fred bills & the count

[bayman]

i read freddy bills' name in mals 1978 thread & immediately the famous 'count' came back into my memory.....all i can remember is that fred jumped the fence & someone gave him a hat & coat to wear so hide, it was bedlum, i think it was a west torrens v west adelaide match...................................................can anyone elaborate with the full story please (maybe AH can)

[Adelaide Hawk]

It wasn't Fred who jumped the fence, it was Norm Dare. I think it was John Cassin who was injured and was being placed on a stretcher when Fred got the word to take the field. Realising they had 19 men on the field, Bob Loveday called for the count, so players went everywhere. The silly part was, they allowed the man on the stretcher to leave the field which meant they had only 18 if the count was taken.

[CK]

If anyone has it in their library, the book "Tales From The Inner Sanctum" by Stephen Bourbon has a fantastic account of this incident, with interviews with all of the main players in the count, from Fred Bills, to Norm Dare, Bob Loveday, John Hayes, John Cassin, Noel Teasdale, Doug Thomas and of course, Robin Bennet, the field umpire involved at the time. It's one of the best accounts to be found on it anywhere.

Last year, on Preliminary Final day, we ran a pre-recorded interview with Mr Bennet, which discussed many incidents from his career, but did touch on the count also. We figured that he had discussed this incident so many times that we wanted to look at the rest of his career, but couldn't leave this out entirely.

[oldfella]

AH - spot on - I was there

[nickname]

AH's account is right, I too was there. The frustrating thing was we and many others saw Dare leave the field (he sat amongst the crowd not too far from where I was) and were screaming at Bennett to take control. It was chaotic and, without checking my facts, I think it cost us a shot at the finals.

[GWW]

What year did this take place?

[Adelaide Hawk]

What year did this take place?

August 9, 1975. West Torrens 15-10, West Adelaide 12-10.

[MagareyLegend]

I have video footage of the whole thing it is classic stuff.

[Mickyj]

A very young MickyJ was there .

[nickname]

I have video footage of the whole thing it is classic stuff.

IIRC they didn't catch Dare jumping the fence did they?

[bayman]

sorry i got the player jumping the fence wrong, but it was 35 & a half years ago, but at least i got the two teams right

[dedja]

my apologies ... I misread the title and thought the swear filter was busted

[GWW]

I thought it was Fred Bills meeting Dracula.

[mal]

Snippetts

13 mins , last qtr
Was sparked by Fred Bills [Bench] running onto the ground [you could say Blind Freddy ...]
John Cassin was injured, and was awaiting for the stretcher
WA skipper Bob Loveday called for the count
WT player Norm Dare jumped into the crowd, and hid amongst the spectators
Umpire Robin Bennett did not exercise the count
The game continued after Cassin was taken from the ground

WT later admitted to the league they were at fault
WA consequently attempted to have the result of the match overturned
WT were fined $300

Fred Bills
Was named on the pine in this match
Ive read that this was Fred Bills last match
He started on the bench [no Interchange in those days]
If this was Freddys last game did he announce he was retiring pre-match ?

Robin Bennett
What a prick of a quandry to be caught up in
This was 1975, the days of the 1 umpire
He was all by himself, caught up in the WA protestations and what may have been a pumped up crowd

[robranisgod]

Robin Bennett
What a prick of a quandry to be caught up in
This was 1975, the days of the 1 umpire
He was all by himself, caught up in the WA protestations and what may have been a pumped up crowd

To make matters worse, Robin Bennett was an avid West Torrens supporter, although I am sure that had no affect on his decision.

West Torrrens only won two games for the year, and this was the second of them.

The loss cost West Adelaide a place in the five. North made the five that year, but were almost certainly the worst team ever to make the finals. This was the year that gave rise to the so-called "Big 4". Norwood, Glenelg, Port and Sturt were generally at least 10 goals better than the other sides that year. In fact Central finished seventh and yet lost to the second side, Glenelg by 38 goals. The same day as the Fred Bills incident, Port who finished fourth at the end of the minor round beat North by about 20 goals.

I was incredibly glad that the count wasn't invoked, I backed us to make the five at quite lucrative odds with a man that Mal might have had "dobs" with. He always offered the right "price".

Am I correct, Mal.

[mal]

If WT admitted liabilty, then NA can count themselves very fortunate that WA didnt get the 2 points no DOuBt
Bennett could have wiped out the score on the day
Were there any laws that state a game can be overturned by the SANFL in 1975 ?

WA lost to a side that only won one other game for the season
They had thier chance to make thier own destiny in 2 hours of footy that day
They prob didnt deserve to win this match on a whim pressed by WT
But on a sheer techinicality they should gained 2 points if Bennett followed football law

INJUSTICE
Round 5
Reserves
Also in 1975
West Adelaide v Woodville
Woodville called for a count, alledging WA had too many players on the ground
Umpire Roger Magor instigated a count
It was found that WA had indeed too many players on the field
The Woodville protest was upheld



WHAT THE ....
WA got throttled the same season in a count in the ressies
WA there4 had every reason to be miffed with the Bennettgate non count later in the same season


QUESTIONS
Have the historians any scores from that Ressies game ?
I have no details when the actual WA/WT Ressies count took place

[redandblack]

I turned up for the Reserves match that day. From vague memory, it would have been well after half-time, because I looked at the scoreboard which had West at zero and I couldn't work out what had happened for a while.

[spell_check]

Without the adjustment to the score, the Round 7 Reserves score would have looked like this:

West 3.3 5.7 6.7 7.9 (51)
Woodville 3.3 3.5 4.7 6.11 (47)

When the score was changed at the 28 minute mark of the third quarter (the scores were 6.7 to 4.7 at the time) they turned out to be:

Woodville 3.3 3.5 4.7 6.11 (47)
West 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.2 (8)

[redandblack]

Thanks spelly, my memories not bad after 35 years

[mal]

If we can take all posts in this thread as fact and correct
Then I pose this Question
Should Umpire Robin Bennett have copped a fine or suspension ?