers 9.13 (67) to 3.13 (31) in front of 16,222 hardy fans.
Callan has erased much of the awful afternoon from his memory bank but he hasn’t forgotten two things.
“One is Nipper (Neil Trezise) filled in for Bob as coach and he decided to try Fred (Wooller) as a ruck- rover,” he said. “Fred wasn’t really built for the bullocking stuff we encountered that day.
“The other thing I haven’t forgotten was the smell when I opened my football bag when I got home. It was putrid.”
Callan had little or no opportunity to wash and dry his footy gear as the weather deteriorated during the days that followed. The week culminated with a savage storm lashing Melbourne on the Friday afternoon and into the early hours of Saturday, July 13.
More than 50mm of rain soaked the capital city in the 24 hours to 9am on Saturday, causing widespread flooding and transport chaos.
As a result, major sport — headed by the VFL’s Round 11 — was declared a wash-out.
Callan can’t remember how or when he heard the footy was called off, so it’s safe to presume VFL secretary Eric McCutcheon (the Gillon McLachlan of the day) did not hold a media conference to break the news.
However, with matches fixtured for noted gluepots at Glenferrie Oval (Hawthorn), Arden St (North Melbourne) and the Western Oval (Footscray), the decision to postpone was pretty sound.
Geelong, in comparison, recorded about one-third of Melbourne’s rainfall but the Cats, drawn to play at home against Collingwood, were forced to take a break.
“Up in Melbourne they thought Kardinia Park was under water but it was just the usual heavy winter track. I reckon we could have played that day,” Callan said.
“The weather turned out all right, too, with patches of sunshine so a few of us went and played golf.”
The week off for the Cats came at a good time, allowing them to regroup after the Fitzroy debacle and get their season back on track the following Saturday.
Lou Richards wasn’t so sure, declaring pre-match that “Geelong has as much hope of beating Collingwood as I have selling my block of land fronting the Elwood Canal”.
Undeterred by Louie the Lip’s prognostication, a crowd of 31,578 rolled up to witness the Cats register a gritty 7.13 (55) to 5.13 (43) win over the visitors in a match marred by a rash of spiteful incidents.
The Magpies were seen as the instigators of the rough stuff, an approach that backfired on the scoreboard and in the umpires’ report books.
Nine charges were laid, with Collingwood’s Duncan Wright topping the list — four for striking Alistair Lord and two for striking Wooller — and he was later suspended for a total of eight weeks.
A striking charge against Wooller was not sustained, nor was a kicking charge against Des Tuddenham but Magpie John Knox was outed for four weeks for striking Goggin.
If anyone has film of the match get in touch with Channel 7 or Fox Footy. It would make tremendous viewing right now with our TV screens devoid of footy content.