Bombers in full flight: Inside Essendon’s legendary 1965 Grand Final triumph
They were the 1965 version of the ‘Baby Bombers’ – the John Coleman coached Essendon underdogs who won the premiership from fourth spurred on by one of the game’s most contentious off-the-ball incidents. This is the story behind a famous flag.
Essendon
Don't miss out on the headlines from Essendon. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Ian “Bluey” Shelton is 80 but remembers like it was yesterday the spiteful preliminary final win over Collingwood at the MCG that ignited Essendon’s legendary 1965 premiership run.
In a behind-the-play incident early in the match, Bombers forward John Somerville was knocked out cold by Magpie defender Duncan Wright.
“It started off as a bad situation but finished up a fun thing,” Shelton recalled this week.
“Kenny Fraser was our captain and he was running around telling everyone not to get sucked in by them and to keep playing the ball and all the rest of it – and I was running around telling them the exact opposite.”
John Birt, Essendon’s champion rover, said the Somerville incident, which turned the crowd of 95,386 feral, galvanised the team.
“It was a red letter day for the club,” Birt said.
Watch the 2020 Toyota AFL Finals Series on Kayo with every game before the Grand Final Live & On-Demand. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly
“We were a pretty good side in those days but probably didn’t have the same killer instinct of some other clubs.
“(Coach) John Coleman was always thrashing at us that we were a better team than what we were actually displaying. It spurred us on.”
It’s 55 years on Friday since Coleman’s class of ’65 defied the odds to win the flag from fourth position.
The Bombers beat Geelong in the first semi-final, crushed Collingwood by 55 points in the prelim and accounted for St Kilda by six goals in front of 104,846 fans in the big one.
Eighteen of the 20 premiership heroes will gather over Zoom on Friday afternoon for a reunion like no other.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE SACKED PODCAST
THE COACH
John Coleman is revered as a player, but those who played under him at Essendon in 1965 are in awe of his coaching.
“He wasn’t an orator like Alan Killigrew or Norm Smith, but when ‘Coley’ looked at you and said something with a terse expression in his voice and that look in his eyes as if to say, ‘Smarten yourself up son and get yourself a kick’, well you’d certainly try your heart out,” skipper Ken Fraser said.
Full-back Greg Brown said Coleman commanded total respect.
“If he’d said, ‘Walk on hot coals’, I would’ve walked on them on my hands and my knees – he just had that sort of effect on most of us,” Brown said.
“That had a lot to do with it. He was unbelievable with his tongue – it acted almost as a stock whip.”
Coleman, who replaced Dick Reynold as senior coach in 1961, coached the first of his two Dons premierships in 1962.
“I was a great fan of Dick Reynolds because Dick recruited me and I lived two doors from him and I loved him, so it took 12 months for me to accept the change of coach,” Birt said.
“Coleman was certainly very different. Dick to me was a friend whereas Coley – he wasn’t an enemy but … he didn’t talk to me much and when I went out and played I thought, ‘I’ve got to show you, Coleman’. He helped me tremendously.”
THE TEAM
Not unlike the ‘Baby Bombers’ of 1993, Essendon’s premiership team of 1965 featured only one player in his 30s, the late Jack Clarke, brother of Olympic runner Ron Clarke.
“The majority of us were at our football peak as far as maturity,” Fraser said.
“As a player, you’d get to know the patterns of the players in front of you and around you.”
But apart from talent, Shelton said the secret to their success was enduring mateship.
“I know it’s a bloody long time ago, but we are still as close a mob of blokes as you’d ever get,” Shelton said.
“We’ve had teams that have won back-to-back flags in ’84 and ’85 and they still look upon us as the side that really epitomises what Grand Final club mates should be.
“It’s interesting to reflect when you talk to some of the smart football people and the thinking they put behind what makes premiership sides gel together – they play for each other. And that was where Coleman was so fantastic.”
Added Brown: “It was just such a high-calibre, quality group of men. You just felt so proud to be a part of their company. You knew it would be bloody hard work to win a match but it didn’t matter, because you were surrounded by a group of blokes you’d love to be in the trenches with.”
THE GAME
The Bombers started slowly, leading by just eight points at the main break, before kicking away in the second half led by full-forward Ted Fordham, who kicked seven goals.
“I played on Bob Murray and I can remember Bob getting shifted off me,” Fordham said.
“I might have kicked four of five, and Verdun Howell came on to me and I said, ‘Oh, you’re a bit unlucky Verdun’ and he said, ‘Oh, why is that?’ and I said, ‘Well, you’re going to have to play on the bloke who is BOG’. He looked at me strangely and I don’t think he knew what I was talking about, but I knew what I was talking about.
“He got shifted away and Bob Murray came back. I think I said to him, ‘Oh, Bob you’re unlucky again …’
“They were the things that went on in those days and I learnt a lot of them from Ted Whitten to be truthful.
“The crowd was deafening. It’s hard to explain.”
Birt recalled preparing for the game by listening to Ray Charles records at a friend’s house, while Brown and his girlfriend Jill got engaged that morning.
“I didn’t have enough money to buy the bloody ring – I borrowed most of it off my sister,” Brown recalled.
“Half way through the last quarter we were six goals in front and I was picking the ball out of the gutter prior to kicking it in and this flash went through my head, ‘S---, we’re going to get a real fantastic bonus when we win and I’m going to be able to pay my sister back, you beauty’.”
The 120-pound bonus was the equivalent of about $3400 today.
“I remember we couldn’t kick goals for a long while and then all of a sudden we got going and ‘Boofa’ (Fordham) started to kick goals and played a terrific game,” Shelton said.
“Brian Sampson played a great game. Russell Blew played a great game and Fraser played a good game, of course, he always did.”
Fraser said his main memory from holding up the premiership cup was of sheer relief.
“It wasn’t so much elation. The joyfulness came later on when we were celebrating in the clubrooms with the fans and our family and friends,” he said.
THE LEGACY
As the years marched on almost every player from the side of ’65 went on to hold an off-field role at Essendon – from president to coach to runner and coterie club chairman.
“We would like to think we’ve had a huge amount to do with the Essendon culture,” Brown said.
“Progressively over the next 20 or 30 years, each and every player, in all the various roles they played, had a massive part to play.”
Fordham, who served as chairman of selectors and vice-president, said: “We’ve always been a group that has stuck together. Even when we were on the committee or coaching or as serving as the runner, it was all because of a love of the club. It’s been a bloody long and loving journey.”
Birt won the best and fairest in ’65 and coached for a season at Windy Hill in 1971.
“What they have contributed to the club is amazing,” Birt said of his teammates.
“But there’s also this great friendship amongst us all. If one bloke gets a bit crook everyone is around him.”
Incoming Dons president Paul Brasher said it was a “special Essendon premiership team”.
“It was a team full of great players, wonderful characters, and true Essendon people, many of whom went on to work at the club in various capacities, and many of whom are still involved today,” Brasher said.
THE FUTURE
It’s been 20 years since the Bombers last saluted, but it’s not all grim according to Brown and Fraser.
“We are in transition a little bit but the reports I get about Ben Rutten from fairly trusted sources are that he could be a very good coach – but coaches depend on the players as well,” Fraser said.
He said president-elect Brasher was “a passionate Essendon man and very, very capable”.
Brown added: “The worm will turn. There are too many good people around the club to not see it grow and thrive again.”
But their teammates aren’t so sure.
“They generally always do bounce back from bad times but they’re in a bloody mess at the moment,” Shelton said.
“I’m a bit worried about the fact we keep making the same mistakes every bloody week – we don’t seem to be overcoming the problems.”
MORE AFL
Robbo: Carlton has paid too much for ‘good ordinary’ Giant Zac Williams
MoneyBall: Latest AFL trade and free agency news and chatter
Birt said: “As it stands at the moment, I don’t think the future is very bright in the next few years. I get distressed about (Adam) Saad and (Joe) Daniher probably leaving. To us the club was everything.”
Fordham believes Essendon simply needs a harder edge – like the premiers of ’65.
“We had Coleman as coach, mate. We had no option,” Fordham said.
“Coleman was ruthless, but a bloke at the same time who could love you just as well as he could be tough on you.
“He had the ability to cut you down and the ability to pick you up five minutes later – and that’s what they need there today. They need someone to start telling the players what is expected of them – not the players telling them.”
Originally published as Bombers in full flight: Inside Essendon’s legendary 1965 Grand Final triumph