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Never doubted him. The hit on Starcevich was pretty cold blooded though.
Lost footage of 1990 GF brawl re-emerges
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Was thinking the same thing, carbon copy.
Nah, Kickett had him by the jumper, and Morwood tried a poorly executed Judo grip break - which did absolutely nothing and Kickett just carried on holding his jumper. It was like he'd seen it in a karate flick and thought he'd go all Bruce Lee on him.
It makes me laugh every time I see it.
Yeah, bring up 1990, ****ing fantastic. Drug scandal next.
- Apr 8, 2006
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Well seeing you mentioned it.....
- Sep 22, 2011
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Just to make it worse - I swear we had our chance. Salmon had that dominant little period in the first quarter which included two behinds - one where he hit the post, another where he missed a very kickable shot straight in the front.
Add them and the other one where Christian (or Kelly) absolutely assaulted him in a marking contest and the free wasn’t paid… all of a sudden we’re five goals on the board.
Instead Collingwood goes forward, Daicos kicks his standard miracle boundary goal and the Pies ignite.
Moments…
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There was a moment early where we were trying too hard and you picked us off, a bit like Melbourne's opening burst in 2000. Essendon were a far better side than those Dees so had a few more things gone your way...
You had another dominant period in the late third and last, but Madden hit both posts on one kick IIRC.
We were just a mass of energy, helps to peak at the right time, but that was the remnant of that incredible 80s Sheedy side, I really rate that win.
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Odd year. Hawthorn couldn’t beat Essendon (think I went to both games and were destroyed both times) and struggled with Melbourne.
Irish BlueBagger
Ophidian Old Boys Season 37 Grand Final Winner
I don't mean to be defending Collingwood or Gavin Brown here, but get your retaliation in first was the modus operandi of Essendon under Kevin Sheedy.
Those Richmond teams he played on worked under the exact same philosophy.
Gavin Brown you could argue was just playing the game on Sheeds own terms in doing what he did.
Those Richmond teams he played on worked under the exact same philosophy.
Gavin Brown you could argue was just playing the game on Sheeds own terms in doing what he did.
Last edited:
- May 29, 2013
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Who did Sporn hit first to cop such attention?
- Nov 12, 2014
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Banks and Sporn sort of tangled on the siren from what I remember, Craig Kelly is the one that escalated it all by coming in 3rd man roughing Sporn up. You actually see footage of Kelly on the broadcast glancing over at something as he was walking out of shot before it all kicked off We know now what happened after that. Think Banks came out and said he whacked Sporn and than Sporn retaliated which caused Kelly to run over. It was definitely started by Collingwood but the Bombers were more than happy to engage.
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Actually it was when Millane came over when it all calmed down. Nobody even Kickett wanted a bar of pants knowing his reputation. Even Dipper who's as tough as anybody that played the game never wanted to engage in fisticuffs with him.
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Banks, or so Banks has said.
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Yet pumped Collingwood both times and Chief kicked 11 in the helmet. Think we owned them during that period from memory.
Gordon Farkas
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So, to summarise all this:
Denis Banks started it.
Yep, makes sense.
Denis Banks started it.
Yep, makes sense.
- Oct 25, 2001
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Hawthorn definitely had the wood on us from the early 80s. If you're superstitious you might say it was a curse, brought on by Carman absent-mindedly bashingTuck in the 77 prelim. It was while they were jogging back after a Collingwood goal, insane lack of discipline and cost us the 77 gf.
However we werent belted both times in 1990, the margins in the first game was a couple of points, the second clash we lost by 12+ goals.
Banks was picking on Sporn who was tiny. Kelly kicked it off and made it a brawl, until then it was just mean bullying.
Essendon 1990 was no longer the brutal early 80s side, Merrett and Rotten Ronny Andrews were long gone. We picked a very tough side with thugs like Millane and Banks, and a psycho in Kelly.
Even our property steward Eddie Hillgrove teed off on an Essendon staff member. We definitely started it, probably partly because Matthews encouraged tough and even dirty play, and partly because Essendon were a classier side with a tough reputation.
Brown (even more so than TD) had a reputation as a 100% ball player and its a shame he tried this on. Luckily Sporn wasn't knocked out (I guess Brown was crap at thuggery) and he paid the price.
I think Browns reputation saved him from a harsher penalty (IIRC he was suspended fir punching TD in the 3rg q) and somehow rhe footage was lost, but TDs hits were so open (the hit on Brown wasn't on film but knocked him out, and the Starcevich hit was plain assault) even his "hard but fair" reputation didn't shield him from a massive suspension. 12 weeks wasn't it?
Terry Daniher got 11 weeks, but according to the Gaumont Football Yearbook 1992, 'it was strange how he received a heavy sentence, when the instigator of the incident in question (Gavin Brown) got only 3 weeks'.
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The Rabbit Hole Podcast with Garry Lyon and Tim Watson had a few of the participants on last year. TD i think. The Essendon trainer. 
Was fascinating listening
Was fascinating listening
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Secrets of the brawl
SOMETIMES all it takes is the smallest spark.
A flicker of aggression. A few cross words. Or a perceived injustice against a teammate.
When those things happen in Grand Finals, the combination can be combustible.
The 1990 decider between Collingwood and Essendon - and the brawl that erupted in a few mad moments on the quarter-time siren - was such an occasion.
The reality was that the fight - on two distinct fronts on either side of the ground - was over in a few minutes, but for some of the protagonists the repercussions lasted far longer.
The wonder was that it took so long to ignite.
A tough and tense term had just ended. Both clubs were under enormous pressure to win the first premiership under the AFL banner. Collingwood had not won a flag for 32 years, during which time the word "Colliwobbles" had entered the football lexicon.
The pressure on Essendon came from having not played for two weeks because of the Magpies' qualifying final draw with West Coast, which pushed the entire schedule back a week. A big loss to Collingwood in the second semi highlighted the Bombers' apparent lack of match fitness.
On the big day, Essendon kicked the first two goals before Collingwood hit back with two.
The Magpies' first came from Peter Daicos, an angled goal that almost defied science. The second came from an explosive burst from Gavin Brown.
Within minutes, Brown was unconscious, his prostrate figure surrounded by players trading blows on the Essendon half-forward line. Then, about 70m away on the opposite flank, officials' tempers boiled over.
So what actually happened? And what caused one of the most famous GF stoushes?
It has been long debated and dissected and many involved have been reluctant to tell.
But, now, 20 years on, more than a dozen participants have provided accounts - and the similarities in their stories underpin their honesty.
In many ways, it was a chain of events, not one long-highlighted incident, that started the carnage.
Magpie Craig Kelly recalls the ball going over the boundary and hearing the siren.
"I turned around and saw Kieran Sporn belting Denis Banks," Kelly said.
"I imagine Banksy would have tapped him first. So I flew in and tried to smash Sporn, and then (Paul) Van Der Haar was right behind me. We were having a red-hot crack."
Banks admitted this week he gave Sporn some close attention before he was struck.
"I was giving him a few little ankle taps, and he (Sporn) just pinged me," Banks said.
"We started wrestling and that's when everyone else came in. He pinged me, and I'm sure Browny saw it."
Sporn has not spoken about the incident publicly since 1990.
But the former Bomber broke his silence this week to say he had only been retaliating when he struck Banks with "a right arm to the head", as the report sheet documented.
"Banks gave me a bit and I went back at him," Sporn said.
"That's when Gavin Brown came in and got me, and Terry (Daniher) was coming in to support me."
Brown and Daniher might have had a 10-year age difference, but they were not dissimilar in that they played their football hard, but generally fairly and always without fear.
They ran towards the altercation from the Punt Rd end, eager to get involved before it fizzled out.
This one didn't fizzle out.
Running in, Brown caught the tail-end of Sporn's swipe.
"Terry and I ran down to be a part of it, and I was in front of him," Brown said.
"I remember Sporn hitting Banksy, and he got two weeks for that, and I hit Sporn and got three weeks. Then Terry got a few more weeks for hitting me."
Brown was reported for "knocking Sporn to the ground with a round-arm action".
Daniher's explanation was typically succinct.
"Obviously, Gav jumped into the back of Sporny, clocking him, and I clocked him (Brown). That was basically it," Daniher said.The sight of the young Collingwood forward out cold shocked his teammates. Shane Kerrison tried to help, while Gavin Crosisca feared for Brown's future.
Meanwhile, another spot-fire had ignited near what was meant to be the Essendon huddle. Bomber fitness adviser and runner Peter Power had seen - from a distance - the Brown-Sporn incident.
"I saw the sequence," Power said. "It went like this - ankle tap, hit, hit, big hit. Browny is a terrific bloke, but when he came in to hit Sporny I said something like, 'You ratbag'. Then, a second later, Terry hit Browny, and I said, 'You ripper'.
"And that's when I copped this whack. I didn't see it coming, but everyone else did."
The man who punched Power was Magpie football manager Graeme "Gubby" Allan, whose left hand then swelled to "three times its normal size", according to Magpies then-president Allan McAlister.
"There was a bit of an altercation near the Essendon huddle, and I was involved," Allan - one of most successful football managers of the past 20 years - said this week. But, given his role establishing the new Greater Western Sydney team, Allan was reluctant to expand.
Essendon's 1990 coach Kevin Sheedy - now GWS coach and Allan's colleague - also was involved, but the extent of Sheedy's role has always been unclear and he has been coy about saying what he did.
This week, Sheedy finally admitted he took a swing at Allan, though initially he did not know who it was.
"I saw a person knock out my runner Peter Power and I had no idea who that person was," Sheedy said.
"All I knew was the person who did it was wearing a Collingwood tracksuit top. For all I knew, it might have been a guy who jumped the fence and smacked one of my staff. In the end, I just gave him a clip over the ears and, you would not believe it, it turned out to be Gubby."
Allan is still not convinced Sheedy connected, but Power said Sheedy's description of "a clip over the ears" was accurate.
Bombers defender Mark Harvey, now coach of Fremantle, also was involved in the scuffle with Allan. As Sheedy and Harvey departed, one witness described a "charge of the light brigade" descending on Allan.
Collingwood team manager Eddie Hillgrove said: "I saw Sheeds grab Gubby by the throat and, without a word of a lie, I thought I'd break it up because you can't have officials fighting at a Grand Final.
"But as I was about to run in and do that, Essendon's bootstudder (Graham Mendola) hit Gubby."
Essendon doorman Jack Synan this week recalled Mendola delivering "one of the best uppercuts I have ever seen on the MCG".
"He hit Allan a couple of times," Synan said. "Then Eddie Hillgrove came in and had a go at him (Mendola). I sat on Eddie and wouldn't let him up."
Hillgrove explained: "Being a Collingwood boy born and bred, I said to him (Mendola) it was not right what he did."
"He swung a punch and missed. I swung one at him. One of the trainers swung and missed, and I hit him.
"Then one of their older trainers shaped up to me, and I said to him, 'You're too old for this crap', so he backed away.
"John Synan came in and two other guys had me on the ground by the legs."
That was when Collingwood coach Leigh Matthews - never known to shirk an issue - became a peacemaker.
"Leigh came up and grabbed hold of me and said, 'C'mon, Eddie, we've got a job to do'," Hillgrove said.
Allan, Hillgrove and Synan were all sent to the tribunal. To this day, Sheedy's nickname for Synan is "The Scapegoat".
Allan, nursing a broken knuckle and with blood streaming from his hand, had one even greater concern. When a policeman asked who was in charge, he answered: "I am". For a moment, he had feared being thrown out of the ground.
The fights petered out, as did the game within 10 minutes of resuming. The Magpies kicked a swag of quick goals to take control.
Today, there are no hard feelings. Daniher and Brown have a strong regard for each other, subscribing to the theory that they were just doing what they felt they had to - for their team and mates. Power and Allan shook hands when they next crossed paths.
Hillgrove and Synan, both popular officials for many years, laugh about the brawl when they meet at the races. A few years after 1990, Hillgrove was walking around the MCG when Synan jumped out from behind a pillar with a pair of boxing gloves, demanding: "Are you ready for Round 2?"
And Sheedy and Allan often joke about the brawl.
"We've laughed about it ever since, because the two of us created Anzac Day (games between Essendon-Collingwood) after that," Sheedy said.
SOMETIMES all it takes is the smallest spark.
A flicker of aggression. A few cross words. Or a perceived injustice against a teammate.
When those things happen in Grand Finals, the combination can be combustible.
The 1990 decider between Collingwood and Essendon - and the brawl that erupted in a few mad moments on the quarter-time siren - was such an occasion.
The reality was that the fight - on two distinct fronts on either side of the ground - was over in a few minutes, but for some of the protagonists the repercussions lasted far longer.
The wonder was that it took so long to ignite.
A tough and tense term had just ended. Both clubs were under enormous pressure to win the first premiership under the AFL banner. Collingwood had not won a flag for 32 years, during which time the word "Colliwobbles" had entered the football lexicon.
The pressure on Essendon came from having not played for two weeks because of the Magpies' qualifying final draw with West Coast, which pushed the entire schedule back a week. A big loss to Collingwood in the second semi highlighted the Bombers' apparent lack of match fitness.
On the big day, Essendon kicked the first two goals before Collingwood hit back with two.
The Magpies' first came from Peter Daicos, an angled goal that almost defied science. The second came from an explosive burst from Gavin Brown.
Within minutes, Brown was unconscious, his prostrate figure surrounded by players trading blows on the Essendon half-forward line. Then, about 70m away on the opposite flank, officials' tempers boiled over.
So what actually happened? And what caused one of the most famous GF stoushes?
It has been long debated and dissected and many involved have been reluctant to tell.
But, now, 20 years on, more than a dozen participants have provided accounts - and the similarities in their stories underpin their honesty.
In many ways, it was a chain of events, not one long-highlighted incident, that started the carnage.
Magpie Craig Kelly recalls the ball going over the boundary and hearing the siren.
"I turned around and saw Kieran Sporn belting Denis Banks," Kelly said.
"I imagine Banksy would have tapped him first. So I flew in and tried to smash Sporn, and then (Paul) Van Der Haar was right behind me. We were having a red-hot crack."
Banks admitted this week he gave Sporn some close attention before he was struck.
"I was giving him a few little ankle taps, and he (Sporn) just pinged me," Banks said.
"We started wrestling and that's when everyone else came in. He pinged me, and I'm sure Browny saw it."
Sporn has not spoken about the incident publicly since 1990.
But the former Bomber broke his silence this week to say he had only been retaliating when he struck Banks with "a right arm to the head", as the report sheet documented.
"Banks gave me a bit and I went back at him," Sporn said.
"That's when Gavin Brown came in and got me, and Terry (Daniher) was coming in to support me."
Brown and Daniher might have had a 10-year age difference, but they were not dissimilar in that they played their football hard, but generally fairly and always without fear.
They ran towards the altercation from the Punt Rd end, eager to get involved before it fizzled out.
This one didn't fizzle out.
Running in, Brown caught the tail-end of Sporn's swipe.
"Terry and I ran down to be a part of it, and I was in front of him," Brown said.
"I remember Sporn hitting Banksy, and he got two weeks for that, and I hit Sporn and got three weeks. Then Terry got a few more weeks for hitting me."
Brown was reported for "knocking Sporn to the ground with a round-arm action".
Daniher's explanation was typically succinct.
"Obviously, Gav jumped into the back of Sporny, clocking him, and I clocked him (Brown). That was basically it," Daniher said.The sight of the young Collingwood forward out cold shocked his teammates. Shane Kerrison tried to help, while Gavin Crosisca feared for Brown's future.
Meanwhile, another spot-fire had ignited near what was meant to be the Essendon huddle. Bomber fitness adviser and runner Peter Power had seen - from a distance - the Brown-Sporn incident.
"I saw the sequence," Power said. "It went like this - ankle tap, hit, hit, big hit. Browny is a terrific bloke, but when he came in to hit Sporny I said something like, 'You ratbag'. Then, a second later, Terry hit Browny, and I said, 'You ripper'.
"And that's when I copped this whack. I didn't see it coming, but everyone else did."
The man who punched Power was Magpie football manager Graeme "Gubby" Allan, whose left hand then swelled to "three times its normal size", according to Magpies then-president Allan McAlister.
"There was a bit of an altercation near the Essendon huddle, and I was involved," Allan - one of most successful football managers of the past 20 years - said this week. But, given his role establishing the new Greater Western Sydney team, Allan was reluctant to expand.
Essendon's 1990 coach Kevin Sheedy - now GWS coach and Allan's colleague - also was involved, but the extent of Sheedy's role has always been unclear and he has been coy about saying what he did.
This week, Sheedy finally admitted he took a swing at Allan, though initially he did not know who it was.
"I saw a person knock out my runner Peter Power and I had no idea who that person was," Sheedy said.
"All I knew was the person who did it was wearing a Collingwood tracksuit top. For all I knew, it might have been a guy who jumped the fence and smacked one of my staff. In the end, I just gave him a clip over the ears and, you would not believe it, it turned out to be Gubby."
Allan is still not convinced Sheedy connected, but Power said Sheedy's description of "a clip over the ears" was accurate.
Bombers defender Mark Harvey, now coach of Fremantle, also was involved in the scuffle with Allan. As Sheedy and Harvey departed, one witness described a "charge of the light brigade" descending on Allan.
Collingwood team manager Eddie Hillgrove said: "I saw Sheeds grab Gubby by the throat and, without a word of a lie, I thought I'd break it up because you can't have officials fighting at a Grand Final.
"But as I was about to run in and do that, Essendon's bootstudder (Graham Mendola) hit Gubby."
Essendon doorman Jack Synan this week recalled Mendola delivering "one of the best uppercuts I have ever seen on the MCG".
"He hit Allan a couple of times," Synan said. "Then Eddie Hillgrove came in and had a go at him (Mendola). I sat on Eddie and wouldn't let him up."
Hillgrove explained: "Being a Collingwood boy born and bred, I said to him (Mendola) it was not right what he did."
"He swung a punch and missed. I swung one at him. One of the trainers swung and missed, and I hit him.
"Then one of their older trainers shaped up to me, and I said to him, 'You're too old for this crap', so he backed away.
"John Synan came in and two other guys had me on the ground by the legs."
That was when Collingwood coach Leigh Matthews - never known to shirk an issue - became a peacemaker.
"Leigh came up and grabbed hold of me and said, 'C'mon, Eddie, we've got a job to do'," Hillgrove said.
Allan, Hillgrove and Synan were all sent to the tribunal. To this day, Sheedy's nickname for Synan is "The Scapegoat".
Allan, nursing a broken knuckle and with blood streaming from his hand, had one even greater concern. When a policeman asked who was in charge, he answered: "I am". For a moment, he had feared being thrown out of the ground.
The fights petered out, as did the game within 10 minutes of resuming. The Magpies kicked a swag of quick goals to take control.
Today, there are no hard feelings. Daniher and Brown have a strong regard for each other, subscribing to the theory that they were just doing what they felt they had to - for their team and mates. Power and Allan shook hands when they next crossed paths.
Hillgrove and Synan, both popular officials for many years, laugh about the brawl when they meet at the races. A few years after 1990, Hillgrove was walking around the MCG when Synan jumped out from behind a pillar with a pair of boxing gloves, demanding: "Are you ready for Round 2?"
And Sheedy and Allan often joke about the brawl.
"We've laughed about it ever since, because the two of us created Anzac Day (games between Essendon-Collingwood) after that," Sheedy said.
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