Kevin Billing watched entire 1966 Grand Final on the bench but is just happy to be part of the club’s finest hour
KEVIN Billing watched the 1966 Grand Final in a dressing gown. Depending on how you look at it, he had the best or worst seat in the house, writes Mark Robinson.
St Kilda
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SOMETIMES, the remarkable power and magnetism of a single person in a photograph means all else can be forgotten or ignored.
This photograph of coach Allen Jeans is in the moment.
It’s the 1966 Grand Final and Jeans is off the bench, half crouching, half standing, fully alert, seemingly beckoning to a player on the ground to stay in his position.
Or maybe he’s urging his players for one final effort. Or maybe he’s communicating with Doc Baldock or Ian Cooper.
Or maybe he wants his runner back to send another message in the dying minutes of one of the most remarkable and famous Grand Finals of all time.
Photographs like this one are treasures because you feel you’re in the moment without exactly knowing what the moment is.
Now look to Jeans’ left, the player bending over.
His name is Kevin Billing and he’s remarkable in a wholly different way.
Billing sat on the bench for the entire game, never once disrobing the dressing gown.
He walked out with his teammates, including fellow reserve Travis Payze, at the start of the game, to a thunderous roar, walked around the boundary line and sat down.
And that was his Grand Final.
I get embarrassed because I didn’t do anything ... That’s the main thing I get embarrassed about. As far as being in the side, it was the best thing that ever happened to me.
Kevin Billing 
Payze got on the ground in the final quarter, replacing Allan Davis, but Billing missed out.
At the final siren he was ecstatic for the Saints had won their first — and only — premiership. But something was amiss, so much so that Billing didn’t even do the lap of honour.
Today, Billing joins his 1966 teammates at the MCG to celebrate the premiership.
You might think that after all these years, Billing, a chirpy and effervescent 72-year-old, would be a reluctant attendee. But not so.
“I can’t wait for Saturday,’’ he said, “I’ll finally get on the ground.’’
With that he laughed. Maybe humour is his way of disguising the disappointment. Maybe being the footnote in such a wonderful story is not so heartbreaking after all.
“I get embarrassed because I didn’t do anything,’’ Billing said.
“That’s the main thing I get embarrassed about. As far as being in the side, it was the best thing that ever happened to me.
“There’s no ill-feeling. How could you take someone off? I don’t even think they should’ve taken Davo off for Payzey in the final quarter, because Davo was doing a job. He was supposed to drag Ian Montgomery away from Doc. Davo was only 17, he was a kid, but he was a good player Davo.
“I was never dirty about getting on, I was disappointed, but not dirty.
“If you watched the game right through, who would you take off? How could you when no one was going bad, no one was injured, and there’s was a couple of points in it all day.
“Believe it or not, not a word was said to me before, during or after the game, nothing from the selectors or Jeansy.’’
Billing has told his story before and will do so again and he didn’t baulk at this latest excursion down memory lane.
“Go for your life,’’ he said.
Billing was 21 on Grand Final day, having arrived at St Kilda in his school uniform at 16, asking to train for the thirds.
He started playing football at Oakleigh as a 12-year-old and when he was at Oakleigh Tech, at 16, his older brother urged to him to give it to give it a go at his beloved Saints.
“My grandmother lived in Westbury St, St Kilda, and we used to go there as kids and naturally we barracked for St Kilda,’’ he said.
“Dad barracked for Essendon, I don’t know why, but the rest of the family barracked for St Kilda. My grandmother was the link to St Kilda.
“Oddly enough, we lived in Springvale. My father was a market gardener. Back then you had the zones. We had South Melbourne one side, Richmond down the road, and because we had a market garden we were in a green belt, so we weren’t allocated to any team, so I just went down asked for a game.’’
A classy centreman, Billing made the Victorian under-19 team in his first season.
Believe it or not, not a word was said to me before, during or after the game, nothing from the selectors or Jeansy.
Kevin Billing
He made his senior debut as a 17-year-old in Round 18 against Hawthorn. Stats are rare, but it’s known Baldock kicked five goals and Ray McHugh four in a 35-point win the Junction Oval.
St Kilda was a formidable team about this time and already had a prodigiously-talented centreman named Ian Stewart, so Billing’s senior career was muffled.
Across nine seasons he could only muster another 26 games.
He played about 100 games in the reserves, mostly as the centreman.
“I ended up captain of the reserves and when that happens you know you’re gone,’’ he said.
“I was captain in ’68 and ’69. I still got the odd game in the seniors. I only played 27 games in the seniors, but if you look at Russell Holmesby’s book, he reckons I missed 80 games through injury.
“That’s not quite right. I didn’t miss 80 games. I might’ve missed 40, but not 80.’’
His most famous day in football began weeks earlier.
He was named best player in the reserves in the semi-final win against South Melbourne, but also tore a thigh muscle.
“I thought, that’s me for the year, but they kept sending me to physio every day, so they must have had some idea. I didn’t know.’’
After training on the final Thursday night before the Grand Final, where Billing had to pass a fitness test — and fitness tests back then were more akin to hand-to-hand combat — Jeans read out the team.
Billing had made it and Ian “Doggy’’ Rowlands was dropped.
“The first bloke I spoke to was Doggy. We’re good friends. Last Saturday, when we had the old players’ day, I sat next to Doggy on the bus to Peter Fox’s place, and then some of us went to see Nick Riewoldt’s 300th.’’
Jeans’ reasoning was sound enough. He was worried about Collingwood captain Des Tuddenham who had kicked seven goals in the second semi-final.
They opted for John Bingley to do the job on “Tuddy” in the GF, but picked Billing for back up.
“I was lucky to be there,’’ Billing said.
Plenty missed out apart from Doggy.
Carl Ditterich, Ross Oakley, Ray Cross, Kevin Roberts and Des Kennedy missed because of suspension or injury.
“‘Ditto’ got rubbed out for cleaning up Daryl Peoples of Fitzroy, but he shouldn’t have got anything. It wasn’t something bad, not something to get three or four weeks (it was six matches). You know how Ditterich used to bump, his elbows used fly around a bit. But it wasn’t a bad bum,’’ Billing said.
Billing remembers ’66 for many reasons.
His first wife, Janie, was at the game. Janie died in 1990 and then Billing married Joy, who was also at the Grand Final, as a 16-year-old Collingwood supporter.
“It’s Joy’s birthday next Saturday, guess how old she is ... she’s 66. She tells all my friends if I had got on the ground instead Travis Payze, Collingwood would’ve won. I think she’s joking.’’
There will handshakes and beers and more photographs and more story telling at the MCG today and at Crown Palladium tonight, but Billing won’t want any fuss.
“Do me a favour,’’ he said, “don’t put too much bulls--- in the paper.
“I was quite happy to be there, don’t you worry,’’ he said. “The noise, it was loud as buggery. I can still hear it.’’
Originally published as Kevin Billing watched entire 1966 Grand Final on the bench but is just happy to be part of the club’s finest hour
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