Gary Ablett says his battles with Danny Frawley on the field would get personal

Geelong legend Gary Ablett recalls his first encounter with Danny Frawley on the footy field and their battle that was the beginning of a fierce rivalry between the pair.

Danny Frawley and Gary Ablett had a fierce rivalry.

They didn’t know it at the time, but a meeting between two unlikely wingmen at Albury’s City Oval in July, 1983, would kickstart one of the VFL/AFL’s most spirited match-ups for the next decade.

One went on to kick 1031 goals, the other to captain his side for a record number of years as a mean son of a gun at fullback.

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Danny Frawley was a 19-year-old forward who had been selected on a wing for the Ballarat inter-league team in the Victorian Country Championships by his coach John Northey.

His Ovens and Murray opponent was a 21-year-old, named Gary Ablett.

They had never met before, but from the moment they lined up their competitive juices came to the fore.

The pair went at each other with a rare ferocity, as Frawley recalled to journalist Russell Holmesby in 1995.

“I had a bit of pace in those days and, believe it or not, I was selected on a wing. But I had to play against this bloke called Ablett who in the first 10 minutes took a mark on my shoulders and booted his shot 65m and over the point post. John Northey sent out a message that this bloke could play a bit and I had better stick close to him,” Frawley said.

Ablett never forgot their first meeting.

“It was a semi-final for the inter-league up at Albury and I thought we broke about even,” Ablett said, before going on to speak about their AFL rivalry.

“He (Frawley) used to scrag me and wasn’t always interested in the ball. There is nothing worse than playing on someone like that. It got personal but he was doing his job which was fair enough.”

Gary Ablett says his battles with Danny Frawley got personal.

The game was close.

Ballarat won 14.15 (99) to Ovens and Murray 12.12 (84), before Northey took Ballarat to a third successive country championship when it defeated Goulburn Valley in the final at Shepparton.

Coach Northey recalled the 1983 season fondly during the week.

“Danny was a kid and we copped some criticism for playing him, because some thought there were players with more experience, but he was fine,” Northey, 76, said.

“Having said that, I don’t think a Frawley would ever let you down.

“I think Danny’s older brother, Michael, was captain of our side. We had heard a bit about Gary Ablett but we didn’t know a lot about him. They both played very well, a contest worth travelling a long way to watch.

They went at it pretty hard as you would expect, and no quarter was given. Who would have known how far those two young fellows would go?

“I was so sad this week when I heard about Danny and you straight away ask yourself, ‘What could I have done?’ And sometimes there is not much you can do. What it highlights is we have to ring our mates up and have a chat occasionally, because as you get older you sometimes only see each other at funerals.”

FRAWLEY ONE THAT GOT AWAY FROM CATS

Geelong dual premiership ruckman Bill McMaster (1951-52) still has the odd sleepless night when thinking what might have been regarding Danny Frawley.

McMaster, 89, had first spotted Frawley at the 1983 Albury inter-league clash and knew straight away he had VFL attributes.

Three months later, via a friend of chairman of selectors Billy Goggin, Frawley trained at Geelong.

“I had gone to Albury to watch Gary Ablett, and while he did some nice things including a typically magnificent goal, he wasn’t as outstanding as he could be,” McMaster said.

Hawthorn great Dermott Brereton and Danny Frawley had some fiery clashes.

“I went to the Ballarat rooms to see their coach John Northey, who I had coached in the country, and told him I had come to the game to watch Gary Ablett and was slightly disappointed. John Northey replied, ‘There was a reason for that and his name is Danny Frawley’.

“So when Danny started training with us over the summer of 1983-84, I watched with interest. He ended up playing a practice game for us at Anglesea and played on a half-back flank. And yes, he played well, opposed to a man named Gary Ablett. Another country recruit named Greg Williams was in the centre.

“Danny had become extremely popular in a short period of time and wanted to play with Geelong. The trip from Ballarat to Geelong suited him.

“But he was zoned to St Kilda, a club who had until that point shown no interest in him.

“Their general manager Ian Stewart just refused to clear Danny under any circumstances, maybe because some other Ballarat boys (Greg Burns, Geoff Cunningham and Tony Lockett) had told Stewart that Danny could play.

“I still think about what might have been had he come, given our sides between 1987-93 could have seriously benefited from a key defender as good as Danny Frawley, so much so that it’s fair to say we would have won a premiership or two.”