Greatest ever Swan?

[bloodspirit]

Is Peter Blucher the "club historian" who has prepared various articles for the Swans website (e.g. about the draft The Draft: A red and white history (Part 1) (sydneyswans.com.au) or the one about our origins cited earlier in this thread: Our history: South Melbourne foundations (sydneyswans.com.au)), the same player manager who:

(a) was stripped of accreditation for 12 months for his involvement in Tippett's dodgy deal with the Crows and for not representing his client's best interests and behaving professionally: Tippett's manager banned for at least 12 months (afl.com.au)

(b) was secretly recorded by Joel Wilkinson in 2016 saying that club's were hesitant to recruit him because they believed he grandstanded about racism: ‘Just shut up’: Secret recording suggests anti-racism stance limited Wilkinson’s career (theage.com.au).

I'm inclined to assume it is all the same person unless someone can contradict that.

[bloodspirit]

I can't find any primary evidence for a merger between Albert Park and Emerald Hill in 1867 - the contemporaneous birth announcement of the Albert Park club suggests otherwise.




Nah, at best you can say the current club was half born from the Cecil club.
The 1880 amalgamation between Albert Park and South Melbourne (nee Cecil) is well documented.

And given that that the only thing that survives from the 1880 amalgamation to the present day, are the red-and-white Albert Park colours, then it looks very much like the current club is more connected to Albert Park than Cecil.

1867 is a better birthdate than 1874 - QED


PS
Albert Park was founded in a pub, the Cecil club in a temperance hall - As a fellow that likes a tipple now and then I find the idea of starting a footy team in the latter to be a distinctly un-Australian thing to do.
Cheers!

PPS All this Latin reminds me of some of the conversations that rolled about on RWO in earlier days.

RnR, apart from not being able to independently verify that there was a merger between Albert Park and Emerald Hill in 1867, do you accept or disagree with the history recounted by Peter Blucher in Our history: South Melbourne foundations?

[Ruck'n'Roll]

RnR, apart from not being able to independently verify that there was a merger between Albert Park and Emerald Hill in 1867, do you accept or disagree with the history recounted by Peter Blucher in Our history: South Melbourne foundations?

I can't find any evidence of a merger in 1867 at all. And the clubs birth announcement in 1867 club formation meeting involved "A meeting of gentlemen desirous of forming a football club on Emerald-hill was held on Tuesday last, at the Rose of Denmark Hotel, Napier-street, Emerald-hill"
Earliest merger mentions I can find were 1875 and 1876.

He's a little date shy, and his description of the 1869 sgm makes no sense to me, but it's quite a good account of the Pre VFA period.

[TheBloods]

Clearly not enough of you saw Bob play in the flesh

[bloodspirit]

Clearly not enough of you saw Bob play in the flesh

Did you? What can you tell us about him?

[Sandridge]

Clearly not enough of you saw Bob play in the flesh

I did and it's impossible to overstate how good he was and what he meant to South Melbourne supporters. An absolute champion player and human being.

If I remember correctly, he retired at the end of 1971 so you'd have to be 50+ to have seen him play!

[TheBloods]

Did you? What can you tell us about him?

i did not watch him when he won his first 2 brownlows but i saw him win his third and lets just say there was no surprise he'd won 2 already. Every single week he was in the best few blokes on the ground , constant running and handball chains. Tiny bloke but did everything with power, huge strides, long handballs like he was Polly Farmer , thumping kick , always knew where to put the ball , tough as nails , would get piledrived by a few blokes and still be the one to get up and win the ball back . Very difficult to tackle ,

Doesnt get the love that blokes like Lethal and KB get because they kicked bags every week , well let me tell you Skilton could've if he wanted to but he was giving off as many as he was kicking himself ! Selfless most courageous player ive ever seen . Wife and I moved to NSW in 70 and he retired the year after , funny how things work out

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you'd have to be 50+ to have seen him play!

Say it louder why don't you lol

[Bangalore Swans]

Adam Goodes. The most versatile player in AFL history. Played ruck, inside midfield, outside midfield, key forward, key back, half forward flank.

Played all positions at elite level.

Apart from Lance Franklin and Anthony Koutifidies probably the best ever pure athlete to play the AFL game.

[Matty10]

I can't find any evidence of a merger in 1867 at all. And the clubs birth announcement in 1867 club formation meeting involved "A meeting of gentlemen desirous of forming a football club on Emerald-hill was held on Tuesday last, at the Rose of Denmark Hotel, Napier-street, Emerald-hill"

The question then remains, what happened to the Emerald-hill Football Club that was playing in 1866 (potentially back from 1859)? There does not seem to be any reference to the club in 1867, but then the South Melbourne Football Club that forms in 1867 then changes its name to Emerald-hill in 1868.

[Roadrunner]

Adam Goodes. The most versatile player in AFL history. Played ruck, inside midfield, outside midfield, key forward, key back, half forward flank.

Played all positions at elite level.

Apart from Lance Franklin and Anthony Koutifidies probably the best ever pure athlete to play the AFL game.

Bangalore, Goodsey, Buddy and Kouta are among the greatest, for sure. But Bobby Skilton was in a class on his own.
Unfortunately, unlike The Bloods, you didn’t see him play

[Sandridge]

i did not watch him when he won his first 2 brownlows but i saw him win his third and lets just say there was no surprise he'd won 2 already. Every single week he was in the best few blokes on the ground , constant running and handball chains. Tiny bloke but did everything with power, huge strides, long handballs like he was Polly Farmer , thumping kick , always knew where to put the ball , tough as nails , would get piledrived by a few blokes and still be the one to get up and win the ball back . Very difficult to tackle ,

Doesnt get the love that blokes like Lethal and KB get because they kicked bags every week , well let me tell you Skilton could've if he wanted to but he was giving off as many as he was kicking himself ! Selfless most courageous player ive ever seen . Wife and I moved to NSW in 70 and he retired the year after , funny how things work out

Great summary of Skilts, TB!

In an era of very limited success for South Melbourne, he was the rock that we Bloods supporters clung to. Easily the best player of any club in his time, he was ours!

I'm so glad to be able to say that I was there in 1970 when he ran onto the MCG for his only finals appearance. Unfortunately, that didn't end well but at least the club sent him off in style a year later. In his final game - the last game of 1971 - we beat North Melbourne by a whopping 72 points!

[crackedactor 01]

My dear old dad died several years ago, but he has seen Lockett and Goodes both play the game. He always insisted over the years that L J Nash was the best player he ever saw. Played in 1933 premiership team so very little footage of him.

[poundpuppy]

Great summary of Skilts, TB!

In an era of very limited success for South Melbourne, he was the rock that we Bloods supporters clung to. Easily the best player of any club in his time, he was ours!

I'm so glad to be able to say that I was there in 1970 when he ran onto the MCG for his only finals appearance.

I was there too and will always remember him trudging off the ground holding a bottle of champagne someone must have given him ... just broke my heart!

[Bangalore Swans]

Bangalore, Goodsey, Buddy and Kouta are among the greatest, for sure. But Bobby Skilton was in a class on his own.
Unfortunately, unlike The Bloods, you didn’t see him play

Just watched some YouTube of Skilton. Looks like an amazing player. His left foot looks very much like Jordan Dawson’s. He looked like he was just as good on his right foot. His creative use of handball looks as good as a Greg Williams or a Tom Mitchell. He looks like he attacks the ball as hard as a Joel Selwood.

Obviously a player who can kick like Dawson (on both feet) use handball like Williams, and attack the ball like Selwood is going to be an all time great.

[Ruck'n'Roll]

The question then remains, what happened to the Emerald-hill Football Club that was playing in 1866 (potentially back from 1859)? There does not seem to be any reference to the club in 1867, but then the South Melbourne Football Club that forms in 1867 then changes its name to Emerald-hill in 1868.

And then in 1869 it plays as Albert Park, after a preseason meeting where the partisans in favour of the name South Melbourne and Emerald Hill fought a nill all draw that resulted in the change of name to Albert Park.

I think there is definitely continuity prior to 1867. The 1866 team looks to me like it was absorbed into the club that formed in 1867 - the 1867 club's president and several notable players were a part of the 1866 Emerald Hill teams.

Further back information get's scarcer and scarcer. things get a bit hard to interpret, but I'm confident taking the original Emerald Hill club back to 1863 - Rob Hess book "A National Game" claims 1860. Which is remarkable given the famous Scotch v's Grammar game only happended in 1858.

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Just watched some YouTube of Skilton. Looks like an amazing player.

You may or may nt have noticed some drops and stab kicks in the highlights.