Article 1977 GF Replay curtain-raiser - Hawthorn v Richmond

[Rainier Wolfcastle]

This game remains largely forgotten/unknown. The drawn VFL-AFL Grand Final left the league scrambling to organise entertainment for the replay on October 1st.

With the Reserves and Under 19s having already played their Grand Finals the previous week, a curtain-raiser was organised between Hawthorn (1977 preliminary finallists) and Richmond (1977 semi-finallists), with the winner receiving $12,500 and the loser $7500. Huddo saved the day for the Hawks with 7 goals in what turned out to be his final game in Hawthorn colours.





Note - the need for hastily organised entertainment also saw the traditional halftime marching bands/pipes and drums performance replaced by the inaugural Grand Final Mile running race. This proved popular enough to be held again in 1978 and led to the inaugural Grand Final Sprint in 1979, which is still part of Grand Final Day.

More details on that here: http://www.hardballget.net/afl-grand-final-sprint.html

 

[the croucher]

This game remains largely forgotten/unknown. The drawn VFL-AFL Grand Final left the league scrambling to organise entertainment for the replay on October 1st.

With the Reserves and Under 19s having already played their Grand Finals the previous week, a curtain-raiser was organised between Hawthorn (1977 preliminary finallists) and Richmond (1977 semi-finallists), with the winner receiving $12,500 and the loser $7500. Huddo saved the day for the Hawks with 7 goals in what turned out to be his final game in Hawthorn colours.


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Note - the need for hastily organised entertainment also saw the traditional halftime marching bands/pipes and drums performance replaced by the inaugural Grand Final Mile running race. This proved popular enough to be held again in 1978 and led to the inaugural Grand Final Sprint in 1979, which is still part of Grand Final Day.

More details on that here: http://www.hardballget.net/afl-grand-final-sprint.html

Here is link to story in The Age on day before match, including pre-match line-ups:
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=zvlUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=YJIDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7123,8138226

I recognise that it was a match suddenly occurring due to GF replay circumstances - but those two sides look pretty reasonable, training was on three nights so taken serious enough, and two senior umpires for match...

Probably ought to be on any "other first-class" matches list, don't you think.

 

[stemline]

I might be remembering wrong but I recall reading somewhere that the league decided to make this a play-off for 3rd place for 1977. Hawthorn won, so the status quo remained - would have been interesting to see the record books if Richmond had won, given this game didn't get official status.

Edit - looking back through some notes it was AFL journo Ashley Browne that told me this.

"They got an SOS to Kevin Ablett who had gone fishing somewhere remote and somehow in the days before mobile phones, they tracked him down and got him back to Melbourne for the match. To make it a fair dinkum match, the League decided that the winner would finish in third place for the season."

Anyway, Huddo's last ever game for Hawthorn. And that last quote from Parko in that article above HAS to be tongue in cheek - how many games would Huddo have won off his own boot for Hawthorn?!

 

[langers1971]

Wish there was footage of this match floating around!!!

 

[worbod]

I might be remembering wrong but I recall reading somewhere that the league decided to make this a play-off for 3rd place for 1977. Hawthorn won, so the status quo remained - would have been interesting to see the record books if Richmond had won, given this game didn't get official status.

Edit - looking back through some notes it was AFL journo Ashley Browne that told me this.

"They got an SOS to Kevin Ablett who had gone fishing somewhere remote and somehow in the days before mobile phones, they tracked him down and got him back to Melbourne for the match. To make it a fair dinkum match, the League decided that the winner would finish in third place for the season."

Anyway, Huddo's last ever game for Hawthorn. And that last quote from Parko in that article above HAS to be tongue in cheek - how many games would Huddo have won off his own boot for Hawthorn?!

The game can't be totally fair dinkum given Hudson, for example, as the league's leading goalkicker for 1977, is still listed with 110 goals, not 117.

 

[stemline]

Yep, that was my point in my first para above, the game didn't have official status, so I can't see how the league could have used it to determine the finishing order.

 

[rbartlett]

I wrote about this game in the 2010 Coll vs StKilda GF rematch football record .
My old man broke his hand in the game and therefore missed the State of Origin not long after (yet he appeared in the team photo)

 

[Tigerandy63]

I was at this game, being lucky enough to have a ticket for the GF replay. Wow, I had forgotten all about it. I can't say I remember anything about the game, but I guess that it was a bruise free encounter.