The full interview will be published in the official Collingwood Match Day Program each week.
This week, collingwoodfc.com.au chats with Ian Graham, who won the 1964 Copeland Trophy and was a member of two Collingwood Grand Final teams. He now resides in New South Wales where he and his family still have a keen passion for the black and white.
On what he is doing in 2012…
I’m retired, and have a few grandchildren who keep us busy as well as one or two things that I’m interested in as well as things to do around the house. I’m currently helping my son paint his flat in Bondi so there’s always something.
On his memories of his first game against Essendon in 1963…
I remember it being pretty overwhelming. What I do remember was the difference in pace and pressure between the reserves and pressure was just chalk and cheese. It took a few games to get up to speed with senior football. It really was quite a big difference between the reserves and the senior team.
On how players used to find out whether or not they were in the senior team during the 1960s…
I remember that they had the footy teams announced on the radio on Thursday nights. That was the era of Lou Richards, Jack Dyer and Bob Davis on Thursday nights. I think it was pretty much a case of listening to the radio to see whether I made it or not. Someone presumably did tell me at the ground if id been selected but I really don’t recall. I do remember later on in subsequent years that we didn’t always meet after Thursday training but I think it was just a matter of listening to the radio! That’s the way it was. I remember when I won the Copeland Trophy in 1964 my first full year, I got a phone call from Jack Burns, the secretary at the time, some time after the end of the season to tell me I’d won the Copeland, and now look what they go through!
On his memories of the 1964 Grand Final…
It was a long time ago. I remember around Johnston St during the week when we were training, some pretty big crowds turned up for Tuesday and Thursday. Johnston St, as I recall, was bedecked in black and white and there was a lot of excitement in the suburb. On the day, we all met at Victoria Park for lunch, and I think we all had big steaks, which in retrospect probably wasn’t the best thing to do. We got together and hopped on the bus and went off to the ground. I can remember getting off the bus - we pulled up right outside the MCG near the Members’ stand and in we went.
There’s nothing to replace that noise that hits you when you run onto the ground. I remember during the game just the roar of the crowd. If you went for a mark or took a mark there was just that little second delay and then the roar hits you. It was amazing, coming from amateur football and I’d never really thought I’d ever play league football. I was very lucky. We had a great team and some great players and I think in every year I played apart from ‘63 we were in the finals. There were some terrific guys at the club and some terrific players and Bob Rose was a tremendous coach. It was just a tragedy that we never made it and got a flag.
On the slice of footy folklore that suggests that he nearly kicked the match winner in the ’64 decider…
I have more of a memory of the last seconds of the game. I have a vague memory of that snap. I see it written that I had a shot at goal to win the game but I missed everything. I certainly don’t ever recall being in front of the goals and kicking it off at 45 degrees. That may have been the case, but memory maybe selectively doesn’t remember that. I remember at one point running towards the pocket goal on my left and I tried to screw the ball back. I was running flat out towards boundary and couldn’t kick it far enough back and couldn’t even get it through the points.
On his recollections of the 1966 Grand Final against St Kilda…
My two specific memories of it are taking a mark in the last quarter probably 45 yards out. It was a fairly improbable mark because I was backing back into the pack and the pack, for some reason, I judged it correctly and the pack didn’t. I think we were a goal behind, it was always pretty close. I’ve been so glad ever since that I actually kicked that goal because I would have had to live with that, the miss.
The other one was right in the dying minutes when St Kilda attacked, Terry Waters took a great mark in the defensive goal square and took off around the outer wing and kicked to Tuddenham. Tuddy marked it and turned and he had acres in front of him. There was no one between him and the next players for about 59m, and Bob Murray and I were together and there was that split second decision where you had to sort of thing - is he going to run with it and bounce or is he not? And I figured he’s going to run. Bob Murray obviously decided he wasn’t and Bob went forward and he didn’t…and he kicked it and Bob Murray took the mark and the siren went within seconds afterwards.
Every time I see Tuddy I still give him a little dig about that one and say ‘why didn’t you run!’
On the reason he left the club for two years during his mid-20s…
I went overseas the next year. I’ve always had itchy feet and at uni I’d had a couple of mates who made an agreement that we would go overseas to Europe on a trip. Just the usual backpacking, camping trip and we had to wait for one of them to finish his uni course, he was a year behind us, and he finished in 1966 and I remember there being any question that we wouldn’t do it. I look back now and think, goodness me, what was I doing? I’d had a great year, three great years I think, but we went and it was a great trip and we thoroughly enjoyed it and that was that. I don’t recall telling the club but they must have thought I was nuts. It must have been a complete surprise.
I’ve always been very keen on travel and have done a lot since and lived overseas for long periods of time in my career post football. It was obviously in my blood and in my genes to do it and football was never the be all and end all for me. It was a very central part of my life at that time but I always felt that there were a lot of other things I wanted to do. And I guess also that I had made a commitment to my friends and that I should honour that so I guess that’s the way it went.
