IN GRAND Final week, and to mark the 50th anniversary of the famous Carlton-Collingwood contest, the NFSA has incorporated historically significant colour film of the ’70 Grand Final into an incredible montage of Seven and Nine black and white television content, unseen angles shot by Movietone Productions and surviving radio broadcasts from 3AW and 3KZ – in bringing a new perspective to the big one.
Celebrated ’70 Grand Final moments released for the first time in colour include:
- Alex Jesaulenko’s iconic mark over Graeme Jenkin in the second quarter;
- Brent Crosswell’s final quarter time-on goal to the Ponsford Stand end to put his team in front for the first time – and a cutaway to his euphoric reaction after the goal is kicked;
- Coach Ron Barassi’s ecstatic response to Jesaulenko’s famous bouncing goal (magnificently called by the late Harry Beitzel, then with KZ) to seal Carlton’s most famous victory; and
- the aftermath of the final siren, with on-ground celebrations, presentation of the club’s 10th Premiership cup to captain John Nicholls, and lap of honour.
Footage of Alex Jesaulenko’s famous mark over Graeme Jenkin, courtesy NSFA
NFSA Curator Simon Smith a who painstakingly pieced together the material, said a football match of the magnitude of the 1970 Grand Final warranted such celebration, given the countless dramatic moments contained within – from Carlton’s seven-goal assault in a frenetic 11 minutes of the third quarter through to Jesaulenko’s bouncing goal to seal victory late in the last – and of course ‘Jezza’s famous mark over Graeme Jenkin beforehand.
“We have compiled Alex Jesaulenko’s mark in a sequence from all of the NFSA’s surviving holdings, approximately 90 seconds,” Smith said.
“This will therefore be the first time people – in modern times – have seen ‘Jezza’s’ mark in colour. This will be presented on our site ultimately in a mini-compile of four versions - HSV7, GTV9, colour and tri-screen with 3AW audio underneath.
“We have also compiled an all-new first half highlights package of about 10 minutes and a second half package of around 13 minutes – together with a two-minute clip of ‘Jezza’ and the late HSV7 gamecaller Mike Williamson reminiscing about the mark with Bert Newton on ‘Good Morning Australia’ in 2003.”
The newly discovered colour footage – shot for a production called ‘The Big Game 1970’ - was filmed entirely separately to the more well-known Rothman’s extended highlights colour film (VFL Grand Final 1970) lensed by Movietone Productions, and has been in the NFSA’s possession since the early 2000s as part of an extensive quota of footage relating to the 1970 Grand Final - which of course was played out before an unprecedented football audience of 121,696 patrons.
“The NFSA’s diverse holdings of the 1970 game are far more extensive than the Grand Finals of, say, 1969 and ’71, where we just don’t have alternative footage,” Smith said.
“The Big Game 1970 was a film that came into the collection around 10-15 years ago. This particular film had never been copied, so we didn’t really know what was on it, but in digitizing this material we saw that it was in colour and carried very different footage that weren’t in the television broadcasts.”
Smith explained that The Big Game 1970 was shot by Rod Kinnear Productions – a production company of the late GTV9 director Rod Kinnear who used to work on shows like ‘In Melbourne Tonight’.
“Rod Kinnear ended up going out on his own and making a lot of films for corporates and the like - and ‘The Big Game 1970’ was produced for another cigarette company,” Smith said.
“They had a big production crew of six camera operators there filming the game, so you’ve got some great shots of the game and the crowd that people haven’t seen before. ”
One of them involves a cutaway to Brent Crosswell, moments after he kicks the goal from a free kick in time-on of the last quarter to put Carlton in front for the first time in the match (remembering that the team trailed Collingwood by 44 points at half-time). Audible in KZ’s coverage over the video are the six pips for each of the five seconds leading up to the hour and the hour itself – in this instance, 5.00pm on the afternoon of Saturday, September 26, 1970 – just prior to Crosswell booting that famous six-pointer for the Blues.
“Crosswell was 20 when he kicked that goal in the dramatic final minutes to give his team the lead, and while none of the Seven, Nine or Movietone cameras covered his reaction after it ,thankfully one of Kinnear’s crew managed to capture it for The Big Game 1970,” Smith said.
“Now players didn’t really celebrate goals back in those days, but Crosswell was a showman and a big game player - and for him to celebrate the way he does in that film tells you that the goal he kicked was very, very special.
“What a pressure release it must have been for him and all Carlton supporters when that ball went though.”
As for the Jesaulenko bouncing goal, Smith took great pride in the fact that the NFSA was able to marry unseen colour footage of Barassi launching himself from the bench on the boundary in jubilant reaction to Jezza’s incredible snap.
Smith hoped that the NFSA’s newly-released 1970 Grand Final montage would be well-received by all devotees of Australian Rules “because of the high esteem in which this game is held in VFL/AFL history”.
“Everyone knows and loves the Channel 7 footage and commentary . . . but here was a chance for us to show the depth and breadth of the NFSA’s collection in relation to this game, and to show footy fans something new by bringing a lot of what we had together,” Smith said.
“I suspect many Pies fans may choose to look away but for Carlton supporters and for those that just love watching footy from the past, I hope it delivers a few nice surprises. It’s such a great game with so many highlights.”
To view the NFSA’s 1970 Grand Final highlights packages, click here
