Alan Killigrew

[CK]

This one may be more for someone like Adelaide Hawk, but my copies of "Red and Blue Blooded" and "Men Of Norwood" are among my most read books in a big collection. I always love reading the chapters on Alan Killigrew, as he seemed, in some ways, well ahead of his time as a coach. He also alienated some of the establishment by bringing in a large number of interstate recruits to the club and putting a lot of local noses out of joint.

Some of his coaching methods were interesting, and Ron Kneebone was one who didn't appreciate his theatrics. It was written, though, that Killigrew generally appeared to understand the importance of psychology on players (roaring the tar out of some, and treating others with kid gloves, according to their personality) earlier than other coaches of the era.

Would love to hear from fans who were around at his time and also those that can shed more light on his later years until his passing.

[Adelaide Hawk]

Like yourself CK, to me Killigrew is folklore. He had been and gone by the time I start watching, but you hear so many stories about the man it's really difficult to come to any conclusion as to what he was really like.

As a player, apparently he was a tough and courageous rover, won St.KIlda's B&F award in 1940, and also represented Victoria. When he retired, he suffered tuberculosis of the spine and was laid back in hosptial for 10 months, many not expecting him to live.

Upon his recovery, he turned to coaching and public speaking until eventually winning the top coaching role with St.Kilda in 1956, a club who had won only 1 game the previous year. Many consider he laid the foundations of St.Kilda's eventual flag in 1966.

At the end of 1958 he had a falling out with the St.Kilda committee and was sacked. Accepting the job at Norwood, and bringing a number of VFL recruits with him, he took to turning Norwood into a premiership unit. He didn't succeed but came closer than most, losing the 1960 GF by 5 points. Then came the famous turkish bath GF in 1961 where Norwood were outclassed by West Adelaide in the oppressive heat.

Know as the "Hot Gospeller", I recall a story of "Killer" loosening the hinges on a door and then firing up the players by running through the door. As CK said, although it may have worked on some, it failed to impress players such as Ron Kneebone.

He insisted that Norwood became known as the Demons and they wore Melbourne style jumpers for those 4 years.

He returned to the VFL as coach of North Melbourne from 1963 to 1966. In the final seasoon, he coached Victoria to Carnival success in Hobart. His coaching methods were based on guts and determination with a strong emphasis on running and use of handball as an attacking weapon rather than a non preferred option to kicking..

He crossed to Subiaco in the WAFL, a club he coached for only 1 season (1967) before being succeeded by another former Norwood coach, Haydn Bunton Jr.

I'm not sure what he did after that, but he was always welcome at Norwood where he made many appearances as a guest speaker, etc. He passed away on June 10, 2001.

[JK]

Know as the "Hot Gospeller", I recall a story of "Killer" loosening the hinges on a door and then firing up the players by running through the door. As CK said, although it may have worked on some, it failed to impress players such as Ron Kneebone.

The versions of this story that I've heard, are that he apparently on the quiet, told one of the trainers (maybe Tiger Potts if I have my era's correct??) to remove the hinges to the door, but for whatever reason the trainer didn't get around to it.

Killa then barged through trying to send his charges out full of fire and whilst not letting on to most, pulled up pretty ginger after the door hadn't fallen off as expected lol.

I've heard both sides of the story when it comes to Killa ... I've probably heard more of the anti-Killigrew sentiment, given my old man was a young Red and Blue dew-kicker at the time.

He told me that he had made the decision to study Accounting at night school and had made arrangements to train with the Colts for the 1 senior training session he would miss per week ... When he informed Killa the coaches response was "Well son, you need to decide whether you want to be a footballer or an accountant" ... That was the end of dad's playing days at the Parade.

[Magpiespower]

That 'door hinges' story still cracks me up after all these years...

[Psyber]

Three negatives from the Killigrew experience stand out in my memory.
There was alleged ruckman Morrie Pope, and Peter Brenchley - more active with the bunny chop than Chicken Hayes.
The third, aping Melbourne and becoming the Demons for a while.
On the other hand he did bring Lester Ross over from St Kilda, and instil some determination to win the ball.

[robranisgod]

I have vague memories of Killa as a coach.

He was probably a little unlucky to lose the 1960 Grand Final, but Norwood were 8 points up at the 18 minute mark of that game. In those days, a great coach would have been able to tie the game up to make it impossible for North to kick the two goals to win the game. In fact North kicked 3 goals 1, before Norwood belatedly got the last goal of the match.

An interesting aside was the comment in one of Red and Blue Blooded or Men of Norwood that Bill Wedding should have been paid a free 30 metres out for being held with about 30 seconds to play in that 1960 Grand Final. I have heard the audio of the game literally hundreds of times and North are in attack for the last 5 minutes of the game, so that seems a very unlikely scenario. Anyway after 49 years you are not going to change history or the scoreboard.

In 1981 I stood by Killa at Unley Oval whilst North were playing Sturt. He barracked his heart out for North that day and we pulled off a surprise victory. So he couldn't have borne any grudge towards North for costing him his biggest chance of premiership glory.

[bayman]

some of the brighton bomber past players have great memories/stories about him.....can't believe he was p155ed most of the time though

[mal]

Alan Killagrew had the great pleasure of coaching an all time football great
Me
He did a couple of guess stints at training in the late seventies
I played for Walkerville under 19s at the time
Some of the lads he trained back then were
Steven Lubke[Glenelg ?]
David Wildy [North Adelaide]
Mal [Div 6 Amatuer league]
David Kelly [SA wicketkeeper]


In that year Wildy and I kicked about 108 goals between us
Wildy kicked 107 of them

Geez Killa could rave on
I was privilledged as I knew he coached my legs a couple of decades b4 then