By P. J. MILLARD {"Short Pass")
It towers as the most extraordinary final of all. Played in a raging tempest, it produced only three goals for the -whole match - and they were kicked by two players on opposing sides.
It rained cats and dogs right through ... the arena was like a swamp . . . and to complete the symphony of desolateness, a howling gale tore in from the sou-west.
In these appalling conditions was the League final of 1927 fought out at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Collingwood, with greater resource in the swirl of rain, slush and mud, and 2.13 (25) to Richmond's 1.7 (13), struggled and splashed to victory - and the first of their record of four premierships on end.
Gordon Coventry kicked the Magpies' two goals; and Jack Fincher the only one scored by Richmond.
BREAKING a dry spell, and saving the farmers' crops, the downpour that day and the day before was worth a cool £2300:000 to the State. But, as they huddled together, chilled and shivering, the crowd of 34,551, and especially the thousands not under shelter, probably did not derive much consolation from that, if they thought of it at all. They were too engrossed with the grim drama being unfolded before their eyes and with their own discomforts.
That a crowd of such size braved the elements that day to see a football match was remarkable; but Collingwood and Richmond were great draw-cards, and fans cheerfully risked coughs and colds rather than miss their beloved football final.
Richmond did not get their lone goal until the last quarter. Collingwood scored both their goals in the second term. They, like the Tigers, had three goalless quarters. In all they had 15 scoring shots to Richmond's eight.
Winter sport though football is, Saturday, October 1927, was an awful day for it. Indeed, the League final would have been postponed for a certainty, but for the rule requiring the adverse weather committee to decide on any postponement by 12 noon on the day of the match.
Rain fell in the morning, but not in such volume as to give warning of the deluge to come. In the afternoon, whipped up by a boisterous south-westerly, it poured down in torrents without abatement, flooding the ground.
Possessing more of the glue-pot qualities then than now, the arena, by the time "play" began was a waterlogged quagmire. The only things lacking to complete the perfect picture of a bleak marshy swamp were swaying reeds and the mournful notes of bull-frogs croaking their chorus.
Spartans All!
Into that morass and the blinding rain plunged 36 Spartan footballers. Valiantly they carried on.
With an unerring football intuition, which comes with experience, they often sensed where the ball was, rather than saw it, for visibility was poor. Soon the ball was as heavy and sodden as the proverbial bag of lard. Splash- Splash - Splosh - Splosh! That was the depressing tune as play swirled and flowed here, there and everywhere.
On the treacherous turf it was impossible to keep footholds. Players slipped, slithered and slid into slush, to arise mud-be-splattered and unrecognisable.
At times it was difficult, nay impossible, to distinguish friend from foe, especially in their muddy disguises. In the incessant confusion many kicks went astray. Tempers, proving unequal to the abnormal stress and strain, became frayed. Despite umpire McMurray's vigilance and control, spite pervaded the grim battle.
Old Scores Paid Off
Old scores were paid off with usurious interest. Hard knocks were handed out in pre-historic style- to be heartily returned, for nobody turned the other cheek. Still it was all not very surprising. It was just those relentless rivals Collingwood v Richmond, in a provocative atmosphere. Anyway, they couldn't be expected on such an occasion and such a day, to play kiss-in-the-ring.
But through it all, Collingwood with their incomparable sense of team work still managed to play some sort of a game that resembled football more than did poor Richmond's desperate floundering, which was suggestive of flies struggling on sticky paper.
For one thing, the Magpies, with greater resource and imagination, never forgot that it was a dirty day. They adapted their methods to suit the frightful conditions, being content, largely, with crude straight-ahead kicks, frequently off the ground. They still remembered exactly where the goal was.
In consequence, they made fewer mistakes than Richmond and furthermore, were not guilty of the cardinal blunder of playing into their opponents hands by trying to work the wrong wing.
Fewer mistakes! How often is that the telling factor in a close match! How often too, in their glamorous history, has it brought Collingwood victory!
Tigers - Losing Fight
Like other members of the cat family, Tigers are no great lovers of water. And so, too, the synthetic Tigers, in that ill-starred League final of 1927 did not relish the wet. They fought gamely certainly, but it was a losing fight from start to finish. The Magpies rising superior to the formidable difficulties outplayed them in every phase of a low scoring contest, in which points were tremendously difficult and had to be earned many times over.
Clear and unmistakable, the hallmark of greatness was upon Collingwood's victory that day.
Richmond patriots might argue that it was not a fair test - that the 'Woodsmen were the luckier, favored by the eccentric course of the ball as it was driven, often blindly, hither and thither.]
There was more to it than that. Collingwood displayed that uncanny football prescience, which even to this day, is a vital part of their match-winning game. It is an inherent characteristic, which over-the-years has lifted the Magpies to an eminence which no other club has quite attained in Australian football.
No, the weather did not defeat Richmond in that final match ten years ago, Collingwood did.
Even if it had been a fine day, the Magpies, in all probability, would have won just the same, most likely by a greater margin.
That year Collingwood looked the glamour side - a real Premiership combination. Although containing a larger proportion of tall men that usual, they were well balanced. They were strong and purposeful and fast in keeping the ball moving. Even the big men were surprisingly agile.
As the accomplished 'Woodsmen majestically strode through the 1927 season, dashing from triumph to triumph with their efficient team-work, Tom Kelynack (Famed as "Kickero" the Herald football writer) was moved, in admiration to write of them as "The Machine" That eloquently expressive nick-name stuck.
When, at long last. after what must have seemed an eternity to the dripping, mud-coated players the final bell tolled Collingwood's triumph, and Richmond's doom, there burst from the frozen spectators, thousands of drenched. resounding cheers for the gallant conquerors . . and the gallant conquered.
Scores quarter by quarter were:
1st 2nd 3rd Final
Collingwood 0.1 2.6 2.9 2.13 (25)
Richmond 0.4 0.4 0.9 1.7 (13)
The teams took the field:
COLLINGWOOD
Backs: Poulter. Dibbs. Wescott.
Half-backs: Wilson. Clayden. A. Collier.
Centres: Cheswass, Beveridge. Milburn
Half-forwards: Murphy, Makeham. Harris.
Forwards: H. Collier, G. Coventry, Rumney.
Followers: S. Coventry (capt.), Rowe
Rover: Libbis
RICHMOND
Backs: Harris, Powell, Mclsaac.
Half-backs: Lilburne, Bentley, B.McCormack
Centres: O’Brien, Gallagher, Geddes (capt.)
Half-forwards: Weidner, Rudolph, Jamieson
Forwards; Fincher, J. McCormack, Robinson.
Followers: O'Neill. O’Halloran
At the end of home and home matches in 1927. Collingwood were leaders, with| the double chance, having lost only three games. The first was by a goal against Richmond on a windy day. The second against Carlton, in what has become immortalised as "Duncan's match." Duncan, with his freak marking, would have beaten any team that day. The Magpies' third defeat was when they were just back, travel weary, from Western Australia, and Fitzroy caught them napping
In the first semi-final in 1927, Richmond (second) narrowly beat Carlton (fourth) by a goal - 12.10 (82) to 11.10 (76) - in a stirring game, before 63,000 onlookers.
The second semi-final was a fiasco, in bitterly cold conditions. accentuated by showers and driving rain, Collingwood overwhelmed Geelong (third) by 16.18 (114) to 7.6 (48) Gordon Coventry bagging seven goals.
Collingwood' form was a revelation, and an unhappy omen for Richmond whom they met the following Saturday in the "final".
Kicked with Tide!
Now to that final! Alan Geddes won the toss for Richmond and to repeat Jack Worrall's joke on a similar occasion, kicked with the tide. Desperately as they strove into the inferno of slush, neither side could manage a goal in the first term, in which the Tigers, with the gale behind them, and helped by some amazing marks by Bentley and Rudolph, gained a slight lead - four behinds to one.
In the second quarter Gordon Coventry, cool and reliable in the xxxxx shot down Collingwood's two goals - the first from a mark after the opposing full back had kicked-off along the wrong wing; the second from a slick pass by Harry Collier.
In the interval both teams changed into new dry togs. Out came the Magpies, spick and span in their workman like black and white. But what was that motley-looking team on the arena with them? Not Richmond, surely. But it was.
The Tigers changed into all sorts of old guernseys of diverse color combinations. Some sported red and white; while others blue and white; and still others, their own yellow and black. A weird conglomeration of color, if you like.
"Eat-Em-Alive!"
In the third quarter, neither team pierced the goal, but in the fourth Jack Fincher kicked Richmond's solitary goal along the ground after Rudolph and O'Neill had forced the ball forward. It was a lucky goal, but it set Tiger's barrackers roaring, with the fearsome war-cry of "Eat-Em-alive!" reverberating across the ground.
Fiercely, as Richmond, encouraged by Fincher' goal finished. Collingwood with traditional stediness held them off, to gain the day - and the pennant. Had Richmond won, another game would have been necessary.
(I am grateful to two correspondents R.J. Hughes (Lancaster) and J.S. Crosble (Preston), for reminding me of the queer final match, which I have just described.)
Queerest Final Of All! (1937, August 14). Sporting Globe (Melbourne, Vic. : 1922 - 1954), p. 8 (Edition2). Retrieved January 7, 2022, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article180838309
Editor - Photos from the Game
