Happy 60th Birthday to David Dickson

Happy 60th to David Dickson today!

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From the Blueseum:

Career : 1972 – 1976
Debut : Round 3, 1972 vs South Melbourne, aged 19 years, 338 days
Carlton Player No. 834
Games : 66
Goals : 23
Last Game : Round 22, 1976 vs Footscray, aged 24 years, 108 days
Guernsey No. 27
Height : 182 cm (5 ft. 11 in.)
Weight : 72 kg (11 stone, 5 lbs.)
DOB : May 12, 1951
Premiership Player 1972

In another vivid example of triumph over adversity, David Dickson overcame a disadvantaged upbringing - and the tragic early death of both of his parents - to play an important role in Carlton’s 1972 Premiership. Four years later, his on-field career was curtailed by a knee injury, so he moved on to coaching, and became an outstanding mentor to a generation of Victoria’s best young players.

Dickson grew up in suburban Coburg, and first attracted the attention of VFA club Preston when he began dominating inter-school matches for Newlands State High School. By 1971 he was a star in the red and white colours of Preston, and it wasn’t long before a number of VFL clubs – in particular Carlton - were taking a keen interest in the fiercely-determined centreman with pace, good foot skills and a happy knack of drawing the football. However, the 19 year-old was a reluctant recruit at first. "I never really wanted to go to Carlton, because I never thought I was good enough,” Dickson said, many years later, “but Bert Deacon and John Nicholls talked me into it, and they became like surrogate fathers to me, because I lost both of my parents at a young age."

Following an impressive pre-season and a couple of reserves matches, Dickson was selected for his first senior game against South Melbourne at the Lake Oval in round 3, 1972. Wearing guernsey number 27, and sharing the roving duties with Adrian Gallagher, he started with the joy of a six-goal victory. In rounds 4 and 5 he was relegated to the bench, before his breakout match came in a home game for the Blues against Geelong at Princes Park in round 6. Playing on a wing, alongside champion Alex Jesaulenko, Dickson controlled his side of the ground that afternoon and confidently pushed forward to kick three goals, as the Navy Blues destroyed the Cats by 49 points. From then on, and throughout the following two seasons, he was a first-choice senior player.

In October of his debut year, Dickson was one of 20 Bluebagger heroes who wrote their names into football history with a magnificent upset Grand Final victory over Richmond in the highest-scoring VFL/AFL Premiership decider ever played. Despite a gruelling finals campaign that included a draw, and a heavy defeat by the Tigers only a fortnight beforehand, John Nicholls made eight positional changes to his team on Grand Final day and promptly smashed the yellow and black by 37 points. Carlton’s centre line of Dickson, Barry Armstrong and Ian Robertson was supreme for three quarters on that fabulous afternoon, and only eased up in the last term when the game was well and truly won.

Twelve months later, the Blues and the Tigers met again for the ’73 flag, only this time the result was reversed. Hell-bent on revenge, Richmond went hard at the man first and the ball second, and Carlton had no answer. Dickson’s second and last Grand Final as a player ended with the sour taste of a five-goal defeat.

By that stage of his career, ‘Dicko’ had missed only one game in two seasons. However that all went pear-shaped early in 1974 when he strained a knee ligament, was restricted to 16 games for the year, and promptly twisted the other knee. The damage was severe, forcing him into a full reconstruction that wasn’t a complete success. It took almost two years – until round 11, 1976 – for him to fight his way back into Carlton’s senior team, but his knees still weren't right, and his career at Princes Park ended with a hard-fought draw against Footscray in the last home and away round of the year.

In 1977, Dickson was traded by Carlton to Collingwood in exchange for the Magpies’ veteran full-forward Peter McKenna – a surprise move that David found difficult to accept for some time. In a short stay at Victoria Park he didn’t play a senior match, and like McKenna, had retired from the VFL by year’s end. But he still had a passion for the game, and in 1978 he was appointed coach of the Bayswater Football Club – beginning a new phase of his life that would occupy the next 30 years.

After later coaching Preston (1993), Noble Park, then Balwyn in the Eastern Football League (and taking Balwyn to their first Premiership in 56 years) it was the advent of the elite TAC Cup Under 18 competition in 1992 that brought Dickson’s abilities to fruition. “The TAC Cup was a new concept, and the way to go with modern football development, " he later explained.

“I spoke to Kevin Sheehan (AFL National Talent Identification Manager) about getting involved, and he said ‘you’re too much about winning ‘Dicko’- we’re about developing players’. A few years later, I was with the Oakleigh Chargers and Kevin rang me and said; `we want you to coach the Victorian Under-18 Metropolitan'. I was really surprised. I didn’t think a young bloke coming out of the commission area of Coburg was able to coach at that level."

But coach he could, as he ably demonstrated over the next decade, as his representative teams dominated the AFL under-18 National Championships while a long list of players that he had helped develop were drafted by AFL clubs. Between 1997 and 2008, Dickson coached Vic Metro to a staggering 34 wins from 38 matches – and when he retired in July 2008, his team had just won their eighth National Under-18 Championship from the twelve contested since 1997. "I think my time's up – it's a younger man's game,” he said on the day he called time on his coaching career. “To be quite truthful, you've got to know when your time's up. I've been doing it for 12 years, and I'm really proud of what I've achieved. When I was first appointed, I walked into (former VFL chief executive) Ken Gannon's office and the first words he said were: 'If you don't win the national championships this year, I'll sack you!'

"Well, we've won eight national championships out of twelve, and that's a great achievement, but we've also averaged 17 (drafted) players a year, and in 11 years we've had 180 players enter the AFL ranks. No-one else has ever got near that."

Happy 50th Birthday to ‘Dorra’

Happy 50th Birthday to Blues premiership player, Jon Dorotich today.

Make sure you call into ABC radio tonight to wish Dorra a happy birthday!

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From the Blueseum:

Career : 1986 - 1993
Debut : Round 1, 1986 vs Hawthorn, aged 23 years, 338 days
Carlton Player No. 932
Games : 132
Goals : 103
Last Game: Round 15, 1993 vs Brisbane, aged 31 years, 74 days
Guernsey No. 6
Height : 193 cm (6 ft. 4 in.)
Weight: 97 kg (15 stone, 4 lbs.)
DOB : 27 April, 1962
Premiership Player: 1987

Jon Dorotich was a big, rugged, key defender from South Fremantle who enjoyed a notable football career on both sides of the continent for 17 seasons between 1981 and 1997. Blessed with vice-like hands and a raking left foot, he played in successive Grand Finals for Carlton against Hawthorn in 1986 and 1987; suffering a loss in the first, then taking sweet revenge in the second. After finishing at Carlton, he returned to WA and claimed more glory; as both a 100-goal full-forward, and captain of South Fremantle’s 1997 Premiership team.

Better known as “Dorra” throughout his career, Dorotich came under notice by the Blues when represented WA against Victoria at Subiaco Oval in 1984. Starting on the bench, he came on to take some telling pack marks as WA held out the Big V by four points in a clinker of a game. The Carlton recruiting machine swung into action, and Dorotich joined the Blues in time to make his debut at centre half-back against Hawthorn in round 1, 1986 on an auspicious day for the Carlton Football Club.

Also making their first appearance in navy blue on that afternoon were two future champions in Stephen Kernahan and Craig Bradley, along with Mil Hanna and Bernie Evans. It turned out to be a less than perfect start, however – Hanna wrecked his knee in the first few minutes, and Carlton lost by six goals. But the Blues soon recovered and wound up the year third on the ladder. Wins in the early finals over Sydney and Hawthorn followed, to put Carlton into the Grand Final against the front-running Hawks.

By this time Dorotich had already begun a fierce rivalry with Hawthorn’s champion centre half-forward Dermott Brereton, and their clashes were eagerly awaited by fans of both teams. Throughout his career, Dorra never shirked the physical challenges, particularly when he was called to stand up for his smaller team-mates against the likes of Brereton, St. Kilda’s Tony Lockett, Brian Taylor of Collingwood or Roger Merrett from Brisbane. In the ’86 decider however, it was Brereton who took the honours when his team crushed Carlton by 42 points.

It took precisely 12 months for Carlton to revenge that humiliation, by downing Hawthorn by 33 points in the 1987 Grand Final. Carlton coach Robert Walls set up the victory with some courageous positional changes, particularly the switch of tall utility David Rhys-Jones onto Brereton at centre half-back. Dorotich was sent to a forward pocket as support for Carlton’s lone ruckman Justin Madden, and it was Dorra’s big effort in the ten minutes before half-time that helped give the Blues a vital half-time lead.

With Madden off the ground for a much-needed rest, Dorotich took on the ruckman’s role, competing fiercely and more than breaking even with the Hawthorn big men. Late in the term he charged onto the ball deep in attack, scooping it up on the run and kicking truly for Carlton’s fifth major. Soon afterwards, he initiated another attack that brought up a brilliant captain’s goal for Kernahan – off the ground, from a tight angle. Those goals gave the Blues a confidence-boosting 11-point advantage at the main break, and with Rhys-Jones keeping Brereton completely under wraps, Carlton controlled the match in the second half to run out worthy winners.

From 1988 on, Dorotich began spending more time up forward in a potent Carlton attack that featured Kernahan, Dorotich and Peter Sartori as the tall targets, with a host of quick and skilful runners around them. In round 16, 1988 at Princes Park, Dorra booted five goals in a big win over Geelong, but the year ended in dismay with a shock Preliminary Final loss to Melbourne.

Although on paper Carlton was still a powerful team, in 1989 the Blues slumped alarmingly to win only twice in the first nine rounds. And when the equally-inept Brisbane Bears knocked us over at home in round 10, Walls paid the price and was sacked. The new man in charge was club legend Alex Jesaulenko, back for a second stint at the helm after leading the Blues to the 1979 flag.

Jesaulenko’s strict but effective methods didn’t seem to gel with Dorotich. He was dropped after round 2, 1990 and from then on spent much of the year with the Reserves, playing only seven senior matches. Although he would have been discontented, he finished the year on a high when he was just about best on ground at centre half-forward when Carlton Reserves comfortably beat Melbourne on Grand Final day, to claim our eighth and final lower-grade flag.

Another change of coach in 1991 – to David Parkin, also back for a second crack at one of football’s toughest jobs – seemed to spur Dorotich into his best form again. He began in a blaze of glory with bags of five, five and six goals in rounds 2, 3 and 4 respectively, but by the second half of the year had been switched back into defence where he was sorely needed.

While Carlton languished on the middle rungs of the ladder in 1992, Dorra had another big season, highlighted by two impressive efforts against St Kilda. In the first, at Princes Park in round 6, he was sent to full-back at half time and quelled a rampaging Tony Lockett, allowing Carlton to overhaul a big lead and beat the Saints by 8 points.

Later, in round 21 at Waverley, Carlton trailed the Saints again by 15 points at the main break, so Parkin swung Dorotich from defence to full-forward in the third quarter, and he immediately began marking everything that came his way. Kicking three big goals in that term, he single-handedly sparked the Blues into an 11-goal blitz that put the game out of reach of St Kilda before three-quarter time. Despite that win and a couple of more just as rewarding however, Carlton still wound up in seventh place on the ladder. Dorra finished the year off well, and polled 12 Brownlow Medal votes to be highest-placed among all Carlton players.

Although approaching 31, and therefore into the veteran ranks by 1993, Dorotich showed there was still fire in his belly when he up-ended Essendon’s enforcer Dean Wallis in one of the early-season games. Even so, as age and fluctuating form began making their mark, Dorra found himself relegated first to the interchange bench, and then to the Reserves.

He enjoyed what turned out to be his last senior match for the Blues in round 15, 1993 against Brisbane at Princes Park. Starting on the bench, he played in bursts in the back half, and had a relatively easy day as the Blues cruised home by nearly six goals. Five weeks later, while playing again with the Reserves, Dorra was reported by an umpire for unduly rough play against a St Kilda opponent, and suspended for four matches.

Because that penalty ended his season, Dorotich decided that that was as good a time as any to retire from AFL football – after 132 games, (including that precious Premiership) in the Navy Blue number 6. During that time he had kicked 103 goals, and represented WA in State of Origin matches on four occasions. Remarkably, even then, he wasn’t quite finished with representative football.

After a fond farewell from Princes Park, Dorotich returned to South Fremantle, and pulled on the red and white strip of the Bulldogs again after a lengthy absence. Although understandably less nimble than before, his wealth of experience and still-strong hands made him a daunting prospect at full-forward for any opposition defender – as was shown when he was the WAFL’s leading goal-kicker in 1995 with 78 majors, and in 1996 with 88.

But it was Dorra’s one special season in 1997 that rounded off his long and successful career. Because of his consistent big bags of goals - and the way they were being scored - Dorotich was selected in the WA state side for the game against Tasmania in Hobart in June. He may have been 35 years old by then, but he ruled the forward 50 on that cool afternoon at North Hobart Oval, as Tassie eventually won a skilful exhibition of football by 47 points. Dorra kicked seven of his side’s ten goals, never stopped presenting for his team-mates, and was a worthy winner of the Simpson Medal as the outstanding player of the match.

Perhaps with renewed confidence after that game, Dorotich went back to captaining South Fremantle, and finished off the year in a blaze of glory. The Bulldogs beat their traditional rivals East Fremantle by 7 points in a pulsating Grand Final, and Dorra was the competition’s leading scorer once again with a massive 120 goals. He retired from football after that amazing year – well, almost. Deciding on a comeback in 1999, he managed only one more game before finally calling it quits.

Shortly afterwards, Dorra established himself as a popular football commentator in his home state on radio and TV. And as we head into 2010, his media work seems to be evolving in the same way his football career did – because he just gets better with age.