Who will be our leading goal kicker in 2023?

[EasternWest]

Excellent again Doc.

[bornadog]

Did you know I loved Lelly so much that as a young man with very long hair (I wouldn't have looked out of place on a Staus Quo poster) I drove my 78 Ford XC panel van from Sydney to Western Oval the day before a match and slept in the van in the car park at WO. I was confronted by a WO official the next morning who asked me what I was doing there. I replied "Sir, I have just driven from Sydney to see Lelly Bamblett'. He let me stay there and waived the parking fee.

Here is an exclusive Woof interview with Lelly by The Coon Dog

https://www.woof.net.au/forum/archiv...hp/t-5540.html

Great Story Doc. Lally was a great player and one of the original small forwards of the game.

[GVGjr]

Let me add this to Doc's terrific post about his love for Les 'Lelly' Bamblett

The year Les ‘Lelly’ Bamblett lit up for Footscray, before injuries and racism curtailed his career

Les ‘Lelly’ Bamblett’s 1985 playing season is one for the record books. Yet injuries and racism led to him losing his passion for footy and he still sees significant problems, writes PAUL AMY.



The mere mention of his name is enough to bring memories rushing back to long-fastened Bulldogs supporters and one stirring season.

1985!

What a year for the Dogs, when they rose to 16-6 in the home-and-away rounds and reached the preliminary final under young coach Mick Malthouse.

And what a year for their twinkle-toed Indigenous forward Les Bamblett.

Spearhead Simon Beasley booted a century of goals that season and, hitting packs at pace, his sidekick ‘Lelly’ Bamblett kicked 51.

In fact, he kicked 51.35.

“That many points? That’s almost 90 shots at goal,’’ Bamblett, now 58, says. “Not a bad year.’’

Forty years after he won the Morrish Medal as best and fairest in the VFL Under 19 competition, Bamblett says the 1985 season was the “big highlight’’ of his career.

Truth is, there was little to come after it.

Injuries got the better of him, physically and mentally, and he was finished with league football by the end of 1988.

Forty-eight games and that was it, game over for a player who had played at the highest level brilliantly, but all too briefly.

“I love Les Bamblett!’’ says Shane O’Sullivan, long part of the furniture at Carlton, but who had the chair as general manager of Footscray from 1982-86.

It was O’Sullivan who brought Bamblett to the Bulldogs in 1984, after he had agreed to play for Claremont in the WAFL.

“Oh God, I remember finding him in a caravan park right on the other side of town in Perth,’’ O’Sullivan says.

“And I said to him, ‘Les, how would you like to come back to Melbourne and play with Footscray?’ And straight away he said, ‘Come on, let’s go’. He was such a talent, Les. Boy he was a talent.’’

*****

His father a Wiradjuri man from Narrandera and his mother a Warlpiri woman from Tennant Creek, Bamblett was the eldest of nine children.

He grew up in Shepparton, started in under-age teams at Nathalia and then joined the Lemnos club (now the Shepparton Swans).

Zoned to Melbourne, he showed sufficient promise to be picked in a Norm Smith scholarship squad and a few games into the 1982 season joined the Demons’ Under 19s, playing under the legendary Ray ‘Slug’ Jordon.

“A very interesting man,’’ Bamblett says of Jordon. “He was sort of down to earth, pretty stern, and for a little man he was very loud. A very good junior coach.’’

The Dees made the grand final, losing to Fitzroy. Bamblett won the Morrish – “A little bonus for myself,’’ he says – and he won a senior debut for the Demons in Round 1 of 1983.

Melbourne played Collingwood at the MCG. Ron Barassi was his coach and Robbie Flower his captain.

“First game, more than 70,000 people there,’’ he says. “I lined up on a bloke named Phillip Walsh. He was playing his first game for Collingwood. We had a bit of a battle on a wing. It was great, an eye-opener, just with the crowd and running out with blokes like Robert Flower, Brian Wilson, who’d won the Brownlow the year before, Steven Icke, Peter Giles.’’

Bamblett had 20 touches and kicked two goals in a 10-point loss. The following week he had 22 possessions and kicked one goal in a nine-point victory over Richmond. He played in nine of the next 10 games, then “fell away’’.

“I sort of got homesick,’’ he says.

“I was a bit overawed probably. Just wanted to go back to the country for a little while. Yeah, fell away. Best way to put it.’’

Bamblett was the only Indigenous player on the Melbourne list – at that time, he says, he counted fewer than 10 in the VFL, the most notable Maurice Rioli, the Krakouer brothers and Michael ‘Magic’ McLean – and racism was rife.

He first encountered it when he was playing for Lemnos and it continued when he hit league football.

He says he tried to treat the racial abuse as “water off a duck’s back’’, regarding it as a tactic to put him off his game.

“Being Aboriginal and being one-out at Melbourne, I struggled a little bit,’’ Bamblett says.

“You think about it now and it was a pretty big thing for a young bloke to go through.

“There probably wasn’t that support around me.’’

Ahead of the 1984 season Bamblett sought a clearance to Richmond, keen to play alongside the great Rioli and another Indigenous player, Phil Egan.

The clubs couldn’t come to an arrangement for the transfer. Meanwhile Brownlow medallist Graham Moss, coaching Claremont, flew to Melbourne intent on signing Bamblett.

He decided to go west. Bamblett trained with Claremont but he says there was a wrangle over his clearance. Lemnos might have got involved, he says.

O’Sullivan swooped, working out an agreement with Melbourne that sent a young ruckman, Steve O’Dwyer, to the Demons. O’Dwyer had been zoned to the Bulldogs.

O’Sullivan says he had to act fast after Melbourne secretary Dick Seddon gave him 24 hours to get the deal done.

“We wanted Les pretty badly,’’ he says. “Everyone knew about him. He’d showed that potential at Melbourne in his first year. We were pretty rapt to get hold of him.’’

Bamblett played four senior games for Footscray late in the 1984 season, kicking three goals against Carlton in Round 21.

Then came 1985.

“Exploded,’’ is how he puts his season.

Bamblett failed to kick a goal in only two of his 24 matches.

There were bags of five against Hawthorn, Collingwood and Geelong, and he slipped in for four goals against Essendon, Fitzroy and Sydney.

His performance against the Bombers earned him the Jack Daniel’s player-of-the-week gong in The Football Record.

Seventh with 11 wins and 11 losses in 1984, the Bulldogs jumped to second with a 16-6 record 12 months later. They hadn’t played finals since 1976. There was a buzz about them.

“Look at the team we had,’’ Bamblett says. “Brad Hardie in a back pocket, Doug Hawkins on a wing, Brian Royal roving, Simon Beasley and Jimmy Edmond in the forward line. Plenty of others as well. Real good team.’’

Bamblett enjoyed playing under Malthouse – “He told it as it was, Mick, never beat around the bush with things’’. And he liked playing alongside McLean, teammates becoming great mates.

Bamblett acknowledges he wasn’t the greatest trainer, saying he always struggled with the running. He was a footballer. He left shows of fitness to others.

“The long-distance stuff, that wasn’t my go, but the short stuff, I was always around the mark,’’ he says.

In fact, he was superbly quick off the mark and as elusive as campfire smoke. Defenders intent on tackling were instead often left groping.

Hawthorn spanked the Bulldogs by 97 points in the qualifying final, but they rallied with a 30-point victory over North Melbourne in the semi-final, Hawkins their inspiration with 25 kicks, 13 handballs and 10 marks.

That brought Footscray and Hawthorn together for the preliminary final and the right to play Essendon in the grand final.

t was a classic match at Waverley Park, Hawkins and Robert DiPierdomenico playing their own game on a wing, Hawkins as skilled as ‘Dipper’ was willed.

The Dogs led by eight points at quarter time, the Hawks by four points at the half and one point at the final change. They won by 10 points after a burst from Leigh Matthews.

O’Sullivan regards that season as one of his most enjoyable in his many years in football.

He particularly recalls the round five match at Western Oval, when the Bulldogs defeated Essendon on a bright, sunny day before a crowd of more than 33,000.
Coach Michael Malthouse celebrates with Footscray players after defeating reigning premiers Essendon at the Western Oval.
Coach Michael Malthouse celebrates with Footscray players after defeating reigning premiers Essendon at the Western Oval.

“I’ve had a good run in footy. That’s one of my best years, just for pure enjoyment on people’s faces at a club that hadn’t had much success,’’ O’Sullivan says.

“To see them coming to the footy thinking they were a real good chance to win every week, that was fantastic.’’

He says the Beasley-Bamblett forward combination was as productive as it was exciting.

They were opposites “but they got on like a house on fire’’.

“He was funny, Les. I’ve never seen a bloke standing with his legs crossed waiting for the play to come to him,’’ O’Sullivan chuckles.

“He always had his legs crossed then all of a sudden, whoosh, away he’d go.’’

He laughs again as he adds: “He didn’t like pre-season training, Les. He only liked training when the balls were out. Then he’d do his stuff.’’

Les Bamblett was 22 at the end of the 1985 season.

His future looked boundless. He was one of the best small forwards in the VFL.

But it turned out football had seen the best of him.

He injured his left knee in a practice match in the 1986 pre-season, played three games, then hurt the same knee in the quarter-final of a Foster’s Cup fixture against Fitzroy.

The 1987 season brought more injuries – knee trouble and then damage to an Achilles tendon – and again only three matches.

Ahead of 1988 ace Sun football reporter Penny Crisp noted Bamblett had trimmed down from 93kg to 84.5kg and had a “large streak of determination to have an injury-free run’’.

It didn’t happen. That season he again played only three games. And he never played again, leaving league football at the age of 25 with some words from Footscray team manager Steve Nash: “He was a fantastic player if and when he could get himself right.’’

Bamblett says he didn’t deal with his injuries well. He’d never had them until 1986 and they sapped his enjoyment of the game.

With each visit to the medical room he became less motivated.

“I’d never had an injury in my life and then all of a sudden I’m doing my Achilles and doing my knees … it was a hard time,’’ Bamblett says.

“Michael McLean was always good to be around but there wasn’t much for me from the club, the help sort of thing. But it had a lot to do with myself. I didn’t want to be around at that time. I sort of lost interest in footy. I found it hard to get going again.’’

He sometimes wonders how many games he would have played and how many goals he would have kicked if he stayed on the ground.

Money was starting to come into the game; there could have been a big contract for him down the road.

In 2019 Hawkins told the Herald Sun that Bamblett was “the only bloke to kick 50 goals in the VFL (when he was) only half-fit’’.

“His awareness was freakish, his speed lightning and his balance something else. Had he stayed fit, he could have been anything.’’

Teammate Steve MacPherson says Bamblett should be regarded as a “pioneering’’ footballer, noting he was one of the first Indigenous small forwards in the game.

The likes of Cyril Rioli and Eddie Betts played with the same spirit and sense of adventure, he says.

“Lightning quick, great goal sense, very hard to contain, ‘Lelly’,’’ MacPherson says.

“Everything he did was exciting. He was such an excitement machine.’’

[GVGjr]

Continued

Three weeks ago Michael McLean spoke about the racism he suffered in football. It made for rugged reading.

Les Bamblett copped “a fair bit of it’’, from opponents and from over the fence.

“It was one of those things, people trying to get under your skin and stop you playing well,’’ he says.

Where Jimmy Krakouer burned with anger about it, Bamblett met it with silence.

Krakouer bunched his fists to retaliate. Bamblett tried to strike his blows on the scoreboard.

But on the smaller suburban grounds, he heard the put-downs about the colour of his skin.

“Like I said, water off a duck’s back sort of thing, but in real terms it hurt. It really hurt you. I don’t think I did deal with it all that well. The only Aboriginal young man at Melbourne … it shouldn’t have been happening. Some weeks it was worse than others. Depended where you were playing. Somewhere like Collingwood, it was terrible.’’

He adds: “I didn’t take it to heart back then. I do now. Main thing was back them, I was playing VFL footy. Because I loved footy, I really did.’’

Bamblett is a quiet and modest man, but he leans forward and raises his voice slightly at the suggestion the game long ago embraced Indigenous footballers.

“Has it happened like that?’’ he says. “How many Indigenous coaches or assistant coaches are there? How many Indigenous recruiters are there? How many Indigenous people are involved in the clubs offices or the Under 18 system? Not many.

“People in what I call the ‘mainstream football’ don’t understand how our young kids work or think.

“If we want to keep taking the game forward, you would hope it could change for the better.’’

*****

Les Bamblett played little football after leaving Footscray.

One year a mate got him to play a few games for Maldon in country Victoria. He kicked three goals in one of them, enough to put his name back in the newspapers.

Ten years ago, in between working as a community sports development officer for Victorian Aboriginal Community Services and being the father to six children, he coached Fitzroy Stars in the Northern league and enjoyed it. They made the finals.

He is a Bulldogs supporter and follows them closely, just as supporters followed him closely – and joyously – in 1985, the year ‘Lelly’ Bamblett lit it up for Footscray.

[Ozza]

Cody Weightman is the 13th most accurate kick for goal in the game's history - for players who have had 50 shots or more.
He's kicked 84.35 for his career.

Tory Dickson is 2nd all time. Nick Larkey is 4th.

[EasternWest]

Cody Weightman is the 13th most accurate kick for goal in the game's history - for players who have had 50 shots or more.
He's kicked 84.35 for his career.

Tory Dickson is 2nd all time. Nick Larkey is 4th.

Tory Dickson, what a steal.

[Ozza]

Tory Dickson, what a steal.

Absolutely. 181.61 for Tory.

I'd also say with Cody....you don't see him missed the lot (ie. not scoring at all - which misses these stats altogether). He knows his distance/capabilities really well, and also almost never completely shanks one.

Would love for others to look more like Cody on their set shot approach.

[Sedat]

Would love for others to look more like Cody on their set shot approach.

I like the way he always seems to take his full allotment and catch his breath before making a shot at goal. He normally runs 100m to get to the ball and would be exhausted most times whenever he takes a shot. Some of our other players don't do this and rush their kicks while still sucking in the big breaths.

[GVGjr]

Tory Dickson, what a steal.

The amount of bagging he copped in the early days was unrelenting. A victim of being one of B-Macs picks.

[The Doctor]

The Round 16 goal kicking award is named after one of our favourite sons and 2017 equal leading goal kicker, Liam Picken.

Picken arrived at the Whitten Oval via the 2009 rookie draft where he was taken at pick 30. He had done pre-seasons previously with the Bulldogs and Collingwood where he was overlooked as a father/son recruit. He spent 4 years at Williamstown winning their B&F before coming to the Bulldogs at the mature age of 23. He would go on to play 198 games for us and kick 87 goals. For most of his career he was played in more dour defensive roles and by the end of 2014 I thought he was cooked. Enter Bevo who changed everything and turned him into a superstar proving what a genius he is and what a nong I am. In my view no one characterised the spirit and brilliance of our 2016 premiership more than Liam Picken. He kicked 8 goals in our 2016 finals series and for this supporter has indelibly stamped some of my favourite football memories in a lifetime of watching the Bulldogs. These include;

The Picken from behind mark. I thought he was going to fly out of the stadium. It happened right in front of me.
The crucial goal in the last 1/4 after the Wall of Biggs play.
The run down tackle on Rampe
The "It's Over, its all over" goal as he ran into the open goal in front of 1000's of delirious and adoring fans in a sea of red, white and blue at the Punt Rd end.

In case you need reminding, here is Mr September Liam Picken

https://www.google.com/search?q=liam...id:SWcwDhYTh2U

Goalkickers for Round 16 v Fremantle Shockers

Ugle-Hagan 4, Weightman 2, Naughton 2, English, Hannan, Bontempelli, Williams, Lobb, Macrae, McNeil, Dale

The Liam Picken medal goes to Jamarra


The Buster Beazer Leaderboard after Round 16

28. Naughton
21. Weightman
20. Jamarra
14. Lobb
11. Bont
10. Williams
9. Scott, English
8. Daniel
7. Macrae
6. Libba, Treloar
4. JJ, Arty
3. Baker, Smith, Hannan
2. McNeil
1. Garcia, McComb, Gardner, Richards, O'Donnell, West, Dale

Astro still leads but Flea and Jamarra are coming for him as they breakaway from the chasing pack. What a site it was to see Jamarra play like that. Those marks on the lead at full tilt. The mark over Darcy, Wow! Jack Macrae blasts past Libba & Adz and is now having his 3rd best ever goal kicking season. Go Jack! We, at last, welcome Bailey Dale to the leaderboard. Hopefully the floodgates open for him and he kicks 7 next week v Pies.

Did you know that late great Shane Warne ranked Liam Picken as his favourite player? So did our former CEO David Stevenson (now NBL CEO). Picken was also a 'Hard Nuts' ambassador for Australian Almonds. Here he is speaking about it and mercifully he doesn't sound anything like his cousin Jonathon Brown.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YUKg2efJJ8

Finally, I fondly recall the following day after our premiership being at the Whitten Oval. I dont know how I got there. My last memory before arriving was being at the casino at some ungodly hour and next thing you know I'm at WO with 30000 ecstatic Bulldogs fans. I know I didn't go home! The ovation Picken received when presented to the crowd was as magnificent as it was loud.

Thank you Billy.

[EasternWest]

Definitely our best player over the course of the four finals.

Another ripper write up, Doc.

[The Doctor]

For the Round 17 goal kicking award we go back down the time tunnel to the late 40's & early 50's. This week we honour another great full forward from the past, the great Bill Wood.

Bill Wood made his debut in Round 1 of the 1944 season and what a debut it was. He kicked 9.1 against those freakin toothless gits, Collingwood. Still the best goal kicking debut in our history. We could have used him last weekend against the same mob of toothless gits! He would go on to play 115 games and boot 294 goals. His best season was in 1947 when he kicked 75 majors from just 16 games. Wood would * (see below) also played centre when he felt his goal kicking wasn't right which he did for extended periods. So now I expect Jamarra to play centre next week. By the time his career ended in 1951 he was considered Footscray's greatest ever full forward until the legendary Jack Collins came along. Some ol' timers reckon Bill was better than Jack. Wood, despite the 70+ years since his retirement is ranked 11th on our all time goal kicking list.


Goalkickers for Round 17 v Toothless Gits

Weightman 4, Naughton 4, Ugle-Hagan 2, Poulter


The Bill Wood medal is shared by Aaron Naughton & Cody Weightman


The Buster Beazer Leaderboard after Round 17

32. Naughton
25. Weightman
22. Jamarra
14. Lobb
11. Bont
10. Williams
9. Scott, English
8. Daniel
7. Macrae
6. Libba, Treloar
4. JJ, Arty
3. Baker, Smith, Hannan
2. McNeil
1. Garcia, McComb, Gardner, Richards, O'Donnell, West, Dale, Poulter


Our top 3 have broken right away and the question now is can Flea or Jamarra catch Astro with 6 rounds to play & hopefully finals. So who will finish 4th? Can the Bont run down the Lobb? We welcome to the leader board Caleb Poulter. I just loved his tactic of running the wrong way early in the game. This confused his opponents so they let him run. Then later when he gathered heading towards goal his opponents obviously thought he would do a U-turn and so backed off. Realising he had them fooled he drilled it. Brilliant!

Did you know Bill Wood once kicked 28 goals out of 31 for his team in a game? Not for us but for South Sydney. It was during the war years. In those years Bill and many other Footscray players joined South Sydney or other teams. Football in Sydney surged in popularity as a result and as many as 10,000 people would rock up to Trumper Park in Paddington. Even war time Prime Minister John Curtin, a Footscray supporter, would attend games. I also have fond memories of Trumper Park. My son booted 4 goals on debut for the mighty East Sydney Bulldogs Auskick team!

* I like the 'Wood would' part of the sentence. It made me think of Edward Woodward, the actor who appeared in the movie Breaker Morant. Did you know that if you took the D away from his name it would be E-war Woo-war?

[bulldogtragic]

Geez, Bont kicks straight and he’s comfortably above Lobb! Not great reading for Rory.

[bornadog]

Top three with 79 goals - fantastic

[Go_Dogs]

Top three with 79 goals - fantastic

Naughton should end up around mid to high 40’s again which is great and Cody / Marra as younger players doing well too.

Lobb hasn’t quite had the impact I’d hoped he would.

Great stat that Naughton has foaled in each game. Feels like he’s had a “down” year based on vibe, but he’s probably been ok to good on balance. Maybe a big bag against WCE gets him to 50.