"Look, these people... they have no jobs, no food, no education, no future. I just figure that you know, I mean, we have two things we can do. We can help, or we can sit back and watch a country destroy itself on CNN. Right?"
"Look, you guys, I know it's my first time as chalk leader, but, uh, this isn't our first time out together. This is serious. We're Rangers, not some sorry-ass JROTC. We're elite. Let's act like it out there."
"All right, listen up. We're gonna hold the perimeter and we're gonna hold the strongpoint. Conserve your ammo. Only shoot at what you can hit. The convoy is gonna come. We're gonna get home."
"Watch for Skinnies. They're all over the rooftops. They're in prayer, but not for much longer."
(to the dying Cpl. Jamie Smith) "You did what we were trained to do. You should be proud of that. Be proud of that."
"You know, a friend of mine asked me before I got here... it was when we were all shipping out. He asked me, 'Why are you going to fight somebody else's war? What, do y'all think you're heroes?' I didn't know what to say at the time, but if he asked me again, I'd say no. I'd say there's no way in hell. Nobody asks to be a hero. It just sometimes turns out that way."
"Hey - who's hungry?"
"You wanna know what I think? It don't really matter what I think. Once that first bullet goes past your head, politics and all that shit, just goes right out the window."
"Just watch your corner and get all your men back here alive."
"It'd probably help to wash the blood out of the humvees."
The
1970 VFL Grand Final was an
Australian rules footballAustralian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...
game contested between the
Carlton Football ClubThe Carlton Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club competes in the Australian Football League, and was one of the eight founding members of that competition in 1897...
and
Collingwood Football ClubThe Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...
, held at the
Melbourne Cricket GroundThe Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light...
in
MelbourneMelbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
on 26 September 1970. It was the 74th annual
Grand FinalThe AFL Grand Final is an annual Australian rules football match, traditionally held on the final Saturday in September at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia to determine the Australian Football League premiership champions for that year...
of the
Victorian Football LeagueThe Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
, staged to determine the premiers for the
1970 VFL season-Premiership season:In 1970, the VFL competition consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, plus two substitute players, known as the 19th man and the 20th man...
. The match was won by Carlton by a margin of 10 points, marking that club's 10th premiership victory.
This game is widely considered to be the epitome of a classic Australian Football Grand Final and the "birth" of the modern Australian game. The attendance of 121,696 represented the most spectators to have witnessed a premiership decider in VFL Grand Final history, breaking the record of 119,165 spectators who witnessed the
1969 VFL Grand FinalThe 1969 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Carlton Football Club and Richmond Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 27 September 1969. It was the 73rd annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine...
. It remains an enduring attendance record for any
VFL/AFLThe Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
match.
Match summary
Carlton played poorly in the first half and many thought the game was as good as finished by the half time siren; perhaps it could have been, had Collingwood's scoreline read more accurately than 10.13 (73). At the half-time break Carlton trailed by a seemingly overwhelming 44 points.
During the break, champion Carlton coach
Ron BarassiRonald Dale Barassi, Jr AM is a former Australian rules football player and coach. During a long and decorated career, Barassi has been one of the most important figures in the history of Australian football. His father, Ron Barassi, Sr., was the first Australian footballer killed at Tobruk during...
instructed his players to handball and play on at all costs, instituting a strategy to try to nullify Collingwood's long kicking game. A key positional move was the introduction of little-known
Ted HopkinsEdward "Ted" Hopkins is retired former Australian rules footballer, businessman and writer. He is most notable for his four goal effort in the second half of Carlton's remarkable victory in the 1970 VFL Grand Final.-Football career:...
, a small rover, as a substitute for
Bert ThornleyGilbert 'Bert' Thornley is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Carlton in the VFL.Thornley was recruited to Carlton from East Fremantle Football Club in the Western Australian Football League and made his VFL debut during the 1967 season...
in the second half.
These changes were highly effective and Carlton scored seven goals to one behind in the first thirteen minutes of the third quarter, almost completely erasing Collingwood's lead. Ted Hopkins' lively contribution made a major contribution to the Carlton revival, highlighted by four inspirational goals. A rarely mentioned factor was the sickening clash of star Collingwood players Peter McKenna and Des Tuddenham in the second quarter. Peter McKenna had kicked 147 goals that season, and 5 in the first half, but was clearly hampered for the rest of the game.
Collingwood fought back strongly towards the end of the third quarter, leading by seventeen points at three-quarter time, and the game remained in the balance well into the final quarter. Late in the last quarter – Carlton leading by less than a goal – umpire Don Jolley refused to pay a free kick to Collingwood's McKenna for an obvious push in the back in front of goal and the ball went up the other end where
Alex JesaulenkoAlex 'Jezza' Jesaulenko MBE is a former Australian rules footballer and coach. He is regarded as one of the game's greatest-ever players and is an official Legend of the Australian Football Hall of Fame...
snatched the ball on the half forward line and sent a left foot kick bouncing towards goal. With no one guarding the goals, the ball bounced through for a goal, sealing the game for Carlton. Carlton completed a remarkable recovery, to triumph by 10 points, 17.9 (111) to 14.17 (101).
The game also featured the perhaps the most iconic mark in
VFL/AFLThe Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
history, taken by Jesaulenko in the 28th minute of the second quarter. The mark prompted commentator
Mike WilliamsonMike Williamson OAM is a former Australian television broadcaster.Williamson was a well-performed professional runner. Having been banned from professional foot-running for "running dead", he turned his efforts towards acting as a sports commentator of Australian rules football matches in the...
to make the now famous call "Jesaulenko, you beauty!" which is frequently repeated or paraphrased today. The mark is credited with the initiation of the
Mark of the YearThe annual Mark of the Year competition is a sporting award that celebrates each season's best mark...
competition, and the medal associated with the award now carries Jesaulenko's name.
Epilogue
As Collingwood were mainly favourites to win and were mainly in the lead most of the match, however with Carlton's comeback with a 10-point victory, Collingwood received the nickname "Colliwobbles" for the first time. Not only for that Grand Final lost but for others as well. Carlton's next appearance in a Grand Final came two years later, when it won the
1972 VFL Grand FinalThe 1972 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Carlton Football Club and Richmond Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 7 October 1972. It was the 76th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine the...
against
RichmondThe Richmond Football Club, nicknamed The Tigers, is an Australian rules football club which competes in the Australian Football League. Richmond shares healthy rivalries with Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. After winning five premierships between 1967 and 1980, the club hit the depths in 1990,...
. Collingwood's next appearance in a Grand Final was in
1977The 1977 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the North Melbourne Football Club and the Collingwood Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 24 September 1977...
, when it drew against
North MelbourneThe North Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Kangaroos, is the fourth oldest Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League and is one of the oldest sporting clubs in Australia and the world...
and then lost the replay. After finishing runner-up a further three times (twice to Carlton – in 1979 and 1981), Collingwood finally broke through to defeat
EssendonThe Essendon Football Club, nicknamed The Bombers, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...
in the
1990 AFL Grand FinalThe 1990 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Collingwood Football Club and the Essendon Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 6 October 1990. It was the 94th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League/Australian Football...
ending the "Colliwobbles".
Perspective
It is often stated that the style of play displayed by Carlton in the second half, featuring frequent hand ball and open fast running play, was a precursor to the modern style of play. However, Barassi himself credits the idea to his own mentor and former Melbourne coach
Norm SmithNorman Walter "Norm" Smith was an Australian rules football player and coach in the Victorian Football League. After 200 games as a player with Melbourne and Fitzroy, Smith began a twenty year coaching career, including a fifteen year stint at Melbourne...
. Up until then, Australian rules in Victoria had primarily been a stop-start game with players kicking forward to team mates who took a mark, stopped and kicked again, with the handball used mainly as a defensive option. In the second half of the Grand Final, Carlton played on and used more handball, moving the ball quickly and catching Collingwood players off guard, not giving them time to settle.
Although the match is justly famous for the contributions of many now-legendary players of that era,
Brent CrosswellBrent Tasman Crosswell is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Carlton, Melbourne and North Melbourne in a 222 game Victorian Football League career...
(Carlton) was contemporaneously generally regarded as the best player of the day for his four quarter contribution, especially in the first half when many Carlton players were not playing well.
Interestingly Hopkins played only one further game for Carlton, soon quitting football to pursue other interests.
The 44-point half-time deficit overcome by Carlton was then the second-largest half-time deficit ever overcome in
VFLThe Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
history. The only larger deficit overcome before this was 52 points, by Collingwood against St Kilda in Round 10 of the same year (which remains the record today).
Teams
Umpire – Don Jolley
Result
External links