Greatest ever Swan?

[Blood Fever]

It's hard for me to consider players I never actually saw play. So I'd say in the Sydney "era", Plugger, Adam, Kelly, Buddy & JPK in that order.
Just a pity Plugger and Buddy spent so much of their careers at lesser clubs. Most under rated ; Barry Hall.

Hall as good as any of them in the period 2003 -2006. Absolute matchwinner on many occasions.

[MightyBloods]

Best Swans Player Ever

My Dad introduced me to the Swans at the Lakeside Oval in 1964. My hero quickly became Bob Skilton, a small couragous player who could kick on both feet. I remember saying to my Dad before he passed away, "I never thought I'd say this but I've just seen another player better than Bob Skilton...it's Paul Kelly". The same Paul Kelly who I saw play his first game against Carlton at Princess Park …..I walked away from that game thinking that skinny Kelly kid on the wing is not tough enough...how wrong I was.
Next best Skilton, Lockett, Goodes, G Williams and Teasdale.
And of note, Bob Skilton has always said that the best Swans player he has played with was Max Papley….Tom's grandfather.

[bloodspirit]

Hall as good as any of them in the period 2003 -2006. Absolute matchwinner on many occasions.

While I am enjoying remembering and acknowledging our many champions, Barry Hall among them, are you seriously claiming that Bazza was as good as Plugger, even if only for a select window of his career?

And of note, Bob Skilton has always said that the best Swans player he has played with was Max Papley….Tom's grandfather.

So Bobby didn't agree with Scottee's dad about Ron Clegg being the best? Although Papley didn't come along until after Ron Clegg had finished playing. It says here - Max Papley - Wikipedia - that Papley played 59 games for us but most of his career in the VFA. Apart from Tom, Max had two other grandsons (i.e. Tom Papley's first cousins) who have played AFL: Ben and Michael Ross (who played for North & Hawthorn and EFC respectively).

Is that the first mention we have heard of Graham Teasdale? What can you tell us about him? I see he won a Brownlow in 1977 and played briefly for Richmond and Collingwood before and after he played for us. Otherwise I know nothing about the bloke except for some name recognition.

[stevoswan]

Is that the first mention we have heard of Graham Teasdale? What can you tell us about him? I see he won a Brownlow in 1977 and played briefly for Richmond and Collingwood before and after he played for us. Otherwise I know nothing about the bloke except for some name recognition.

Teasdale was part of the Pitura deal. Richmond had been trying to get John Pitura from us for ages and after Pitura threatened to challenge the league's clearance rules in court, the Swans relented and the Tigers came up with a deal that South happily accepted.....and it was a doosy. We won that deal by a mile.....here's how Wikipedia describes it:

"The trade saw Graham Teasdale, Brian (The Whale) Roberts and Francis Jackson come to South Melbourne. All three of them made an impact at their new club, Teasdale won the 1977 Brownlow, Roberts finished equal sixth in the 1975 Brownlow before walking out on the club and Jackson played 100 games. Pitura however struggled at Richmond and managed just three seasons. His last game was in the 1977 finals campaign where Richmond lost to North Melbourne in the Semi Final, having defeated Pitura's old club South Melbourne a week earlier in the Elimination Final."

It was the Deal of the Century for the Swans!

Regarding Teasdale, again from Wiki:

"Graham Teasdale (born 26 June 1955) is a former Australian rules football player who played for the Richmond Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) between 1972 and 1975, for the South Melbourne Football Club from 1975 to 1981 and then for the Collingwood Football Club from 1982 to 1984.

While at Richmond, Teasdale played mainly in the under 19s, where he was one of the leading goalkickers, and in the reserves side. But the move to the Swans in 1975 saw him establish himself as a senior player. In his best season, 1977, Teasdale won the South Melbourne best and fairest and the Brownlow Medal with the highest score of 59 votes."

I'll add to that.....he was a gun. Had a great spring, took some real speccies, was a very clever footballer and an excellent tap ruckman. I can't understand that Richmond could not see this.....and saw him only as trade bait.

Likewise, Pitura was a classy and clever footballer but seemed to lose his way at Richmond. I think the weight of expectation got to him.

Swans 3 Richmond 0.

[bloodspirit]

Hall as good as any of them in the period 2003 -2006. Absolute matchwinner on many occasions.

Teasdale was part of the Pitura deal. Richmond had been trying to get John Pitura from us for ages and after Pitura threatened to challenge the league's clearance rules in court, the Swans relented and the Tigers came up with a deal that South happily accepted.....and it was a doosy. We won that deal by a mile.....here's how Wikipedia describes it:

"The trade saw Graham Teasdale, Brian Roberts and Francis Jackson come to South Melbourne. All three of them made an impact at their new club, Teasdale won the 1977 Brownlow, Roberts finished equal sixth in the 1975 Brownlow before walking out on the club and Jackson played 100 games. Pitura however struggled at Richmond and managed just three seasons. His last game was in the 1977 finals campaign where Richmond lost to North Melbourne in the Semi Final, having defeated Pitura's old club South Melbourne a week earlier in the Elimination Final."

It was the Deal of the Century for the Swans!

Love it. Thanks, stevo. Did you see him play? What was he like? What was his role? Was he a midfielder? Rover?

What's our best deal so far this century? JPK and Benny McGlynn for a packet of chips? Buddy for free probably doesn't count because he was an RFA. Mitch Morton didn't play many games for us, but he came in handy at the right time.

[Blood Fever]

While I am enjoying remembering and acknowledging our many champions, Barry Hall among them, are you seriously claiming that Bazza was as good as Plugger, even if only for a select window of his career?



So Bobby didn't agree with Scottee's dad about Ron Clegg being the best? Although Papley didn't come along until after Ron Clegg had finished playing. It says here - Max Papley - Wikipedia - that Papley played 59 games for us but most of his career in the VFA. Apart from Tom, Max had two other grandsons (i.e. Tom Papley's first cousins) who have played AFL: Ben and Michael Ross (who played for North & Hawthorn and EFC respectively).

Is that the first mention we have heard of Graham Teasdale? What can you tell us about him? I see he won a Brownlow in 1977 and played briefly for Richmond and Collingwood before and after he played for us. Otherwise I know nothing about the bloke except for some name recognition.

Barry Hall was instrumental in us breaking a 72year hoodoo. Not my greatest Swan ever and not as good as Lockett, but for four years he led our resurgence from a reasonable team to a real heavyweight of the competition. He was problematic by the end of his time at the Swans but arguably had as positive an influence on the club as anyone in our history in terms of onfield performance.

[stevoswan]

Love it. Thanks, stevo. Did you see him play? What was he like? What was his role? Was he a midfielder? Rover?

I added more about him to my first post but he was a ruckman who also went forward. Not the tallest around but as I said in my edit, he possessed a tremendous leap. Hugely talented player that did far better with us than Pitura did with Richmond.....and yes, I saw him play, mainly on the tele but I did see him live a couple of times.

He is also famous for the suit he wore to the '77 Brownlow count when he won. Brown velour with ruffled white shirt.......I kid you not. .....but even with that suit, he was very charismatic and as you can see by the photo's, a good looking rooster.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_jVroA-VOVk/hqdefault.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CFc6jOPVIAAeHaB.jpg

[KSAS]

Just adding my memories of Teaser. I recall after round 2 of the 1977 season he had kicked 17 goals or thereabouts playing at full forward (against Essendon and Melbourne). He was then thrown into the ruck shortly after due to necessity as a result of injury to our ruck shots, where he shone immediately to go on & win the Brownlow. As stated above by Stevo, Teaser possessed a magnificent leap and I recall seeing him taking a big specky over Billy Picken (Collingwood) at the Lake Oval in 1978. He hanged for a long time on top of Picken's head like a kite! He came to us as a full forward also possessing a lovely long kick (torpedo specialist) and remember him walking back to his mark holding the footy in one hand with each set shot on goal. I also remember him having stints playing at full back during the 1976 season with some success. After the 1978 season his form slowly declined and by the time he went to Collingwood in 1982 he was shot having 2 bung knees.

Barry Round won the 1981 Brownlow playing in the ruck, so technically we had two Brownlow medalist ruckmen playing togetther! Barry Round is also another who could also enter into the conversation. He had a big heart and long career with us after crossing from Footscray for peanuts in 1976.

[bloodspirit]

Have Swans players won the most Brownlows? Not a record I'm keen to have. I'd rather have more flags. But it seems we've won an awful lot.

I just checked, and the answer is yes, Swans have won the most. Fourteen to be exact. Skilton x3, Goodes x2, Matthews, Round, Teasdale, Diesel (only once with us), Clegg, Goldsmith (not sure I've heard of Fred before), Bedford, Healy (we haven't talked about him and many of you will remember him - I know he's in the media now but he doesn't seem especially close to the club?), and Paul Kelly.

[KTigers]

Barry Hall was instrumental in us breaking a 72year hoodoo. Not my greatest Swan ever and not as good as Lockett, but for four years he led our resurgence from a reasonable team to a real heavyweight of the competition. He was problematic by the end of his time at the Swans but arguably had as positive an influence on the club as anyone in our history in terms of onfield performance.

I agree. Barry was an incredible player for us in that four year stretch. We were one lousy quarter away from the GF in 03, finals in
04, won in 05 and lost the 06 GF by a miserable point to some drug fuelled opponents (they don't call it "speed" for nothing). None
of that would have happened without the Baz. Sure, he's sullied his rep over the years doing and saying stupid stuff, and of course
he wasn't the only major contributor on the field during that period of sustained success, but man, he could play. It's possible that
no one from any team, ever, was as good as Plugger.

[goswannies]

Have Swans players won the most Brownlows? Not a record I'm keen to have. I'd rather have more flags. But it seems we've won an awful lot.

I had that stat as a source of pride as a kid ... that’s the main thing we had gong for us for many years. But I think in yesteryear stand out players in losing clubs often tended to get votes. We didn’t have much consistent onfield success for a long period. These days usually 3 votes goes to the winning side

I just checked, and the answer is yes, Swans have won the most. Fourteen to be exact. Skilton x3, Goodes x2, Matthews, Round, Teasdale, Diesel (only once with us), Clegg, Goldsmith (not sure I've heard of Fred before), Bedford, Healy (we haven't talked about him and many of you will remember him - I know he's in the media now but he doesn't seem especially close to the club?), and Paul Kelly.

The late Fred Goldsmith is one of the few full backs to win a Brownlow. One of many we recruited from Spotswood IIRC

Gerard Healy is quite pro Sydney & speaks fondly of the club. Collingwood tried to draft him after he retired. Glad that failed!

[Blood Fever]

Just adding my memories of Teaser. I recall after round 2 of the 1977 season he had kicked 17 goals or thereabouts playing at full forward (against Essendon and Melbourne). He was then thrown into the ruck shortly after due to necessity as a result of injury to our ruck shots, where he shone immediately to go on & win the Brownlow. As stated above by Stevo, Teaser possessed a magnificent leap and I recall seeing him taking a big specky over Billy Picken (Collingwood) at the Lake Oval in 1978. He hanged for a long time on top of Picken's head like a kite! He came to us as a full forward also possessing a lovely long kick (torpedo specialist) and remember him walking back to his mark holding the footy in one hand with each set shot on goal. I also remember him having stints playing at full back during the 1976 season with some success. After the 1978 season his form slowly declined and by the time he went to Collingwood in 1982 he was shot having 2 bung knees.

Barry Round won the 1981 Brownlow playing in the ruck, so technically we had two Brownlow medalist ruckmen playing togetther! Barry Round is also another who could also enter into the conversation. He had a big heart and long career with us after crossing from Footscray for peanuts in 1976.

Teasdale played one of the best games I have witnessed in 1977 when we beat Collingwood at Victoria Park, something almost unheard of in those days. Absolute marking domination. He only ever had played as a forward in his career and Ian Stewart threw him into the ruck early in the season as you rightly point out KSAS. We rode him all the way into the finals for only the second time in 32 years.

[Velour&Ruffles]

He is also famous for the suit he wore to the '77 Brownlow count when he won. Brown velour with ruffled white shirt.......I kid you not. .....but even with that suit, he was very charismatic and as you can see by the photo's, a good looking rooster.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_jVroA-VOVk/hqdefault.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CFc6jOPVIAAeHaB.jpg

Imagine that!

[The Big Cat]

On John Pitura, when he was at South he was possibly the best player I have ever seen in the Red and White. Played off half back and just had the ball on a string with a long left boot.

The same thing happened to him at Richmond as what happened to Capper when he went to the Bears. The other players resented his big salary and played around him rather than use him. In Pitura's case there, there was also a lot of resentment around the fact that the club had cleared out three popular and well-loved players, especially "The Whale" who the other players loved. The same thing happened at Essendon when they cleared out heart-and-soul-of-the-club Stephen Carey and another solid clubman in Peter Bradbury to bring in the flashy Mike Richardson from the Pies and Geoff Raines from Richmond.

BTW at the time, South only had a couple of thousand members and the Richmond board actually debated buying enough South memberships the take over the club and simply clear Pitura to the Tigers.

[Blood Fever]

On John Pitura, when he was at South he was possibly the best player I have ever seen in the Red and White. Played off half back and just had the ball on a string with a long left boot.

The same thing happened to him at Richmond as what happened to Capper when he went to the Bears. The other players resented his big salary and played around him rather than use him. In Pitura's case there, there was also a lot of resentment around the fact that the club had cleared out three popular and well-loved players, especially "The Whale" who the other players loved. The same thing happened at Essendon when they cleared out heart-and-soul-of-the-club Stephen Carey and another solid clubman in Peter Bradbury to bring in the flashy Mike Richardson from the Pies and Geoff Raines from Richmond.

BTW at the time, South only had a couple of thousand members and the Richmond board actually debated buying enough South memberships the take over the club and simply clear Pitura to the Tigers.

Richmond very arrogant in that era. Starting to happen again.