1970's Team of the Decade announced

It was a special night of recognition and celebration when the Williamstown Football Club hosted its 1970's Team of the Decade event at Seaview Event Centre on Saturday.

Following on from last year’s successful 1960’s Team of the Decade event, the Club’s Heritage panel lead by Terry Wheeler, John Grieve and Allan Parker, had the hard task of selecting 18 players and a coach for the team, from an initial squad of 35.

In keeping with the rules of the day, there were no wingers, therefore only 16 on the ground, and two interchange.

The decade began well, with the Seagulls making an appearance in the First Division Grand Final in 1970 under the guidance of Max Papley.

In doing so, Williamstown became the first ever VFA team to rise from Second Division the previous year, to play in a First Division grand final.

The highlight of the era though, was the Premiership glory of 1976 under coach Mal Allen, which followed one of the Club’s greatest ‘come from behind’ wins in the Preliminary final of that year, and there were some great stories shared by the players involved in that game.

Bruce Davis produced some terrific video’s on the ‘Bookmakers’ who were ever present around the club in the decade, and ‘Mr Football’ Ted Whiten, who coached the Club in first division for the 1975 season.

Greg Boxall entertained the room with his memories of his opponents, teammates and his performances during the 70's.

He also spoke about his recently departed great mate, Mark Cross, who was named as forward pocket in the team and was synonymous with kicking the winning torpedo punt goal in the 1976 Preliminary final.

It was terrific that Mark was represented by wife Jill on the night. 1970 players Greg Tweedly, Alan Kennedy, Peter Brown, Peter Kerr, John Fanning and Max Papley also shared their fond memories of their time in the 1970’s at the Club.