Interchange - Danny Dickfos (North Brisbane, Brisbane, Northern Eagles)
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Interchange - Danny Dickfos (North Brisbane, Brisbane, Northern Eagles) |
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Strongly built, tough, and with a desperate streak that some would say transcended the boundaries of mere courage to become tantamount to a death wish, as a footballer Danny Dickfos was - and, no doubt, remains - nothing if not his own man. After playing Teal Cup football for Queensland in 1987 he spent the next 8 seasons carving out a highly impressive, 100-plus game QAFL career for himself with Windsor Zillmere/North Brisbane, whilst simultaneously rejecting numerous overtures from virtually every AFL club in the land. The reasoning behind these rejections was simple: Dickfos was happy at North, so why risk compromising that happiness by moving to new, uncharted waters? Such an attitude is almost unheard of these days, and all the more refreshing for it, but ultimately it could not last, and in 1996, aged 26, the hitherto reluctant Dickfos found himself at Brisbane, where his impact was immediate and seismic. After winning the best first year player award in his debut season, he went on to play a total of 65 AFL games for the Bears/Lions, seldom failing to impress with his urgency and robustness, before returning to the QAFL with the Eagles, where he landed the 2000 Grogan Medal, and was still going strong 3 seasons later. |
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Born in Mackay, Paul Hollis followed in the footsteps of both his father, Brian, and grandfather, Tom, in playing League football in South Australia. However, where he broke with tradition was in heading for Unley rather than Thebarton. At 183cm and 73kg Hollis did not possess the physical attributes normally associated with a full forward but that was where he played much of his career, topping Sturt's goalkicking list in 1980 and 1981 with 70 and 65 goals respectively. All told, he played a total of 145 games for the Double Blues between 1980 and 1986, kicking 283 goals. Despite his lightweight frame he certainly knew how to get the ball and, once in possession, was a tellingly accurate left foot kick. He may not always have been in the very highest rank as a player but at his best he could compete with anyone. |
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Undoubtedly
one of the finest Queensland footballers of his generation, Noel
McGuinness, winner of the 1953 and 1954 Grogan
Medals, went within one vote in 1955 of winning a remarkable three in
a row. The achievement was all the more noteworthy in that, in 1952,
aged just 17, the star Morningside
midfielder had won the QAFL reserves best and fairest award, the highest
level award available to him given the fact that Morningside did not, at
that time, field a team in the League's senior competition.
A regular Queensland interstate representative for much of the 1950s, McGuinness might well have spent some or all of that time interstate had not circumstances, in the form of a freak rib injury, intervened. Due to join St Kilda in 1954, he sustained the injury on the eve of his departure during an unimportant reserves 'scratch' match in which he was participating only to make up the numbers. Amazingly, however, he did not realise the extent of the injury until aboard his flight to Melbourne, when the air cabin pressure caused it to flare up, bringing McGuiness' hopes of a VFL career to an abrupt end. In 1956, looking for a fresh challenge, he moved to Coorparoo which, despite being a top level club since before the War, had yet to contest the finals. McGuinness' impact was immediate and pronounced, as he put in a superb season to win the Kangaroos' best and fairest award, besides helping the club to 3rd place on the ladder. A second successive club champion award followed in 1957, with Coorparoo contesting its first ever grand final, only to fall short against Sandgate by an agonising 2 point margin. After his retirement Noel McGuinness continued to promote and support the game he loved via a long and successful media career. |
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Peter Ellis was a 6' 8" beanpole ruckman who began with the highly successful Mayne combination during the mid-1960s, representing Queensland in 1966 and 1967 before joining Fitzroy. Unable to manage more than a handful of VFL games with the Lions, Ellis headed west in 1972 to join Haydn Bunton junior's Subiaco. After struggling initially, Ellis finally hit his straps under the insightful coaching of ex St Kilda star Ross Smith and his successor David Parkin, formerly of Hawthorn, and went on to play 88 WAFL games before returning home to Queensland in 1979. Later that year, he represented the Maroons at the inaugural state of origin carnival in Perth, when he would undoubtedly have felt considerably more at home than most of his team mates. |
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Interchange - Frank Spiel (South Adelaide, Sturt, West Torrens, Woodville-West Torrens) |
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Born in Kingaroy in 1954 Frank Spiel's preferred sport until his twenty-first year was hockey. However, in 1975 he commenced what was to develop into a perhaps surprisingly illustrious football career when he turned out for Meadows before joining Teachers' College in Adelaide the following season. Three years later he made his SANFL debut with South Adelaide, managing only 3 league appearances but winning the club's reserves best and fairest award. After 21 games with the Panthers he moved to Sturt, the club he had long aspired to join, in 1981. A resilient, combative ruckman, opponents underestimated Spiel at their peril. He represented South Australia in 1983 against Western Australia, was Sturt's best and fairest player in 1982, and played 141 games for the club before moving to West Torrens in 1988. After 47 games in two seasons with the Eagles he fronted up with the newly formed Woodville-West Torrens Football Club in its debut season of 1990, adding a final 25 league games for a career total of 234. |
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Originally
from Cairns, where, playing for South Cairns, he won the local league best
and fairest award aged just 17, Troy Clarke joined West
Torrens in 1987 after failing to procure a place on the Brisbane
Bears' inaugural list. In 4 seasons with the Eagles he played 64
games, enjoying a particularly good year in 1989 when he won selection in
the West End All Stars Team of the Year.
In 1991, Clarke finally found his way to Brisbane where he spent the next 6 seasons, playing a total of 68 AFL games, and participating in his club's historic AFL reserves premiership win in his debut season. His games tally would undoubtedly have been much higher were it not for his misfortune with injury. Small of stature (172cm, 70kg), he was lightning fast, determined, and highly skilled, and was capable of playing in a number of positions. One of his career highlights was playing in Queensland's 23.14 (152) to 15.18 (108) state of origin defeat of Victoria in 1991. |
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