Who was the ruckman .....?

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Who was the Fitzroy ruckman that wore long shorts or short longs during games probably around the late 80s? I had a video of Carlton v Fitzroy and his pants were down to the knee, almost like short track pants or something.

Also, was this an injury assistance thing or to conceal something (like Brad Hardie did wearing long sleeves to cover burns)?

I could try to dig out the old videos and find out who he was, but fear most of them are waterdamaged and unwatchable from a flood under my old house.

Anybody remember?

 

[down the middle]

Who was the Fitzroy ruckman that wore long shorts or short longs during games probably around the late 80s? I had a video of Carlton v Fitzroy and his pants were down to the knee, almost like short track pants or something.

Also, was this an injury assistance thing or to conceal something (like Brad Hardie did wearing long sleeves to cover burns)?

I could try to dig out the old videos and find out who he was, but fear most of them are waterdamaged and unwatchable from a flood under my old house.

Anybody remember?

Reeves

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

That sounds right.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

Weird that this board was talking about Reeves just recently.
http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/showthread.php?t=660308

It just flashed in my mind before and I thought I would ask the question.

It says they were padded grid iron pants to combat Simon Madden smashing into him in the ruck but he wore them against Carlton as well and probably all games in the ruck. His stats say he was only 187cm. Was he more of a Darryl White pinch hitter at the time?

 

[skilts]

Weird that this board was talking about Reeves just recently.
http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/showthread.php?t=660308

It just flashed in my mind before and I thought I would ask the question.

It says they were padded grid iron pants to combat Simon Madden smashing into him in the ruck but he wore them against Carlton as well and probably all games in the ruck. His stats say he was only 187cm. Was he more of a Darryl White pinch hitter at the time?

Reeves was a more than adequate full back. I think he may have started on the forward line though. His old man played for North Melbourne for many years and was very highly-regarded. I think his dad played back-pocket on the rovers.

The reason he played in the ruck that year, for about 4 weeks if I remember correctly, was a series of injuries we had to our ruckmen, specifically Matty Rendell. Reeves was one of the early examples of a mobile player being used in the ruck. He almost never got the hit out, but always made a contest. When the ball hit the ground, he outpaced most ruckmen. His efforts in this showed him to be a player of tremendous courage.

In the early 80s he was just pipped for mark of the year by Dennis Banks. Being as one-eyed as I was, I thought his mark better. It seemed as though he flew horizontally, at head height, across a pack of about six players to take the mark.

I've a strange feeling he may have been a cop.

 

[Mr Ripper]

Indeed he was. I think he may have been senior sarge at East Preston (Northland) at one stage.

Also famous for being knocked out by Dipper in the '86 Prelim which was also his wedding day!

 

[adey115]

Think he wore the pads due to internal bleeding caused from constant bruising? I could be wrong.

Also responsible for one of the better dummy spits at an Ump in VFL history from memory. Mr Ripper might have that on fillum somewhere. I think it was at Prinny Park??

 

[Roysforever]

Think he wore the pads due to internal bleeding caused from constant bruising? I could be wrong.

Also responsible for one of the better dummy spits at an Ump in VFL history from memory. Mr Ripper might have that on fillum somewhere. I think it was at Prinny Park??

Classic moment this one. Twas Round 6, 1986 at Princess Park. The footage is actually included within 'The Electrifying Eighties'. For some reason he was given the task of kicking the ball in after a Richmond point but made a meal of things and lost the ball in a Michael Roach tackle. However the tackle was prolonged and should have been holding the man. Consequently this allowed Burton to gather the footy and kick an easy goal - given we lost the game by a point, this was a huge non call by the ump. Reeves was furious and stormed straight to the umpire at 1000km/hr. As he proceeded to give the double bird right at the ump in no uncertain fashion, Sandy Roberts laughs, 'Look at Reeves run out to the umpire. He's made Carl Lewis look slow!'

 

[royboy2]

Think he wore the pads due to internal bleeding caused from constant bruising? I could be wrong.

Yeah Im pretty sure he was/is a haemophiliac

 

[mark73]

Reeves was a more than adequate full back. I think he may have started on the forward line though. His old man played for North Melbourne for many years and was very highly-regarded. I think his dad played back-pocket on the rovers.

The reason he played in the ruck that year, for about 4 weeks if I remember correctly, was a series of injuries we had to our ruckmen, specifically Matty Rendell. Reeves was one of the early examples of a mobile player being used in the ruck. He almost never got the hit out, but always made a contest. When the ball hit the ground, he outpaced most ruckmen. His efforts in this showed him to be a player of tremendous courage.

In the early 80s he was just pipped for mark of the year by Dennis Banks. Being as one-eyed as I was, I thought his mark better. It seemed as though he flew horizontally, at head height, across a pack of about six players to take the mark.

I've a strange feeling he may have been a cop.

I'll look it up later on but Reeves himself played for North in the late 70's early 80's but is more widely known for what he did at Fitzroy, and to some extent probably because of the shorts. He wasn't a ruckman but he had a great leap - I'm sure he was a contender on mark of the week a few times in the mid 80's.

And yes, he was/is a copper.