The VFA goalkicking machine who left supporters ‘Happy’
Gary ‘Happy’ Hammond impressed Terry Wallace so much as a Camberwell VFA teammate the former AFL player and coach declared him as the “most exciting player that I played with”. But the cult figure had to be talked into playing.
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Gary “Happy’’ Hammond heard about Terry Wallace’s comments and appreciated them.
But he insists his former Camberwell VFA teammate might have got a little carried away.
“The most exciting player that I played with was Gary Hammond,’’ Wallace declared last year on radio station SEN.
“Gary Hammond was a better mark than Peter Knights, a more spectacular mark than Peter Knights, and Peter Knights is comfortably the most spectacular mark I’ve seen in my time in AFL footy.’’
The comparison with the former Hawthorn champion left Hammond humbled.
Yet supporters of the old VFA club would take no issue with Wallace’s remarks: the Cobras full-forward was an exciting player, a three-time century goalkicker no less, and he was a thrilling mark.
Every week he would launch for the ball, always remembering the words his father, Leonard, had told him when he started playing junior football with the Box Hill Adelphians: “Go for your marks, and you can’t go wrong.’’
Hammond, now 67, says the fact he often got high was more to do with timing and catching a ride with an opponent than an exceptional spring.
Camberwell fans will tell you he took a stack of species.
The VFA/VFL record books tell you he was an outstanding spearhead: 698 goals from 162 matches, topping the ton in 1975 (112), 1976 (120) and 1977 (128).
Adding merit to his record, he did not always play full-forward: he spent a lot of time at centre half forward, particularly when Peter “Squeaker’’ Stevenson, another prolific goalkicker, was at the club.
Almost four decades after he abruptly finished his career, Hammond is remembered as a Camberwell and association great.
Yet his family ties were to Box Hill. Both his grandfathers had prominent roles with the Mustangs: Eric Hammond served as president and Bill Yeomans as chairman of selectors.
The persistence of coach Graeme Clarke led him to Camberwell. “He hassled me endlessly,’’ Hammond was saying at his Aspendale Gardens home last Friday morning. “Just a barrage of phone calls to get me down there.’’
Hammond played Under 19 football with Hawthorn for two years. Although he fancied himself as a goalkicker, he played further up the ground, the Hawks clearly believing that at six foot he wouldn’t be big enough to play in the VFL as a key forward. Michael Moncrieff and Greg Booth had the key posts in the Under 19s. Coach Brian Coleman did give Hammond one thing: his nickname, “Happy’’, sometimes shortened to “Hap’’. It stuck like gum on a running shoe.
Hammond had no real desire to play football after coming out of the Under 19s.
“I’d sort of had enough,’’ he said. “I wasn’t going to play any more after Hawthorn. I wasn’t going to be the VFL player that I wanted to be. I thought, well, that’s it, if I’m not going to do that I’m not going to play any more.
“It was really Graeme Clarke and ‘Hooky’ (Hawthorn Under 19s teammate and future Camberwell teammate John Hook) who changed my mind. I remember dad saying, ‘Get down to Camberwell. If it’s good enough for Hooky, it’s good enough for you’. I still wasn’t keen.”
Hammond was talked into playing the last practice match before the season. He lined up at full forward in the reserves and booted nine goals. Clarke told him that if he went to training during the week the selectors would pick him in the firsts. He did, and they did.
Opposed by former VFL player Peter Rosenbrock, Hammond made his debut against Frankston in Round 1 and kicked four goals. He finished the season with 65 from 17 matches.
It was the start of a career that brought him two premierships, a best and fairest, and acclaim that echoes down the years.
After his second century for the Cobras, WAFL club Claremont became keen on him and Hammond decided to make the move for 1977 and play under Brownlow Medal champion Graham Moss.
He lined up against Ken Hunter in a practice match and was selected in the senior team for Round 1. But there was a dispute over his clearance and talk that he might have to stand out of football for a year.
Hammond headed back to Victoria, and to Camberwell, to complete a third consecutive century of goals, merging his high marking with accurate kicking and enjoying the space of 16-a-side football.
He didn’t rely on leading in the manner of, say, Mordialloc’s Peter “Fats’’ Neville. “I just wanted it down quick. If I could catch my opponent one-out that was ideal,’’ he said.
Hook said Hammond was not only an outstanding mark, but a superb kick for goal. No angle was too tight for him.
“He was tremendously accurate, one of the best I’ve seen, and I’ve seen a few of them,’’ he said. “He didn’t miss.’’
Hook said Hammond was courageous too, remembering that defenders’ spoiling tactics often amounted to giving forwards a whack to the head.
“He took a lot of knocks, ‘Happy’ but he never remonstrated. He just went back and kicked the goal.’’
Watching Hammond star in Division 2 of the VFA, Melbourne became hot for him, but then went cold for reasons Hammond has never known. Hawthorn never showed any interest after he left the Under 19s.
“The game style he had, with that great marking and kicking, would make him ideal for today’s AFL footy,’’ Hook noted. “With those attributes he’d be a specialist forward pocket. He was born in the wrong era, ‘Happy’.’’
Hammond did make a move from Camberwell in 1980. Worried he was taking too many hits from VFA backmen out to stop him any way they could, he agreed to play for Mentone in the Federal league. After a few games he was “king hit’’ against Parkdale. He woke up in hospital the next day.
Hammond returned to the association in 1981, and played in a premiership to go with the 1979 success.
But he said he wasn’t the same player in his second stint, injuries and the head knocks exacting a toll.
Early in the 1983 season he left Camberwell. “Happy’’ is happy to say he “didn’t exactly see eye-to-eye on a few things’’ with coach Phil Fryer and leave it at that. “I ended up just walking away,’’ he said.
Hammond never played football again, retiring at the age of 30 to focus on his music.
He’s been in the industry since, teaching, writing (with his friend Paul O’Gorman he wrote the title track to Russell Morris’s latest album Black and Blue Heart) and playing (he’s in a group called The 4 Peace Band).
Hammond is staggered at the enduring interest in the VFA. A while ago someone rang him asking if he would sell his No 26 jumper. Since he had two, he parted with one for good money.
“It was a great little bubble of time, wasn’t it?’’ he said.
“It was televised, the VFA had Sunday to themselves and players like me could get a run. It’s not like that any more obviously, so we were lucky. It’s a great example of being in the right place at the right time. People still remember it. Like, you’re here talking to me now about all those years ago. It’s quite incredible. Never ceases to amaze me.’’
The Wellers dropped out of the VFA ahead of the 1991 season but they have regular reunions and “it’s still feels like a club to me’’, Hammond said.
“There’s a real bond between the guys who played in that era,’’ he said.
“The friendships have survived. It was a fantastic part of our lives and it still is I guess.’’
Wallace played only season for Camberwell before going on to a fine league career.
He was a second rover/forward pocket.
“I sat next to ‘Happy’ the whole time,’’ he told SEN colleague Andy Maher, a Cobras supporter. “You know the only problem with being crumbing forward pocket/rover when you had a bloke like ‘Happy’ Hammond playing? It (the ball) never hit the ground. Ridiculous!’’
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