| Venue: VFL Park Waverley | Date: Saturday September 6, 1980 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Result: Lose by 42 points | Umpires: Deller, James | Crowd: 59,014 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Goalkickers: R.Klomp 2, V.Catoggio 2, R.Ashman 1, A.Marcou 1, D.McKay 1, W.Harmes, B.Armstrong, P.McConville | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Best: G.Southby, R.Austin, R.Klomp, B.Armstrong, P.Francis, A.Marcou | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Reports: G.Landy (Richmond) by field umpire G.James on a charge of striking K.Sheldon (Carlton) with a clenched fist to the head in the first quarter (4 weeks suspension). | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Injuries: W.Johnston (strained ankle), Maclure (cut cheek), Klomp (cut cheek), W.Jones (strained hamstring), K.Sheldon (jaw) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Game Review
The Tigers crunched Carlton in the first three quarters to skip away to an impregnable lead. The Blues would kick 5 in the last to modify the horror in the scoreline, but to no real avail. All season the well-documented achilles heel of the Blues, was again exposed, an inadequate number of key forwards. Other than Maclure and the use of coverted back to forward of McKay, the Blues were continually relying on its brilliant "mosquito fleet" to kick a winning score. Peter McConville is normally the swing man to try and convert forward entries to goals. This problem area for the Blues was again exposed and exploited by the Tigers.The Tigers were harder at the contest from the first bounce and their physicality paved the way for a resounding Tigers victory. This resulted in the "infamous" clash between the Blues coach Percy Jones and Tigers coach Tony Jewell. Jones already furious about losing key rover Ken Sheldon, due to a cowardly snipe by Tiger Graeme Landy, was infuriated to see ex Blues motivator Rudi Webster gleefully smiling at Jones as he was now working for the Richmond team. Big Perc, took affront to this and released a verbal barrage towards the Richmond camp. This then led to words being exchanged, and then some "haymakers" being thrown by Jewell and Jones towards each other. Thankfully none connected (more so for Jones, as Jewell could handle himself)and it was over as quickly as it started. No one could ever criticise Perc for not wanting to stick up for his players.
Although we were in the middle of a great era, the Blues approached the Semi off a significant loss.
''Inside Football's Game Review
Intense rage can be the most precious additive to a football team's impetus if it is carefully manipulated to advantage. There can be no better example than Carlton's revival after Collingwood's Stan Magro felled captain-coach Alex Jesaulenko on his own turf last year. It gave a side, which looked on the way to a beating, a cause for which to fight. That day the Blues let the dust settle, and after some well-chosen words from a calculating coaching panel, channelled their emotions towards victory. But if the anger is allowed to run out of control, even briefly, it can mean trouble.
It was for Carlton in the qualifying final against Richmond at VFL Park. Just for a few minutes new boss Peter Jones, who had closer ties with his players than most other VFL coaches, forgot his role as the semi-detached team co-ordinator and blew his stack at what he believed to be Richmond's unfair use of brute force against his smaller players Ken Sheldon and Rod Ashman. As he ran out to address his players, who were 26 points down, at quarter-time, he continually screamed and gestured wildly at the Richmond gathering. He continued the abuse as he left the ground, and his opposition coach Tony Jewell foolishly charged at him. The crowd of 59,000 was stunned into an eerie silence; almost disbelieving what they had just seen. The two men who are supposed to be the disciplinarians of their respective sides having a stand-up shoving match. And having to be dragged off each other by a team of officials.
Jones would vehemently deny this but in the frame of mind he was vulnerable - and there was an example soon after his distasteful incident which suggested that fury had momentarily brought confusion into the Carlton camp. Early in the second quarter ruckman Warren Jones strained his hamstring and signalled that he wanted to depart from the ground. Suddenly there was panic. As Jones, limping and scratching his head in confusion, left the action and moved towards the boundary line, Carlton supporters looked on in horror at the thought of being left with 17 men. The coach had just taken Ashman out of the game and Sheldon was too sick to return after being hit by Richmond's Graeme Landy. The runner finally got to Jones and ordered him back into play until Ashman could be recalled a minute or so later. As all this was going on Richmond went on building its lead.
The five goals the Tigers kicked in this second quarter ended any chance of a Carlton victory. The Tigers, in this mood, are a match for any side, and even before the Jones-Jewell clash, they had Carlton's measure. This was mainly because of three players - ruckman Mark Lee, centreman Geoff Raines and VFL recordbreaking half-forward Kevin Bartlett. Throughout the day, Lee won the knock-outs, Raines won the loose ball, Bartlett won the goalkicking and Carlton lost the game. At the nine minute mark of the first quarter, he steamed away to take a mark, turned and faced the goals 50 metres out on the boundary line and shot it through for his team's first goal. By quarter time he had kicked 3.2, given rover Robert Wiley a goal through a handpass and given opponent Wayne Harmes the runaround. Harmes was forced to endure the embarrasement until Alex Marcou took over at half-time. Another couple of goals to "Hungry" and Ashman replaced Marcou in the toughest job on the ground.
Life was no easier for Harmes when he left Bartlett's side. His next post was to try to subdue the dominance Geoff Raines had set up in the centre. The barrel-chested Blue had as much success there as he had in the first half. Raines's superb ability to read ball's movement at the centre bounces consistently outwitted his opponents. Even when Mark Lee lost the knock-out, Raines seemed to spring into the right position immediately and take off with the ball. The biggest attraction of his game, though, is that he thinks carefully about placement before he kicks the ball and then is able to deliver it properly. This puts him in a small bracket of VFL footballers these days.
Peter Jones tried everything to cut off the lifeline to the Richmond forwards. But with Raines, and Bartlett, and Wiley and Weightman all so effective, even if he had been able to plug one leak, another would have cropped up somewhere else. Probably the most striking evidence that Carlton was on a day-off came late in the third quarter when it trailed by 10 goals. The Tigers had kicked a point and Blues full-back Geoff Southby, who would be the steadiest player at Carlton in the past decade, tried a gentle 20 metre pass at the kick-off. It missed the target by 15 metres and went out on the full. - Trevor Grant Inside Football''
As a footnote to the above article; two years later in the 1982 Grand Final those three key Richmond players were curtailed by the Blues in a lesson learnt in this game.
- Wayne Johnston was best-on-ground in the centre against Geoff Raines and set the Blues alight in the opening few minutes of the game.
- Warren Jones nullified Mark Lee in the Grand Final and was reported in the process acting as a protector of the Blues small men.
- After Bartlett had kicked two quick goals on McConville, Harmes was given the job on Bartlett. For the remaining three quarters Bartlett kicked only one further goal and was well beaten by Harmes.
Team
| B: | 27 Des English | 20 Geoff Southby | 43 David McKay |
| HB: | 21 Rod Austin | 11 Bruce Doull | 22 Robbert Klomp |
| C: | 47 Peter Francis | 1 Greg Wells | 13 Phil Maylin |
| HF: | 7 Wayne Johnston | 36 Mark Maclure (vc) | 37 Wayne Harmes |
| F: | 2 Warren 'Wow' Jones | 33 Peter McConville | 14 Rod Ashman |
| Ruck: | 3 Mike Fitzpatrick (c) | 5 Ken Sheldon | 34 Alex Marcou |
| Interchange: | 4 Vin Catoggio | 12 Barry Armstrong | |
| Coach: | Peter Jones | ||
Milestones
Last game: Vin Catoggio (Carlton)Round 22 | Semi Final