Adrian Gallagher turned 80 this week - and in the lead-up to the Blues’ match with the Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium on Saturday night, one might argue that the renowned former rover has a foot in both camps.
A feted member of the coveted Carlton Premiership teams of 1968 and ’70 (in a Best & Fairest season) under the watch of Ron Barassi, and again in ’72 with Nicholls as Captain-Coach, Gallagher’s 165-game career preceded a 54-game run at Footscray (courtesy the ten-year rule) from 1973 and ’75, and was rounded out with a solitary senior appearance for North Melbourne in ’76.
Why the kennel? “Well Bob Rose was the then Footscray coach, and I respected him,” came the reply.
“It’s funny looking back, but Footscray at that time was a team whose players didn’t know how to win. It’s interesting that in the final two rounds of 1973 Footscray beat both Carlton and Richmond who played off for the flag for the second year running.”
To allay any fears amongst the Carlton faithful, Gallagher will be watching on with genuine interest from the Skyline Room as a guest of Rob Priestley at the President’s Club Dinner – and it almost goes without saying that he’ll be cheering on his beloved Blueboys from the moment Marc Pittonet contests the first bounce.
Born on May 12, 1946, Adrian Lindsay Gallagher hailed from the Gippsland dairying town of Yarram. His football life would take a dramatic turn in the late 1950s when his father Cyril relocated to Melbourne to take up duties with the Mount Royal Hospital – a hefty place kick or three from Princes Park.
Accepting an invitation to try his luck with Carlton, Gallagher remembers his father ferrying him to the old ground and reminding him as he alighted from the vehicle that the Gallaghers were now dyed-in-the-wool Blues devotees – for those were the days when football was truly territorial.
Gallagher was a pimply-faced kid from University High when he first chased the leather for the club, and as he proudly notes, “I’m the only player to play in Carlton’s Under 15s, Under 17s, thirds, seconds and seniors.”
A treasured team photograph of the ’61 Under 15s outfit has Gallagher seated in the middle row, three from the left, alongside his father. Master Denis Pagan, resplendent in his sleeveless Carlton guernsey, sits in the same row, fourth from the right, while Richie Robinson, the future Australian Test cricketer, sits in the front row, fourth from the left, with his legs crossed. Richie’s father, the resident timekeeper is also there, sporting the dark suit.
Gallagher followed ‘Big Nick’ down the race and into senior football for the first time on the afternoon of Saturday, May 23, 1964 – the day Carlton co-incidentally met St Kilda at the Junction Oval for the last time.
The famed following division of Nicholls, Silvagni and Gallagher was still a little while away – and on this particular occasion, Nicholls, Silvagni and John Comben did the honours, with “Gags”, then 18 years and 11 days, taking his place on the pine alongside the 19th man Kevin Hall.
It wasn’t until the three quarter-time huddle that the keeper of the No.10 finally got the call-up from coach Ken Hands, much to the former’s unmitigated terror.
“There was no interchange then, so you couldn’t go on and off, and it wasn’t until three quarter-time that they made the change,” Gallagher recalled in a previous interview.
“It was rather frightening because Ken Hands said to me ‘You’re going to the half-forward flank. I nearly fainted on the spot, because I thought I was on Eric Guy, who was the toughest player I’ve ever seen in my life.
“Thankfully I copped Jim Guyatt on the other one, and I managed to play out the last quarter having thought I was going to faint.”
Of Carlton’s starting 18 for that particular match, Maurie Sankey and John Benetti are no longer with us. “Frosty” Miller (who later earned legendary status at Dandenong) lined up at full-forward, Gordon Collis was named at full-back, the late Doug Ringholt (an old teammate of Gallagher’s at Under 19 level) turned out for the last time and Jim Pleydell was the Blues’ other debutant.
“Jimmy Pleydell was a really good player from Maffra. I remember him starting on the ground and playing on Ian Stewart, and he did do very well in that first year.”
The visitors lowered their colours to St Kilda that particular afternoon, 6.13 (49) to 13.19 (97), with Tony Thiessen their leading goalkicker with two.
Collis, who was reported for striking St Kilda’s Alan Morrow, was subsequently cleared in what was ultimately his Brownlow Medal-winning season, while the late Berkley Cox copped four for whacking Carl Ditterich of all people.
“Berkley was my size, but he looked after me,” Gallagher said. “He was at locker no.9 and I was at 10.”
As first rover, Gallagher would represent Carlton in 165 senior matches through nine seasons, ending with the 1972 Grand Final.
His status as a Carlton B&F winner in the Premiership year of 1970 places him in truly elite company, for in the 92 years since the Robert Reynolds Trophy (now the John Nicholls Medal) was first awarded to Cresswell Crisp, only eleven other Carlton players can lay claim to the club champion honour in a premiership year: Crisp in 1938; Ron Savage (1945), Bert Deacon and Ern Henfry (1947); Sergio Silvagni (1968); Geoff Southby (1972); Mike Fitzpatrick (1979); Ken Hunter (1981); Jim Buckley (1982), Stephen Kernahan (1987) and Brett Ratten (1995).
In September 1995, Gallagher, as a respected member of Carlton’s match committee, took his place in the old coaches box as Stephen Kernahan commandeered his players to the club’s most recent Grand Final victory.
Five years later, he was named in Carlton’s exalted Team of the 20th Century, alongside Nicholls and Silvagni.
To think that as a youngster, ‘Gags’ had watched on from the bleaches as those two Blue greats went about their business.
“The first game I ever saw was the opening round of 1959 and Silvagni kicked five from full-forward against Essendon,” Gallagher recalled.
“I was only a kid, and how lucky was I running out to get their autographs? To think that it [Nicholls, Silvagni and Gallagher] is what it was in the 1970 Grand Final.”
“It was fantastic to play both cricket and footy for Carlton and living just up the road. I think I was better at football but loved cricket just as much.”
Gallagher was but a boy of 12 when he was first inculcated in the Carlton way all those years ago.
Yesterday, as he readied for a quiet gathering of family friends (amongst them his Premiership teammates Peter Jones and Bryan Quirk and long-time pal Col Kinnear) in celebration of the big 8-0, Gallagher readily conceded “I can’t quite believe I’m there”.
