Relive the day Peter Hudson missed out on three votes despite kicking 18 goals for Glenorchy

It will forever remain part of football folklore — the day Peter Hudson kicked 18 goals and didn’t get the three votes from a local television commentator. Jon Anderson looks back at one of footy’s great mysteries.

It will forever remain part of Tasmanian football folklore — the day Peter Hudson kicked 18 goals for Glenorchy and didn’t get the three votes from a local television commentator.

It was in 1979, a season in which the then 33-year-old kicked 179 goals for Glenorchy Magpies in the Tasmanian Football League, or 229 from 29 when you include state games and practice matches.

CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE SUPERFOOTY PODCAST

Hudson, 73, who had finished his decorated VFL career with Hawthorn a couple of years earlier after 727 goals in 129 games, had already kicked seven and 15 goals in two earlier 1979 games against rival Hobart.

In the third meeting, Hudson really moved into his work from full-forward with a TFL record of 18 goals. So imagine his surprise the next day when the local Hobart television station’s commentator, Adrian Bowden, didn’t give him three votes.

Peter Hudson knew where the goals were. Picture: Luke Bowden

“My teammate Danny Ling, who was a fantastic player, was sitting at home on the Sunday with his lunch, watching the show and hoping for two votes, when Adrian named him best. He nearly dropped his lunch,” laughed Hudson, who that season kicked 52 goals against Hobart in four games.

Bowden, 71, who played 24 games with Melbourne in 1966-67 and had a stellar career with Clarence in Tasmania, still gets reminded of his voting choices on that day.

“Maybe it was the centre half-back in me coming out, but there were occasions in that game when a Glenorchy bloke would be lining up for goal and instead of taking the shot would kick it back to ‘Huddo’,” Bowden said this week from his Melbourne home.

“The next day ‘Huddo’ was on the show when I gave Danny Ling the three votes and from memory there was a Mazda car up for grabs for player of the year. ‘Huddo’ said, ‘If I don’t win that bloody car, you’re rooted Bowden’.

“But he won the car. And you know what, footy can take itself too seriously so I was always about making something interesting. That’s what I did. But it didn’t help me much the next week when Channel 6 sent me out to Glenorchy. They absolutely gave it to me.”

That story and many more will be re-told next Saturday night when Glenorchy celebrates its 100th anniversary, including its 1975 premiership in which Hudson was captain-coach of a side that included Daryl Sutton (North Melbourne 1977 premiership defender) and four-time Hawthorn premiership player Rodney Eade.