Top 100: Lindsay Hassett leads list of greatest Geelong sporting stars

From Olympians and international stars to Brownlow medallists, find out the legends of the Geelong sporting scene stack up.

In a new book, veteran journalist John Craven unveils the top-100 past and present sporting greats of Geelong. Among them are household names of the local sporting scene, from international stars and Olympians to Brownlow medallists.

John Craven

Today we give you a sneak peak of the man who landed at No. 1, cricket legend Lindsay Hassett. He tops a who’s who list of champions, with record-breaking runner John Landy coming in at No. 2 and legendary cyclist Russell Mockridge at No.3.

Divided into two categories, ‘The Conquerors’ make up the top 50, with ‘The Champions’ filling out the bottom 50 in alphabetical order. Ahead of its release next week, we take an exclusive look at chapter one, with extracts from the in-depth interview with Hassett, who played 43 Tests in an illustrious career for Australia.

Hassett’s most distinguished performance occurred in the Fourth Test at the notorious Headingley fortress in Leeds in 1938.

Australia required only 105 in its second innings to win the match, but had crashed to 3-50 when Geelong’s grandest arrived at the crease.

Ignoring the moist conditions and a looming storm, he calmly made 33 off 36 balls to help steer the Aussies to a five-wicket victory.

Such was the intensity, (Don) Bradman could not bear to watch the unfolding scene.

He later described Hassett as a “masterful player in a crisis”.

The five Test series was drawn 1-1.

Lindsay Hassett, Australian Test cricketer.

John Landy

It was on the 1938 tour that Lindsay’s reputation for “night loneliness” was enhanced; an affliction confirmed by the team’s vice-captain Stan McCabe, grandson of an Irish-born NSW policeman who’d set the series alight in the First Test at Nottingham’s Trent Bridge with a spellbinding 232, under extreme pressure.

Hassett would often knock on the sleepy, protesting McCabe’s hotel door around midnight, seeking a chat and a convivial drink.

“You may as well let me in, otherwise I’ll keep knocking and wake the whole hotel,” Lindsay – who greatly admired McCabe – would tease.

Hassett’s cricketing fortunes, displaying the unquestionable benefit of his overseas experience, skyrocketed upon his return to Australia.

In a dazzling 1938-39 season, he plundered 897 first-class runs, including five centuries.

He made 211 not out and 102 in two duels against South Australia, tempering the craftiness of 46-year-old Grimmett whose right-arm leg-breaks and googlies propelled him into cricket immortality as the first bowler to reach 200 Test wickets.

Originally published as Top 100: Lindsay Hassett leads list of greatest Geelong sporting stars