Ando’s Shout: Relive the day the indestructible Leigh Matthews was knocked out by Ivan Eckermann

Football has a number of one-offs. And the day “Lethal” Leigh Matthews was knocked out for the first time on the field is certainly one of them. Plus, what’s got Greg Williams back at Carlton?

Football, like life, has a number of “one-offs”, from the 1947 match when Fred Fanning kicked 18 goals, to Helen D’Amico’s naked MCG dash during the third quarter of the 1982 VFL Grand Final.

And then there’s the day a supposedly indestructible Leigh Matthews had his lights put out by a no-fuss Port Adelaide backman named Ivan Eckermann in an interstate clash at Football Park in 1982.

With Matthews it was usually the other way around as a number of opponents seemed to “faint” when in his area, so to see him concussed remains firmly in the memory of those at a high-scoring game Victoria won by 12 points.

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Eckermann, who lives in retirement in Adelaide, has certainly never dined out on the moment and was surprised to be asked about it this week, some 37 years later.

“The collision with Leigh was something that just happened. I thought he was stunned because I didn’t think I hit him that hard. I might have used a few expletives towards him just after it in the heat of the moment,” Eckermann, 64, said.

It took a lot to get the better of Leigh Matthews.

The incident forced Matthews from the field and he didn’t return. There was no report.

“I ran into Leigh again four years later at a function in Melbourne where we just had a brief chat, but the incident does come up once or twice a year,” Eckermann said. “My mates will ring up and remind me of it.”

Matthews’ memory of the incident naturally remains hazy.

“The ball was kicked towards our half-forward flank and I can remember going after it from the forward pocket,” Matthews recalled in his book, Lethal. “My next memory was being steered around the boundary line by a couple of trainers … For the only time in my career, I had ‘lost’ a few minutes.”

From the mid-north South Australian town of Blyth, Eckermann played 151 games as a dependable back pocket with Port Adelaide from 1974-83, including four premierships. He was reported just once, never suspended, and played in a golden era with and against some of SA’s finest.

Ivan Eckermann can still remember his clash with Leigh Matthews.

“Blokes like Malcolm Blight, Barrie Robran, Paul Bagshaw, Russell Ebert, Greg Phillips and later on the Jarman brothers and Tony McGuinness,” Eckermann said. “And of course Leigh Matthews, who might be the greatest of all, although I’m sure if Barrie Robran had played in the VFL, he would have been a sensation.”

DIESEL RETURNS TO CARLTON HOME

Greg “Diesel” Williams is returning to the Carlton home where he won a Norm Smith Medal in the club’s last premiership side of 1995.

Williams, 55, will be at Ikon Park two days a week to help work on skills development and technique. He has previously expressed dismay at the poor kicking and handball standards of players coming out of the under-18 competition.

This year Williams, who arguably rates with Ian Stewart as the game’s finest pure centreman, has been involved in private tutoring of some of the AFL’s leading on-ballers.

A trip to Brisbane to work with Lachie Neale was followed by a flight to Perth for some one-on-one time with Nat Fyfe, while locally he worked with a pair of Blues in Patrick Cripps and Paddy Dow.