KB game's greatest finals hero? The numbers don't lieRohan Connolly
The Age
October 1, 2016Who is the greatest finals hero of the past 50 years? Your opinion might depend heavily upon which club you support, your age, and how much football from each decade you've seen.
Picking a top 20, let alone determining one champion of September above all others, was an extraordinarily tough task. But in the end, when it comes to greatness on the grandest of scales, the trophy cabinets, let alone the numbers, don't lie.
Which is why champion former Richmond little man, one-time games record-holder and official AFL Legend of the Game Kevin Bartlett has been judged our No.1.
Those under the age of 50 may think of Bartlett and one September in particular, his superb 1980 finals series for the Tigers when from a half-forward flank he kicked six goals in the qualifying final against Carlton, eight in the second semi-final against Geelong and seven in the Tigers' grand final pasting of Collingwood, picking up the Norm Smith Medal.
But that was just the icing on Bartlett's finals cake. No player has consistently played as well in September as he did.
Bartlett played in 27 finals matches throughout his record-breaking 403-game career. In 23 of them, he was named among Richmond's best players. That's a staggering strike rate of more than 85 per cent, miles ahead of even the next best-performed finals performer over the same period. To our panel of judges, he was a runaway winner.
"I loved playing in finals," Bartlett said this week. Tom Hafey's training was all conditioned towards playing well in finals, he put such a strong emphasis on that, and I suppose that inspired a lot of us.
"Reputations are made in finals, the greatest memories are of finals, and it's a great challenge for individuals and teams to play well in finals. For most of my career, all sides had crack rovers, and when you got to finals you were playing against the very best players. If you can play well against the very best in the biggest games, then I think you get a great deal of satisfaction out of that."
While Bartlett picked up the Norm Smith in the second season it was awarded, an AFL exercise in 2001 appointed judging panels to award retrospective unofficial medals for grand finals between 1965 (from when full TV replays were available) until 1978. The results were telling.
Bartlett was bestowed with what would have been another Norm Smith for his best-on-ground performance in Richmond's 1973 premiership win over Carlton, more than doubling the votes of next-best Kevin Sheedy.
He was judged second best afield (and his side's best) behind Geelong's Bill Goggin in Richmond's 1967 win over the Cats at the age of 20, when he kicked 3.3, including the sealer. And two years later, when the Tigers beat Carlton, he was named third best afield.
Bartlett picked up a lazy 27 touches in the 1974 premiership win against North Melbourne, and was close to the Tigers' best also in the shock 1972 loss to Carlton with 29 disposals. And they're just the grand finals.
His 1973 finals campaign rivalled his 1980 efforts, Bartlett kicking 2.5 from 36 possessions in the first semi-final against St Kilda, then 3.2, including the match-winner in the dying seconds, against Collingwood in the preliminary final.
That was the day Richmond famously brought injured skipper Royce Hart off the bench to spark a huge comeback after they were six goals down at half-time. Bartlett had already booted 4.3 from 25 touches in the same fixture against the same opponent four years earlier.
He says it's the six goals against the old enemy Carlton in the 1980 qualifying final that remains his favourite. That was the day respective coaches Tony Jewell and "Percy" Jones had their own punch-on at quarter-time. But it was also the day Bartlett, in his 337th appearance, broke the then VFL games record.
"I'm pretty proud of that particular final," he says. "I think there was a bit of extra pressure to perform on that day breaking the record and being a final. We'd been great rivals for a long time, I managed to kick three in the first quarter of a tight game when I was going on 34. It was pretty significant for me."
But almost as vivid remains the memory of his 48th game, when in 1967, he played in his first premiership. Richmond was only five points up on Geelong at the 28-minute mark when Bartlett tore into a pack about 25 metres from goal.
"About four or five players all converged on the ball at one time," he recalls. "I got there just a fraction before the others with my back to the goals, and as we all collided I spun out facing the goals and kicked it. In the circumstances, it was the best goal I ever kicked."
It clinched the Tigers' first flag for 24 years, a moment that was celebrated again by those involved only the other night.
"John Ronaldson and I were talking about it. We'd played together in the under 19s. He said wasn't it great that two kids came up from the thirds together and played in our first premiership. We kicked four goals in the last quarter, he kicked two and I kicked two. It's just little things like that that make it special."
Being so consistently good in the games that matter most must be a source of immense pride? "It is," he says. "The most important thing is to win, of course. But anyone who can play well in a final cherishes the fact that if you do, you can at least say: 'I didn't let people down.' And I think that's pretty important."
The best finals performers as judged by The Age Real Footy experts
1. Kevin Bartlett (Richmond)
2. Andrew McLeod (Adelaide)
3. Luke Hodge (Hawthorn)
4. Jimmy Bartel (Geelong)
5. Gary Ayres (Hawthorn)
6. Darren Jarman (Hawthorn/Adelaide)
7. Gary Ablett Snr (Geelong)
8. Dermott Brereton (Hawthorn)
9. Alex Jesaulenko (Carlton)
10. Leigh Matthews (Hawthorn)
11. Wayne Carey (North Melbourne)
12. Chris Judd (West Coast/Carlton)
13. Ted Hopkins (Carlton)
14. Leon Baker (Essendon)
15. Wayne Schimmelbusch (North Melbourne)
16. Barry Breen (St Kilda)
17. James Hird (Essendon)
18. Leo Barry (Sydney)
19. Michael Voss (Brisbane)
20. Wayne Harmes (Carlton)
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/afl-finals-heroes-numbers-dont-lie-on-richmonds-kevin-bartlett-20160929-grrwhr.html
