Mal Brown: the day I ... took on Carlton
By Steve Butler
The Age
May 13, 2006
It was October 15, 1972, and we had gone over to South Australia after we had won East Perth's first premiership for 13 years.
It was the Australian premier clubs championship at Adelaide Oval. We fronted up to Carlton. In those days people thought the Vics were arrogant and obnoxious. They were — that's what made them so hard to beat.
We'd all had a bit of a play-up after winning the WAFL grand final and there had been a few functions. It wasn't the perfect preparation.
There was sniping everywhere so at half-time I told the young boys to play the ball and the older blokes would look after the rest. As it happened, the ball came over my head and landed in front of Percy Jones. I was coming at him face-on and the weight of my body knocked him down. Then all hell let loose.
There were people coming in throwing punches from everywhere. There were blokes holding me and, all of a sudden, Trevor Keogh just arrived and really, I don't know why, but he was the one who copped it.
It didn't matter who it was, we all just got angry and started throwing punches and even the umpire ran off the ground. It was like slow motion and they just kept putting their heads up. Keogh came right at the end, the poor bastard, and you could never throw one like that again because I think it was pretty perfect.
I met his brother in Bendigo and had a few drinks with him, but for some reason Trevor doesn't seem to want to have a drink with me.
On the commentary that day, Michael Williamson said to Lou Richards that I was fighting the whole Carlton footy side. Lou said: "And what's worse, he's winning."
I told the tribunal after the game that I'd have to come back the next day because I had concussion. I went to the toilet and put water all over my face to make them think I was sweating and crook, so they let me go and I went home … to the pub.
That night I told the boys the story and my teammate Ken Deards decided to whack me in the eye just for fun, so when I went back to the tribunal the next day I had a big black eye. I just look back at it now as a bit of fun and I think it has become a bigger story as we've got older.
http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2006/05/12/1146940736546.html
