1972

Background

North and Port were the heavyweights again in 1972, although their minor round clashes had not been close.  Port won the first by 19 points, North the second by 41 points and Port the third in the penultimate round by 77 points.  North were minor premiers with 16 wins and 5 losses.  North won the second semi-final by 21 points and Port won their way back to confront North by narrowly beating Central Districts in the Preliminary Final.

Premiership Team

(Coach : M. Patterson ; Captain : M. Patterson)

The Grand Final

Back-to-back triumphs

Terry Collins was a last minute omission from the side because of a broken blood vessel in his leg, and he was replaced by Rodney Robran.  Acting captain Bob Hammond won the toss and chose to kick to the Southern end against the breeze.

The game opened at a furious pace, with North quickly into attack and with their first goal on the board from Rodney Robran.  Port played 3 rovers, so that Bob Hammond was forced to pick up a rover in the forward pocket.  The pacy rovers proved to be a handful, and Port kicked the next 4 goals to go to an early 18 point lead.  Barrie Robran then began to exert a significant influence on the game, passing off to Rodney Robran for his second goal.  Late in the quarter Sachse took a mark in the goalsquare and converted to reduce the margin to 9 points at the break.

North did all the attacking in the early stages of the second quarter but missed opportunities when Rodney Robran hit the post and then Marsh kicked poorly from a set shot.  North looked to be setting up a goal after a string of handpasses finished with Hearl in the goalsquare but he was heavily tackled.  Port cleared, but the ball was marked by Phillips who played on and kicked truly to reduce the margin to 2 points.  Port kicked the next 2 goals, and the match then became a dour battle of defences.  The deadlock was eventually broken when Hearl took a great mark and kicked a 60 yard goal.  The margin at half time was 8 points.

Plummer snapped an early goal for North, Port replied, then von Bertouch took the ball off hands and fed a handball to Marsh who kicked truly.  Phillips, beaten early, was providing plenty of drive from his wing, and Sachse began to move around and create a target up forward.  He grabbed 2 strong marks but missed both times, thus levelling the scores.  Rebbeck was rewarded for a great fighting effort with a free but he also missed - North were in front for the first time since the opening minutes.  Von Bertouch received a handball from the kick-in and goaled, then Sachse almost marked, retrieved the ball on the ground and burst through for another goal.  A magnificent handball from Barrie Robran found Phillips and Sachse marked his kick and converted.  Another good passage of play saw Barrie Robran take a good mark, pass to brother Rodney who passed to Hearl.  Hearl's huge kick sailed through to give North a commanding 27 point lead.  Port scored a goal in time-on, but late goals to Rebbeck and Sachse blew the margin out to 32 points at the last change.

North were immediately into attack in the last quarter and Sachse took another strong mark and goaled.  Port goaled to reduce the margin to 31 points, but when Barrie Robran floated forward to mark and goal at the 15 minute mark, the game was all but over.  Shortly after he gathered the ball brilliantly on the boundary and kicked to the goalsquare, where Marsh gathered the ball off hands and snapped truly.  Port scored another goal, but North completed a resounding 56 point victory with goals to von Bertouch, Sachse (his 6th) and Hearl.

Scores

Goals : Sachse 6.3, Hearl 3.1, R. Robran 2.2, Marsh 2.1, Von Bertouch 2.0, Rebbeck 1.3, Phillips 1.0, Plummer 1.0, B. Robran 1.0, Webb 1.0, rushed 0.1

Attendance : 55,709

Team Photo

Back row, L to R : B. Hearl, T. Collins, D. Sachse, J. May, R. Robran, J. Phillips
Second row, L to R : G. Strang, B. Robran, G. Sporn, R. Ford, K. Barr
Third row, L to R : B. Stringer, R. Schubert, N. Sachse, D. Webb, B. Jaworskyj, B. Mumford
Fourth row, L to R : R. O'Shannassey, A. Howard, M. Eichner, G. Walker, P. Schulz, D. Marsh, A. Rebbeck
Front row, L to R : T. Von Bertouch, P. Ford, D. Burns, R. Hammond (Vice-Captain), M. Patterson (Captain-Coach), G. Paull, J. Robinson, B. Bamford