Ando’s Shout: Gary Ablett Sr says losing Greg Williams cost Geelong ‘at least one flag’ in the late 1980s and 1990s
Gary Ablett and Greg Williams landed at Geelong together in 1984. Three years later, Diesel was gone. Gaz believes that cost the Cats premierships.
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Pre-season, 1984.
Former Geelong premiership player and coach Bob Davis typically made its his business to drop into “the football club” to size up likely lads.
As he sat in the old Reg Hickey Stand, he noticed a couple of solidly-built youngsters nearby painting numbers on the back of seats.
He asked the smaller one if he knew when training was starting.
“Half an hour, mate,” came the clipped reply.
And that was the first time Davis met and saw Geelong’s country recruits for 1984 in Greg Williams and Gary Ablett.
Within two years, Ablett and Williams had won Geelong best-and-fairests, and within 12 they would be named in the AFL Team of the Century.
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Sadly for Geelong fans, Williams was gone by the end of 1985 when Dr Geoffrey Edelsten made him an offer too good to refuse at the Sydney Swans. It’s a decision his one-time teammate in Ablett believes cost Geelong at least one and possibly more premierships.
“It still annoys me when I think about it. Greg Williams didn’t want a lot of money to stay at Geelong and what sense did it make to give a 20-year-old his chance and then not fight to keep him two years later,” Ablett said.
“I have no doubt letting Greg Williams go cost Geelong at least one flag, and possibly up to three. It annoyed me then, and still does today. All he wanted was $5000 more, which would have taken him to around $50,000, and that was less than half of what Sydney offered him.
“Greg could have made the difference in 1989-1991-92-93-94-95, which were all years we could have won it, instead of playing against us for Carlton in the 1995 Grand Final.”
HUDDO’S IMMORTAL PUNT
Peter Hudson’s goalkicking routine was the footballing equivalent of Dennis Lillee’s bowling run-up, acts of potential menace for their intended targets.
In Hudson’s case it was a formula that remarkably broke down only once in a storied career that netted an Australian record of 2019 goals at an average of more than five per game.
During the week Hudson, 75, was the latest Australian rules player to be honoured when a statue of him booting his traditional flat punt was unveiled in the Tasmanian township of New Norfolk.
That’s where Hudson was born, where he attended high school and where he played the first 78 games (378 goals) of his senior career before being lured to Hawthorn in 1967.
On arrival in Melbourne he was picked up at the airport by Hawthorn’s Ron Cook and, as they drove to Glenferrie Oval, Hudson noticed some newsstands with the headline “HE’S HERE”.
“I thought the Pope must be touring or maybe Elvis Presley, so when Ron told me I was the subject of the headline I realised things were starting to get serious,” laughed Hudson.
As for Hudson’s carefully structured goalkicking routine breaking down, he can only recall it faltering once, and that came in the last quarter of the 1971 Grand Final won by the Hawks, when he kicked into Barry Lawrence on the mark while unsuccessfully trying for a season tally of 151 goals.
Statues of AFL players
1. Ted Whitten (Whitten Oval) 2. Bob Rose (Olympic Park) 3. Jack Dyer (Punt Road Oval) 4. Bob Skilton (Lakeside Oval) 5. John Kennedy Snr (Waverley Park) 6. Neil Roberts (Melbourne High) 7. Darrel Baldock (Latrobe Oval) 8. Michael Long (The Hangar) 9. Lou Richards (Olympic Park) 10. Doug Hawkins (Braybrook Hotel) * Ron Barassi, Kevin Bartlett, Haydn Bunton, John Coleman, Leigh Matthews, Dick Reynolds, Norm Smith and Jim Stynes all have statues at the MCG.
JESUS CAN’T NAIL SPOT
Remember the 1970s tale (probably mythical) where a Hawthorn church posed the question: “What would you do if Jesus Christ came to Hawthorn?”
Supposedly a quick-witted Hawk supporter responded with “Move Peter Hudson to centre half-forward”.
Mind you, plenty of faithful Hawks would have kept “Huddo” at full forward and asked Jesus to move up the ground.
At Manchester City soccer club they are faced with that very problem on a weekly basis given one member of their extraordinarily highly paid squad is indeed Jesus (Gabriel Fernando de Jesus). Recently they have solved it by starting Jesus (right) on the bench, a position Hudson never found himself in, although a double to Jesus during the week should see him keep the splinters out of his posterior.
BRUCE ALMIGHTY’S VOID
Despite reports suggesting Channel 7’s Friday night calling chair will rotate between James Brayshaw, Luke Darcy and Hamish McLachlan, “lock it in” that Brayshaw will become Brian Taylor’s regular partner.
The pair have a successful history during their Triple M days, and while Seven requires a dulled-down version of the same, the station was said to be pleased with their match-ups in 2019-20 when Bruce McAvaney slowly cut back on his football calling and hosting commitments.
Apart from racing, McAvaney hasn’t hosted regularly in recent seasons, with McLachlan stepping very neatly into large shoes.
TOMMY GUN WILL TRAVEL
COVID restrictions have proven no barrier to Australia’s most travelled sports star, the Steve Withers-trained dog Tommy Shelby, who flits from state to state collecting riches.
Tommy, a three-year-old blue dog by Fernando Bale, is trained by Perth-based Withers who is very much of the mindset, “have dog, will race”.
During the past 12 months, Steve and Tommy have won 21 of 33 starts (more than $700,000 in prizemoney) as they have travelled from Western Australia to New South Wales to WA to NSW to Victoria to Tasmania to Queensland to Victoria.
HOGGY’S UNUSUALS
If an Australian cricketing XI of “The Unusuals” was to be chosen, surely Rodney Malcolm Hogg would be captain.
To celebrate his 70th birthday on Friday, the former Northcote teenage tearaway chose his official “Rodney Hogg’s Unusuals”.
They are: 1: Bill Lawry; 2: Bruce Francis; 3: Marnus Labuschagne; 4: Steve Smith; 5: Michael Bevan; 6: Greg Matthews; 7: Tim Zoehrer; 8: John Gleeson; 9: Colin ‘Funky’ Miller; 10: Doug Bollinger; 11: Alan ‘Froggy’ Thomson.
“None of these players should take offence at being selected, in fact they should regard it as an honour,” said Hogg from Perth, where he now resides.
“Unusual could be ‘Froggy’ Thomson’s windmill action, John Gleeson’s inability to be found at night or ‘Funky’ Miller’s hair.”
SCREWY SECRET TO GELDINGS RUN
CRANBOURNE-based horse trainer Alan “Tiger” Keenan is the first to admit superstition plays a major part in his life, from wearing the same pair of jocks at every Richmond game to ensuring he takes his lucky screwdriver to the races when Maldestro runs.
Maldestro is the one-time “big, dumb, clumsy gelding” by Best Choice who is developing a cult following after five wins in a row, the first three coming at the picnic circuit before upping the ante at Pakenham ($101 to $31) and Sale.
There was very little in the six-year-old’s early life to suggest ability, but through the care of equestrian rider Jamie Keenan and the kind hands of jockey Alexandra Bryan, Maldestro has turned the corner, with a city appointment beckoning at Sandown this Wednesday. Although only if “Tiger” packs his lucky screwdriver, because nothing good happens at the races without it.
COMING KING OF THE GREEN
The coolest sounding name in golf won’t help you get the ball in the hole, but you have to admit Elvis Smylie rivals Cooper Cronk when it comes to marketable tags.
Smylie, 18, is the left-handed golfing prodigy from Southport in Queensland who turned pro during the week and, according to some good judges, he has the game to go a very long way.
His parents Peter and Liz were better known in the tennis world with Liz good enough to win four Grand Slam titles (one in women’s doubles and three in mixed doubles, partnering John Fitzgerald twice and Todd Woodbridge).
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Originally published as Ando’s Shout: Gary Ablett Sr says losing Greg Williams cost Geelong ‘at least one flag’ in the late 1980s and 1990s
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