ArkRoyal wrote: DG -- i agree with all of that and thanks for the post. It is uncanny, as you know, that Keene, Mort, McGowan and Fussell, all of them, went down injurred at some point in their careers. We know that other clubs have had injuries too -- Sims and Smith come immediately to mind-- but some of our players had a terrible run. Fussell was out for two years from memory?
In regards to Buckenara, there is footage of him playing against that very good SD side at Bassendean on ytube. Have you ever seen it? He did exactly as you describbed, bombed away at goal from long range, achieving really not much at all; i got bloody frustrated after a while, but there is no denying the man's class or his importance to our club's history.
Poor George Young -- i only remember him playing reserves in 1980 because he was so injurred -- i blame st kilda for making him play in all that bloody mud at their ground. i think he was highly regarded by the entire football community
I think if i had to pick it I would go: Featherby; Keene; Buckenara. Featherby helped us to two flags, played 200 games, played for both WA abd Victoria in state football, set possession records in two different competitons, and finally, won club champion awards at both Subi and Geelong. It is not a bad record -- Phil Lamb, during his days on the ABC, said that it was Featherby whom got us over EF in 1986 -- he managed to keep everybody calm, apparently.
Yes Ark Fussell was out for 2 years with a badly broken leg, just as he was developing into one of the leagues best full backs, when he came back he was not the same and wasn’t around for long. Remember big Laurie came back quite a few years after going down, he did pretty well considering the injury (achilies I think) and the amount of time he was out for but once again no where near the same player that he was. George Young, pity there was no such thing as knee reconstructions back then. Yes I have seen that footage of Bucky, in fairness to him he could really bomb them straight when he got onto them sweetly, but not that day. Keene, Feathers and Bucky for me. Kempy would’ve been up there but he only played one year for us from memory