TOPIC:

Couple that come to mind are
1 Shane McGowan. Played a couple of games in 1993 out of colts as a 17 yo, then soon after had a serious car accident and was left injured and never played again.

2. Rod Buckenara. Brother of Gary but mangled his hand in a gym before he ever played a game for Subi. If he was half as good as his brother we missed out !!!.

BC: don't forget I nammed Wheeler, Phelan and Della; the only one I missed was Stevenson; the others you mentioned we did not really miss because of our depth.

BC and Jim: How much of a loss was Gary Farthers?

AR...all the ones I named would be in our best 22 on any given day so it must have had an impact in some way but agree, the affect was minimized by our depth.

ArkRoyal wrote: BC: don't forget I nammed Wheeler, Phelan and Della; the only one I missed was Stevenson; the others you mentioned we did not really miss because of our depth.

BC and Jim: How much of a loss was Gary Farthers?

AR, Gary Fathers was strong marking full forward with the unusual kicking style that affected his accuracy in front of goals. In His third year of league footy (1977) he kicked 84 goals in 21 games in a side that only won 7 games all year. A knee injury then ended his career. I believe he was a huge loss as he was only getting better at that stage. In 1977 he also kicked over 50 points so he got plenty of the ball. If we could have had Ocker Robertson work with him on his kicking he could have further improved too. This was also a time where we were going into probably the worst period in the clubs modern history so who knows where Gary Fathers would have ended up? Alot of our players left the club over this period with the situation of our finances at the time. As ive said before growing up thru this period makes the current position so much sweeter!

jim: thanks mate, I have heard people speak highly of him so he was a sad loss. He was the link between Robertson and Clinton Brown at full-forward which we lacked. The other thing that side lacked, of course, was a really class ruckman, as you know. Hence the recruitment of Jeff Murray and Vic Melville a bit later on by the club.

What about David Rhodes, jim, came over from Fitzroy as a Victorian representative, I believe? Any good?

Jjim wrote: Couple that come to mind are
1 Shane McGowan. Played a couple of games in 1993 out of colts as a 17 yo, then soon after had a serious car accident and was left injured and never played again.

2. Rod Buckenara. Brother of Gary but mangled his hand in a gym before he ever played a game for Subi. If he was half as good as his brother we missed out !!!.

How about Bevan Warner? He was a huge talent and I'm pretty sure was struck down with injury?

Singha wrote:

Jjim wrote: Couple that come to mind are
1 Shane McGowan. Played a couple of games in 1993 out of colts as a 17 yo, then soon after had a serious car accident and was left injured and never played again.

2. Rod Buckenara. Brother of Gary but mangled his hand in a gym before he ever played a game for Subi. If he was half as good as his brother we missed out !!!.

How about Bevan Warner? He was a huge talent and I'm pretty sure was struck down with injury?

Singha was Wayne Dawson in the same category as Warner? I vaguely remember they both showed promise as young blokes in the early 80s but then either got injured or lost their place by the 85/86 era and ended up at EP!

ArkRoyal wrote: jim: thanks mate, I have heard people speak highly of him so he was a sad loss. He was the link between Robertson and Clinton Brown at full-forward which we lacked. The other thing that side lacked, of course, was a really class ruckman, as you know. Hence the recruitment of Jeff Murray and Vic Melville a bit later on by the club.

What about David Rhodes, jim, came over from Fitzroy as a Victorian representative, I believe? Any good?

Remember Tony Hall had a purple patch at FF not long after Fathers. Fast leading but very slightly built FF

Rhodes was handy but I think lacked a bit of pace. My memory is a bit faded from those days but I can remember him being blonde and a bit slow but pretty good skills. Didn’t Munro miss a bit with ankle problems? Very strong hands but spent too much time on the ground after diving for grabs for my liking. Another ff with a strange kicking style. I didn’t really rate Dawson Beas. Anyone remember Billy Dunne? He was handy but also troubled by injury. The biggest disappointment for me was Young after returning from the vfl. He was a star but broke down fast every time he attempted to play. Mort was going to be another Buckenara before he did his knee. Did it at a pretty young age too. We never seemed to have much luck in those days

McGowen fell of the back of a ute up north in the off season, paraplegic I think