Unforgettable Characters in Football A series of articles written by H.A.de Lacy during the 1941 VFL football season and published in The Sporting Globe. Peter Burns Henry “Tracker” Young Albert Thurgood Henry “Ivo” Crapp Dick Lee Syd and Gordon Coventry Roy Park Jack Worrall Ivor Warne-Smith Hughie James Percy Parratt & Jimmy Freake Horrie Clover Roy Cazaly Alan and Vic Belcher Vic Cumberland Tom Fitzmaurice Rod McGregor Dave McNamara Albert Chadwick PETER BURNS Greatest Player Game Has Produced May 3, 1941 – https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/180297522 When I walked into the South Melbourne training room on Thursday night and asked a group of old timers, "Did any of YOU fellows play with Peter Burns when he was here?'' work stopped. Billy Windley left off lacing a football. "Joker" Hall allowed the compress on Eric Huxtables ankle to go cold, and Jim O'Meara walked across the room with a pencil sticking out of the side of his mouth, while one of the present-day Southern stalwarts stood half naked Waiting for the guernsey that Jim carried away in his hand. I had struck a magic chord collectively and individually all three said play with Peter — he was the greatest player the game has produced and a gentleman in all things." Well it was certainly nice to have them unanimous about It. and so definite too. I wanted Information and I got it in one hot blast of enthusiasm. Peter Burns — what a man; what a footballer, they all agreed. Today in the South Melbourne room working side by side at the moulding of a younger side. "Joker” Hall is head trainer, Billy Windley is ball steward and Jim O’Meara property steward. But when I mentioned Peter Burns they dropped their duties as one man and were players once again in our grand game — players beside their stalwart, Peter. Grandest of Them All JOKER has a way all his own in describing a footballer. He goes shrewd all over, and his enthusiasm sparkles through the slits to which he narrows his eyes, "Peter—he was the grandest of them all. He and Thurgood, Remember him? Could I ever forget him? He had the game sewn up, He could do anything, and I mean anything, kick, mark or run, a footballer every inch of him. And Joker went back to his cold compress. But Bill Windley wasn’t satisfied "I can’t remember a better player as they come," he said. "He was a marvellous mark, and he usually took them high above the pack on his chest. He could place kick them from the centre, they cheered him when he first put the ball down away out near the centre, but they cheered when he sank his boot home. He was a gentleman too. They could Skyrocket him over the pickets, and he took it without a growl. "The funniest sight I can remember was little Harry Purdy, the smallest man on the field and Jim O’Meara here, another small player-rucking with big Peter roving to them. Yet ruck man or rover he was just as happy so long as it was football. Indeed he was, joined in Jim O’Meara. "Few of them are made in the same mould as old Peter. I've never seen a better." Not a Passenger But whoa, hold horses; this story is galloping away from me, where is this champion today? Any time you happen to be near the timekeepers when Geelong are playing, take a special look at the big-shouldered, severe-looking man with heavy bushy eyebrows, and a pair of glasses Just holding their place at the end of his nose. That is Peter Burns. Burns began back in 1882, and he is still in the service of the game When we talk of the men who have helped to make our great game, genial Peter Bums comes readily to mind, and thoroughly deserves his recognition. He is undoubtedly one of football’s great men, one of the men who have helped to mould our game. Briefly his football began at Ballarat, where he played with the famous Imps. He was 16 at the time In another season he will have given 60 years’ service to football, 50 of them in the service of the Geelong club. When he told me this there was an undisguised note of pride in his voice he added: "I am happiest when I remember I have been spared sound in width and limb to travel the road as a worker, not an onlooker or a passenger. Too many people are content to look on.” In June 1885 he transferred to South Melbourne from Ballarat, and wore for the first time the white canvas jacket striped across with red that was the uniform of the Swans in those days. "That Guernsey was a flash affair," Peter remembers. "Pants were tucked into the tops of the stockings, something like the apple catchers youngsters wore a few years ago. If I remember rightly, Collingwood was the first club to adopt the bare knee type of knickers of today." Old-Time Methods Many players wore caps, and if the sun shone too enthusiastically they donned felt hats and went on with the game hammer and tongs. Imagine a grand final in felt hats, yet it was no novelty prior to even 1914. There are quite a few people in the game today who look on a change rules as the foul deed of some rabid heretic. They speak as if the rules of our Australian came were the heaven sent heritage of the present generation. Their memories are short. The Australian game in the first instance was something visualised and then steadily created and developed by rule changes, with which we are not finished even today. If these conversations could go back over football, as can Peter Burns, they would hold my contention true. Imagine 20 men playing aside, with four followers and two rovers from each side. They played two halves of 60 minutes each. The winner the toss chose his choice of ends, the loser was given the ball, the teams lined up on either side of the centre, each facing the goal to which they were kicking. At a signal loser of the toss ticked the ball sides to a man went for it. No man was allowed to cross the centre till the ball had been kicked. After the scoring of a goal and at the re-starting of play after the interval the same routine was followed. When the ball was out of bounds it was thrown in, in somewhat the same way as today, but with this essential difference: it had to strike the ground before it could be played by the followers. Describing the scene Peter says "The big huskies formed a ring around the place where the ball was likely to bounce to keep the other fellows away. Brawn defied brawn, brawn crashed through brawn. Behinds did not count. Can the youngsters of today imagine our present game transformed overnight reverting to these old fashioned ways again? Change goes hand in hand with progress. The wonder is that so many obvious improvements as we have today were not thought of in the first place. Further changes will be introduced, of that there is no doubt, and in such things it does not do to be over-sentimental or prejudiced. Pushing Allowed Those were the days of the little marks." says Burns, and we deftly touched the ball on the toe of the boot before THROWING it to a team-mate. Can you imagine that? Burns telling his story with rare enthusiasm continued. You were allowed to push a man from behind without penalty. Think what that meant, the busters were indescribable. You dwelt on the opposition high flyer, and just as his feet left the ground you hit him with all your weight in the small of the back. He crashed like a log. Before my day ‘rabbiting’ was allowed, but it was soon rightly banned. I pointed out to Burns that with such latitude allowed players under the rules ad in view of so many heavy croppers, tempers must have been ruffled and reprisals bitter. Peter met my suggestions with resentment. The game was certainly tough, he said, “just as tough as or tougher than it is today. But it never was bitter. We would not have tolerated things that I have seen become everyday incidents in final games on the Melbourne ground today. We had a strict code and would not tolerate bitterness or deliberate maiming and such things The men of my day never received a penny for playing, and I believe that better "fellowship was the result.' It would be impossible to talk to such a veteran authority as Burns without asking him the inevitable question: Who was the greatest footballer you have seen? I have told readers that Billy Windley and "Joker" Hall and Jim O'Meara named Burns, but what does Burns say? Without a moment's hesitation he named his champion. "Albert Thurgood. He was a wonderful player. He lifted a game on his own shoulders. Back, forward or on the ball a captain could not misplace Thurgood on a football field." And then he ran over the players, past and present, who appealed to him. His champion centre man was Fred Leach (Collingwood) His rovers McGinis (Melbourne), Dick Condon (Collingwood), Percy Trotter (Fitzroy) and of recent memory Alex Eason and George Haines. "To me the greatest forward of all time was Dick Lee, that great Collingwood player," he said.