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Nice work Ark! Big Laurie Keene no 1 for me, would have developed into the best ruckman in the vfl if not crueled by injury, the 86 state of origin he evened with simon madden and salmon, vfl’s best whilst he was still playing in the wafl, he was still far from his peak and those guys were in their prime. A few more years in the vfl he would have been unstoppable he had everything. Bucky was awesome but with Subi I felt he tried to do too much, regularly bombing it into the fwd line looking for the goals instead of using more IQ, can’t really blame him though as others regularly let him down. As far as guts and desperation was concerned, he was faultless. Kempy was all class as was Jobby. A couple from left field Mort and McGowan would have been stars but were cut down by injury. George Young was also brilliant, once again another cut down with injury when he returned to us in the late 70’s with so much expectation on him. Taking it from the joondy thread I agree Duda should have been kept on he started well but probably lost heart as we were dog shit

ArkRoyal wrote: bh: a great tribute to Buckenara, and as you stressed he deserves it. It is bit hard for Subi supporters to heap praise on it, because your beloved black and whites had kicked a record score. The other point, we should mention about his performance, was his age, playing in just his first full season of league football.

Do you remember the 1981 game? What happened in the first quarter? Were Subi good or SD a bit lax?

I remember it Ark, we had a pretty good side that day and we jumped them, I thought we were going to take them which would’ve been a big shock but they slowly pegged us back and with beas on fire and unstoppable finishing with 10, it was only a matter of time. Beas was really impressive that day, I thought Fussel played great on him he did everything he could

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 Keene was superb for Subi. I recall the 88 GF when he was controversially qualified to play against Claremont in what turned out to be World War 3...he was best afield by some margin and although Mick Lee won the Simpson, big Keeney won us the game.

Bearing in mind most of my Subi memories are 60s & 70s,

- Fitzpatrick (the best all-round footballer I saw at Subi)
- Kettlewell
- Ocker
- Cammy B & Wally Martin
- Brian Sarre (from an era when full forwards were still dominant)

Another one I really enjoyed was dual Sandover medallist Ian Dargie. Tough as nails and wouldn't take crap from anyone. I remember the 88 GF when Neesham had a go at him and Darg's sat him on his arse in about half a second flat....beautiful to watch.

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