Woodville - Team of the Century!

[The Big Warrior]

What are supporter's recollections of Bruce Tonkin, and has anyone heard from
him since he returned to Victoria ?

" Bruce the Goose/ Honky Tonks " Tonkin strutted his stuff at Oval Avenue for a brief period in the '80s! He played 22 Games and dobbed 10 Goals from 1980-81, to be precise...Recall that he was recruited from South Melbourne, but think he had only played juniors and ressies with them!

Personally, thought he was a reasonable player, without being a " superstar". Played on the HFF and HBF with The Mighty Peckers and recall that he had a bit of " dirt " in him and had a pretty decent right foot kick and fairly good skills. He was approx. 5'11" or 6'0" at the most, had moppy black hair and was of average build...know he had a drink and catch up with Ian " Skeeter/ Detto" Dettmann earlier this year, so will try and find out a bit more!!

One thing I did hear was that the " mop top hair " is now but a memory for B.T., but when you get to our age who needs a fringe anyway...LOL! I believe he lives in Victoria these days, but will inform you of any info. I can provide. Cheers, TBW.

Footnote: Bruce Tonkin missed a total of 10 Games through injury in his two seasons at Pecker Park. Also recall that he kicked the match sealing goal in a 12 point victory over North at Prospect in Rd. 22, 1980...Was down the northern end of Prospect Oval from memory!!

 

[Redlegger]

Beautiful work, TBW.

Think Bruce may have played a night game Vs. Richmond, whilst playing for South Melb. - stood Kevin Bartlett, so the story goes.

Certainly did not mind a drink - pity about the hair.

 

[The Big Warrior]

Hi people, does anybody know if Stuart Totham was named in the Woodville Team of the Century? Also how many games did he play in the SANFL? Just wondering cause he's a family friend of ours.

Cheers!

Looks like " Tots " is headed back to the N.T. please read on......

As broken first by McAlmanac and reported in The Advertiser of 18/9, here 'tis...Heading-: " Totham to move north" by Warren Partland-: " Sturt chief executive Stuart Totham has accepted the challenge of taking a Northern Territory team into the Queensland Football League.

Totham has resigned from his Double Blues role to be the General Manager of the new Darwin-based team-which is still without a name-and will end his four-year stint at Unley on October 10.

Raised in Darwin, Totham played 152 League Games for Woodville and Woodville-West Torrens. He worked for the SACA and Port Adelaide Power before joining Sturt.

" It was a tough decision," Totham said. " The people at the club-the staff, the players, the board and the supporters-are great people and it is difficult to leave the place."

" But I am a Darwin boy and I sort of wanted to go back but needed the opportunity. They don't come along very often and I can stay in footy."

" It will be a challenge but I'm looking forward to that."

 

[The Big Warrior]

Reflections of the 1986 Preliminary Final....

A sad subject to reflect upon but the 1986 Prelim. Final which we lost-: Glenelg 15.15 105 defeating Woodville 11.18 84 has often been labelled as " The What If..." Game for us!! One pivotal individual clash in this match was between Andrew Taylor who had been in great form for us at CHF and the Glenelg blockhead: Wayne " Moose " Henwood. That mongrel Henwood played the game of his life and shut down a key avenue to goal for the Warriors. " Shark " Taylor had a dirty day and only kicked 0.1.

Surprisingly, Taylor was left at CHF all day! Methinks Blighty thought he could eventually shake free of the " shackles " applied by Henwood, but this didn't happen...Just wonder if Max Parker would have been a good option at CHF on Henwood ?!? If Terry Libbis had been selected, you could have thrown him into the Ruck, Maxy to CHF and stretched Glenelg by moving Andrew Taylor to a FP alongside the great Stevie Nichols! Another option might have been to have the versatile Johnny Martin go to CHF and run Henwood off his legs...he was no racehorse!!

A mate of mine who sadly is a Glenelg supporter, maintains that Henwood's blanketing effort on Andrew Taylor that day was very instrumental in Glenelg advancing to the GF and ultimately winning the ' 86 Flag!! I know this is no fun to revisit for us Warriors, but does anybody concur or otherwise......And yes we did kick 2-10 to Glenelg's 3-0 in the last qtr.

 

[The Big Warrior]

Heritage Game Lunch Interview with Des O' Dwyer....

Just thought I would post details of the heritage game (23/8/08) lunch interview with one of the 1988 Escort Cup Premiership champions, Des aka " Dirty" or " Desparate " O' Dwyer. Des hailed from Shepparton in Victoria and played his junior footy there before being recruited by Melbourne. He played some VFL games with the Demons but never " really cemented a spot " in their team. However, he did kick 10 Goals in a game for them on one occasion.

He was recruited by Norwood and had in his opinion a bit of an up and down career at The Parade. He also kicked a bag of 10 Goals in a game for Norwood too... He said the writing was on the wall for him at Norwood when after training on a Thursday night, he discovered that he hadn't been named in either the League or Reserves sides!! Being well over 19 Y.O. he jokingly said that he didn't bother looking for his name in the U19's...LOL.

Not long after this he bumped into former Norwood team mate James Fantasia, who had joined the playing ranks at Woodville and jokingly said to him " You can tell Malcolm ( Blight) I'm available for a game ". To his total surprise he got a phone call from " The Messiah " inviting him to training at Oval Avenue the following week!! After a few Ressies appearances he made his League Debut in Rd. 15 of the 1986 Season. Which was a 31 point " thrashing " of Sturt at Pecker Park!

Des was very grateful he said to James Fantasia for passing on that information to the club and being able to be part of the Warriors famous 1986 Finals campaign! He and James particularly enjoyed being part of the Warrior combination that flogged Norwood by 43 points in the Elim. Final..His biggest disappointments were the '86 Prelim. Final loss to Glenelg and after a great start in '87 bowing out early in the finals that year! Another highlight of course was the '88 Escort Cup flag!

Des also commented on some of the great players he had played with at Oval Avenue and paid a special tribute to Steve Nichols. Steve Nichols he said was the finest kick of a football he has ever seen and commented that it was a shame we hadn't seen him over in Adelaide much since his playing days. Methinks there wouldn't be too many of us ( Warriors anyway..) that would argue with that!! Des O' Dwyer played with Woodville from middish 1986 to 1990 incl. and played many fine games mainly at FB for the Mighty Warriors.

He played 105 Games and kicked 7 Goals during his Woodville career...Don't have his Norwood or Melbourne details and also played in the early '90s for Woodville/West Torrens. Not bad stuff for somebody considered unable to crack even a Ressies game at Norwood in '86!! Was a highly enjoyable interview enjoyed by all, Des has a very engaging personality. We had the pleasure of sharing a drink or 3 and some laughs with Des and the other Warrior champs that were in attendance to the " wee hours "....that night.
Cheers everyone, TBW.

 

[FattyLumpkin]

A mate of mine who sadly is a Glenelg supporter

 

[AcaciaHills]

SANFL DVDs/VIDEO of footage from 1989/1990
Hi there,
I have been looking for any footage of the Woodville Warriors during the last two years that they played.
The 1989 and 1990 seasons.
I was also after any footage from the SANFL V WAFL game that took place in 1990.
I have checked the newspapers from this time and both ABC and Channel9 covered quite a few of the games, however, getting hold of these has been really quite difficult.
I rang SANFL and they recommended the ABC or the State Library, however, both only hold finals from the 1989, 1990 period.

I checked out some excellent footage on YOUTUBE that was posted by NorthAdelaide and this covered a few games.

Has anyone out there got some footage from this time that they are willing to share with me? Or let me know where I might find some?
Thanks

 

[The Big Warrior]

Calling all old Footy Fans: Woodville particularly but other club supporters with pre- 1968 memories....

Just wondering if anybody out there in Big Footy land has pre-1968 memories of the Mighty Peckers? I say this as a Pecker diehard from 1968 onwards. Was there anyone posting or even reading who was at games from 1964-67 inclusive. If you aren't a member please join ( it costs nothing..) and share these precious memories!!

My earliest ( whatsoever..) memory of seeing the Peckers in action was on 30/7/66, I was watching a replay of a Glenelg vs Woodville clash at the Bay, which we won...woohooo! This game was on maybe Channel 2?! and The Mighty Peckers destroyed Glenelg 13-17 95 to the Bays 12-9 81 before an intimate " gathering " of 3,518 folk. George Roache kicked 5.2 that day, bewildering the Tiger defence and Peter Obst, Bob Simunsen and Johnny O' Connor ( much to Fatty Lumpkin's delight..) all dobbed 2 Goals apiece!

Recall thinking the Bay boys would not have enjoyed losing to one of the " new teams " hee hee... Was anyone reading able to share some similar memory more vividly from those pioneering years at Pecker Park .. Kindest Regards, TBW.

 

[FattyLumpkin]

Sorry TBW - but I only jumped on the wagon in late '73. Prior to that I was a closet Sturt fan

 

[Angus Young]

Heritage Game Lunch Interview with Des O' Dwyer....

awesome read..thankyou