Discussion Strange or Interesting AFL Photos

Remove this Banner Ad

Log in to remove this ad.

Little bit of a bump here, but found a very interesting uniform matchup in the 2007 VFL Preliminary Final between Coburg vs Williamstown. Coburg would've been one of the first clubs in the VFL to have a regularly worn clash jumper, whereas Williamstown probably didn't have one until nearly a decade after this picture (likely a little bit sooner than that). As such, Coburg who were the "home" team (despite the neutral venue of North Port Oval) had to wear their clash jumper with home shorts against Williamstown in their home jumper and white shorts. Coburg went on to win the game and played Geelong in the Grand Final but unfortunately went down to Geelong who completed the AFL/VFL double that year, while if Coburg won they would've won the VFL Seniors/Reserves double.
This was the final year of Williamstown's alignment with Collingwood, while Coburg were midway through the Richmond alignment era. While scrolling the photos of the game on Getty Images I've spotted a few players who would go on to be pretty established players as well as some who were in the twilight on their careers. Some of the more notable ones would be Jack Riewoldt, Brodie Holland, Paul Licuria, Ben Reid, Alan Toovey, Matt White, and of course the two in the picture I've attached - Jay Schulz and Simon Prestigiacomo.
1710994882606.png
Link to the full gallery: https://www.gettyimages.com.au/photos/2nd-preliminary-final-williamstown-v-coburg-tigers
 
Someone sent me this image from the 150 Years of Football by the Herald Sun, there's a picture of Jason McCartney with 89 on his jumper. When was this worn? Have I missed out on something here?



Our Game_ 150 Years of Football – Herald Sun documentary 43-46 screenshot.png
 
Someone sent me this image from the 150 Years of Football by the Herald Sun, there's a picture of Jason McCartney with 89 on his jumper. When was this worn? Have I missed out on something here?



View attachment 1954183

89 Aussies died in the Bali Bombing that he was caught up in. This is what I could find in regards to him wearing the number in some capacity, but this doesn’t fit the description of the image.
Given he’s wearing short sleeves and doesn’t look like he has any sort of burn marks I’m going to guess that image is photoshopped. The 89 also doesn’t look to be warped by any sort of fold in the material, nor does it look reflective like a heat pressed patch probably would, which adds to my assumption.
 
89 Aussies died in the Bali Bombing that he was caught up in. This is what I could find in regards to him wearing the number in some capacity, but this doesn’t fit the description of the image.
Given he’s wearing short sleeves and doesn’t look like he has any sort of burn marks I’m going to guess that image is photoshopped. The 89 also doesn’t look to be warped by any sort of fold in the material, nor does it look reflective like a heat pressed patch probably would, which adds to my assumption.
I'm going to back up your assumption, the stripe underneath the 8 shouldn't be changing direction like that 😆
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

I can't load a photo being on my phone but watching some classic 95 games... Ben Allan in R16 1995 v Richmond doesn't have a back sponsor? Looks really weird, particularly for a club captain.
 
Courtesy of the VFL Footy in the 1980s Facebook page

Edit: on further consideration, does anyone know what's going on here? It looks to me like the inaugural Bears v West Coast season in 1987, where the Bears wore a maroon clash when playing against Hawthorn and the Eagles, and West Coast wore their familiar royal blue with yellow wings as a clash against Hawthorn. Obviously it looks like the Bears player has just gone with a home long sleever underneath, with some pretty lax rules in effect this day. But the white shorts? I didn't think Brisbane had white shorts in their first year?
 

Attachments

  • FB_IMG_1714799724416.jpg
    FB_IMG_1714799724416.jpg
    17.2 KB · Views: 20
Last edited:
Courtesy of the VFL Footy in the 1980s Facebook page

Edit: on further consideration, does anyone know what's going on here? It looks to me like the inaugural Bears v West Coast season in 1987, where the Bears wore a maroon clash when playing against Hawthorn and the Eagles, and West Coast wore their familiar royal blue with yellow wings as a clash against Hawthorn. Obviously it looks like the Bears player has just gone with a home long sleever underneath, with some pretty lax rules in effect this day. But the white shorts? I didn't think Brisbane had white shorts in their first year?
footyjumpers.com says 1987, almost 37 years ago.
Screenshot_20240504_171531_Samsung Internet.jpg
Just looking through the season by season, the Bears only wore white shorts against WCE and the Hawks the first season. 1988 was only against the Hawks, and then when the Bears went to Cerise, they kept the maroon guernsey and white shorts only for when they played Hawthorn. You'd think cerise would be a better option?
Here's a home and away fixture to compare in 1989.
Screenshot_20240504_172125_Samsung Internet.jpg
Cerise socks with the maroon guernsey, yikes.

1990 at home Brisbane wore the maroon guernsey V Hawthorn, despite the overall switch to cerise, and in 1991 Brisbane finally started wearing white shorts away to everyone, and got rid of the maroon.
 

Remove this Banner Ad

Back
Top