Imagine if you can, the scene at Princes Park in North Carlton on the cool and cloudy afternoon of Saturday June 7, 1941. War was raging in Europe for the second time in a quarter of a century, and Australia was again sending the flower of her generations to join in the fighting. Rationing of petrol and other essentials had been introduced, yet more than 18,000 spectators had packed into the picturesque old ground to watch Carlton play Collingwood in the match of the day.

Uniforms of the three military services were prominent throughout the terraces at both ends of the ground. Most of the men, and virtually all of the large contingent of women, were wearing hats or scarves. Snack vendors called touted for business, and youngsters selling programs eased their way through the mass of humanity, while clouds of cigarette smoke drifted above their heads.

A huge roar greeted both teams as they burst through the network of streamers threaded through the exit to their respective races. Collingwood was led out by their champion full-back and captain Jack Regan, while his scheduled opponent, second-gamer Harcourt Dowsley, soaked up the atmosphere in just his second senior match.
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Recently - some sixty-eight years after that heady moment - the Blueseum was privileged to talk to a still-vibrant 90 year-old Harc Dowsley about that memorable game, and the events leading up to it. Here is that story.

Dowsley had been an outstanding schoolboy footballer and cricketer at Melbourne Grammar School. After graduating, he starred as a running defender in successive Premierships with Old Melbournians, and by 1941 was playing solid football with Melbourne seconds. But a burning desire to play at senior level, and a chance meeting with Carlton’s Jim Francis, led to him being cleared to play with the Blues.

Despite never having played in the position before, Dowsley made an impressive debut at full-forward for Carlton against St Kilda at the Junction Oval in round five, 1941. Making the most of his speed off the mark, his judgement, and his driving right foot drop-kicks, he booted four goals in a tight game that eventually went to Carlton by 18 points. Next up though, was Collingwood, and Regan.

‘Oh, I knew about Jack Regan all right,’ says Harc, ‘he was the absolute pinnacle of full-backs. But I played the same way as him when I was a defender, so I had a good idea of what to expect. Like me he loved to run off his man, so it was important not to give him front position.’

The game rebounded between the respective half-back lines for the first ten minutes, before a Carlton player found enough time and space to send a long bomb sailing toward the Carlton goal. ‘Regan was a bit quick for me, and got in front, so I hung back for a second and got a good long run at the ball,’ says Harc. ‘I went up right over the pack, and pulled it in. Jack wasn’t impressed, especially when I kicked the goal.’
1941
A few minutes later another opportunity presented itself, right in the goal square. In a duel one-out, Regan slipped into the front spot again, but Dowsley reached over the top and plucked the ball off his hands. Two marks, two kicks, two goals – it was starting to look like another good day. For the second week in a row, Harc was walking on air – but trouble was just minutes away.

‘Unbeknownst to me, I wasn’t taking much notice,’ he says, ‘Collingwood took ‘Leeta’ Collier – Albert Collier, who believe it or not, had won the Brownlow Medal in 1929 - out of the ruck late in that first quarter, and dropped him back to a pocket alongside Regan and I. The last thing I remember after that, was that I was going for the ball on the ground near the boundary line when ‘crash’ – I copped an awful bang on the head. I was knocked right out, and found out later that Collier had thrown me head-first into the fence.’

‘I was useless after that. I couldn’t get up for a while, and when I eventually did, I didn’t want to go off, because in those days there was only a 19th man. Once you were off, you couldn’t come back on. I know the doctor had a good look at me at half time, but the rest of that game is a blur. I must have had concussion. Even so, I knew it when we won.’

Harc Dowsley was destined to play just once more for Carlton after that, in a 27-point victory over his former club Melbourne at the MCG. A few days later, he enlisted in the RAAF, and spent four harrowing years piloting flying boats against the Japanese in the south-west Pacific.

Returning home in 1946, he chose cricket over football as his preferred sport, and was highly successful. Harc had played first class cricket for Victoria in the summer of 1937-38 just after leaving school, and was selected again in the competition’s first post-war season in 1946-47. In all, he played seven Sheffield Shield matches for his state, and captained the Melbourne Cricket Club to a VCA Premiership in 1948-49. He retired soon after that, and went on to build an equally-successful business career.

Still a keen Blues supporter and the doyen of a large family, Harc Dowsley sits third on the list of Carlton players known to have goaled with their first kick in VFL/AFL football – after Creswell ‘Mickey’ Crisp in 1931, and Clen Denning in 1935.

Blueseum: Links to all other 'Memorable Games' articles | Dowsley's Blueseum Biography