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Last updated on July 24th, 2017 at 10:59 am
Ray Kennedy’s remarkable photograph shows just how close the West Coast Eagles may have come to winning this year’s AFL Grand Final:
Television replays don’t show this very clearly, but prior to Leo Barry cutting across in front of the pack at least one West Coast player (Judd?) seems to have been perfectly positioned to mark. He would have taken a kick for goal (after the siren, to win the game) from only 20 metres or so. My, my. Incidentally, Sydney’s total was the lowest winning score since Carlton defeated Essendon in 1968, and the fifth-lowest winning score since the end of WWI. Yet the match was still enthralling. Additional Grand Final images here, here, here, and here.
UPDATE. Jeremy Cooper and Tony the Teacher point out that the Eagle in question is youngster Mark Seaby, who didn’t have a great game. At least he’s got a great “what if” story to tell in twenty years.
UPDATE II. Simon reports: “At the time most the crowd struggled to see what had happened. I was in the Great Southern Stand and there was literally two or three seconds where most of the ground was silent, waiting to see who ended up with it.”
West Coast are in blue/yellow – Leo Barry is the guy with the ball. If he hadn’t caught that the guys in red probably would have lost the game (although I can hardly remember the Eagles taking a contested mark inside 50 in the whole game!!!)
Posted by Pig Head Sucker on 09/25 at 04:34 PM • permalink
The ones in red and white are the Sydney Swans (who are starting to see a resurgance of their old name, the Bloods). The blue and yellow are the Eagles. The one with the ball is ‘Leaping’ Leo Barry
Judd is the Eagle player who hands are out-stretched – if Leo hadn’t taken the mark, Judd would have and the Eagles would have won the game in the very last second of the game.
The player you refer to appearing to be tackling all of them is Lewis Roberts-Thompson, a young bloke who all the commentators agree played the game of his life in the Grand Final.
There were about five simple blunders by the Eagles in the last 10 minutes that denied themselves a shot at goal. Still on the other side of the ledger, the Ablettt kick across goal was an unusual gift to the opposition and some of the set shots for goal by the Swans in the third quarter were the worst that I have seen since I was playing in the under 13s.
The big bloke with his hands outstretched at the back of the pack is Mark Seaby.
Chris Judd is in amongst the pack somewhere but definitely not the owner of the hands in question.
Posted by TruthHandler on 09/25 at 06:13 PM • permalink
What a great photo! That’s the problem with American football. The helmets get in the way.
Posted by Bill Peschel on 09/25 at 06:24 PM • permalink
Reminds me of the game-winning catch by Dwight Clark in the 1982 championship game.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/michael_silver/02/04/five.plays2/
SMG
Posted by SMGalbraith on 09/25 at 07:01 PM • permalink
Ah, good. The Swans won. Although I still haven’t the foggiest idea what sport they’ve won the championship for, I nevertheless chose them as “my team”. My choice was a wise one obviously.
Two questions though. Where’s the red V sweaters? And where’s the badmitton racquets?
Posted by wronwright on 09/25 at 07:07 PM • permalink
You mean something along the lines of this Ross?
http://uploadx.net/bin/?id=rd/8kaQ=
Very steamy indeed.
Dear SMGalbraith: – nice catch by Dwight Clark, but there doesn’t seem to be any contest for the ball. Leo Barry had to crash the traffic jam as well as outleap them and grab the ball cleanly.
Fantastic end to a fantastic contest – not often pretty but great theatre. The Swans deserved to win because they WANTED it more.
PS: The speed of the Grand Final was awesome. Neither Swans nor Eagles stopped for ad breaks.
If you remove the ball from the picture, and maybe darken the background a bit it looks like a gay disco.
As opposed to what other kind of disco?
Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 09/26 at 12:50 AM • permalink
From left to right … Amon Buchanan, Leo Barry, Lewis Roberts-Thompson, Chris Judd, Mark Seaby (with the hands outstretched about to take the grab) and Ashley Sampi is partially obscured in the bottom right. Also in the pack is Tadger Kenelly who is smooshed in the middle of all the bodies; you can just see his nose under Sampi’s arm.
PS: Kywong73, they DO stop for ad-breaks.
Posted by Tony.T.Teacher on 09/26 at 12:55 AM • permalink
While this is a great photo, at the time most the crowd struggled to see what had happened. I was in the Great Southern Stand and there was literally two or three seconds where most of the ground was silent, waiting to see who ended up with it. Roberts-Thompson started jumping for joy, the siren went and the rest was history.
And Luke Ablett became the most relieved man in the history of AFL.
O’Laughlin had a shocker in the last quarter – 4 times he had shots at goal and not one went close.
It wasn’t a great game in terms of standards, but it was one of the most exciting damn grand finals in a long time. Roos was graceful in not slagging Demitriou…yet.
Go the Bloods!
And here I thought Chris Judd was a dancer.
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 09/26 at 06:32 AM • permalink
I dunno-the shirts could we make them lavender or something?
Ooooh-how about see thru fishnet, and something sparkly?
Posted by madawaskan on 09/26 at 08:09 AM • permalink
Yep, Mickey O sure did have the Ian Baker-Finch yips with his kicking in the last quarter, but he did keep presenting and took some lovely marks (catches for foreigners). The Leaping Leo mark was just one of those moments to savour forever – especially if you are a long-time Swans supporter like me and was lucky enough to be there, also like me – also in the Great Southern stand. Apart from my wedding day, and the births of my kids, the best day of my life, by far.
“Cheer, cheer, the red and the white” etc
Rafe asked – “What was a little man liks Sampi doing there? Did he just think it was a great photo opportunity? (He should have been crumbing). Or was he trying to shepherd for Seaby?”
If he didn’t have a Fucking Swans player holding him down you would have seen the awesome vertical leap that he possesses in action (he almost played basketball because of his leaping ability). He did manage to take the Mark of the Year last year. That is why he was exactly where he should have been.
Don’t start me . . .
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Is Gardiner the worst football player to have ever graced the AFL? I hear he might be traded – I believe the Dodges Ferry Sharks are looking for a bloke to run ten metres under the ball.