AFL Hall of Fame 2016 ceremony: St Kilda full-back Verdun Howell joins elite group

VERDUN Howell made a habit of waiting for major achievements, from the game’s highest individual honour to what remains St Kilda’s only premiership.

Verdun Howell at training in 1959. Picture: HWT Archive

VERDUN Howell made a habit of waiting for major football achievements, from the game’s highest individual honour to what remains St Kilda’s only premiership.

And then there was his No. 16 jumper for that 1966 Grand Final, finally reunited with Howell after 50 years through the kindness of his Collingwood opponent Max Pitt.

The waiting began with the 1959 Brownlow Medal, which he received 30 years after the fact when the AFL decided to award retrospective medals. He had been “beaten” on countback by South Melbourne rover Bob Skilton.

Howell, who turns 79 on Wednesday (making him the fifth oldest surviving medallist behind Peter Box, 84, Fred Goldsmith, 83, Neil Roberts, 83, and Brian Gleeson, 81), looks back on the Brownlow with mixed feelings.

“It was disappointing that I couldn’t accept it at the time because it can never be the same as getting it when you actually won it, but I’m getting more used to it as time goes by,” he told the Herald Sun.

“Initially I would go to a Brownlow function not knowing if I should be there.”

The countback system meant if two players tied, as Howell and Skilton did on 20 votes, then the player with the most best on ground votes would win. Skilton’s five 3-vote games beat Howell’s two — the St Kilda full-back polled votes in one more game (nine to eight).

There was also the rarity of him playing full-back, a position that has provided just one other winner in Fred Goldsmith (1955).

Hall of Fame inductee Verdun Howell. Picture: Michael Klein

And Howell played the key defensive role at just 178cm, relying on judgment and leap against taller opponents. In fact he never played on a smaller full-forward.

He was a dasher, a player good enough to go to full-forward for a game in 1965 and boot nine goals at Moorabbin against Hawthorn, and one who had played in the centre at times for his original club of City South Launceston.

But on the last line where he made his name.

“There was tremendous strain associated with playing-full back, particularly against bigger opponents,” said Howell, who lives in retirement near Perth.

“Your mistakes would be highlighted more because you were so often in one on one situations. I found by going for a run downfield it broke up the strain and gave my opponent something to think about.

“In my Brownlow year everything went right for me. It helped that I was a fresh face and nobody knew much about me and because I wasn’t that big they would often put a big man on me to try and gain a tactical advantage.

“That actually helped me for the bigger they were, the better it was given my style of play.”

As for waiting for his honours Howell believes in the slightly modified adage that “all good football things come to those who wait”.

“I thought waiting 30 years for the Brownlow was a long time but getting the 1966 premiership jumper back after 50 years, well you can’t wait much longer than that. I’m just very thankful to get it back.”

Verdun Howell flying high in 1962. HWT Archive

As was the custom of the time, St Kilda and Collingwood players swapped jumpers straight after the Saints won that epic by one point, none of them realising at the time that the win would continue to remain their only AFL pennant.

Howell, who played what he consider just an average game as a half-back flanker in the grand final, swapped his jumper with Collingwood’s half-forward flanker Max Pitt. Pitt kept the jumper, actually playing in it for a period with Frankston in the VFA, while Howell misplaced Pitt’s No. 21 over the journey.

In April this year Pitt returned it to Howell, a vivid reminder of a day where the crowd of 102,055 seemed to roar from go to whoa: “The roar when we ran out on the crowd was extraordinary, but you are told to be prepared for that and we had played and lost to Essendon the year before in the Grand Final,” Howell said.

“But in 1966 the roar never seemed to stop, probably because the game was always so close. You ask any player, they will have the same memory. At times you couldn’t hear what was being said on the field.

“We did have to wat a year for that flag because we were favourites in 1965, finishing on top and winning straight through to the Grand Final meaning we had a week’s rest.

“I actually thought we had even better teams prior to 1965-66, better depth of players, so maybe we could have won another one.”

Originally published as AFL Hall of Fame 2016 ceremony: St Kilda full-back Verdun Howell joins elite group