THE GREATEST ...

Posted March 22, 200817 yr

THE GREATEST ... by Whispering Jack

The park in my neighbourhood is a popular haunt for walkers, joggers, runners and even elite athletes. One of its users, a woman in her sixties who is often seen shuffling around its perimeter, was once a champion athlete and is part of my tenuous link to a man who stands among the greatest Demons of them all. Her name is Adrienne Beames, the daughter of pint sized Melbourne rover Percy James Beames who died four years ago this week at the age of 92.

For those of my generation who grew up in the club's golden era of the fifties and sixties it's virtually a blasphemy to declare anyone other than Ronald Dale Barassi as the man to rightfully occupy the loftiest point in the stratosphere of the oldest football club which is about to celebrate its 150th year of existence. Barassi was a dynamic footballer whose steely-eyed determination, strength and courage swayed many a game in his team's favour. He was a true champion and played 204 games for the club including six winning grand finals in a decade - 1955, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1960 and 1964. He was captain of the last two premiership sides and, his departure to Carlton after the last, marked the beginning of Melbourne's steep decline from powerhouse to also ran.

When talk comes around to who was the greatest Demon of all time, there is never an issue in my mind - it has to be Barassi. There could never be any other in the past, certainly (with all due respect to Skipper David Neitz) no one in the present and none in the foreseeable future. There are some who hold out high hopes for a Brock McLean or even a Cale Morton (who makes his debut today) to one day step up and wrench away the mantle but, for now, that day remains a far off dream.

Recently however, I came across a book by Ken Piesse, "The Greatest Game" and read an article that caused me to somewhat rethink my position. The item was about the Norm Smith Medal – an award for the best man afield in a VFL/AFL Grand Final and the end result is that Percy Beames has been elevated considerably in my estimation.

The medal (ironically named after another Demon great who coached those premiership winning teams of the fifties and sixties and was Barassi's mentor) was inaugurated in 1979 but some newspaper writers got together later and compiled a retrospective list going back to the first VFL grand final in 1898 (there was no grand final under the system used by the VFL in its first season, 1897). Barassi featured as the best player in 1957 and 1959 but Percy Beames went one better and was judged to be best afield in three grand finals in a row from 1939 to 1941.

That's a feat that makes him unique among the thousands of footballers who have played among the elite of the sport in its entire history – a premier player in three premiership teams at the very highest level!

Percy Beames was born almost a century ago, on 27 July 1911, in Ballarat. He was a pint-sized rover (170cm, 70kg) and an all round sportsman who played over 200 games of both VFL football and District cricket – the only man to do so. He played 213 games for Melbourne between 1931 and 1944, captain-coached the club (1942-44), played in three premiership teams (1939-41), represented Victoria and was named in the Demons' team of the century as a forward pocket rover.

He also played 205 cricket matches for Melbourne and Victoria, averaging 51.5 in 18 matches for the state team including three centuries and a highest score of 226 not out against Tasmania in Launceston in 1938. Some say that, but for the advent of war, he would have gone on to higher honours; he might have had the privilege of batting with the great Donald Bradman in the Australian Test team.

Beames retired from playing football and cricket in 1945 and turned his hand to sports writing. Naturally, he became a high achiever in that field as well - he was the highly respected chief football and cricket writer with the Melbourne Age for thirty years until 1976. He was also a regular panellist on the ABC's legendary football programme, which featured icons of the early days of television's football broadcasting in the likes of Doug Bigelow, Thorold Merrett, "Chicken" Smallhorn, Doug Heywood and Tony Ongarello.

Percy Beames was a life member of the Melbourne Football Club, the Melbourne Cricket Club, the Australian Football Media Association and a member of the AFL Hall of Fame. They even named a bar after him in the MCC Members and he always remained an enthusiastic Demon fan. I recall sitting near to Percy on occasion in his later years watching games and sharing the odd nod of appreciation of a victory with him at the end of a game.

It is the same nod of appreciation that I still give his daughter Adrienne as she shuffles by in the course of doing her laps around the park near my home. You wouldn't know it now but almost 37 years ago, on 31 August 1971 she performed one of the greatest feats in the history of women's sport. On that day, she became the first woman ever to run a sub-three-hour marathon, smashing that barrier by almost a quarter of an hour with a time of 2:46:30. She inherited her father's sporting genes: both were winners in their time!

These days, we all move a little slower but her presence continues to serve a reminder to me of one of the club's greatest ever as it enters its 150th year – a man who rose to the occasion when it mattered most.

Percy Beames hasn't quite removed the great Ronald Dale Barassi from his high place on the pedestal of Demon sporting heroes that I established as a young boy. It's not really possible to replace the heroes of a childhood lived in such a golden era but in that time, Barassi was the epitome of a winner as was Percy in his time. Their combined accomplishments of five best on grounds in grand finals set the benchmark for the generations to come.

My point is that each was the greatest Demon of his time but too many of our heroes are from a time in the far too distant past.

As we enter our 150th year, will someone from the new generation step up, meet the challenge and stake his claim for the title of the greatest Demon of them all?

MELBOURNE'S TEAM OF THE CENTURY, 24 JUNE 2000

Full Back - Robert "Tassie" Johnson

Back Pocket (Rover) - John Beckwith

Back Pocket (Ruck) - Donald Cordner

Half Back Flank - Noel McMahen

Centre Half Back - Gary Hardeman

Half Back Flank - Don Williams

Wing - Brian Dixon

Centre - Allan La Fontaine

Wing - Robert Flower

Half Forward Flank - Hassa Mann

Centre Half Forward - Ivor Warne-Smith