From the South Australian Football Record Year Book, 1973: North Adelaide shocked the football world when it toppled Carlton by a point (10.13 to 10.12) in the Australian club championship final at Adelaide Oval. It was an historic victory, being the first time that a major match had been held in SA on a Sunday.Trailing by five points at three-quarter time, North seemed in a hopeless position when it headed for home into a five-goal wind.The odds of victory lengthened when Carlton goaled in the first five minutes to widen the gap to 11 points.  To the crowd of 23,213 it just seemed a matter of time.  Displaying tremendous fighting spirit, and with reserves of stamina, North scored again through Darryl Webb in the 17th minute to hit the front.Play fluctuated from end to end, but that was the final score after magnificent defence by North led (by) Bohdan Jaworskyj, Bob Hammond and John Spry. John Spry, a member of the North Adelaide side who swept all before them in 1972, with a premiership flag and winners of the Australian Football Championships against the odds, completed a unique double for a Western Australian four years later when he shared in Port Adelaide's grand final win over Glenelg. Those two performances were examples of the ability that the ruckman possessed. If his dedication had matched his skill levels, John Spry could have been an all time star of the game. Spry was an outstanding ruckman in junior competition. A member of City Beach's inaugural under fourteen side at the age of nine, he went on to play in the club's under sixteens, winning the fairest and best award, before the lack of an older age team at City Beach forced him to move to Floreat, where he was fairest and best for their under eighteens. In the Claremont district, with his father a Tigers player in the nineteen forties, John was always going to play for Claremont, and he joined the club for the 1968 season, before, in the first of several wanderlusts of his football career, he took off for Port Hedland, where he worked as a labourer for Bell Brothers, “graduating to the crane”.  He arrived back in Perth in time for the finals. “I was all over the place at the time,” he recalled. “One of the angry young men of the era, I played up a lot, and lost sense of meaning.” Playing colts in 1969 and 70, Spry made his league debut at Lathlain Park in the last game of 1970, kicking a goal with his first kick, as a ruckman resting in a forward pocket. An enigmatic player again in 1971, he played around fifteen league games, with disciplinary episodes marring his season.  “Early in 1972, I jumped in the car with my new partner, Sue Bates, and drove to Sydney. I was under the Sydney Harbour Bridge in an EH Stationwagon, broke but having a wonderful time, when I got a message to call an Adelaide number.”“I had no money, so rang reverse charges. It was the North Adelaide Football Club with an offer to join them.”It was to be the turning point of John Spry's career.A very fit player, who could run all day, Spry was a very adept handballer, with a good spring to add to his six foot six frame. The Carlton game was the icing on the cake for Spry, who came close to a South Australian guernsey, after being told he was in the squad by the coach, only to find that the coach didn't have the final say. John Spry married wife, Sue, in 1973.“We were piped down Rundle Mall, and stayed at the Australia Hotel, overlooking Adelaide Oval,” he recalled. “Then we took off in the freighter Straat Singapore back to Perth for our honeymoon.”After losing the 1973 grand final to Glenelg, Spry paid a visit to Melbourne, where he received a phone call , which led to a meeting with a Carlton executive. “I'll give you a thousand dollars. If you plan on playing in Melbourne, play with us,” was the blunt statement. I had got to know former East Perth star, Syd Jackson, who had to stand out for the entire 1968 season before he could play at Carlton, quite well, and he swayed my decision. Jackson said: “If you have to stand out, don't do it.” We had already bought a house in Melbourne.”An offer from Claremont settled the issue, and the Spry's returned home. “It wasn't a great era at the Tigers,” Spry lamented. “I returned to my old habits, but one positive was joining the police force in 1975.”  Spry returned to Adelaide Oval leading the Western Australian ruck in 1974 in a game the visitors lost by twenty points. Appointed vice captain to playing coach, Mal Brown, John captained the side for much of the 1976 season, after Brown was suspended, but the two proved to be less than compatible.Another phone call from Adelaide, this time it was Port, sent Spry back to South Australia in 1977.In a good year for the ruckman, Port won their first flag for twelve years. After reaching the preliminary final the following year, Spry developed Patella Tendonitis in both knees, a condition that left him, at the age of twenty nine, with no option but to retire.  John then went North driving Haulpak trucks at Mount Newman, and had a few runs with Newman Tigers. Barrie Robran was his choice as best player he'd played with( “moved like a panther, kicked both feet, silky skills”), but a good second was Russell Ebert( “a bullocker.”)John shared a yarn with us concerning an end of season footy trip to Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and Jakarta, in which there was much playing up and general debauchery. Claremont Secretary-Manager Neil Martin stood up as the bus was about to reach it's final destination, and announced: “I'd like to thank all of you for your good behaviour on this trip. All except one.” I turned to Lorne Cook, who was seated next to me, and said: “Who was the bastard that played up?” Lorne replied immediately: “You.”John Spry is now semi retired, and living life to the full in Broome. He drives a taxi for Chinatown Taxis one or two days a week, and is a volunteer driver for St Johns Ambulance one day a week. He is into bike riding, good coffee, and the occasional beer with good company. “I lived the first forty years of my life on rocket powered skids,” he admits. “Today I'm enjoying the best space of my life.” Chatting to John Spry, you get the distinct impression that he wouldn't have had his life any other way.  It could be said that his lifestyle hampered his football early in his career, and he wouldn't argue with that, but life for him was there to be lived, his enjoyment of what he was doing took pride of place, and he had no time for those who feigned importance. The man who played fifty three games for Claremont, thirty with North Adelaide, fifty two at Port Adelaide, and represented Western Australia can be pleased with a career that was always played under his own terms.