Footscray Not Western Bulldogs | Ted Whitten Senior and Geelong at Geelong

Ted Whitten Senior and Geelong at Geelong

Ted Whitten senior played 321 games for Footscray and some of his greatest (and the club’s greatest) victories occurred over Geelong.

They include the 1954 Second Semi Final, the 1956 First Semi Final, the last home and away match of 1961 where over 42,000 people packed into the Whitten Oval (when it was known as the Western Oval) to see Footscray defeat Geelong and clinch a finals place at the expense of the cats.

However at Geelong his best result was a draw on the opening round of 1957. I don’t know whether Teddy went to Kardinia Park as a spectator in 1941, 1944 or 1945 these being our first three games at Kardinia Park. Footscray won all three of those games. ‘How easy was this new Geelong home for Footscray’ must have been the general opinion in 1945, especially when considering that we only had the one solitary victory at the Corio Oval- by 4 points in 1928.

Anyhow Ted’s service at Footscray was between 1951 and 1971 as a player, captain coach and finally a non playing coach. That draw of 1957 was his only trip down there, where he didn’t return up the highway defeated. So there were no victories just that solitary draw in all those years.

The paradox of this is what happened after Ted Whitten’s tenure at Footscray concluded. Bob Rose in his first year as coach of Footscray in 1972 finally delivered a Footscray victory at Geelong, the first since 1947. Bob Rose was coach for seasons 1972 -1975 inclusive and Footscray won all three of the games at Kardinia Park we played there in that time – the only miss being 1974 as we played Geelong at Waverley that year. So Bob Rose had a perfect record at Geelong as Footscray coach.

Teddy Whitten died on Thursday 17th August 1995. He had been a commentator for over 15 years for the local Geelong radio station (originally 3GL then they changed their name to K Rock) Ted attended near on every Geelong game from circa 1980 to 1994, one of his only absences (perhaps his only miss?) was a game where Gary Ablett kicked his 100th goal for the season, Ted was away sick. I recall Ted mentioning in a newspaper column he wrote at the time how upset he was on missing that 100th goal, as he had seen every game that Gary Ablett had played for Geelong, yet was not there for his 100th goal.

Anyway Footscray won at Geelong in 1995, our first win there since 1985, but unfortunately and weirdly this occurred on Saturday August 26th, 9 days after Ted died.

So the Footscray triumph at Kardinia Park in 1985 was possibly the only time that Ted would have seen Footscray win at Geelong. If he didn’t go there as a spectator in 1941, 1944 or 1945 or as a commentator in 1972, 1973 and 1975, then the 1985 epic struggle would have been the only match that Ted was to see a Footscray success at Kardinia Park. Some of the highlights of that 1985 Geelong v Footscray classic can be seen here in the FOOTSCRAY TUBE Chapter.

The build up to this Geelong v Footscray game at Kardinia Park in 1985 was quite involved and Ted appeared on a Friday evening pre- game football panel as that night’s studio guest. This programme was on the ABC and Teddy was in fine form, high on adrenalin and just about doing the floor show. Some of the regular panellists were Doug Heywood, Tim Lane, Ian Cleland, Leigh Matthews and Ron Barassi to name just a few. This particular Friday night was very soon after the infamous Leigh Matthews / Neville Bruns incident, so Geelong was in the news, ditto for the regular weekly panellist Leigh Matthews.

Anyhow Ted was holding court and championing the art of using your elbow to defend yourself, as long as you kept your elbow in, near your body, not AWAY from your body. Tim Lane asked a question and obviously and purposely to gain a reaction from Ted, Tim addressed it as “Mr Football………….Ron Barassi! That instantly and loudly earned Ted’s ire, “hey hey hey” was Ted’s response to Tim’s effrontery in calling Mrs Football, Mr Football. Ted also made mention of how Footscray was going to win- “For all you cat fans out there.” That one liner about “For all you cat fans out there” has stayed in my memory bank ever since- unable to be removed.

I would love to see that special ABC program again, a picture is worth a 1000 words and these words are inadequate to properly portray what a memorable show it was that night thanks to a full of beans E. J. Whitten. The game the next day was fantastic too, so if it was Teddy only Footscray victory at Kardinia Park, it was great game one of the best of that season.

This table below shows what happened in Geelong v Footscray games at Geelong during Teddy Whitten senior’s entire days at Footscray. The white shading in 1957 signifies the drawn game.

(a) Firstly as a player (1951- 1957)

(b) Then as the captain coach (1958- 1966)

(d) Back to captain coach again (1969)

(e) Then finally as the non-playing coach (1970-1971)

The white shading in 1957 signifies the drawn game.

Year	Season	Venue	Result	By	Geelong	Footscray	Round	Day	Date	Geelong Coach	Footscray Coach
1951	27/84	No game	Played	at	Kardinia	Park	between	the two	teams this year	Reg Hickey	Charlie Sutton
1952	28/84	Kardinia Park	Loss	7	10.4.64	7.15.57	2 of 19	Saturday	26 April 1952	Reg Hickey	Charlie Sutton
1953	29/84	Kardinia Park	Loss	20	11.12.78	8.10.58	13 of 18	Saturday	25 July 1953	Reg Hickey	Charlie Sutton
1954	30/84	Kardinia Park	Loss	4	9.13.67	8.15. 63	9 of 18	Monday	14 June 1954	Reg Hickey	Charlie Sutton
1955	31/84	Kardinia Park	Loss	12	12.12.84	10.12.72	5 of 18	Saturday	14 May 1955	Reg Hickey	Charlie Sutton
1956	32/84	No game	Played	at	Kardinia	Park	between	the two	teams this year	Reg Hickey	Charlie Sutton
1957	33/84	Kardinia Park	DRAW	--	11.11.77	10.17.77	1 of 18	Monday	22 April 1957	Reg Hickey	Charlie Sutton
1958	34/84	Kardinia Park	Loss	7	13.14.92	12.13.85	17 of 18	Saturday	16 August 1958	Reg Hickey	Teddy Whitten
1959	35/84	Kardinia Park	Loss	18	13.15.93	10.15.75	10 of 18	Saturday	04 July 1959	Reg Hickey	Teddy Whitten
1960	36/84	Kardinia Park	Loss	27	11.13.79	8.4.52	12 of 18	Saturday	16 July 1960	Bobby Davis	Teddy Whitten
1961	37/84	Kardinia Park	Loss	53	13.13.91	4.14.38	7 of 18	Saturday	03 June 1961	Bobby Davis	Teddy Whitten
1962	38/84	No game	Played	at	Kardinia	Park	between	the two	teams this year	Bobby Davis	Teddy Whitten
1963	39/84	Kardinia Park	Loss	21	10.25.85	10.4.64	3 of 18	Saturday	04 May 1963	Bobby Davis	Teddy Whitten
1964	40/84	No game	Played	at	Kardinia	Park	between	the two	teams this year	Bobby Davis	Teddy Whitten
1965	41/84	Kardinia Park	Loss	2	5.5.35	5.3.33	1 of 18	Monday	19 April 1965	Bobby Davis	Teddy Whitten
1966	42/84	Kardinia Park	Loss	40	12.14.86	7.4.46	3 of 18	Saturday	07 May 1966	Peter Pianto	Teddy Whitten
1967	43/84	Kardinia Park	Loss	40	15.12.102	9.8.62	9 of 18	Monday	12 June 1967	Peter Pianto	Charlie Sutton
1968	44/84	Kardinia Park	Loss	24	9.17.71	6.11.47	2 of 20	Saturday	20 April 1968	Peter Pianto	Charlie Sutton
1969	45/84	Kardinia Park	Loss	77	23.17.155	11.12.78	16 of 20	Saturday	02 August 1969	Peter Pianto	Teddy Whitten
1970	46/84	Kardinia Park	Loss	46	18.15.123	11.11.77	6 of 22	Saturday	09 May 1970	Peter Pianto	Teddy Whitten
1971	47/84	Kardinia Park	Loss	31	18.18.126	15.5.95	21 of 22	Saturday	21 August 1971	Bill McMaster	Teddy Whitten

Bobby Rose

Now here is the table for Geelong v Footscray at Kardinia Park during the four season tenure of the successor of Teddy Whitten senior as Footscray coach- Bobby Rose

Year	Season	Venue	Result	By	Geelong	Footscray	Round	Day	Date	Geelong Coach	Footscray Coach
1972	48/84	Kardinia Park	WIN	3	15.18.108	16.15.111	7 of 22	Saturday	13 May 1972	Bill McMaster	Bob Rose
1973	49/84	Kardinia Park	WIN	18	11.14.80	14.14.98	6 of 22	Saturday	12 May 1973	"Polly" Farmer	Bob Rose
1974	50/84	No game	Played	at	Kardinia	Park	between	the two	teams this year	"Polly" Farmer	Bob Rose
1975	51/84	Kardinia Park	WIN	8	13.12.90	14.14.98	3 of 22	Saturday	19 April 1975	"Polly" Farmer	Bob Rose

Bob Rose the Footscray coach for four seasons saw the club record three victories. The other year (1974) saw the Geelong v Footscray fixture played at V.F.L. Park (Waverley)

Bobby Rose, as already stated above, was never involved in a Footscray defeat at Kardinia Park. A very different scene to what Teddy Whitten endured.

1985

Year	Season	Venue	Result	By	Geelong	Footscray	Round	Day	Date	Geelong Coach	Footscray Coach
1985	61/84	Kardinia Park	WIN	22	17.22.124	23.8.146	14 of 22	Saturday	29 June 1985	Tommy Hafey	Michael Malthouse

This match from 1985 was a game where Geelong’s Andrew Bews kicked what has been since, a much replayed goal. It happened during the first quarter when Geelong pulled back a big deficit to take a quarter time lead. Some of my memories though, are of a brilliant second quarter from Doug Hawkins where he had three opponents on him (all at the same time), plus other some other great individual performances. The victory obtained without fullback Rick Kennedy who was out, having had his leg broken the previous week at Waverley against North Melbourne.

Two other notable recollections from me include Gary Ablett being paid a mark late in the tight last quarter on the commentary box side (in front of what is now their fully enclosed Ford Stand) when the ball had (from our view) clearly gone through for a Geelong behind. We were ropable about this, but the former Hawthorn footballer kicked a point anyway so justice was done. We were ecstatic as Les Bamblett marked the ball in the middle of the ground and took off like a deer, described in the Channel 7 commentary by Jack Edwards- "Look at him go no one's coming up to meet him, Bamblett's running nearly half the length of the ground, he shoots the goal and its through" This flash of brilliance was Bamblett basically clinched the game and there was jubilation at the final siren, at such a crucial victory from what had been an excellent match that the neutral fan would have been well satisfied with. Then it was such a pleasurable journey home up the then two lanes Princes Highway, flicking the car radio from station to station trying to find the “round the groundsman” that 3AW, 3LO, 3KZ, or the then racing stations 3DB and 3UZ, had that day at Kardinia Park. So be it Frank Considine, Ian Synman, Bobby Henderson, Roy Simmonds, George Ferry, Polly Perkins or whoever else was ‘around the grounds’ we just chopped and changed as the fading light became darkness as we arrived at the first point -Blackshaws Road, Newport where my cousin lived. The drive was a marvellous sight, just witnessing the plethora of Footscray scarves hanging out car windows as we passed them, or as they overtook us and the thumbs up being exchanged by passengers and the drivers alike. Now this happens all the time when travelling home but it was more noticeable than a drive back from Waverley, probably because everyone returning from Geelong was going in the same direction and the driver or passengers were not studying maps or concentrating intensely as where to get off, like we all did on the (then named) Mulgrave Freeway (this is pre Monash Freeway days) before getting off it to find the (then named) South Eastern Freeway. Footscray fans know the Geelong Road probably better than anyone especially in the vicinity of Werribee, so the drive back from there is easy compared to the disjointed, stop start, fragmented cross country return trip from other far flung places like Waverley and Moorabbin. Yet we had to thank some Geelong supporters who gave us a jump start to correct the flat battery that we found on arriving back at out automobile. This was a fine gesture from these cat fans that helped us out, they knew we were their opposition as we were all wearing our Footscray attire, just as they were rugged up in their Geelong scarves – so 23 years later, thanks once again to the Geelong bloke sporting a moustache and his car load who got our four wheels running again.

1995

Year	Season	Venue	Result	By	Geelong	Footscray	Round	Day	Date	Geelong Coach	Footscray Coach
1995	71/84	Kardinia Park	WIN	15	15.20.110	19.11.125	21 of 22	Saturday	26 Aug 1995	Gary Ayres	Allan Joyce

This table above is the 1995 Geelong v Footscray game. It is our second highest ever score against Geelong at Geelong- that is for both Corio Oval and Kardinia Park together. Our 1985 score being the highest Footscray score away to Geelong in Geelong.

Teddy had died just 9 days earlier and it was also the first game at Kardinia Park since the long standing Geelong radio commentator for 3GL/ K Rock, Teddy Whitten’s death. The game was also being covered by another local radio station – 97.4 FM. This Community Radio Station called Footscray games in the mid 1990’s, just like 3GL/K Rock covered Geelong matches.

Sadly one of the match commentators for 97.4- John Waters also died during the same week as Teddy Whitten. It was John Waters first season with 97.4FM and he suffered a fatal heart attack just hours before the game. John Waters had previously been a sports commentator for the ABC. So it was a sombre mood in the media area that Saturday August 26th afternoon at Kardinia Park.

One of the critical goals at the end of this 1995 game was kicked by Kym Koster who had been doing some chauffeuring for Teddy during his illness. It was Kym Koster’s last victory as a Footscray player as we lost the Round 22 clash to St Kilda and then Geelong got us back, two weeks later in our one and only final of 1995. The next season Kym Koster returned to his home town of Adelaide. Depending on whether this is either a true story or an embellished tale, Kym Koster’s car was vandalised in the Football Park car park in Adelaide during a match played there that he was involved in as an Adelaide footballer. This Adelaide player the double K, requiring treatment for some wilful damage to his automobile, the Victorian number plates evidently causing sufficient distress to a local South Australian(s) who apparently didn’t like Victoria or Victorians. So much so that it was deemed necessary to damage the offending automobile. My group did better in the car department with the Geelong fans at Kardinia Park than Kym Koster did in his native state playing for his home city.

On the same day, the crowd at St Kilda’s away game at Princes Park saw the 350th and last game of League football for Fitzroy’s Doug Hawkins. This was his 21st game for Fitzroy following his 329 for Footscray. Doug Hawkins only once triumphant at Geelong in that 1985 game, playing elsewhere on Footscray’s next victory at Geelong in 1995. Doug’s last game for Footscray was an anti-climax, sustaining an injury in the Bulldogs defeat in Perth to the West Coast. This prevented Doug Hawkins playing in the 1994 Finals Series and subsequently that game at Subiaco was to be his final Footscray game. He didn’t play in Fitzroy’s last game of the 1995 season, so he missed out on having played every game of a season- an achievement he had previously accomplished in 1979, 1984 and 1985.

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