Last SANFL skipper to call for 19th man count says Eagles ‘have copped their punishment for 1975 fiasco’
FORMER West Adelaide captain Bob Loveday - who has lived with the painful memories of being the last SANFL skipper to call for a 19th man count in a league game - is endorsing North Adelaide’s presence in Sunday’s grand final at Adelaide Oval.
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FORMER West Adelaide captain Bob Loveday - the last SANFL skipper to call for a 19th man count in a league game - is endorsing North Adelaide’s presence in Sunday’s grand final at Adelaide Oval.
Loveday describes Woodville-West Torrens’ failed appeal to have the Roosters disqualified from the grand final as “payback time” for the 43 years of pain he has copped from Eagles fans for the 1975 fiasco at Thebarton Oval.
Loveday called - and stopped - the count at Thebarton in August 1975 when Eagles great Fred Bills came onto the field as the 19th man while team-mate John Cassin was being placed on a stretcher in the last term.
“Rules are rules - and the Eagles captain did not call for the count on Sunday, so North Adelaide has every right to be in the grand final (against Norwood),” Loveday told The Advertiser.
“In 1975, the Eagles did have 19 on the ground when I called for the count - and should have been penalised. You can see it clearly on your video that when Fred came on the ground that the Eagles had 19 on the field.
“On Sunday, North Adelaide did not cheat. West Torrens did in 1975 ... they did cheat that day by more than just Fred rushing on the ground ... and now it has been payback time.”
Loveday, a 263-game player for West Adelaide from 1963-1978, has worn the fall-out of the farce at Thebarton Oval for 43 years.
“They have been 43 years of painful memories - bad memories for me,” Loveday said.
“I am always blamed for what happened in 1975, but we did not cheat that day ... and we did not have players jumping the fence to hide in the crowd or under the cheer squad’s floggers or running to the race so that the point would not be taken off them.
“I read where (field umpire) Robin Bennett says (West Adelaide coach) Fos (Williams) called for the count from the bench. It was quite involved, but I did call for the count - and I was the one who stopped it.
“If we had continued with the count there would have been riots from the crowd. As it was, I was spat at leaving the field with a police escort and subjected to all sorts of abuse that has never stopped.
“I’ve worn the blame for something West Torrens did wrong by having 19 on the field.
“It would have been an awful way to win the game. But 43 years later, justice is done with the Eagles getting what they should have copped in 1975.”
West Torrens won the match - that marked Bills’ 313th and last game for the Eagles - by 18 points. Had the count stripped West Torrrens of its score, West Adelaide would have played in the 1975 SANFL finals series rather than finished sixth.
michelangelo.rucci@news.com.au