THE EVOLUTION OF FOOTBALL
Boomerangs, Drop Kicks & Hafey's Tigers
AFL Record
Round 18, 2006
Ben Collins
In Part 2 of our special series on the evolution of football, we cover innovations such as thw 'boomerang' kick, Tom Hafey's long and direct Tigers, 'Hudson's Half-Arce' and the death of the drop kick. By Ben Collins.
TOMMY'S PREDICTABLE, IRRESISTIBLE TIGERS
Richmond coach Tom Hafey instilled a long and direct style that was as predictable as it was successful, with his Tigers winning flags in 1967, 1969, 1973 and 1974.
Tom Hafey: "Every one of our players knew what was required because the game plan was simple and basic. One handpass, run with the ball, take a bounce if you can and kick it long and direct to a big forward target. We kicked as many goals from crumbs as we did from marks, and that comes back to the predictability factor. The opposition knew what we were going to do, but they still had to beat us at it. That was the way Norm Smith won six premierships in a 10-year period, and I felt that style had so much common sense about it.
In my first coaching job at Shepparron in the country, we tried to play the same way. That also included things like keeping our eyes on the ball, our heads over it and running straight at it; busting your gut, picking up opponents when we lost possession, and applying pressure with chasing, tackling, smothering. A lot of clubs played in a similar way, but there were also a lot who didn't because of the different beliefs and styles of the various coaches. Some teams would kick the ball all over the place and when your players didn't have their minds completely on the job, those type of sides would occasionally beat you. But you didn't have to worry about those teams in the finals because they were sitting in the grandstand."
Royce Hart (Richmond captain and champion centre half forward): "Our game plan wasn't always conducive to a big game from the centre half-forward. All Tommy was interested in was moving the ball quickly and playing efficient footbalL like (Denis) Pagan these days - it was all about goals per possession.
In the '67 grand final, Geelong had more of everything (16 more kicks, 21 more marks and five more handballs) but we won the premiership. We didn't have to drill anyone on the chest with a pass; we just had to get it in long and quick"
Hafey: "From the time I started coaching Richmond, a couple of the major statistics we counted were how many times we played on from a mark or a free kick, and how many handpasses we received, and by that I don't mean hanging out on the side, but running hard to receive. I might say to the players at half-time: 'We're supposed to be a running team, yet we've only played on seven times. in the first half'."
Hart: "Tommy's philosophy was: 'All the players between the kicker and receiver should run to the contest and be at the fall of the ball if it comes to ground and then you kick to the next contest and do the same thing.'."
Hafey: "We trained harder than any other club, and I was always criticised for that, but I felt it was important for the style of play we had - and any style for that matter."
Hart: "With Tommy's game plan, I'd be contesting in packs a lot. Just about every mark was a contested one - that was the only type of mark you could take. When I hear commentators say: "He's forced to kick to a one-on-one," I have to laugh because I hardly had a one-on-one in my whole career! I would've loved that. Normally a team's best and most valuable players are on the forward line, so you only need a 50-50 chance to get the ball."
Hafey: "A lot of people think you need a Royce Hart, a Stephen Kernahan or a Wayne Carey at centre half-forward to be successful, but that's not necessarily the case. We did have Royce Hart, but all I really wanted out of that position was a strong contest. I reckon a lot of coaches think you have to take a mark to kick a goal. Our game plan was predictable, but it's not predictable when it hits the hands of the pack. That's where players like Kevin Bartlett and John Northey were so dangerous. 'KB' couldn't mark over (jockey) Darren Gauci, so how did he get all his goals? Crumbs. As a former back-pocket player, if I was playing on a Kevin Bartlett or a Leigh Matthews or a Peter Daicos, I'd be worried like hell because they're ball magnets and when they get the ball they kick goals. A second rover might kick 1.3, but a Bobby Skilton or a Johnny Birt would kick four goals. That's why I think it's useless taking a player like Chris Judd off the ground when he could be kicking goals from a forward pocket"
'THE BOUNDARY IS YOUR FRIEND'
Hafey: "It was a unwritten law that you didn't kick across goal. One of our team rules was that in tight situations in defence, go for the boundary - the boundary is your friend - so that if we lose possession they don't get a simple shot at goal. The same rule applied to our ruckwork."
THE 'BOOMERANG' KICK
Blair Campbell who played 21 games for Richmond and Melbourne in the late '60s, is credited with popularising (in the AFL/VFL) the kick that he termed the 'boomerang', which has also has been referred to as the 'banana kick', 'reverse punt' and 'checkside'.
Blair Campbell: "I called it the boomerang because thats how it curved in the air. As a kid in the late '50s and early '60s, I'd go with my father to watch St Kilda play at the Junction Oval. I was fascinated with how (full-forward) Billy Young held the ball in a radically different way and snapped goals. It was quite the reverse of the normal way of snapping for goal. No one else did it. He was just regarded as a freak goalkicker, but no one seemed to realise he was using a radically different type of kick.
I kicked my first boomerang at Melbourne High when I was about 14. I kicked it a bit too much. It's a bit of a contagious kick. It wasn't used at all when I played, but my teammates at Richmond would experiment with it, and a St Kilda player told me they were mucking around with it in the dressing room before games. Gradually, it became very popular. No one was a better exponent of it than (Gary) Ablett and (Jason) Dunstall, and (Peter) Daicos was also a master of it. They do it brilliantly now."
