Football matches have been televised since the late 1950s, yet the unfortunate reality is that most of the footage from the 1950s through to the 1980s has been lost.
trguably the most important missing piece of football footage is the 1st half of the 1963 Grand Final between Geelong and Hawthorn, which features the AFL and Geelong legend Graham “Polly” Farmer in a best on ground performance.
It is highly disappointing not just for Geelong supporters but also for the wider football community that the only complete match footage of Farmer we have whilst he played football in Victoria is the losing 1967 Grand Final against Richmond. For such an important player in the game’s history more should have been preserved. One can contrast this situation to the significant amount of footage available of his Western Australian football career that is available through the historical group WAFLvideoarchive. They have footage of the 1961 state game, the 1961 Grand Final for East Perth, plus the 1969 and 1971 Grand Finals for West Perth.
http://waflvideoarchive.webs.com/
There is still hope that 1st half footage of the 1963 Grand Final will become available to the public, because other major sports around the world are finding footage and often in the most obscure places. The American Major League Baseball, for example, has a similar situation to the AFL in that much of their important match footage was considered to have been lost forever. Of particular importance was the 1960 World Series game, which was described as the “best game ever”. Yet just six years ago in 2010 the surviving footage of this match was found in the odd location of the wine cellar of a past owner of the team.
Another great moment for American sports fans occurred this year when footage was found of Superbowl I. Billed as “The Lost Game” the footage of Green Bay’s victory in SuperBowl I in 1967 had never been viewed by the public in its entirety until earlier this year. “In an exhaustive process that took months to complete, NFL Films searched its enormous archives of footage and were able to locate all 145 plays from Super Bowl I from more than a couple dozen disparate sources,” the NFL said in a statement.
These exceptional sporting finds provide hope for Australian football supporters that perhaps lost footage still exists of one of the most important lost treasures in the Australian game and that is the 1963 Grand Final footage. Much like the American situation, there could be a copy of the film left in a storage area of a television station or it is also possible that a past-Geelong committeeman may have kept a copy of the match and it is gathering dust in someone’s garage. There are many possibilities, and one can only hope that footage of this most important moment in Geelong’s history is found.
Even if the first half is not found the football public should have access to the unreleased footage of the third quarter as it features footage of one of the game’s most important players and the player rated a legend of the game, Graham Farmer.
In far happier circumstances than the 1967 Grand Final, Farmer was rated best on ground in the 1963 Grand Final and we know (thanks to the footage) how influential he was during the third quarter in two pivotal moments. Hawthorn had attacked relentlessly with the ball rarely leaving their forward line for most of the early portion of the 3rd quarter. As a result, the Hawks got to within one point of the lead. The player who entered into the frame from this point onwards is Graham “Polly” Farmer. It was Farmer who stormed through from the centre square and then pummelled the ball forward with a long kick that fell into Fred Wooller’s arms, who promptly scored a goal.
Moments later, Peck kicked a goal for Hawthorn and again the Hawks were within one point of the lead. Enter Polly Farmer who once again seized the initiative with his outstanding high leap a a boundary throw-in. Farmer leapt almost a metre higher than his truck opponent, and by doing so it enabled him to palm the ball into the open and into the path of the running rover Colin Rice. The Geelong rover then scored the goal with less than a minute left in the quarter and this enabled the Cats to obtain a confidence-lifting buffer on the scoreboard at three-quarter time of 10 points. These two pivotal plays from Farmer both resulted in goals, and illustrated the importance of Farmer to Geelong in this match.
In their archives, Channel Seven is holding the most important unreleased footage of Australian football, as they have the 3rd quarter footage of the 1963 Grand Final. This footage of Farmer, Watts, Devine and Rice amongst others leading the Cats to premiership glory in 1963 against the Hawks has remained unseen by the public for over 50 years. Cats supporters deserve the right to see this footage at some time in the future, and hopefully it can start the process needed for obtaining the rest of the footage (if it still exists).
Note – The 4th quarter of the 1963 Grand Final has been available to the public on the DVD Grand Finals of the 60s.
Further information on footage
1963 footage of Geelong that we know is available:
There is enough footage in the public domain to assist in the creation of a video on Farmer and the 1963 season from a Geelong perspective if there was the willpower to do it. This footage below features colourised footage of Polly Farmer in practise at a vastly different looking Kardinia Park to today. The coach Bob Davis is doing something close to sacrilegious as he is shown in this footage wearing an Essendon guernsey to practise. Again, times have changed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqGywDFf1Ho
There is some footage of Geelong in matches versus St Kilda in Round 5, and Round 16, plus some footage of their match against Carlton in Round 6, and their drawn match against Hawthorn. Also, Channel Seven have some footage of later finals matches featuring Geelong in 1968 and 1969. With interviews, a proper video could be created.
References:
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100924&content_id=15029350¬ebook_id=15029636
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/01/11/super-bowl-to-air-after-long-lost-footage-surfaces.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mdkac9WLJdQ
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/sports/baseball/24crosby.html?_r=0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oi4O2UPO4iY
This clip is inspirational as it features some of the best moments of Graham Farmer’s career. Unfortunately, most of the footage is of his WA playing days. This clip was obtained from waflvideoarchive.
Can you help find this footage? Comment here in the forums.
