1971 Grand Final

[loris]

Bob Keddie was my next door neighbour that year.......... so the pain of my suffering was exponential

About the only relief I gained ...... Keddie was a nice bit of 'eye candy' to perve on from behind the kitchen curtains

[Dr Spaceman]

Keddie was a nice bit of 'eye candy' to perve on from behind the kitchen curtains

Surely women didn't do that sort of thing back in the early 70s

[Schillaci]

From memory Gary Colling was on him, and I think went with him in the last quarter to Full Forwrd when he kicked those goals.

Unbelievable that team only made one G.F.

I was a newly born babe but have heard the story by the elders in my clan many a time. Keddie it was and Colling who played on him...or Captain Custard as he became known in my family... when I was going to the footy a number of years later with my dad, uncle and grandfather who had the '71 memories as we watched number 12 (if memory serves me right) butcher the play.

[loris]

Keddie was a nice bit of 'eye candy' to perve on from behind the kitchen curtains

Surely women didn't do that sort of thing back in the early 70s

C'mon 'Spacey'........... 'twas the years of our liberation And you'll be pleased to know age has only honed my skill and I'm brazen enough not to peek from behind the curtains these days. Just a pity the eyesight is dimming though

[Stephen Theodore]

I'm glad this game's being revisited. My oldies always raved about it as one of the best ever but, at least for me, it's always been usurped by other far less interesting games. Having seen video of it and read a lot about it, it's always escaped me why it was left of the 'greatest' lists. Perhaps it's always suffered for it's proximity to Carlton's comeback the year before. AFL history is weird like that. The 1990 GF was really ordinary but because it was the Pies first in a while it's feted as some kind of super game. 89 gets kudos but, really, despite Ablett's heroics, they were never REALLY going to mow down the Hawks after being blown apart. etc etc.

I reckon your oldies are right. Other than the heartbreak of the loss, it was a classic game played in slippery wet conditions, and easily the toughest game I have ever seen. Commentators talk about Big Carl as a tough player, and he was, but beleive me, players like Barry Lawrence, Cowboy Neale, Leight Matthews, Ian Bremner, Don Scott & Glenn Elliott were also tough as teak players. They played to the rules of the day, and what happened on the field stayed on the field. I cant remember anyone from that era suffering too badly from the odd whack (except Greening)

[Sainternist]

Like Little Dozer, I wasn't born until the late 70's.

It must be awful for supporters who endured 1971 and then 2009?

Sounds like the both games were quite similar in some respects. In both GF's we had some really good opportunities to put them away, but couldn't capitalise

[poatina]

Is this wrong ? I wasn't QUITE as shattered by the loss as I should have been becasue my hero Barry Lawrence towelled up P Hudson when moved on him , and was BOG .
It's a bit like pretending to be as upset as everyone else when the team you're playing in loses but you've played a ( rare ) blinder .

[St. Luke]

I can't help but get sick of the close games.

This season we just need to hold our nerve and hit em harder than ever before. For some strange reason i can see us making the Prelim, but can't see what happens after that. Personally I think we'll pull a rabbit out of the hat and turn the comp on its ear this finals series.

To me the Hawks are the danger side, but we wouldn't meet them until the Granny (should we get that far). Love September!!! and we're here again!

[saintbrat]

http://bigpondvideo.com/AFL/385481/the- ... 1-preview/

[saintbrat]

reminder

[stevie]

I can't help but get sick of the close games.

This season we just need to hold our nerve and hit em harder than ever before. For some strange reason i can see us making the Prelim, but can't see what happens after that. Personally I think we'll pull a rabbit out of the hat and turn the comp on its ear this finals series.

To me the Hawks are the danger side, but we wouldn't meet them until the Granny (should we get that far). Love September!!! and we're here again!

We'll be playing them in week 2 if we win and they lose first up

[saintbrat]

DVD available
The Final Story - 40 Years on DVD

Featuring the 1971 Grand Final between St Kilda and Hawthorn and including over 50 minutes of unseen footage, The Final Story-40 Years On, is the first in a series of four documentaries produced by AFL Media's renowned filmmaker Peter Dickson to commemorate the 1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001 Grand Finals.
The 1971 game was one of the toughest and most gripping premiership deciders in the game's history. It was punctuated by a number of fearsome collisions, none more brutal than when Saints hard-man Kevin 'Cowboy' Neale flattened Hawthorn's champion full-forward Peter Hudson during the first quarter. This special edition DVD also features the final interview granted by St Kilda's 1971 coach Allan Jeans.
You can purchase your copy by calling the Saints Locker on (03) 9559 6671, or clicking here.

[mr six o'clock]

knowing john bonney and seeing his gnarled hands , I now know how he got them .
I was too young to see him play but i've seen him in a few clips on youtube , he never talks much about his games of footy , but the stories he has told me about the things him and others used to get up to are hilarious . so it was great to see him having a go at don scott who looked to be about a foot taller than him .
Carn't wait till the next time i see him

[I Love Peter Kiel]

I wasn't going to watch this but ended up doing so. An awesome film...really captured the era....Melbourne in the early '70s.

Poignant ending with 'Kanga' Kennedy and 'Yabby' Jeans sitting together...probably this year, and shaking hands.
Both fierce competitors but obviously huge respect there.

Footage of the actual game, some colour interspersed with the black and white TV coverage, was vivid. Actually, I found it incredibly moving.

Also, I didn't know that Ditterich was flattened in the 3rd quarter...a huge factor in Hawthorn's last quarter comeback.

[Superboot]

Like Little Dozer, I wasn't born until the late 70's.

It must be awful for supporters who endured 1971 and then 2009?

Sounds like the both games were quite similar in some respects. In both GF's we had some really good opportunities to put them away, but couldn't capitalise

The games were similar in the sense that the only way I'll ever get over them is for dementia to set in, and with any luck I'll have little long term memory left.

They were different in that in 1971 the top team prevailed whereas in 2009 the top team threw it away.

[bergsone]

I was 15 at the time, remember walking out of the G ,thinking we will win it in the next year or two

[stevie]

71, 81 and 01 were all great games but 91 seems to be the runt. Totally forgettable except it was at Waverley

[Saints7]

available from the Club now too

https://secure.shopdesq.com/index.cfm?f ... OrgID=1709

[asaint]

Watched it. Captured the emotions wonderfully. I felt gutted after watching it even tho I was only a kid at the time and do not remember it. Another one that got away.