Grand old Bourke
16 September 2007 Sunday Herald Sun
Ken Piesse
FRANCIS Bourke's recent 60th birthday was a rollicking affair with mates coming from everywhere, including the bush and interstate, to share the moment with him.
Many were former premiership teammates at Richmond and Bourke said the conversation was easy and animated.
"We just picked off where we'd last been. We share this bond, always have, always will," he said.
Having played in five flags in his 300-game career, Bourke said September had always been one of his happiest months and to win five and lose only one of his six Grand Finals was a privilege.
"We always put high expectations on ourselves and I don't think we entered any of them as underdogs," he said.
"It was always a joy to win them.
"Early on it was particularly exhilarating and exciting, but as I grew older and more responsible the pressure and sense of expectation ramped up.
"It took me a long time to handle that sort of pressure, but it's one of the few things you grow better at."
Bourke was on a wing in his first three flags, a frontliner in the most fabled centre line of all: Bourke, Bill Barrot and Dick Clay.
He said both were superb players, especially Barrot come finals.
"He was such an enigma. Go out to the Western Oval in the height of winter when it was eight or nine degrees and the ground was inch deep with mud, Billy wouldn't want to know," he said.
"But come September when the sun was shining and he was at the MCG in front of a big crowd, he was absolutely electrifying."
Bourke said playing on the wing in his day didn't carry the same responsibility as now.
"It wasn't such a game-turning position as was playing say at full-back or centre half-back," he said.
"If your man happened to get best on the ground, which happened to me (Carlton's Brian Quirk in 1969) we didn't necessarily lose.
"But if you're full-back and your man gets best man afield, you're history. It means he's kicked a bag and you've lost. That's where the pressure comes from."
Bourke said he was outplayed in the 1969 Grand Final, but the end result - Richmond by 25 points - was everything.
"Winning grand finals are one of the few things in your life where you can say: 'Well that's finished,' " he said.
"It's a closed book; as (another premiership Tiger) Michael Green would say to us: 'Time to move on.'
"Hopefully you've done well and contributed, but win or lose, it's over. In our case back then we'd been working since January. It was time to have a few weeks to yourself before it all started again."
The latest star of the popular Toyota Great Moments advertisements, Bourke said the last of his five flags, in 1980, was probably the most special.
"It was the time when my physical prowess had waned," he said.
"It was more about experience and doing the job.
"Teams which win grand finals don't do it by accident. At that time we had very good leadership within the groups and a team within the team with people like Mick Malthouse and Emmett Dunne helping to marshal the younger ones like 'Smithy' (Terry Smith), (Greg) Strachan and Stephen Mount.
"We all looked after each other.
"It was a fantastic experience and a fantastic year. I reckon we oldies needed them more than they needed us. To win that year (1980) was like a dream come true.
"In my heart of hearts, I suspected my time in having another opportunity to be part of a premiership team was long gone."
Bourke said the back-to-back flag teams of 1973-74 were more of a relief than anything else.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/common/story_page/0,8033,22422700%255E19771,00.html
