Drop Kicks

[hemingway 7,615]

On 12/31/2020 at 9:19 AM, Deemania since 56 said:

As a young fella struck with the dreaded 'left foot' dominance, I was fortunate to have my Dad speak to one of his students - Bill Barrot - who turned up at our home on several occasions in the late afternoon to teach me how to drop kick in Central Park, Malvern. That drop kick technique was awesome. It evolved rather rapidly into a pleasing left foot stab pass that, over the succeeding few years, became a 40-50 metre bullet, so I had many opportunities to feed leading full forwards with a variety of teams in the 'local' leagues from then on. The rules were simple: keep your nose over the ball and follow through (1) with the thigh and (2) then with the straightening of the knee, foot rigidly plantar flexed. All I had to do then was to make the whole kick as smooth as possible. Tassy Johnson was the best exponent of the drop kick imaginable and as Demons3031 has iterated, his full back kick out at the 'G always made the centre circle zone or frequently, almost to the CHF zone. Hassa exploited this regularly, moving laterally and then doubling-back to a pre-determined target area. The drop punt, in my mind, ruined it all, including the torp, the place kick and the flick pass. Progress is sometimes a negative but there were compensations from the changes, no doubt. 

Bernie Massey’s drop kicks were also prodigious kicking out as Full Back. 

[hemingway 7,615]

On 12/31/2020 at 9:01 AM, Dee Dee said:

The drop kick to execute properly takes a fraction more time and players leave themselves open to being run down or to miss kicking!                                                                  It’s still used extensively in rugby union and on occasion in American football.                        And as far as I can remember, Billy Barrott playing for Richmond was probably the best.

Billy’s drop kicks on the run were something else. 

[Demons3031 372]

2 hours ago, hemingway said:

Bernie Massey’s drop kicks were also prodigious kicking out as Full Back. 

I always felt we were double blessed having both Bernie and Tassie J in the side at the same time-for so many reasons.

Edited January 1, 2021 by Demons3031
spelling

[chook fowler 19,266]

We’ve had plenty of drop kicks in our teams over the years.

[Dee Dee 1,103]

33 minutes ago, chook fowler said:

We’ve had plenty of drop kicks in our teams over the years.

Yes, but could they kick??!

[ManDee 7,124]

2 hours ago, chook fowler said:

We’ve had plenty of drop kicks in our teams over the years.

But more in the stands. Plenty here too.

[hemingway 7,615]

On 12/31/2020 at 4:47 PM, Demons3031 said:

You are right about those players Hemingway- but they seem to have been effective-even Brian Dixon's awkward kicks seemed to be well placed. Thinking back, if he hadn't done that mongrel punt in 1964 that was too high for Barassi to mark, the ball might never have spilled the way of Neil Crompton. :)  They were great days weren't that-Geoff Tunbridge-No 23-what a flanker...and Athol Webb at full forward  

We used to sit upstairs in Bay 13 with Dad. A guy with a hessian bag used to sell brown paper bags of peanuts-which people would shell and eat (and leave the mess). The boy yelling "Hot Dogs, Meat Pies" and another selling "Lollies and Potato chips". Dad used to park in Richmond off Punt Rd in one of the side streets-probabaly to save a bit of money. Men would buy or bring bottles of beer (in the days before cans) until Umpire Ron Brophy was hit in the back by a half empty bottle one day. At various grounds, men would bring wooden boxes/crates that used to hold soft drink and the like, to stand on in the outer-especially if you could only get Standing room tickets in the finals. Those were the days!  What was  your favourite spot to sit and watch  Hemingway?

First level Public seating in the old Olympic (northern) Stand.

I did not see my father much during the week but he always took me to the footy with his footballing mates. They were otherwise unconnected and all worked in different occupations. But they loved meeting at the footy. With a thermos of red Ned and also a thermos of coffee topped up with brandy to wash down the rock cakes. I remember the smell of the brandy always turned heads. When not at the MCG which always seemed luxurious, it was standing on beer tins in the outer at the suburban grounds. What a cultural experience! Drunkenness , fights and abuse from home ground fans. I first heard and learnt swear words and I think I heard the F word for the first time at Victoria Park. 

But being a young boy surrounded by my Dads footy mates, I felt safe and I felt like an adult. My whole week was thinking about the game on Saturday. By the time Saturday band around my excitement was palpable. 

Back to the MCG, the Smokers Stand seemed distant and not a place to aspire to. Stuck up, snobbish and rule bound. 

I remember one match when I was invited into the Ladies Stand/ Grey Smith Stand, with my view obscured by a post, surrounded by ladies with their blankets, the wives of the Smokers. I felt completely out of place and hated it. I could not wait to return to the Northern Stand with my fathers mates. 

[Nelo 813]

When I think of drop kicks I think of Daniel Andrew’s. 

[Demonstone 21,859]

6 minutes ago, Nelo said:

When I think of drop kicks I think of Daniel Andrew’s. 

That's funny, I think of people who don't know how to use apostrophes.  

[picket fence 16,704]

TASSIE JOHNSON EXCELLENT !!Paul Rowlands Full back in the early 70ts was an excellent Drop Kick

Edited January 1, 2021 by picket fence

[waverleyheartbreak 78]

Billy Barrot used to do them as party tricks at Oakleigh in his later years, amazing to watch!

[hemingway 7,615]

Just now, picket fence said:

Paul Rowlands Full back in the early 70ts was an excellent Drop Kick

Sadly, he was an absolute liability at Full Back. Every time he went for the ball,  supporters had their heart in their mouths. Good physique but no intensity or footy brains. Used to call him Rollo. 

[daisycutter 29,343]

1 hour ago, ManDee said:

But more in the stands. Plenty here too.

i think the filth fans win the dropkick award, closely followed by the ferals 

[Demonstone 21,859]

My brother reckons that "dropkick" is a shortened version of the rhyming slang "dropkick and punt", which puts quite a different complexion on the use of the word as a descriptor of somebody.

[Winners at last 5,164]

4 hours ago, demonstone said:

That's funny, I think of people who don't know how to use apostrophes.  

Nothing worse than blatant apo's'trop'he abu's'e !!! 

[bush demon 2,010]

Was this 65 yards?

 

[Willmoy1947 3,971]

On 12/31/2020 at 3:37 PM, Demons3031 said:

Was that near the railway line near Alamein Willmoy?

Sure was Nicholas Street and hop the back fence

[Willmoy1947 3,971]

22 hours ago, chook fowler said:

We’ve had plenty of drop kicks in our teams over the years.

"where we would say good, evil is present" slight poetic license..

[Farmer 821]

On 12/30/2020 at 3:04 PM, Demons3031 said:

This is probably one for some of us more mature Demons-but what are your memories of players skilled and proficient with drop kicks.? I have wonderful memories of the great Tassie Johnson kicking out from goal and consistently landing them around the centre circle. And the roving Ian Ridley seems to relish the drop kick as well. I have a feeling Trevor Johnson maybe?? Keen to hear others memories. With other clubs, I remember Billy Barrot for Richmond and perhaps Fred Swift at Full back and Geelong CHB named Walker?

It shows that I am seriously old. None of you have mentioned Stuart Spencer.  Melbourne champion rover from 1950-56. Drop kicked it 65 metres every time on the left foot. I saw his first game v Carlton R1 of 1950 and he was my hero thereafter, till he left to operate a service station in his native Tassie . Best rover in the VFL, twice winner of the Bluey, yet he left for the money. In his biggest games v Collingwood  was Thorold Merrett, who kicked the most lethal stab kicks . 

 

The year after Norm  Smith was sacked, must have been 1966, Max Walker took a mark 50 metres out and slotted a goal with a drop kick. I recall it well because Smithy was sitting a few seats away and he forecast that Max would kick it . So despite Barassi, Dixon etc and the suggestion that coaches frowned upon the drop kick It was still being used as an accurate kick for goal at that time.

And now for a curve ball.!!! Have any on this site watched Reece Hodge  kicking goals with place kicks for the Wallabies?Sure he missed a couple of critical ones v Argentina , but he slotted one from 55m and his overall accuracy was 80 percent plus. I’m certain the place kick is the most accurate of all. It makes sense. The ball  is stationery  when one kicks it 
As the Coodabeens would say “ just think about it”?

[Demonstone 21,859]

Stuart Spencer wasn't from Tasmania!

[george_on_the_outer 7,434]

On 12/31/2020 at 4:26 PM, Demon_spurs said:

Q. (And I don't know the answer), who was the last person to kick a drop kick in the AFL/VFL in a game? 

For @old dee and @hemingway there are a few clips that they would remember....

and perhaps the last players, Alistair Lynch, Moorcroft....who last kicked one seriously in a game?

https://www.afl.com.au/video/32505/myth-breakers-what-happened-to-the-drop-kick?videoId=32505&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1420484400001

 

 

Edited January 2, 2021 by george_on_the_outer

[Demons3031 372]

On 1/2/2021 at 12:11 PM, willmoy said:

Sure was Nicholas Street and hop the back fence

We were were only a few streets apart-we should have organized a match down at Watson Park!LOL Do you remember the time the train went too far and hit the buffers at Alamein station and almost knocked them out of the ground? I remember once walking the track you played on down to Gardiners Creek...and probably then looked for golf  balls. I had a couple of teaching colleagues up here in Wangaratta,  who lived in Ashburn Ave back in Ashy in their youth.-one of whom was John McKenzie? Another colleague up here was Terry Magree - his parents owned the Milk Bar next to the Civic theatre in the early to mid 1950's.

[Demons3031 372]

20 hours ago, Farmer said:

It shows that I am seriously old. None of you have mentioned Stuart Spencer.  Melbourne champion rover from 1950-56. Drop kicked it 65 metres every time on the left foot. I saw his first game v Carlton R1 of 1950 and he was my hero thereafter, till he left to operate a service station in his native Tassie . Best rover in the VFL, twice winner of the Bluey, yet he left for the money. In his biggest games v Collingwood  was Thorold Merrett, who kicked the most lethal stab kicks . 

 

The year after Norm  Smith was sacked, must have been 1966, Max Walker took a mark 50 metres out and slotted a goal with a drop kick. I recall it well because Smithy was sitting a few seats away and he forecast that Max would kick it . So despite Barassi, Dixon etc and the suggestion that coaches frowned upon the drop kick It was still being used as an accurate kick for goal at that time.

And now for a curve ball.!!! Have any on this site watched Reece Hodge  kicking goals with place kicks for the Wallabies?Sure he missed a couple of critical ones v Argentina , but he slotted one from 55m and his overall accuracy was 80 percent plus. I’m certain the place kick is the most accurate of all. It makes sense. The ball  is stationery  when one kicks it 
As the Coodabeens would say “ just think about it”?

Like me Farmer.. I think I saw Stuart Spencer once or twice I think in 1955-6 when he paired with Ian Ridley.  According to Demonwiki, 82 goals between them in 1956!If I remember, Denis Cordner might still have been playing and Peter Marquis. :)

[Farmer 821]

12 hours ago, demonstone said:

Stuart Spencer wasn't from Tasmania!

U are correct. His wife was . But he adopted Tassie and dominated football there.i think he captained the only Tassie team which beat the Vics in 1960. There must be footage of him and his dropkicking 

[Willmoy1947 3,971]

16 hours ago, Demons3031 said:

We were were only a few streets apart-we should have organized a match down at Watson Park!LOL Do you remember the time the train went too far and hit the buffers at Alamein station and almost knocked them out of the ground? I remember once walking the track you played on down to Gardiners Creek...and probably then looked for golf  balls. I had a couple of teaching colleagues up here in Wangaratta,  who lived in Ashburn Ave back in Ashy in their youth.-one of whom was John McKenzie? Another colleague up here was Terry Magree - his parents owned the Milk Bar next to the Civic theatre in the early to mid 1950's.

A lot to catch up on there. I remember the Civic, Grey/ blue building and sort of art deco. No wonder i couldn't find any balls, every man and his dog were after them. Was that Terry Magee, sort of tall bloke, pretty  quiet. And i do remember that train going through there...the Alamain express...for some reason or other. Knocked those buffers and probably stopped it from crossing the road and down around the corner.