Famous footy flags: Behind the scenes of Morwell’s miracle 1985 win

It’s bordering on impossible to come from nearly six goals down in the final quarter of a grand final and win, but Morwell did 37 years ago. This is their story.

Morwell pulled off one of the greatest grand final victories in Victorian country footy history in 1985.

Up against Traralgon in the Latrobe Valley league, Morwell was almost six goals down 10 minutes into the final quarter. It was mission impossible.

The leading side was fired up for the clash against arch rivals Morwell, who were led by Peter Hall, a former Traralgon coach who had jumped ship 12 months earlier to join the opposition.

But miracles do happen as Morwell proved when it came from 34 points behind to win by 26 points in a famous last-quarter fightback.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Latrobe Valley league was a powerhouse of country football, and Hall one of its headline acts.

Peter Hall played 36 matches for Carlton in the early 1970s Picture: Zoe Phillips

Formerly of Castlemaine, Hall played 36 matches for Carlton in the early 1970s before being released by the Blues to sweeten the deal to secure the services of Mike Fitzpatrick from Subiaco.

Hall spent one season in the west before returning to Victoria and accepting the Traralgon coaching job at the age of 23.

He became an instant LVFL star, winning the first of two Trood Award and Rodda Medals in 1977 and taking Traralgon into five grand finals, for two wins and three losses, in his first five seasons.

Hall said inexperience was a factor in back-to-back grand final defeats in 1976-77 before Traralgon won the 1978 flag and another against Leongatha in 1980.

But the “Traralgon jinx” was growing with successive losses to Morwell and Warragul in 1983-84 and began to weigh heavily on the coach.

“I started to seriously question myself whether the club would be best served if I continued to coach and seriously whether it was best for me,” Hall said.

“We’d lost the 1984 one, pretty badly.

“We should’ve won another two and the other two we were beaten by better sides.

“I felt they needed someone with fresh ideas and we amicably parted ways.”

Peter Hall’s switch from Traralgon to Morwell in 1985 was one of the biggest coaching moves in LVFL history. Picture: Zoe Phillips

But his decision to take on the vacant Morwell job was the bombshell no one saw coming.

Traralgon’s Rob Popplestone started his career under Hall and, like many, was blindsided by the move, particularly to the arch enemy.

“The Traralgon-Morwell rivalry in the 1980s was as fierce a rivalry as you’d get in any sport, anywhere in the country,” Popplestone said.

“The two clubs hated each other. Think of Traralgon as Muhammad Ali and Morwell as Joe Frazier.

“We were the greatest, but they did bob up and beat us a couple of times.”

Former Traralgon player Rob Popplestone. Picture: Stephen Laffer

Ten games into the 1985 season Hall’s playing career threatened to end when he badly injured his knee.

“I got a hospital handpass from a teammate and Vin Waite, who was coaching Churchill, was there waiting and I got crunched,” he said.

“I should have had a reco, but decided to play on.”

Morwell’s committee voted he retire as a player and concentrate on being a non-playing coach.

But Hall eventually came back into the senior team for the preliminary final when Morwell swung some late changes including leaving out century goalkicker John Featherston.

Morwell set up the epic grand final clash against Traralgon by winning the preliminary final and given the experience of Hall, Alan Lowe, Brett Stanistreet, Kevin Smith, David Vogel, Col Metcalf, Col McColl, Rob Kerr, Peter Henderson, Steve and David Allison, it was always a chance against Traralgon, which had appointed Russell Rowe to replace Hall.

The grand final started disastrously for Hall when he did his hamstring in the first quarter.

The situation was grim at three-quarter time when it trailed by 27 points and when Traralgon led by 34 points in the last term the game was declared over by commentators, Richard Zachariah and the late Graeme Eddy.

Morwell 1985 premiership coach Peter Hall. Picture: Supplied

But Morwell wasn’t about to follow the script and had already made the masterstroke move of putting up-and-coming champ Mark Pearce into the ruck.

“We had to try something, but apart from that one we didn’t do anything else too radical,” Hall said.

“It’s all about belief.

“We were capable of a big quarter because we had kicked 10 goals in a quarter during the year so it was just a matter of persisting.

“You build resilience in each other during the year and sometimes confidence expresses itself like it did that day.”

Big forward Steve Sanders, who also came in for the preliminary final, kicked 11 goals in the two biggest games of his life including six in the grand final.

Vogel was voted best player on the ground.

Up until 1984, Traralgon had played off in the most LVFL grand finals with a 9-12 win-loss record from 21 appearances.

Another late September loss was shattering.

“They kicked goals from places you don’t kick goals,” said Popplestone, who kicked the first goal of the last quarter for Traralgon.

“The final siren went and we sort of looked at each other like ‘did we lose the unloseable grand final?’”

MATCH DETAILS

MORWELL 3.5 5.9 10.10 20.15 (135)

TRARALGON 6.4 9.7 15.7 17.7 (109)

Goals: MORWELL: S. Sanders 6, A. Lowe 5, R. Kerr 2, P. Henderson 2, S. Allison 2, R. Dickson, C. McColl, D. Vogel. TRARALGON: N. Wright 4, P. Black 2, M. Stockdale 2, J. Albanese 2, D. Cashin 2, T. Lane 2, R. Hoeben, R. Popplestone, A. Jennings.

Best: MORWELL: D. Vogel, A. Lowe, B. Stanistreet, C. Metcalf, M. Pearce, S. Sanders. TRARALGON: R. Hoeben, D. Cashin, A. Jennings, T. Lane, J. Silvestro, R. Popplestone.

Match played at Vale Street Oval, Moe

Originally published as Famous footy flags: Behind the scenes of Morwell’s miracle 1985 win