This is the front cover of the Football Record for Saturday
01st July 1978. It shows Kelvin Templeton and North Melbourne's
Ross Glendinning in action from the week before clash between
Footscray and our opponent North Melbourne at their then
home ground Arden Street. We won this match against the reigning
premiers and subsequent Grand Finalists of 1978.
A season earlier I was in attendance for our fixture against
Essendon at their then home ground Windy Hill. That match
on Saturday 07th May 1977 saw Essendon finish with 13.11.89.
Our score? Well it was 29.15.189, which translates to a 100
point victory. My main memory of that game was Templeton
being carried off injured, I think at three quarter time
and ended his season. Another memory was that some of our
players wore different numbers. I think Terry Wheeler, Geoff
Jennings, Ted Whitten and one other player swapped numbers.
Wheeler may have been wearing 25 and Jennings 35.Possibly
our last goal was kicked after the siren to take the margin
from 94 points to the magical 100, maybe by Bluey Hampshire.
He had some involvement in it I'm sure. I can't recall it
exactly as a seven year old, worse is the fact that the game
is rarely mentioned these days and I assume that there are
no archival highlights of it kept.
This was our record score in VFL football, yet happily that
record was not to last for long. In fact it was less than
14 months, because on Saturday 1st July 1978, the record was broken (see above image).
Here are both the Footscray and St Kilda teams, from that
day as recorded from “The Football Record.”
This is the page with the progressive match scores. The
scores are from my eight, nearly nine year old right hand.
This is a bit difficult to read, so I hope writing them out makes it a bit easier. Both team’s full lists are a bit further down the page and directly below are the umpires for this momentous day.
The field umpires were to be selected from
| 1 Rowan Sawers |
2 Glenn James |
3 Geoff Polites |
| 4 John Wright |
5 Tony Bryant |
6 Ian Robinson |
and it was numbers four and five, John Wright and Tony Bryant controlling the game.
The Boundary Umpires were Geoff McQueen and Bob Taggart
The Goal Umpires were Bob Barker and Barry Page
THE TEAMS PLACINGS ANNOUNCED BY CLUBS
FOOTSCRAY GOALS
| (F) Forwards: G.Wheeler(39) K.Templeton(31) P.Welsh(4) |
(StK) Backs: B.Breen(4) D.Evans(22) G.McDonald(11)
|
| (F) H.Forwards: T.Whitten(22) B.Reid(5) I.Low(28) |
(St K) H.Backs: I.Baker(20) V.Perovic(9) P.Stevens(19)
|
| (F) Centres: M.Kelly(11) A.Stoneham(3) D.Hawkins(7) |
(StK) Centres: G.Bond(34) M.O’Keefe(15) I.Sartori(49)
|
| (F) H.Backs: R.Abbey(30) J.Reid(33) S.Power(21) |
(StK) H.Forwards: G.Lofts(16) J.Sarau(31) R.Tweeddale(23)
|
| (F) Backs: R.Murrie(26) A.Smedts(17) T.Wheeler(35) |
| (StK) Forwards: T.Barker(1) G.Young(27) J.Dunne(48) |
ST KILDA GOALS
| (F) Followers: G.Dempsey (24) I.Dunstan(32) |
(StK) Followers: C.Ditterich(10) G.Cunningham(25)
|
| (F) Rover: G.Jennings(25) |
(StK) Rover: R.Greene(29)
|
| (F) Interchange: G.Scanlen(15) J.Di Natale(34) |
| (StK) Interchange: R.Hunt(5) R.Elliott(13) |
| Footscray: |
5.4. (34) |
15.8 (98) |
21.11(137) |
33.15(213) |
| St Kilda: |
5.3. (33) |
8.7 (55) |
14.9 (93) |
16.10(106) |
This is the page with the progressive match scores.
Notice the top fixture for this Round 13 Saturday July 01st 1978 was the Waverley clash between Fitzroy and Melbourne. An easy victory for the Roys and an ominous rehearsal for the occurrence one season later when these teams met again at Waverley. The 1979 clash was also one sided, an annihilation nothing less. Disastrous for Melbourne but also, Fitzroy were to take the VFL highest score record away from us. Carlton’s 30.30.210 against Hawthorn in April 1969 was held for 9 years. We broke it but our custody of this cherished accomplishment was to last less than 13 months.
The next item below is the senior and reserve lists for
both Footscray and St Kilda as at 01 st July 1978.
If these names are a bit difficult to read, then I hope this makes it a bit easier.
FOOTSCRAY
Senior Coach: Don McKenzie
Reserves Coach: Bruce Burgoyne
Under 19’s Coach: Gerald Ryan
TODAY’S SENIOR TEAM
| 3 |
Alan Stoneham |
| 4 |
Peter Welsh |
| 5 |
Bruce Reid |
| 7 |
Doug Hawkins |
| 11 |
Michael Kelly |
| 15 |
Glenn Scanlen |
| 17 |
Albert Smedts |
| 21 |
Stephen Power |
| 22 |
Ted Whitten |
| 24 |
Gary Dempsey |
| 25 |
Geoff Jennings |
| 26 |
Richard Murrie |
| 28 |
Ian Low |
| 30 |
Ross Abbey |
| 31 |
Kelvin Templeton |
| 32 |
Ian Dunstan |
| 33 |
John Reid |
| 34 |
Jack Di Natale |
| 35 |
Terry Wheeler |
| 39 |
Gary Wheeler |
RESERVE GRADE TEAM FROM
| 1 |
Ian Hampshire |
| 6 |
Paul Wharton |
| 8 |
Ian Morrison |
| 9 |
Wayne Fox |
| 10 |
Peter Munro |
| 12 |
George Brown |
| 13 |
Lindsay Barwick |
| 14 |
Robert Gronewegen |
| 16 |
Dennis Blair |
| 18 |
Phil Bradmore |
| 19 |
Gordon Polson |
| 20 |
Jim Edmond |
| 23 |
Lee Perussich |
| 27 |
Jeff Gieschen |
| 29 |
Neil Cordy |
| 36 |
Neil Hodder |
| 37 |
Tony Fox |
| 38 |
Neil Wright |
| 40 |
Brian Wilson |
| 41 |
Matt Johnson |
| 42 |
Wayne Foreman |
| 43 |
Norman Tivendale |
| 44 |
Graeme Linke |
| 45 |
Don Henwood |
| 46 |
Greg Davis |
| 47 |
Mark Bass |
| 48 |
Angy Tantsis |
| 49 |
Michael Egan |
| 50 |
Scott Taylor |
ST KILDA
Senior Coach: Mike Patterson
Reserves Coach: John Northey
Under 19’s Coach: Bob Murray
TODAY’S SENIOR TEAM
| 1 |
Trevor Barker |
| 4 |
Barry Breen (Vice Captain) |
| 5 |
Rex Hunt |
| 9 |
Val Perovic |
| 10 |
Carl Ditterich |
| 11 |
Gary McDonald |
| 13 |
Robert Elliott |
| 15 |
Maurice O'Keefe |
| 16 |
Gary Lofts |
| 19 |
Phil Stevens |
| 20 |
Ian Baker |
| 22 |
Dale Evans |
| 23 |
Russell Tweeddale |
| 25 |
Geoff Cunningham |
| 27 |
George Young |
| 29 |
Russell Grene |
| 31 |
Jeffrey Sarau |
| 34 |
Graeme Bond |
| 48 |
Jeff Dunne |
| 49 |
Ian Sartori |
RESERVE GRADE TEAM FROM
| 2 |
Garry Sidebottom |
| 3 |
Bruce Duperouzel |
| 6 |
Mark Greene |
| 7 |
Greg Lane |
| 8 |
Glenn Elliott |
| 12 |
Garry Colling (Captain) |
| 14 |
Jim O'Dea |
| 17 |
Mordy Bromberg |
| 21 |
Don Discher |
| 24 |
Graeme Gellie |
| 26 |
Colin Carter |
| 28 |
Richard Fish |
| 30 |
Gary Becker |
| 32 |
Robert Muir |
| 33 |
Gerard Cahir |
| 35 |
Paul Callery |
| 36 |
Jim Hickman |
| 37 |
Mark Sarau |
| 38 |
Douglas Booth |
| 39 |
Bill Mildenhall |
| 40 |
Chris Stone |
| 41 |
Andy Matheson |
| 42 |
Shane Gains |
| 43 |
Michael Roberts |
| 44 |
Craig Williams |
| 45 |
Grant Thomas |
| 46 |
Stephen Tickell |
| 47 |
Rod Butterss |
| 50 |
Mark Kellett |
Reserve Grade Field Umpires:
Gary Crisp & Graeme Williams
The players’ names here have been changed so their surname is last rather than the first.
For our opponents St Kilda 1978 was a whirlwind, roller coaster season. At Moorabbin in round 2 they triumphed over us by 7 points in Don McKenzie’s first game as Footscray coach. Against Melbourne at the MCG in Round 6 the Saints booted 31 goals for the afternoon. Seven days later they beat Essendon at Moorabbin in another noteworthy encounter remembered for the Bombers president Colin Stubbs describing St Kilda players as ‘Animals’.
On July 08th one week after our record score performance, the Saints played another away game, at Arden Street and surprisingly beat the reigning premiers. North Melbourne defeated after the siren from a disputed goal from Robert Elliott. They went into the last round with the possibility of making the finals for the first time since 1973. St Kilda fulfilled their side of the task by defeating Carlton but Fitzroy were unable to beat Geelong so it was the Cats who made the 1978 finals rather that the Saints.
On the opening round of 1979 St Kilda accounted for the 1978 premiers Hawthorn at Moorabbin. They were not to defeat the Hawks again till 1990. The 1980’s were to be a trying decade for the Saints and their fans and the narrow finals miss of 1978 would prove harder to take as time went by. This was because it was 1991 before they were to play in the finals again.
