| 1936 THE GREATEST GAME EVER PLAYED? |
| 1936 Grand Final COLLINGWOOD 11.23.89 SOUTH MELBOURNE 10.18.78 Goals: Pannam 5, Todd 4, Knight 1, Kyne 1 Best Players: Pannam, Whelan, Kyne, Carmody, Todd, Fraser At MCG Crowd: 74,091 Collingwood Team: B: J. Crowe, J. Regan, B. Woods HB: J. Ross, K. Fraser, F. Froude C: J. Carmody, M. Whelan, L. Morgan HF: L. Riley, A. Kyne, V. Doherty F: J. Knight, R. Todd, A. Pannam FOLL.: A. Collier, P. Bowyer, H. Collier CAPTAIN: Harry Collier COACH: Jock McHale |
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| The 1936 season saw the continued dominance of Collingwood and South Melbourne. South won their first eight games and Collingwood had won 9 in a row when the two teams met in round 10 with South coming out victorious. But disaster was to strike Collingwood just before the finals. Star goalkicker Gordon Coventry was suspended for 8 weeks after retaliating on Richmond's Joe Murdoch who had been hitting him all day. The sentence was severe and provoked outrgae throughout Melbourne. Coventry had been a scrupoulously fair player in 17 years of senior football and a series of public demonstrations were held by football fans from all clubs demanding his sentence be revoked. There was even a motion passed in Parliament to that effect but the VFL powers were not for turning and Nuts bitterly announced his retirement - although he reappeared in 1937 and proceeded to top the VFL goalkicking again! Even without Coventry the Magpies managed to score a hard fought 13 point victory over South in a second semi final where both sides were strangely inaccurate. Two weeks later the same teams were to meet in a game that became known as "The Game of the Century". Collingwood opened like a house on fire and only inaccuracy kept South in it at half time. Ron Todd was a more than capable replacement for Coventry at full forward but in the second quarter he managed only 2.4 from six shots at goal. His efforts rubbed off on his team mates and the Magpies finished with 4.10 for the term to lead by 21 points when they could well have been 10 goals up and set for victory. After half time South worked their way into the game. Todd got the first goal but then South scored three in a row to be within 7 points at the final change. Early in the last quarter Dineen made the diference only one point and with world sprint champion Robertson dominating play around the ground South were looking likely winners. Two quick goals to Pannam stemmed the tide and then Pratt missed two easy shots to ease the pressure on the Woods. Pannam was dominant with 32 kicks and 5 goals but Todd could only manage 4.10 from 16 shots including two that missed completely. In the end the decisive factor in the game was probably unheralded centre half back Jack Ross who managed to tag Laurie Nash for the entire game and negate his influence on the match. The match had everything and lived up to its billing as the greatest game ever played. Pace, skills, high marking and some amazing individual efforts from players like Pannam and Robertson. When the final siren sounded the huge crowd stood and applauded Collingwood as worthy premiers by 11 points. Beating South twice in two finals appearances proved that the Magpies were clearly the better of two champion teams. |