Gary Shadforth
Norm Smith Medallist
Veteran
Hawthorn Hawks - Muston and Savage Player Sponsor 2010
Hawthorn Hawks - Smith and Savage 2011 Player Sponsor
Hawthorn Hawks - Beau Muston 2009 Player Sponsor
Hawthorn Hawks - Beau Muston 2008 Player Sponsor
Hawthorn Hawks - Beau Muston 2007 Player Sponsor
I well remember my formative years as a teenager in Box Hill. Friday nights and Saturdays were special. I would hang out with ‘The Gang’ in what was then a country town in outer eastern Melbourne. It was before the Stangers were admitted to the VFA.
There were about eight or ten of us. We would meet up at the Whitehorse statue to go to Saturday dances, venues - either Balwyn RSL Hall (a teenage Ernie Sigley of Radio 3DB was the compere singer) or the grand old Box Hill Town Hall. One of the mob had a mate named Johnny who would now and again make cameo appearances by being amongst us. I recall this kid as rather quiet and reserved not having much to say as we jaw-boned about this and that, not to mention the local sheilas.
Sunday morning was traditionally a few beers before mum’s roast lunch and watching Channel 7’s World of Sport hosted by the late great Ron Casey and the evergreen former Collingwood captain and ankle tapper, Lou Richards. Low and behold, you could have knocked me down with a feather, when one day this familiar face appeared on the screen - it was this young Johnny being interviewed by Lou and Captain Blood, Jack Dyer. The kid was Hawthorn’s boom recruit from Surrey Hills (a part of the Box Hill district).
So from that day on a magnificent VFL career unfolded.
Best remembered as a full forward, John was tried, with varying success, in several different positions - ruck, centre half back, centre half forward - before finding his true niche at the goal front.* Powerful, intelligent, pacy and a thumping kick, Peck topped Hawthorn's goal kicking list on every year between 1961 and 1966, and was the VFL's top goal kicker in 1963 with 75 goals, 1964 (68) and 1965 (56).*
Nicknamed 'Gregory' (after the actor Gregory Peck), as much for his habit of staging exaggeratedly for frees as for the obvious play on words, he showed great courage in overcoming the handicap of asthma to play successfully at the top level.*
In all, John played 213 VFL games and kicked 475 goals for the Hawks, and was vice-captain of the historic 1961 premiership team, the club's first.* He also played interstate football for the VFL, and after one match against South Australia in Adelaide in 1963 he found himself at the centre of a controversy when his callous felling of Brian Sawley incurred only a two week suspension at the hands of a ‘sympathetic’ VFL Tribunal which presumably considered that Peck had reacted to extenuating circumstances. A victim of something worse than ye olde squirrel grip.*
In 1967 John Peck was cleared to Port Melbourne, where he played mainly as a ruckman.* The last of his 19 games for the club was that year's losing VFA grand final against Dandenong.
And in discussing 1961, there's always something special about anything done for the first time, so Hawthorn's breakthrough premiership win bears special significance at Glenferrie. This was the coming of age for Hawthorn, a club which, since its entry into the competition in 1925, had been the whipping boy for the more established sides.
Driven by John Peck in the ruck and Brendan Edwards in the centre, Hawthorn exerted grinding pressure on Footscray which, by halfway through the third term, was clearly begun to wilt. With the scent of victory in the air there was no way this Hawthorn side was going to let go. It didn't and so one of the greatest games in VFL history brought us our first ever premiership by forty three points.
Let’s delve into that Peck-Sawley incident.
John became famous for what was known as the "Peck punch".
Victoria clashed with South Australia in an interstate match at Adelaide Oval. Peck, contesting a boundary throw-in against SA's Brian Sawley, stumbled and fell. Peck claimed Sawley's boot made contact with his backside.
In so doing, the boot became caught in the belt of Peck's jockstrap. Sawley's vain attempt to extricate the boot stretched the elastic away from Peck's body, putting excruciating upward pressure on the parts of the body the jockstrap was designed to protect.
Finally the boot was freed and the elastic snapped back, stinging Peck's buttocks. According to Peck's account, this was the last straw. He rose from the turf, and with a round arm, knocked Sawley unconscious.
At the tribunal Peck pleaded extreme provocation and escaped with a two-match penalty.
Mr Sawley, when being interviewed before this year’s Grand Final, he had no comment on the way back incident. "It was one of the things that happens in football," he said. "I've always said that if I had kicked he he would have known all about it."
Some images of the late John ‘Gregory’ Peck -
Do you have memories of John?
There were about eight or ten of us. We would meet up at the Whitehorse statue to go to Saturday dances, venues - either Balwyn RSL Hall (a teenage Ernie Sigley of Radio 3DB was the compere singer) or the grand old Box Hill Town Hall. One of the mob had a mate named Johnny who would now and again make cameo appearances by being amongst us. I recall this kid as rather quiet and reserved not having much to say as we jaw-boned about this and that, not to mention the local sheilas.
Sunday morning was traditionally a few beers before mum’s roast lunch and watching Channel 7’s World of Sport hosted by the late great Ron Casey and the evergreen former Collingwood captain and ankle tapper, Lou Richards. Low and behold, you could have knocked me down with a feather, when one day this familiar face appeared on the screen - it was this young Johnny being interviewed by Lou and Captain Blood, Jack Dyer. The kid was Hawthorn’s boom recruit from Surrey Hills (a part of the Box Hill district).
So from that day on a magnificent VFL career unfolded.
Best remembered as a full forward, John was tried, with varying success, in several different positions - ruck, centre half back, centre half forward - before finding his true niche at the goal front.* Powerful, intelligent, pacy and a thumping kick, Peck topped Hawthorn's goal kicking list on every year between 1961 and 1966, and was the VFL's top goal kicker in 1963 with 75 goals, 1964 (68) and 1965 (56).*
Nicknamed 'Gregory' (after the actor Gregory Peck), as much for his habit of staging exaggeratedly for frees as for the obvious play on words, he showed great courage in overcoming the handicap of asthma to play successfully at the top level.*
In all, John played 213 VFL games and kicked 475 goals for the Hawks, and was vice-captain of the historic 1961 premiership team, the club's first.* He also played interstate football for the VFL, and after one match against South Australia in Adelaide in 1963 he found himself at the centre of a controversy when his callous felling of Brian Sawley incurred only a two week suspension at the hands of a ‘sympathetic’ VFL Tribunal which presumably considered that Peck had reacted to extenuating circumstances. A victim of something worse than ye olde squirrel grip.*
In 1967 John Peck was cleared to Port Melbourne, where he played mainly as a ruckman.* The last of his 19 games for the club was that year's losing VFA grand final against Dandenong.
And in discussing 1961, there's always something special about anything done for the first time, so Hawthorn's breakthrough premiership win bears special significance at Glenferrie. This was the coming of age for Hawthorn, a club which, since its entry into the competition in 1925, had been the whipping boy for the more established sides.
Driven by John Peck in the ruck and Brendan Edwards in the centre, Hawthorn exerted grinding pressure on Footscray which, by halfway through the third term, was clearly begun to wilt. With the scent of victory in the air there was no way this Hawthorn side was going to let go. It didn't and so one of the greatest games in VFL history brought us our first ever premiership by forty three points.
Let’s delve into that Peck-Sawley incident.
John became famous for what was known as the "Peck punch".
Victoria clashed with South Australia in an interstate match at Adelaide Oval. Peck, contesting a boundary throw-in against SA's Brian Sawley, stumbled and fell. Peck claimed Sawley's boot made contact with his backside.
In so doing, the boot became caught in the belt of Peck's jockstrap. Sawley's vain attempt to extricate the boot stretched the elastic away from Peck's body, putting excruciating upward pressure on the parts of the body the jockstrap was designed to protect.
Finally the boot was freed and the elastic snapped back, stinging Peck's buttocks. According to Peck's account, this was the last straw. He rose from the turf, and with a round arm, knocked Sawley unconscious.
At the tribunal Peck pleaded extreme provocation and escaped with a two-match penalty.
Mr Sawley, when being interviewed before this year’s Grand Final, he had no comment on the way back incident. "It was one of the things that happens in football," he said. "I've always said that if I had kicked he he would have known all about it."
Some images of the late John ‘Gregory’ Peck -
Do you have memories of John?
Cheers
