Polly says too much (1970 Tasmania v WA)

With WA to take on Tasmania in a 1970 state game, WA captain Polly Farmer publicly uttered a few choice words intended to inspire his team. Instead, it was the Apple Isle who fired up.

1970 Interstate Match: Tasmania vs. Western Australia

"If we can't beat Tasmania, we ought to give the game away."
-(Graham 'Polly' Farmer)

The victorious Tasmanians

BACK ROW (L-R): D.Baldock (vice-captain), M.Urquhart, J.Bingley, K.Edwards, J.Jillard
MIDDLE ROW (L-R): F.Newell (Head Trainer), R.Hall, A.Thiessen, A.Bowden, J.Frost, A.Hodgetts, L.Styles, P.Vinar, D.Plaister (Manager)
FRONT ROW (L-R): R.Johnson, J.Bonney, C.Coombes, R.Steele, J.Devine (captaincoach),J.Marshall, R.Graham, S.Dec, R.Stirling

What do the following footballers have in common? Fred McGinis,Laurie Nash, Verdun Howell, Bob 'Tassie' Johnson, Ian Stewart (right),Royce Hart, Brent Crosswell, Tim Evans, Noel Carter, Simon Atkins,Darrin Pritchard, Paul Hudson, Alastair Lynch, Matthew Richardson.More than one thing, actually, as it happens: all were either born inTasmania or played their early football there; all achievedconsiderable notoriety in the game; and all, without exception,achieved most of that notoriety while playing outside Tasmania. This,in brief, has been the dilemma faced by Tasmanian football, andindividual Tasmanian footballers, for well over a century. The qualityof Tasmanian football has always been high - indeed, assessed on aper capita basis it would be very hard indeed to avoid the conclusionthat, over the entire course of the twentieth century, Tasmania wasactually the leading producer of top quality football talent in Australia.However, for a combination of social, political and economic reasons,the state has never managed to develop an internal infrastructureconducive to keeping the majority of its best players at home.

Despite this, Tasmania has managed a number of noteworthy achievements in the interstatearena. At the 1911 Adelaide carnival, for instance, the Tasmanians overcame WesternAustralia by 5 points. Other examples include the famous victory of Bill Mayman's 1923 TFLcombination over a strong South Australian side on the Adelaide Oval; carnival victories overSouth Australia (1956 and '58) and Western Australia (1958); the York Park heroics of StuartSpencer (left), Don Gale, Barry Strange, Neil Conlan et al against the mighty Big V in 1960; and thesuperbly gritty, against the odds display against reigning Australian champions WesternAustralia - and the elements - at Subiaco in 1963, which resulted in a win to Tasmania by 15points. Arguably greater than all of these performances, however, was the win in 1970 againstthe visiting West Australians at North Hobart Oval. By this stage, the loss of players to theVFL, and other mainland competitions, had reached an all time high, with more than an entireteam's worth of players plying their trade in Melbourne.

Other states had suffered at the hands of the Victorians too, ofcourse. Western Australia, for instance, had roughly the samenumber of its players involved in the VFL as Tasmania, but with sixtimes the population to draw from, the overall impact wasproportionately reduced.

The Western Australians arrived in Hobart in confident frame of mind.On Saturday 12 June they had come closer than ever before torecording an upset victory over the VFL in Melbourne, ultimately losingby just 6 points despite managing 30 scoring shots to 24. Moreover,the last time Western Australia had played Tasmania, at the previousyear's Adelaide carnival, the sandgropers had done virtually as theypleased all day en route to 113 point victory. As a result, teamcaptain Graham 'Polly' Farmer (right)told the waiting pool of Tasmanianjournalists that his side simply could not countenance anything otherthan a convincing win. "If we can't beat Tasmania, we ought to givethe game away," he declared, presumably with the intention of therebyinspiring his West Australian team mates.

Well, the statement was inspirational all right, but it would not be the men in yellow and blackjumpers who would be thanking Farmer after the game. Such provocative declarations have a strange tendency to back fire, it seems, and after the supposedly undermanned Tasmanianshad played superbly to buck the odds with a 2 point win, 'Advocate' journalist Allan Leesoncould not restrain himself from archly observing that, in lieu of Farmer's comments, "there arenow 20 redundant interstate footballers".

The teams

Former Geelong player John Devine (North Hobart) was captain-coach of a Tasmanian sidethat boasted a predominance (more than 50%) of southern-based players. Like Devine, vicecaptainDarrell Baldock (pictured, top right) had considerable VFL experience, as did his Latrobe team mate JohnJillard, Longford's Paul Vinar (left), New Norfolk's Ricky Graham, and Max Urquhart of Wynyard.The majority of the players, however, had spent their entire football careers in the Apple Isle.

Western Australia had a wealth of talent on every line, including one of the finest rovers inAustralia, Bill Walker (right) of Swan Districts, two superlative ruckmen in 'Polly' Farmer and BillDempsey, both of West Perth, champion Perth wingman Greg Brehaut, and East Perth'sredoubtable utility Malcolm Brown.

Match Report

From 'The Advocate' - byAllan Leeson

(This) will go down in history as one of the best ever performances by a Tasmanian team. Infact, it was only fourth victory against WA in the 16 clashes between the states since 1911.

Tasmania stole the game with phenomenal goal shooting and fiercetackling in the opening two and a half quarters, lost it late in the thirdand for most of the final quarter when it switched to fancy shortpassing, and won it again in a steamrolling final three minutes.

Two men held the game in their palms in the vital few minutes - WestAustralian centre half forward Mal Brown who had been switched to fullforward, and Tasmanian half forward flanker John Bingley (left). Brownreturned to the scene of his famous - or infamous (whichever way youlook at it) - 1966 carnival stoush with Tasmanian Max McMahon tocapture the lead for Western Australia for the first time with a goal 26minutes into the final term. It was Brown's great marking and creativeattacking - fired by replacement centreman Cam Blakemore - thatnearly gave WA victory minutes before the final siren. It was Bingley'sfanatical desire, marking and deciding kick that recovered the lead forTasmania 30 seconds before the final siren.

Tasmania stole the game with phenomenal goal shooting and fierce tackling in the openingtwo and a half quarters, lost it late in the third and for most of the final quarter when it switchedto fancy short passing, and won it again in a steamrolling final three minutes.

Two men held the game in their palms in the vital few minutes - West Australian centre halfforward Mal Brown (right) who had been switched to full forward, and Tasmanian half forward flankerJohn Bingley. Brown returned to the scene of his famous - or infamous (whichever way youlook at it) - 1966 carnival stoush with Tasmanian Max McMahon to capture the lead forWestern Australia for the first time with a goal 26 minutes into the final term. It was Brown'sgreat marking and creative attacking - fired by replacement centreman Cam Blakemore - thatnearly gave WA victory minutes before the final siren. It was Bingley's fanatical desire,marking and deciding kick that recovered the lead for Tasmania 30 seconds before the finalsiren.

The big crowd of nearly 20,000 - only 4,000 short of the 1966 openingday carnival record of 23,754 - held its breath as Bingley marked withthree minutes left. Bingley, of all people, a natural backman andnotoriously bad kick for goal. Sure enough, his kick flew wide and fellshort for Frost to miss and Marshall to pick up the crumbs and kick apoint.

The crowd had almost given up hope as the precious minutes ticked byand WA recovered again for Brown to mark, a long way out, but withinkicking distance. But he too was off target, for a point.All hope seemed lost as Longford coach Paul Vinar, considered bymany as the best Tasmanian afield, kicked off. The former nationallong distance champion, as usual, put plenty of distance into the loftykick. The ball flew to the wing, Stirling grabbed it, Devine (left) chipped inand found Baldock, who hit Bingley on the chest about 40 yards out ona flank.

Could he or couldn't he? This was the big question in one of the most tense finished seen inan interstate game in Tasmania. Bingley did and the wild scenes of jubilation among playersand thousands of spectators as the siren sounded 30 seconds later reflected the pleasure ofeveryone at the ground. Veteran pressmen said it was the best reception ever given aTasmanian team. Thousands poured onto the ground and clogged the entrances and eventhe timekeeper vented his feelings with a drawn out salute on the siren.

I believe the straight kicking for goal - it was uncannily accurate - and fierce tackling in theopening half.....played the biggest part in this victory.

In defence of WA it must be remembered that it was recovering from anequally torrid game against Victoria only two days previously. A gamewhich robbed it of four of its star players - Denis Marshall, 'Hassa'Mann, Bradley Smith and Peter Stephen - all of whom were injured.The strange ground - and North Hobart can be strange to visiting teams- slippery surface and travelling are all factors which were against thesandgropers. Nevertheless, they had every opportunity and nothingcan be taken away from Tasmania - generally regarded as the'Cinderella' football state. The Tasmanians demonstrated a fanaticismand desire to win the ball rarely seen in state teams. They took theinitiative from the first bounce, with Baldock, proving that he is far from'too old' as claimed by some critics, and Devine the masterminds.

Rovers Bonney (right) and Marshall were in fine form and within five minutesthe home side had two goals on the board. It went on to kick six goalsfrom seven shots, while WA had only four shots, one of which was a'poster'.

It was much the same in the second quarter, with full forward AtholHodgetts also joining the spree. Hodgetts finished with 3.1 in hisinterstate debut - against the man who kept Hudson to only one goal onSaturday, John Reilly.

'Polly' Farmer's creative handball and strength in the ruck started to tell towards the end of thisterm, enabling bustling little rover Bill Walker - one of the stars of the 1969 Adelaide carnival -to come into his own.

The WAs whittled the lead away in the third term, but Tasmania was still well clear. Then atthree quarter time WA made two changes which swung the game. Cam Blakemore replacedinjured centreman Peter Manning and became the focal point of WA's thrusts to high markingBrown, who was moved to full forward. Ultimately, however, it was not quite enough.

Match Summary

BEST
Tasmania: Vinar, Bonney, Graham, Devine, Urquhart, Steele, Stirling, Baldock
Western Australia: Walker, Brown, Brehaut (left), A.Stiles, Farmer, Cooper, Blakemore

SCORERS
Tasmania: Bonney 4.1; Marshall 3.2; Hodgetts 3.1; Devine, Hall 2.1; Baldock,Stirling 1.1; Bingley, L.Styles 1.0; Frost 0.2
Western Australia: Carroll 3.1; Cooper 3.0;Walker 2.3; Brown, Smeath 2.2; Duperouzel 2.1; Blakemore, Farmer, Purton 1.0; Metropolis0.3; Young 0.1; rushed 0.1

ATTENDANCE: 19,823 at North Hobart Oval