Season 1977

[am Bays]

Was Fos coach of the state team or was it Kerley?? I would've thought Fos would have argued for his best club player at the time to get a guernsey.

The interesting question for Glenelg fans is that would we have been a 10 pt better side in the GF if Peter Marker hadn't ended his career in the Rd 20-21 mud at Glenelg Oval??? Given that it would have been him on Ebert instead of David Holst....

Despite our win over Port in June at the Bay when you look at the season as a whole Port were the best team.

[Leaping Lindner]

Was Fos coach of the state team or was it Kerley?? I would've thought Fos would have argued for his best club player at the time to get a guernsey.

The interesting question for Glenelg fans is that would we have been a 10 pt better side in the GF if Peter Marker hadn't ended his career in the Rd 20-21 mud at Glenelg Oval??? Given that it would have been him on Ebert instead of David Holst....

Despite our win over Port in June at the Bay when you look at the season as a whole Port were the best team.

Kerley was state coach. IIRC after that debacle there was a rule brought in where every club had to be represented by at least one player. The team for return match in Perth had much more variety and once again IIRC the only club who missed out was Central as their chosen player Peter Beythein was out injured.

On the GF I've often wondered (as I dare say you have) what would have happened if Phillis had moved to Full Forward earlier. IIRC he moved there in the last quarter and kicked 3 goals.

[Adelaide Hawk]

Trevor Grimwood??? Who got it right the state selectors or the umpires???

Mind you number 25 was a very under-rated player.

Exactly. Why wasn't Grimwood in state team? He'd had a good 76 (West B&F) and was in equally good form in 77. Mind you I didn't go to the game. I figured if the State Selectors can't take the game seriously neither should I.
#25 was a good honest player. Not great and be honest not a state player by any stretch of the imagination.

I can see what you mean. I can't speak for the other three clubs, but from a Norwood point of view, we were in superb touch at that time and the 5 players picked from our club were all in close to careeer-best form. Whether there were players from other clubs in even better form, I have no idea. It does seem strange that no player from 6 clubs were considered good enough.

As to how we played, WA were going through a golden era and had some sensational players in their team. Brian Peake played the game that day as well as anyone I'd ever seen play. I couldn't believe how good he was. Other names in the WA side were Stephen Michael, Graham Moss, Les Fong, Phil Kelly, Doug Green, Stephen Curtis, John Duckworth, Kevin Bryant, Rob Wiley, Joe McKay and David Hollins. Brian Adamson was injured.

In retrospect, we possibly did well to only lose by 7 points

[Adelaide Hawk]

The interesting question for Glenelg fans is that would we have been a 10 pt better side in the GF if Peter Marker hadn't ended his career in the Rd 20-21 mud at Glenelg Oval??? Given that it would have been him on Ebert instead of David Holst....

That's an interesting point, and one I hadn't considered before. Russell Ebert played very well that day, but the one player who gave him more grief than any other was Peter Marker. Marker was rarely beaten by Ebert, and had he played, who knows what the final result may have been.

Still, we'll never know, and Port may have won anyway.

[Jimmy_041]

Gotta agree

I always enjoyed that contest even though I was/am a Norwood man

[Magpiespower]

Pretty rough and tough from what I remember reading about it.
I think Fred Phillis and Tim Evans were both knocked out?

Evans was seeing stars for most of the day after Phillis king-hit him in the goal-square.

Still kicked seven goals!

What was it about Timmy that set off so many full-backs?

[Leaping Lindner]

Pretty rough and tough from what I remember reading about it.
I think Fred Phillis and Tim Evans were both knocked out?

Evans was seeing stars for most of the day after Phillis king-hit him in the goal-square.

Still kicked seven goals!

What was it about Timmy that set off so many full-backs?

The beard!

[bulldogs]

Pretty rough and tough from what I remember reading about it.
I think Fred Phillis and Tim Evans were both knocked out?

Evans was seeing stars for most of the day after Phillis king-hit him in the goal-square.

Still kicked seven goals!

What was it about Timmy that set off so many full-backs?

The beard!

champion in my opinion is the burger king

[oldtimer2]

I have just published my 1977 season report along with 1907, 1972, 1937, 1947 season and also reports for 1905, 1925, 1935, 1945 and 1955 available at
http://stores.lulu.com/southaustralianfootball.

[dedja]

One recollection of the GF was the alleged comment by Hodgey at the centre square after the Bays had kicked a goal in the last quarter ... apparently he said something along the lines that the Bays had the game won which stirred up the Maggies, who then held on for the narrow win.

2nd the comments about Peter Marker ... we'll never know whether he could have been the difference. From memory, he badly broke his ankle and the story goes that he didn't feel any pain until he saw his foot pointing the wrong way.

The reason Herb would have had been so elated holding up the Cup was that Port lost the unlosable GF the year before to the Double Blues, and the win broke a 12 year drought between flags which was an eternity for Port back then.

[GWW]

Quite a bit of footage of 77 GF on the Ebert video posted on Youtube last week, i think it was number 6. I'm sure quite a lot of Bay supporters would enjoy that

[Macca19]

Have never seen any highlights from it, but have always figured it must have been a pretty good GF given the tightness in the result and decent scores??

Have the whole game on DVD. Tis a great Grand Final. Couple of pretty big blues. Evans got knocked out but came back to kick some crucial goals. Port had no bench and were playing 2 players injured on the field by half time. The fact they went on to win makes it one of the better Port premiership wins.

[leftlegger]

I went to every game in the finals series.
thats how it was back then.

As a kid, i cried after the 75 GF loss.
Although unhappy at the loss I was also quite proud of the Tigers after the 77 GF. Port were a powerhouse that year.
I thought a Flag for us was just around the corner. I didnt realise how much pain & suffering was to come.

[robranosgod]

Russell Ebert played very well that day, but the one player who gave him more grief than any other was Peter Marker.

I think that there was a certain number 10 from Prospect who by Russell Ebert's own admission caused Russell more grief than Peter Marker, especially in four finals games in a row in 1971 and 1972.

[Adelaide Hawk]

Russell Ebert played very well that day, but the one player who gave him more grief than any other was Peter Marker.

I think that there was a certain number 10 from Prospect who by Russell Ebert's own admission caused Russell more grief than Peter Marker, especially in four finals games in a row in 1971 and 1972.

Ebert and Robran rarely stood each other. In the 71 finals, Lehmann played centre for North, and in the 72 finals, Ebert lined up at CHB with Robran in the middle.

[bulldogs]

Have never seen any highlights from it, but have always figured it must have been a pretty good GF given the tightness in the result and decent scores??

Have the whole game on DVD. Tis a great Grand Final. Couple of pretty big blues. Evans got knocked out but came back to kick some crucial goals. Port had no bench and were playing 2 players injured on the field by half time. The fact they went on to win makes it one of the better Port premiership wins.

wouldnt mind a copy. fist gf i went to as a 6 yr old

[robranosgod]

Russell Ebert played very well that day, but the one player who gave him more grief than any other was Peter Marker.

I think that there was a certain number 10 from Prospect who by Russell Ebert's own admission caused Russell more grief than Peter Marker, especially in four finals games in a row in 1971 and 1972.

Ebert and Robran rarely stood each other. In the 71 finals, Lehmann played centre for North, and in the 72 finals, Ebert lined up at CHB with Robran in the middle.

Ebert and Robran almost always stood each other, irrespective of where they were named in the paper. In 1971 Robran was on ball for the whole of the game, and generally Ebert was alongside him. In 1972 Ebert started on Rodny Robran, but was moved onto Barrie quite early in the game. One only has to watch the replays of these two gaes to realize that.

I remember a game down at Alberton where Barrie Robran and Russell Ebert were both guests on the Channel nine footy show at 5:30 p.m. Ken Cunningham said to Russell Ebert, "What did you think of the umpiring today?", Russell's response was "I was too busy chasing Bazza here to worry about bloody umpiring". There was always a great respect between the pair and I have often heard Russell say that Barrie was his toughest opponent by the length of the Cheltenham straight.

[Ash59]

1977 was a strange season for me. As a centrals supporter it was a struggle but I remember seeing a lot of "neutral" games and I can't quite remember why. I recall Norwood losing three games in a row by less than a kick and I saw two of them... against Port at Aberton and against Glenelg at the parade when Cornes took a screamer and kicked the winning goal after the siren.

Yes, two umpires were introduced mid season... I remember I was at the Port v West game at Richmond for the first one.

I did see some Centrals games including two wins against the Bays, the game at Elizabeth coming from 40 points down 8 minutes into the last quarter. I was also at the game at the Parade which Centrals won after being almost nine goals down just before half time.

I went to all the finals and thought the grand final is probably one of the best I've seen. I've watched a replay and believe me, the intensity of the game stands up to the very best.