JAN STEWART WILL COACH CARLTON Former St. Kilda player, former Richmond player and former Newsletter of the Aussie Rules Footy Fan .Club South Melbourne coach will be. the 1978 coach of Carlton. Stewart accepted the Carlton offer on November 5 and already No. 2 Sydney, November, 1~77 has taken charge .of summer training with the VFL Blues at BARRY GOODINGHAM TO LEAD. WOODVILLE Princes Park. • VFL veteran Barry Goodingham has been signed to coach the lowly Whether the final terms of the agreement has been reached S.A.N.F.L. team Woodville for the next two seaso11s. with the Southerners, is another story. The Adelaide uPeckers" finished seccnd-last in 1977, winning South appointed Des Tuddenham as coach for next season for only six matches: the V~L Swans after Stewart failed ~o determine that he wanted the job again at Albert Park, even after he had been Goodingham 32, was a reserve in North Melbourne's first premier­ only the second coach in 30 years to have South make the ship team before joinin~ South Melbourne a year later, in 1976. finals. South are not expected to stand-out on a clearance fee, but no The triple Brownlow Medalist will surely give the sting that transfer amount has been announced. Carlton have lost since the departure of John Nicholls. FITZROY CHAMPION JOHN MURPHY TO SOUTH MELB.?? V.F.L. DISTRIBUTES $li720,452 An announcement expected for some time was made on November 7th The Collingwood-North Melbourne replay was a key factor in that the VFL Lions captain for past five seasons, John Murphy, the huge boost of receipts for the VFL in season 1977 • .would play for South Melbourne in 1978. A record pa!/711ent of $143,371 was made to each of the twelve However, the matter is far from resolved and is likely to take VFL clubs recently, totalling $1,720 ,452. This compar'es a long time being finalised. with the 1976 distribution of $1,0~3,780. Murphy 27, has played 223 VFL games in 11 years with Fitzroy, HSV Channel 7 paid $200,000 for the grand finals telecasts. and could become the highest paid VFL player in 1978. South are The four matches at the MCG brought in ticket sales of trying a deal reported to be worth more than $25,000 but Fitzroy $1,793,636, plus $866,049 from the three games at VFL Park. say he would be just as well off by staying with them. · TOtal attendances for the finals matches was 531,073 - Murphy will be cleared to South, but only if Fitzroy ge~ certain Elimination Final 63,663 (VFL Park) players in retur~ from the Swans, rather than a transfer fee. Qualifying Final 64,052 (M.C.G.) The battle. for him started when Richmond, Collingwood, Footscray First Semi-Final 87,421 (H.C.G.) and South Melbourne all sought permission to interview Murphy. Second Semi-Final 48,105 (VFL Park) It appears certain that this will be one case that could well Preliminary Final 61,242 (VFL Park) end with a hearing by the VFL Appeals Board. Grand Final 108,224 (M.C.G.) I . Grand Final Replay 98,366 (H.C.G.) FOOTY- TIME IS MOVIE-TIME From the television receipts the Victorian Country Football Some of Australia's leading footballers may be seen on the League was paid $37,000, whilst the VFL contributed $25,434 screens of theatres next year. to the National Football League to assist in the development of the game in other states. Philip Horris, the makers of Marlboro cigarettes and wide spon­ sors of sport are reported to have spent almost $88,000 to pro~ NIGHT FOOTBALL PROPOSAL FOR 24 TEAMS duce a 20-minute featurette titled, "The Greatest Game". The National Football League were scheduled to meet in Melbourne on Monday, November 21 to discuss a VFL proposa·l Exciting action shots of the 1977 VFL finals will be shown, and for an Australia- wide competition in which the winner w~ll the producers have re- created one of the earliest recorded games . played in 1858 when masters of Scotch College and Melbourne ·receive $100,00~ and the runner-up $60,000 • Grammar decided to play a 40-a-side game, with the first team 2i clubs from throughout Australia would compete for the to score two goals to be the winner. Goal posts were placed sponsored night competition worth $400,000. more than a mile apart, one set on Jolimont Hill and the others The VFL proposal if accepted by delegates would see one club at Punt Road, Richmond. The game wa-"' played from noon til dusk for three Saturdays ·and after 15 hours of play the scores were from each of New South Wales, Queensland, Canberra, Tasmania, one goal all, and the game was abandoned. plus five teams from South Australia, three from Western Australia ·and . the 12 _VFL teams. The top eight VFL teams Producers of the film for Marlboro are the renowned makers of would autom.atically "go into the last 15 teams while the rest television programs, Crawford Productions. would play each other ln elimination matches. A three-year program worth $120,000 has been announced by the The Channel 7 Network was likely to televise all of the ·NFL general manager, Keith Webb. Sponsored by the Commonwealth planned 15-game night series with three matches planned for Banking Corporation, a national training program will involve Norwood oval in Adelaide and the balance played at VFL Park. a JO-minute film, four film strips and video tapes on basic skills of the game. Players involved in the program include - LEN THOMPSON TO RETIRE? Kevin Sheedy, Peter Knights of Victoria, Russell Ebert of South After 13 seasons with Collingwood, Len Thompson has said Australia and Graham Moss, coach· of Claremont and former Brown­ .that he will retire because he could no longer devote the low Medalist of 1976. time required for VFL football. Later, booklets a~ charts will b e produced f or juniors. Len's time is taken up conducting a hotel business in Woods territory. Another consideration is that his wife is expec­ PITURA SEEKING CLEARANCE FROM RICHMOND ting a child next February. A recent Melbourne report stated that John Pitura was believed In recent years Thompson has been troubled by arthritic to have been made a coaching offer by the New South wales A.F.L. knees and Collingwood officials say they understand Len's The Richmond utility player has met with the Tigers general man­ position, but would like to talk to him about his future. ager, but didn't mention the N.S.W. offer. Thompson who won the Brownlow as the VFL Best and Fairest The stranger thing is that, no one at an official level of the in 1972, has played 247 games with the Magpies • . N.S.W.A.F.L. seem to know anything about such an offer. A three-year contract on his services expired this year. JOHN NORTHEY TO ASSIST PATTERSON AT ST, KILDA Former Richmond team-mate John Northey has been appointed as S~A,N,F,L, MAY PLAY 23-GAME SERIES assistant coach to Mike Patterson in the coming season. They The South Australian National Football League are expected played together in Richmond's 1967 premiership side. to meet shortly to fin~lise their plans for the 1978 season. Northey played 120 games with Richmond i ncluding the 1967 and Under cons~deration is· the earliest-ever start for Adelai de ~969 pennant teams, before coaching Western Suburbs in the Syd­ football, April l with a record 23-match minor round. ney competi tion which included the 1971 premiership. Each of the ten clubs will probably play three Sunday games, Northey then went to coach Redan in the. Ballarat £.?ague which including one on their home ground, however, increased is part of St. Kilda 's zone. John took Redan to three success­ Sunday play using the SANFL Football Park and suburban oval s ive premierships in 1975-76-77. would require the consent of the S.A. State Government and local councils. Northey toge ther with Patterson are already in summer training with the St. Kilda squad. Decisions should be available for the December Newsletter. ------ -------~----- -·- -- -...... BIG TASK AHEAD OF CAMPBELL NEW GENERAL MANAGER AT RICHMONQ /Oraham Campbell is taking on a tall order when he re-enters VFL Gareth Andrews has been appointed as General Manager of the ranks as coach of Fitzroy in 1978. Richmond Football Club. Andrews 30, played 136 game s with rhe Fitzroy club was formed in 1884 and were one of the first Geelong before joining the VFL Tigers in 1974 where he played 33 games. ~lubs invited to join when the VFL was formed in 1896. In their il seasons of VFL football Fitzroy have won a total of eight Taking up what was the old position of Secretary has meant that premierships but only one of them has been won in the last 50 Andrews has turned his back on his own real-estate bus iness, ]ears. The VFL Lions won pennants in 1898, 1899, 1904, 1905, but he still remains a di"rector of the company. ;913, 1916, 1922 and 1944. Since their last major victory they Over the last 12 months, the Tiqers have lost two secr etaries, !lave made the finals on only four occasions in 1947 when they Alan Schwab and Max Scales, plus Tom Hafey who had a very succ­ .finished third, 1952 (3rd), 1958 (4th) and 1960 (3rd).