Ken Mansell, January 2019.

Introduction

John Haygarth 1958

One day in early May last year I happened to notice, at the very bottom of one of my articles about Geelong Football Club in the 1950’s, an interesting comment, written by one ‘Bill Haygarth’, complimenting me on the accuracy of my research. ‘No, surely not’, I thought, ‘not the son of John Haygarth’. As a young Cats fan in the fifties, poring over my football cards and statistics book, John Haygarth was my favourite Geelong footballer. Significantly, the only memory I retain in my mind’s eye from the epic 1956 First Semi Final between Geelong and Footscray is one (admittedly vague) image of ‘little Johnny Haygarth’ dashing off the half-back flank at the Ponsford Stand end of the MCG and bombing the ball long into the Geelong forward line. Not even a memory of the disastrous third-quarter collision between Bob Davis and Norm Sharp is retained. I eventually located the whereabouts of Bill Haygarth in outback New South Wales and wrote to him. I had to check whether I was dreaming when Bill Haygarth rang and urged me to contact his father. I did so and the article that follows is the result.

John Haygarth was a very good footballer and anything but ‘unpredictable’. 1 At the height of his career he was clearly one of Geelong’s best players and polled high in the Brownlow Medal. In 1959, in enigmatic circumstances, he fell out of favour with Geelong and signed with Ballarat League club Maryborough, coaching his new club to its first premiership in 29 years. John played over 350 games of football and with six clubs, starting in 1948 as a 14-year-old and continuing through to 1967 (with another brief spurt in 1974). The football biography of John Haygarth offers more than just a glimpse of the football culture of Victoria in the immediate post-war era, so different to today. My article traces John’s career in detail and investigates the reasons for his disturbing departure from Geelong in 1959, sweeping from under the carpet the material ignored by polite journalism and sanitised history. 2

John Haygarth lives today in western Victoria, a physically healthy and mentally alert gentleman in his mid-eighties - but not looking a day older than 70 –who has enthralled me with the story of his life. He shares the ownership of this article with myself, his son Bill Haygarth, and my associate Michael Riley. 3

John Haygarth – octogenarian (2018)

John Haygarth – 2007

(click on images to enlarge)
Geelong selected team positions – read (top to bottom) backs, half backs, centres, half forwards, forwards, followers.

PART ONE – MOVING UP

Chapter One - Inverleigh
Chapter Two - Apprenticeship (Geelong Thirds 1949-51)
Chapter Three - Perseverance (Geelong Seconds 1952-54)
Chapter Four - Breakthrough (Geelong Firsts 1955-56)
Chapter Five - Stardom (Geelong Firsts 1957-58)

Chapter One: Inverleigh

Inverleigh is a picturesque and historic township situated on the Hamilton Highway in western Victoria - only half-an-hour’s drive from Geelong. Formally proclaimed in 1854, the town sits astride, and takes its name from, the Leigh River, a stream flowing into the larger Barwon River nearby. One would estimate the Inverleigh district population today as somewhere near 700 human souls, less numerous than when Australia ‘lived on the sheep’s back’ and Inverleigh itself was a thriving local centre for the Western District wool industry.

Our story begins in the middle-thirties, when the inhabitants of Inverleigh had begun to recover from the worst years of the Great Depression and fresh new buds of life were sprouting. William Montgomery Haygarth and Mary Ellen Haygarth (nee Bourke), returned proudly to their modest family home at 34 Mercer Street with a baby son - John Montgomery Haygarth, born 13th July in 1934 at a Private Hospital in Geelong, and before long the older brother of three sisters.

William, the eldest of six children whose great-grandparents had migrated from Scotland and England in the 1850’s, was a ‘gun’ shearer known for his strength, stamina and work ethic. Mary, the third eldest of seven children whose great-grandparents had migrated from Tipperary and Edinburgh in the 1850’s, had run fast as a schoolgirl athlete. It would seem, and it is hardly surprising, the young Inverleigh couple provided their first baby with an enviable genetic inheritance. John Montgomery Haygarth proved to be a strong physical specimen, an all-round sportsman with a strong claim to be Inverleigh’s finest-ever Australian Rules footballer.

John's great-grandfather George Montgomery Haygarth, Vet and blacksmith, Secretary Inverleigh Mechanics Institute 1880's

Parents - Mary Haygarth/William Haygarth

Marriage of Mary and William 1933

The boyhood home – 34 Mercer Street

John Haygarth - raring to go

John with poultry

John - still raring to go

John Haygarth started school at 4 ½ - at the single-teacher Inverleigh (state) school. During World War Two William was taken on at Geelong’s Ford Motor Company, building jeeps and four-wheel drives for the Army. The Haygarths had no transport, so the family moved to Geelong. John attended South Geelong (state) school for several years, and then when the family moved to East Geelong near the beach, he attended Swanston Street school.

Inverleigh school 1940 (John third from left in front row)

Swanston Street school football team 1944 (John fourth from right in front row)

After World War Two the Haygarths moved back to Inverleigh. John travelled into Geelong to attend classes at the Technical College. When he eventually turned fourteen he started at his first paid job, as a clerk at Richardson’s Stock and Station Agency in Geelong.

John’s own reminiscences of his youth suggest a life of simplicity and self-reliant resourcefulness. Given the lack of resources available to him as an aspiring footballer, John’s development of sublime kicking and marking skills is indeed remarkable:

Like many other Victorian country towns, no matter how small or distant, Inverleigh was steeped in football tradition. It is recorded that in 1879 a combined Inverleigh/Winchelsea team even defeated the Geelong Football Club, then undisputed ‘champions of the colony’ who in 1879 won the second of their three successive premierships in the Victorian Football Association. Inverleigh competed in the Leigh District Football Association from 1914-1925 before entering the Polwarth District Football Association from 1926-1935. Later the club played in the Elliott Association from 1939-1952, and in the Geelong and District Football League from 1954-69. 4
John Haygarth’s grandfather, also John Haygarth, captained the Inverleigh premiership team which triumphed over Bannockburn in the 1919 Grand Final. John takes up the story:

Young John Haygarth was soon circling in the orbit of his local football club, absorbing the tradition and refining it:

The Elliott Association comprised seven teams competing for the Elliott Cup – Inverleigh, Lethbridge, Meredith, Stonehaven, Modewarre, Bannockburn, and Elaine. By the end of the 1949 season young John, still only 15, had become a star of the competition. He dominated in both the 1949 Grand Final, in which Inverleigh defeated Modewarre (8.12 to 5.8), and the 1950 Grand Final in which Inverleigh again triumphed, defeating Bannockburn 7.13 to 4.3. According to football historian John Stoward (Cat Country, p. 176), John was named second-best-on-ground in both matches and kicked three of his side’s seven goals in the 1950 encounter.

Inverleigh premiers 1919. John's grandfather Jack Haygarth (captain-coach) with vertical stripes and holding ball (his brother George Haygarth on right of him)

Inverleigh premiers 1919 (Leigh Association). Photo by Bill Haygarth/Inverleigh Mechanics Institute Hall

John's grandfather Jack Haygarth Snr was 32 when he captain-coached Inverleigh to 1919 premiership

Inverleigh premiers (Mathieson Cup Association) 1927. Photo by Bill Haygarth /Inverleigh Mechanics Institute Hall

Bill Haygarth Snr, John's father, was 15 when he played in the 1927 Inverleigh premiership team

Inverleigh 1949 premiers (John fourth from left in middle row). Captain Rob Wishart with ball. Ivan Witcombe (fourth from right in back row). (Inverleigh Mechanics Institute Hall)

Inverleigh 1949 premiers (John fourth from left in middle row)

Inverleigh 1950 premiers (John extreme left front row). Captain Rob Wishart with ball. Ivan Witcombe (third from left in back row)

Inverleigh premiership team circa 1954-61

As a ten-year-old schoolboy playing for Swanston Street in Geelong John often found himself competing on the field against boys twelve-years-old or older. He developed a reputation for courage. As John’s son Bill Haygarth recalls:

John’s ability to play unfazed against older opponents was to remain with him – for a number of years with Inverleigh, and then for a number of years playing for Geelong Thirds.

John and sisters (Lorraine and Joan) 1950

Chapter Two: Apprenticeship (Geelong Thirds 1949-51)

1949

Not surprisingly, Inverleigh footballers who wanted to make the grade in VFL football tended to turn out with Geelong, only a short train trip or drive down the highway. Harold Allen, who played 20 games for Geelong (then called the ‘Pivotonians’) in 1914-15 and 1919, appears to have been the first of them. There is then a long chronological gap to the second – John Haygarth. John was to be followed by a rush of players from Inverleigh wearing the blue and white hoops: Rod Blake (176 games 1971-83), Malcolm Reed (81 games 1975-85), Murray Witcombe (121 games 1976-86), Alan Woodman (58 games 1975-79), and Dale Smyth (7 games 1980 and 1982).

John’s own initiation to Geelong Football Club and the rigours of VFL football was not pre-ordained and his contact with the club was initially quite minimal:

John credits Lindsay White – the brilliant Geelong full-forward of the forties – for being instrumental in helping him launch his career at Geelong:

Geelong’s Under-Nineteen team (‘The Thirds’) performed admirably in 1949 and advanced to the Finals series, winning the Second Semi Final against South Melbourne but losing to Carlton in the Grand Final (7.9 to 9.8). Future Geelong senior players Ron Hovey, Terry Fulton and Noel Rayson (the first two of whom played in premiership teams) were members of the 1949 Geelong ‘Thirds’ side. I have been unable to find a shred of evidence that John Haygarth played an actual premiership match with Geelong ‘Thirds’ in 1949. John insists however that he trained with the ‘Thirds’ in 1949:

1950

John was selected to play in Geelong ‘Thirds’ practice matches at the start of the 1950 season – on a half-forward flank for the ‘Rainbows’ team against the ‘Blue and White’ team on April 1, and at full-forward for the ‘Blue and White’ team against the ‘Rainbows’ team in the final ‘Thirds’ practice match on April 15 - but was overlooked by the selectors for the first two matches of the ‘home and away’ season. He made his debut for the ‘Thirds’ – and therefore as a Geelong footballer – in the Round Three curtain-raiser (to the senior game) against Essendon at Kardinia Park on Saturday May 6. Interestingly, the jumper number he wore on this day was No. 10 – the same number he was to eventually wear in all his games for Geelong seniors. The Geelong line-up on this auspicious occasion was:

Emergencies: Hussey Morwood 7

Geelong were no match for the Dons and lost 4.6 to 12.17. John scored a goal and was named among Geelong’s best players, along with Stanway, Dean, Hovey and Mills. 8

John was selected to play for the ‘Thirds’ in the next four matches, this time wearing No. 14 jumper. For the Round Four (May 13) curtain-raiser against Melbourne at the MCG he was selected at centre-half forward. Geelong lost 5.10 to 6.11 but John again impressed, kicking two goals and being named as Geelong’s second-best player, behind Ron Hovey. For the Round Five (May 20) match against Richmond Juniors (curtain-raiser to Geelong-Collingwood at Kardinia Park) John was selected in the centre. The Cats won 6.12 to 5.8 and John was named as Geelong’s best player (and therefore presumably best-on-ground). He again started in the centre on Saturday May 27 in the Round Six curtain-raiser against St. Kilda at Kardinia Park, won by Geelong (match details obscured on SLV film), and in the June 3 Round Seven curtain-raiser against Richmond at Punt Road, lost by Geelong.

Possibly because the Geelong ‘Thirds’ selectors’ policy of rotating players was still being applied, John was not selected for the June 10 Round Eight curtain-raiser against North Melbourne at Arden Street. He did however play for Inverleigh on this Saturday and was named among the best players (along with Rob Wishart and Ivan Witcombe) in the team’s 10.10-11.9 loss to Bannockburn. (It is worth noting that Ron Hovey, who had stood beside John Haygarth on the half-forward line when John made his debut as a Cat, was promoted to the Second Eighteen for June 10. Only a little over one year later Hovey was to occupy a spot on the reserves bench in Geelong’s 1951 VFL premiership triumph).

The Geelong Advertiser edition of Monday June 19 makes for interesting reading. It reveals that John Haygarth in fact played two football matches on the one day (June 17). Selected as 20th man for the Round Nine curtain-raiser against Carlton at Kardinia Park, John replaced an injured player in the last quarter as the Cats went down 2.10-6.12. He then miraculously turned up at Inverleigh to help his team defeat Lethbridge (9.17-4.5), kicking one goal. If John was capable of playing two matches in one day on one occasion there is no reason to doubt the super-fit and enthusiastic youth may have done so on other occasions also:

For Rounds Ten (June 24), Eleven (July 1) and Twelve (July 8) of the ‘Thirds’ season, John was selected on the half-forward flank, not the centre. In the ‘away’ curtain-raiser match against Fitzroy John kicked one goal and was named as Geelong’s third-best in a losing side (5.10-10.8). In the Kardinia Park loss against South Melbourne (8.4-9.12) John again scored a goal but was not named among the best. Against Hawthorn, again at Geelong, John was the third-best Geelong player and contributed a goal to the winning side (10.10-6.8).

John (apparently not injured or ‘dropped’) was not selected for the Round Thirteen (July 15) ‘away’ game against Footscray, nor for the (final) Round Sixteen (August 12) ‘away’ match against Richmond Juniors. He was selected in the centre for Round Fourteen (July 22) at Essendon, and on the wing for the Round Fifteen (August 5) ‘home’ game against Melbourne. 10

Young John Haygarth, still only sixteen and playing with and against players one or two years older, had hit the ground running in his first season of VFL football. He played in eleven of Geelong ‘Thirds’ sixteen matches and was named among the team’s best players on at least five occasions. Talent scouts from other clubs were already showing an interest. John recalls:

The selectors’ habit of shifting John from pillar to post, from one position on the ground to another – at the selection table if not during the actual matches – was already evident in 1950. Whether as the outcome of experimentation or substitution, the positional merry-go-round would become an inherent and repetitive element of his football career, not just with the ‘Thirds’ but with the Seconds and Senior team also. In time John acquired the (perhaps ambiguous) tag ‘utility’ – and it is not hard to see why. In the end he could play, and play well, anywhere.

1951

Geelong Thirds 1951 (John extreme left top row)

Geelong Thirds 1951 (John extreme left top row)
Top row: J.Haygarth, R.Robinson, A.Featherston, R.Stein, D.Carroll, D.Dower
Second top row: M.Gear, P.Beggs, R.Aisbett, D.O’Hara, B.Barmby, R.Holloway, K.Pullin, R.Matthews
Third top row: W.Getsom (Trainer), H.Herbert, A.Dawson, L.Ferguson (vice-captain), C.Schaller (captain), B.Crowe, J.Ward, W.Holohan (Trainer)
Second bottom row: C.Ledgerwood (Match Committee), J.Lucas (Coach), D.Huon (Manager), J.Salter (Assistant Manager), I.Southern (First Aid Officer), J.Edmonds (Property)
Front row: J.Trewin, L.Conolan, M.Kent, I.Priddle

Geelong Thirds 1951 (John extreme left top row)

John turned out again for the Geelong Third Eighteen in 1951. The impression gained is that his form in this second season was not as eye-catching. It might be too harsh to say his football went backwards, although, for no obvious reason, his name does not appear regularly in the Geelong Advertiser weekly list of best players. John played in the last two Geelong Seconds practice matches – as a half-back flanker for the ‘Rainbows’ team (versus ‘Red and White’ team) on April 7, and as a half-forward flanker (for ‘Red and White’ team) on April 14. The Geelong Advertiser (April 16) reported:

‘The most noteworthy performances in the game on Saturday was (sic) given by McKee, D.Worland, Mathews, Haygarth, Mills, Hodgson, Warren, Vanderfeen, Spivey and Walsh’.

Interestingly, John had initially been named on the Geelong Thirds ‘training list’ (Geelong Advertiser, April 9) but after his ‘noteworthy’ April 14 performance he was elevated from the Thirds ‘Final List’ to the Seconds ‘Final List’. Despite this raise in status, John did not play for Geelong Seconds in 1951.

The ‘Thirds’ selectors’ unpredictability was again evident. John was selected on the half-back flank for Round One against South Melbourne at Geelong (April 21), for Round Five against Essendon at Geelong (May 19), for the Round Six defeat (7.4-13.10) against North Melbourne at North Melbourne (June 2), and for Round Seven against Hawthorn at Geelong (June 9). He was selected on the half-forward flank for the Round Two victory (11.6-8.13) against Fitzroy at Fitzroy (April 28), for Round Four against Carlton at Geelong (May 12), and for Round Eight against Footscray at Footscray (June 16). He was selected on the wing for Round Three against Collingwood at Collingwood (May 5).

Not only the selections were unpredictable – spectators arriving early to watch the curtain-raiser to the main League game would find Geelong players wearing different numbers from week to week. (John Haygarth, for instance, wore No. 22 in Round Five and No. 14 in Rounds Six and Seven). In response to a letter appearing in the Geelong Advertiser complaining that Geelong ‘Thirds’ jumper numbers were missing in ‘The (VFL) Football Record’, the Manager of Geelong ‘Thirds’, D.B. Huon, had a ready explanation: a lack of guernseys and constant changes in personnel:

‘It is impossible to allocate to each player a definite number. When the training list becomes stabilised and sufficient guernseys are available the club will allocate one guernsey to each player – resulting in a reliable list of numbers’. 12

Playing on a half-back flank in the Round Six (June 2) match against North Melbourne at Arden Street, John was Geelong’s best player, with Harry Herbert not far behind. However, just when John seemed to be riding the crest of a wave, calamity struck - in Round Eight, at Footscray on June 16:

It seems John did play again that season, but for Inverleigh, not Geelong ‘Thirds’. He was not selected for the ‘Thirds’ after Round Eight. Two other future Geelong senior players to take the field for the ‘Thirds’ in 1951 were centre-half forward Harry Herbert from Warrnambool, and centre player Don O’Hara.

Chapter Three: Perseverance (Geelong Seconds 1952-54)

1952

John Haygarth would have scratched himself in disbelief in 1949 if he had known he was destined to play in the same Geelong team as Lindsay White. In an early-season League match against South Melbourne in 1950, White, the Geelong captain, tore his Achilles tendon and retired from football – temporarily as it turned out. At the start of the following season (1951) White was named on the Geelong Seconds ‘Final List’, not the Geelong senior ‘Final List’, and, perhaps aggrieved, signed with Ballarat Football Club, captain-coached by his old Geelong team mate Percy Hunt. White kicked 64 goals for the season, including three goals to help steer Ballarat to its Grand Final win over East Ballarat. 13 But White was not done with Geelong and returned in season 1952 as captain-coach of the club’s Second Eighteen, replacing 1951 Seconds coach Bob Walker, described by John as ‘a very astute coach’.

In Round One (1952) against Melbourne at Kardinia Park, White played in the centre. When John Haygarth first broke into the Seconds, for the Round Four encounter against Fitzroy at Kardinia Park on May 10, 1952, he started on the half forward flank, thus joining Lindsay White (at full-forward) on the Geelong forward line – and would have been picking him out whenever he got the ball.

John was selected on the half-forward flank (‘Red and Black’ versus ‘Red and White’) in the Geelong practice match (curtain-raiser to main Geelong practice match) on April 5. This match would have been considered a trial for Geelong Seconds. John was not named on the Geelong ‘Thirds’ ‘Training List’ for 1952, even though, at 17, he was still eligible to play for them. John did in fact play the first three matches of the season for the ‘Thirds’, all of them on a half-forward flank (against Melbourne at the MCG on April 19, against Footscray at Geelong on April 26, and against St. Kilda at Geelong on May 3).

The morning of (Friday) May 9 would have been a very exciting one for the Haygarth family – if, of course, they had happened to check the Geelong Advertiser. John was selected for his first-ever game in open-age VFL competition – the Round Four (May 10) Seconds match against Fitzroy at Kardinia Park. Fitzroy won a ‘dull scrambling game’ by two goals (14.9-11.15), John contributing one goal from his flank. The ‘Seconds’ line-up was:

Emergency: Graeme Stanway 14

John had to wait until Round Eight to play for the Seconds again. He was back with the Third Eighteen for Rounds Five, Six, and Seven, and played all three matches on the half-back flank. Against North Melbourne at Geelong on May 17 he was best-on-ground in the Cats’ 9.7-3.5 victory. John was also named among the best players in Geelong’s 8.15-4.8 win at Richmond on May 31 (resuming after the VFL Lightning Premiership on May 24) and in the June 7 loss (6.13-8.11) at Carlton. 15

Geelong players of 1952-53 era – record-breakers

VFL football resumed after the Victoria-Western Australia interstate match at the MCG on June 14. John was elevated again to the Seconds for the next three Rounds (8,9,10) – the June 21 game against South Melbourne at South, the June 28 fixture against Hawthorn at Geelong (won 8.12-3.6), and the July 5 match against Essendon at Geelong (lost 4.3-6.16). The respective line-ups for these three matches were:

Emergency: Moore

Emergency: Tony Bliss

Emergency: Graeme Stanway

The only stable element in John’s situation at this point of his career with Geelong was the stability of the number on his back. He appears to have worn No. 14 throughout the 1952 season, at least with the ‘Thirds’. Otherwise he still hung by a thread to the Seconds, and his relegation to the ‘Thirds’ for their last six matches (Rounds 11-16) was not a huge surprise. For each of these six matches John was selected to play half-back flank. He was named among the best players in the close loss (5.6-5.8) against Melbourne at Geelong on July 19, and named as Geelong’s overall best player in the close loss (6.6-7.8) to Fitzroy at Geelong on August 9. 16

With the ‘Under-Nineteen’ season ‘done and dusted’ John was back in the Seconds – 20th man in their thrashing (7.6-14.20) by Richmond at Richmond (August 23) and half-back flank against Carlton at Carlton (August 30). The latter game marked a significant milestone in John’s career. He was named among Geelong’s best players in their close loss (8.12-8.18) to the Blues, signifying he was now perhaps only one step from senior selection. 17 The Seconds’ teams for Rounds Seventeen and Eighteen were:

Emergency: Russell Robinson

Emergency: Maurie Gear

After 1952 Lindsay White continued to fashion his own legend in Geelong district football. As captain-coach of Bannockburn in the Geelong District Association’s 1953 season he kicked 23 goals (!) on the afternoon of May 2, 1953 in a match against North Shore. Appointed captain-coach of Winchelsea in the Polwarth League for 1954 and 1955, he kicked 115 goals in 1954, and again dominated in 1955, kicking 20 goals in a match against Birregurra and winning Winchelsea’s best and fairest award. 18

1953

Against the background of Cold War, Communist insurgency in South-East Asia, and the declaration of war in Korea, the Menzies government sponsored the National Service Act 1951. The legislation provided for the compulsory call-up of males turning 18 on or after 1 November 1950, for service training of 176 days. Between 1951 and 1959 over 500,000 men registered, 52 intakes were organised, and some 227,000 men were trained.

John Haygarth turned 18 on July 13, 1952. He must have known his 1953 football season was at risk, yet turned out for all of the pre-season Geelong practice matches as if the situation he faced was normal. John played in three Seconds (curtain-raiser) practice matches - on the half-back flank (March 21), the wing (March 28), and half-forward flank (April 11).

One can presume John caught the selectors’ eyes because for the Easter Weekend (Friday April 3-Monday April 6) he lined up in both main (‘Firsts’) practice matches, held on the Saturday and Monday. For the Easter Monday game John was selected on a half-forward flank in the ‘Red and Black’ team (captained by Russell Renfrey) against the ‘Blue and White’ team (captained by Bernie Smith). Renfrey’s team boasted talent on every line - Noel Rayson, Syd Smith, Bob Wiltshire, Don O’Hara, Howard Hawking, Terry Fulton, Doug Palmer, Jim Roberts, Maurie Gear, George Swarbrick and Norm Scott (possibly) - and walloped the opposition (13.19-6.7), John Haygarth adding two goals. The Geelong Advertiser mentioned John as one of the Second Eighteen players who were ‘prominent’ in the Saturday game, but the newspaper was even more complimentary about his performance on the Monday, reporting the ‘prominent junior player sometimes showed good judgment and leading out ability to get above taller men in marking duels’.

John made the Geelong Seconds ‘Training List’ for season 1953 and was named as one of four reserves for the Round One (April 18) Seconds match against Hawthorn at Glenferrie. The victorious (12.21-10.9) Geelong team (captain-coached by Syd Tate) was:

Reserves: John Haygarth Brian Shelley Merv Richardson J.Mills

After April 18, John was selected for Geelong Seconds on two further occasions during the 1953 season, but only as an emergency – for the Round 5 (May 23) match against Richmond at Geelong, and the Round 17 (August 15) match against Richmond at Punt Road. (This is odd. I would have presumed he was in camp at Puckapunyal, at least on the latter occasion).

Round Five:

Emergencies: John Haygarth J.Mills Tony Bliss Howard Hawking

Round Seventeen:

Emergency:John Haygarth

John was not selected to play again in 1953, in any Geelong team, the obvious and overriding reason being his National Service stint. One can therefore conclude he may not have taken the field in any capacity for Geelong Football Club during the 1953 premiership season, although it is conceivable he may have done so if picked as 19th or 20th on April 18 at Glenferrie (and/or on May 23 at Geelong). 19 As John recalls:

Puckapunyal 1953 (John third from right second top row)

John at ’Pucka’

John Haygarth was born to the country life, and his working life, including his football, has always been intimately linked to country life. At Richardson’s Market, the Estate Agents and Stock Market firm in Geelong where John started in his first job as a fourteen-year-old in 1949, the young footballer developed skills that were to serve him for the rest of his life:

John left Richardson’s when he was called up for three-months National Service in 1953. When he got out of Puckapunyal, the football season more or less over, he was looking for a local job:

John also found a wife, a young local woman - Barbara Gray. John met Barbara at one of the country dances held in the hamlet of Teesdale every Friday and Saturday night. Her mother and step-father were working on ‘Woolbrook’, a wool station at Teesdale. Romance bloomed and on October 31, 1953, John and Barbara tied the knot. John was only 19½.

Marriage John/Barbara October 31, 1953.

Soon after the wedding, a farm labouring job became available on (Bannockburn) Councillor Jim Harvey’s merino stud property (‘Poplars Farm’) at Murgheboluc, twenty kilometres west of Geelong on the Hamilton Highway. John worked as a labourer on Harvey’s property for six years, until he moved to Maryborough near the end of 1959. An article in the (Melbourne) Herald (circa August 1957) offers a glimpse of the Geelong footballer’s everyday working life, one still intimately associated with animals. The article does however trivialise the nature of John’s labour, neglecting to mention that sheer hard (and heavy) physical work was the secret to John’s supreme fitness and strength, not the chasing of lambs:

‘From a keen greyhound racing family, John spends several hours each day exercising his greyhounds and chasing his household pets. The lambs will come if offered a bottle of milk but otherwise they lead him a merry dance.’ 20

John/Cr Harvey’s daughter 1959

John – shearer

Feeding time Murgheboluc 1957

Feeding time Murgheboluc (John, Barbara, Bill) 1956

Feeding time Murgheboluc (John, Barbara, Bill) 1957

John/Bill Murgheboluc 1957

John/Billy

The Geelong Advertiser edition of Friday August 28 in 1953 held a shock in store for Geelong fans. Full-forward George Goninon was dropped from the senior team for the final (Round 18) ‘home and away’ match against Melbourne and picked at full-forward for Geelong Seconds. (Fred Flanagan took his place at full-forward for the seniors). Goninon kicked three goals (and was judged ‘best-on-ground’) in the Seconds match but, controversially, did not regain his senior position for the 1953 Finals. Goninon was still on the outer in 1954. Ominously, for the Round One (1954) match (Monday April 19), Goninon, picked in the Seconds, was 'unavailable'. Even as far into the 1954 season as Round Six, he was bogged down at full-forward in Geelong Seconds. In 1955 the VFL’s champion goal-kicker of 1951 joined Lindsay White at Winchelsea and had a similar impact, kicking 10 of Winchelsea’s 15 goals in a Polwarth League match against Apollo Bay on April 23, 1955. 21

1954

John resumed his career at Kardinia Park after his interrupted 1953 season. He was selected on a half-forward flank for the ‘Red’ team in the Seconds (curtain-raiser) practice match of March 27. In the curtain-raiser match on April 3, John, initially only one of three ‘Reserves’ for the ‘Red and Black’ team, played as a rover and was praised (Geelong Advertiser, April 5) as one of seven ‘outstanding’ players. John was included in the list of Geelong Seconds players to continue training under Syd Tate, and after again playing as (first) rover in the final Seconds practice match (April 10), was named on the Seconds final ‘Training List’ of 38 players.

Given his good form, and his enforced sacrifice for the nation, John’s exclusion from the Round One (April 19) Geelong Seconds team must have been disappointing, and possibly even rankled. He did not take the field for Geelong again that season and spent the entire year dominating for his original country club Inverleigh.

Geelong Seconds (Round One) versus Fitzroy at Geelong, Monday, April 19:

Emergencies: Ray Mathews J.Shelley John Haygarth W.Clarke
(Goninon ‘unavailable’ replaced by May in selected team. Mathews 20th man).

John was not selected in the Geelong Seconds team for Round Two (Saturday April 24) against North Melbourne (and nor was he selected for Round Three). It is difficult to know whether this was because he had already notified the club he intended to play for Inverleigh, or whether contrariwise, he had decided to play for Inverleigh because he had for some reason been totally excluded from the Seconds, not even named as an emergency.

Geelong Seconds Round Two:

Emergency: Tony Bliss

Geelong Seconds Round Three:

Emerg: Shelley

John’s shift sideways to a lesser competition in 1954 probably benefited his career in the longer term – ‘one step backward two steps forward’ – because on his local grounds and ensured of a regular game, John showed off his talents and the Geelong selectors could not help but notice.

In 1954, Inverleigh was one of nine clubs competing in the Woolworth Cup. The others were North Geelong, Lara, Geelong West YCW, Bannockburn, Stonehaven, Little River, Freshwater Creek, and St. Albans.

John’s brilliant record in 1954 is best laid out in tabular form (as per information in the Geelong Advertiser) –

Round One - Inverleigh 9.18 d Stonehaven 3.15 (one goal; best on ground).
Round Two - Inverleigh d Geelong West YCW 16.19-6.6 (6 goals; best on ground).
Round Three - Inverleigh d by North Geelong 4.4-13.14 (one goal; best for Inverleigh).
Round Four - Inverleigh d Bannockburn 13.26-5.5 (3 goals; third best for Inverleigh).
Round Five - Inverleigh d by Lara 6.19-12.21 (3 goals; third best for Inverleigh).
Round Six - Inverleigh d by St Albans 10.7-11.3 (4 goals; best for Inverleigh).
Round Seven - Inverleigh versus Freshwater Creek (2 goals).
Round Eight - Inverleigh d Little River 10.18-11.9 (8 goals; best on ground).
Round Nine - Inverleigh bye.
Round Ten - Inverleigh d Stonehaven 7.10-7.8 (2 goals – not named in best players).
Round Eleven - Inverleigh d Geelong West YCW (3 goals).
Round Twelve - Inverleigh d by North Geelong 4.12-8.7 (one goal; not named in best players).
Round Thirteen - Inverleigh d Bannockburn 14.16-2.2 (8 goals; best on ground).
Round Fourteen - Inverleigh d Lara 8.12-7.7 (5 goals; second best for Inverleigh).
Round Fifteen - Inverleigh d by St Albans 11.9-14.17 (3 goals; best for Inverleigh).
Round Sixteen - Inverleigh d Freshwater Creek 7.8-4.11 (2 goals; fifth best for Inverleigh).
Round Seventeen - Geelong Advertiser, Monday August 16 – no Inverleigh result published – three other matches detailed.
Round Eighteen – Inverleigh bye.

John Haygarth won Inverleigh’s ‘best and fairest’ award for 1954 by a country mile. He had kicked 52 goals after sixteen Rounds. St Albans won the Woolworth Cup premiership, defeating North Geelong 14.16-6.3 in the Grand Final.

Chapter Four: Breakthrough (Geelong Firsts 1955-56)

1955

John was missing from the first two Geelong practice matches of 1955 (March 19 and March 26) – possibly because his intention at that point was to continue with Inverleigh. However, for the third Saturday (April 2) he was named as one of seven reserves for the ‘Red’ team (versus the ‘Red and Black’) in the Seconds practice match. On the fourth weekend – Easter – John in fact played two practice matches in three days, firstly on the Saturday (April 9) at centre-half forward for the Seconds’ ‘Red’ team, and secondly on the Monday – on the half-back flank for the ‘Blue and White’ team (versus the ‘Red and Black’). It is possible this Easter Monday occasion, the final practice match, was the first time the Geelong senior selectors sat up and took notice of the young man from Inverleigh. The line-up for the match featured a significant number of players who were either regular seniors, or on the verge of regular senior selection – Harry Herbert, Clive Brown, Ivan Baumgartner, Geoff Umbers, Max Sutcliffe, Glen Bow, Ken Cameron, Les May, Jim Roberts, Doug Davies, Fred Wooller, Russell Renfrey, Bob Wiltshire, Les Borrack and Peter Pianto. The Geelong Advertiser commented:

‘Two local half-backs were among the most consistent. John Haygarth (Inverleigh) and Alf Featherstone (St. Mary’s), both of whom have had experience with the Seconds, made few mistakes, marked well and defended strongly.’

Not surprisingly John was named on the Seconds ‘list’ to train under captain-coach Doug Davies. Bill Haygarth remembers John talking about his relationship with Davies:

In 1955 Geelong’s premiership squad of 1951-52 had started to thin out. Bruce Morrison, John Hyde, Bill McMaster, George Goninon, Terry Fulton, Leo Turner, and Tom Morrow had all departed, and Fred Flanagan was soon to follow. Geelong performed surprisingly well in 1955, finishing third with a side that included a significant number of very young players, some of them teenagers. John Haygarth would have pinched himself if he had known he too would break into the senior side before season’s end, but this he did – though not before once again jumping through all the hoops.

John had by now secured a regular position with Geelong Seconds. He was selected for the first eleven Seconds matches of the season - Rounds One, Two and Four on a half-forward flank and the other eight matches on a half-back flank. In Round One (April 16), a tight Geelong win (11.12-10.13) against South Melbourne at the Lake Oval, John, one of Geelong’s best players on the day, booted four goals, all four in the second quarter:

‘Haygarth goaled after receiving the benefit of a 15-yard penalty and this player repeated the effort when he took a handpass from McGannon – it was all Geelong now, with the little men shining and Haygarth, Sutcliffe and McGannon finishing off the good work…….Haygarth got his third goal for the term when he drove home a glorious 60-yard drop kick after marking the kick-off……Haygarth got his fourth for the quarter as the siren sounded to leave Geelong in a commanding position at the long interval’ (Geelong Advertiser).

In the first half of his 1955 season with Geelong Seconds, John was on fire. He was rated Geelong’s third-best player in the loss (7.13-7.17) to Melbourne on April 23 at Geelong, best afield in the Round Four (May 7) win (11.13-7.4) against Fitzroy at Kardinia Park, second best-on-ground in the Round Six (May 21) win (15.18-6.6) against St. Kilda at Geelong; and one of Geelong’s best in the Round Seven (May 28) win (8.16-7.15) against Carlton at Geelong, the Round Ten (June 25) win (7.15-6.12) against Essendon at Essendon, and the Round Eleven (July 2) loss to Hawthorn (9.6-11.12) at Hawthorn. The Geelong Advertiser was running out of superlatives:

Versus Fitzroy (first half) - ‘Haygarth, on the Geelong half-back flank, was still getting more kicks than any other player afield, and was a constant barrier to most Fitzroy advances.’
Versus Fitzroy (second half) - ‘Fitzroy, trying the opposite flank in an effort to avoid Haygarth, found Middlemiss almost impassable.’
Versus St. Kilda - ‘…a dashing Haygarth….’……
‘It was attacking defence at its best when Haygarth’s mighty drop was marked high by Featherston who passed to Davies for a cool second major’.
Versus Essendon - ‘…the powerful defensive work of May, Haygarth and O’Hara who formed an almost inpenetrable defensive line.’
Versus Hawthorn (third quarter) - ‘Geelong came back into the play for Haygarth, on the half-forward flank, to goal nicely.’
Versus Hawthorn (fourth quarter) - ‘Geelong were first away for Haygarth to send forward with a long shot, which bounced through’.

John appeared on only one further occasion with Geelong Seconds in 1955 – the Round 15 (July 30) clash with Fitzroy at Fitzroy. Playing on a half-back flank, he was named as Geelong’s fourth-best player in their (10.15-7.12) win.

John was rewarded for his scintillating form with selection in the VFL Seconds team to play the SANFL Seconds in Adelaide on July 16. Very soon after this he received another pleasant surprise – selection on July 8 for his first-ever game with the Geelong senior team, Round Twelve (July 9) against South Melbourne at the Lake Oval. The Geelong Advertiser (July 8) commented:

‘John Haygarth, from Inverleigh, came to the Third Eighteen and played with that team for two years before graduating to the Second Eighteen. He was promoted to the senior list last week. He has played every game with the Seconds this season, and with the exception of the first match, when he played at half-forward, has been at half-back’.

Geelong’s line-up on July 9 (1955):

Emergency: John Helmer
In: Hawking Roberts Goggin Beardsley
Out (all injured): John O’Connell Bruce Ferrari Roger Bullen Les Borrack

Geelong got home in a close game (15.9-13.10), with Trezise (5), Rayson (4) and Pianto (3) all among the goals. It would appear, however, that John Haygarth did not take the field.

On Saturday July 16, a VFL Seconds team played SANFL Seconds on the Adelaide Oval as the curtain-raiser to the main Victoria versus South Australia clash. John Haygarth and Doug Davies were the two Geelong representatives. 22 The VFL triumphed 14.15 (99) to 8.13 (61), and John won a Heinz ‘hamper’ as one of the three best players on the ground:

‘During the recent Second Eighteen football match played in Adelaide the H.J.Heinz Company made available three Heinz hampers for the best three players on the ground. You have been selected as one of the three best players and within the next few days the Heinz hamper will be delivered to you addressed to the Geelong Football Club. Congratulations on a mighty personal effort and on a good team win. Yours truly, H.J.Heinz Co. Pty Ltd’. 23

VFL Seconds Adelaide 1955 (John extreme left top row)

VFL Seconds Adelaide 1955 (John extreme left top row)

Letter from Heinz Co. 1955

John Haygarth, on duty in Adelaide, was not able to participate in Geelong’s great (Round Thirteen) victory (10.11-6.16) against eventual 1955 premiers Melbourne at Kardinia Park.

At some point in early July, presumably before July 8, John was elevated to the Geelong senior ‘Training List’, but it is not entirely clear whether this occurred before or after the announcement (before July 8) he had been selected in the VFL Seconds team. John, however is of the view his elevation only happened after, and because of, his Adelaide performance:

John’s recollection of this period is that he was in ‘competition’ with Ken Cameron and Colin Barton for one of the senior team’s half-back flank positions (Bernie Smith having a stranglehold on the other):

John’s memory does not tally with the facts. Ken Cameron established himself as the regular half-back flanker with the seniors well before Round Twelve and was not displaced by John in that position. Cameron played in that position in all sixteen Geelong matches after Round Five. Cameron suffered concussion twice in 1955 - against Collingwood at Collingwood (Round 8) and against Fitzroy at Geelong (Round 15) – but was still picked.

After Adelaide, John retained his connection to the senior side, but only just. He was on standby as an emergency in Geelong’s Round Fourteen (July 23) loss (14.13-14.16) at Punt Road, dropped to the Seconds for Round Fifteen, and brought back to the ‘Firsts’ for Round Sixteen (August 6) at Footscray. The match at the Western Oval thrilled the 33,000 spectators. Noel Rayson kicked five of his side’s ten goals and the Cats sneaked home by three points (10.16-10.13), despite losing Bob Davis (dislocated collarbone) at three-quarter time. John Haygarth replaced Harry Herbert (cramp) in the ‘time-on’ period of the last quarter and managed to kick a behind. It was John’s first appearance in League (senior) football:

Round Fourteen versus Richmond at Richmond:

Emergency: Haygarth
In: Beardsley Hovey Pianto Wiltshire
Out: Williams Goggin Ferrari Worner

Round Sixteen versus Footscray at Footscray:

Emergency: Barton
In: Gazzard Williams
Out: McMahon Ferrari

Finally, after a very long apprenticeship, a full five years after he had first turned out in the blue-and-white hoops of the Geelong Football Club, John Haygarth of Inverleigh achieved his ambition. The Geelong selectors on August 11 at last found a place for him and he was named as second rover (forward pocket) for his first full senior game, the Round Seventeen (August 13) match against St. Kilda at Kardinia Park. The team was:

Emergency: Umbers
In: O’Connell Worner Haygarth
Out: Davis (injured) O’Neill (injured) Sutcliffe

John recalls his selection:

The Cats made short work of the Saints and romped home by 79 points, Noel Rayson kicking eight. 25
No doubt Peter Pianto’s injured thigh and John O’Neill’s ankle cleared the way for John’s selection, but he proved to be a more than adequate replacement, kicking two goals and impressing all with a solid debut performance. The Age reported that Geelong’s ‘dashing rovers Neil Trezise and newcomer John Haygarth’ had taken advantage of the ruck supremacy of Norm Sharp and Harry Herbert. The Geelong Advertiser reported:

‘Haygarth soon earned distinction in his first full League game with two goals……..the displays given by John O’Connell, after an absence of five weeks, and John Haygarth, playing his first full League game, were two of the outstanding aspects of the game. Their form brightened the already hopeful outlook for the remainder of the season’.

Nevertheless, with Pianto and O’Neill fit again, the selectors omitted John for the final (Round Eighteen, August 20) ‘home and away’ game of the season against Carlton at Carlton. John Helmer and John Haygarth were named as the two emergencies. Interestingly, the selectors were still not willing to try John on the half-back flank. For this match Colin Barton was chosen in this position, replacing Cameron, ‘dropped’ to 19th man. At the last minute, John was elevated to 19th man when Matt Goggin became unavailable (in camp), but he apparently did not take the field. Ken Cameron replaced Goggin in the selected eighteen. Geelong went away from the Carlton match licking their wounds, after losing a close game by six points (8.12-10.6) and losing Harry Herbert with a broken leg in the first quarter. 26 The loss was very costly. After seventeen rounds Geelong had occupied second place (to Melbourne) on the VFL ladder with 14 wins, just clear of Collingwood on 13 wins. But Collingwood’s percentage had been superior to Geelong’s (127.8% to 124.6%). By losing against Carlton, Geelong finished third (122.8%) and gave up the coveted ‘double chance’ in the Finals to the Magpies (127.5%).

Mitts cartoon Geelong 1955

For the First Semi Final against Essendon at the MCG on August 27, John (21, 5.10, 11.5), chosen as 20th man beside 19th man Colin Barton, maintained his precarious foothold in the seniors. Geelong’s team was:

Emergencies: Hawking Roberts
In: Bullen Goggin McMahon Sutcliffe
Out: Herbert (injured) Wiltshire (injured) O’Connell (injured) Barton.

A crowd of 68,109 saw the young Geelong team record a well-deserved victory - 9.7 (61) to 7.11 (53). John replaced John O’Neill (bruised hip) in the last quarter and added to the Cats’ tally with a behind.

The behind was John’s last hurrah for season 1955 as he was (cruelly?) dropped for the Preliminary Final against Collingwood on September 10. In the only change, John O’Connell took John’s place as a reserve beside Colin Barton. Bert Worner and Bob Wiltshire were the emergencies - and Ken Cameron was still on the half-back flank.

In his debut season (1955) with the Geelong VFL senior team John Haygarth was selected five times altogether, but in only one of those games (Round Seventeen) did he start on the field rather than the reserves bench. As a reserve (19th or 20th) he appears to have taken the field only twice.

Below are John Haygarth’s positions in Geelong Seconds teams 1955:

Round One v South Melbourne at South Melbourne:

Emergencies: B.Whelan A.Featherston

Round Two v Melbourne at Kardinia Park:

Emergencies: A.Featherston K.Matthews

Round Three v Richmond at Richmond:

Emergency: R.Stephens

Round Four v Fitzroy at Kardinia Park:

Emergency: B.Whelan

Round Five v Footscray at Footscray:

Emergency: R.Merriman

Round Six v St. Kilda at Kardinia Park:

Emergencies: R.Merriman W.Allan

Round Seven v Carlton at Kardinia Park:

Emergency: A.G.West

Round Eight v Collingwood at Collingwood:

Round Nine v North Melbourne at Kardinia Park:

Emergencies: J.Featherston W.Allan

Round Ten v Essendon at Essendon:

Emergency: T.Hughes

Round Eleven v Hawthorn at Hawthorn:

Emergencies: W.Allan T.Hughes

Round Fifteen v Fitzroy at Fitzroy:

Emergencies: B.Jones M.Beath

1956

In the course of the 1956 season John once again hovered on the fringe of the senior team – as a selected player in Rounds Five, Six, Ten, Eleven, Fifteen, and Sixteen – until a sensational performance in the Round Eighteen match against Essendon consolidated his position once and for all.

John’s first practice match appearance in 1955 was in a Seconds practice match. He had come a long way since then. John was a certain starter in the senior team’s pre-season try-outs for 1956 – as 19th man for the ‘Red and Black’ team on March 24, and as ‘back pocket’ for the ‘Blue and White’ team on April 7 – and was named on the seniors ‘Final List’. But automatic selection in the senior team still eluded him. John’s predicament contrasted sharply with the meteoric rise of Bacchus Marsh recruit, 18-year-old centre-half-forward Fred Wooller, who had played five games for Geelong Thirds in 1955 (finishing third in the ‘best and fairest’). Wooller leap-frogged straight into the senior team for the opening match against South Melbourne and kicked four goals on debut.

John Haygarth was to bide his time in the Seconds for a while. He was selected in the back pocket for the Round One (April 14) match against South Melbourne at Kardinia Park:

Emergencies: I.Collins G.Fitzgerald K.Sizer B.Whelan

The Geelong Advertiser reported ‘pocket players John Haygarth and Glen Bow, playing determined football, continually repulsed South thrusts’ and named John as Geelong’s second-best player, but South (kicking six goals to nil in the last quarter) easily prevailed (12.19-4.14).

John was named as the senior team’s emergency for the (Round Two) match against North Melbourne at Geelong and watched as the Cats thrashed the visitors 16.14 (110)-2.10 (22). He was back in the Seconds for the Round Three loss (7.16-12.17) against Hawthorn at Geelong, and for his work on a half-back flank (‘barring the way’ on multiple occasions, according to the Geelong Advertiser) was once again named in the ‘best’. At Punt Road in Round Four (May 5), the Seconds nudged home 17.18-17.17 and John, again on a half-back flank and again in the ‘best’, was up to his usual tricks:

‘Haygarth relieved a strong attack with dash and a glorious drop kick to go over the hands of the pack for a behind only’.

John was 20th man in the senior team’s Round Five (6.12-6.20) loss to Melbourne (watched by 47,130 at the MCG) on May 12 but apparently remained on the bench. (Ken Cameron missed selection through injury but was replaced by George McGrath). For Round Six (May 19) against Collingwood John was selected on a half-back flank for Geelong Seconds (to play at home) but a knee injury to Peter Pianto forced a late-minute change (Ken Beardsley in as second rover) and John found himself elevated to the senior bench at Victoria Park. John replaced Hovey in the closing stages of the game, after watching the Cats post a lamentable 1.13 (at three-quarter time) before going down 2.14-10.7.

John then played three matches in a row in the Seconds, all of them on a half-back flank. He was among Geelong’s best players in the Round Seven loss (7.16-9.8) at Essendon, and in the Round Nine win (12.22-10.8) over Carlton at Kardinia Park.

The selection of Peter Pianto and John O’Neill in the Victorian team forced the Geelong selectors to make compulsory changes for the Round Ten (June 16) ‘away’ encounter against Footscray and they called on John to fill the second rover/forward pocket position:

Emergency: Sexton
In: Goldsmith Goggin Nicholls Haygarth.
Out: Pianto (interstate) O’Neill (interstate) Brown (injured) McGrath (unavailable). 27

It was John Haygarth’s first full senior game for the 1956 season, and despite the team’s 10.8-13.12 loss, he stood out:

‘John Haygarth, playing his first full game for the season, impressed with spirited play on the forward line’ (Geelong Advertiser)

‘Haygarth, playing his first full game for Geelong, was impressive for his tenacity in the first half of the game’ (Geelong Advertiser)

‘Haygarth, filling in for the absent Pianto, proved lively and enthusiastic in the scoring area but lacked the penetrative power of his contemporary’ (Tom Morrow, Geelong Advertiser)

‘Haygarth showed plenty of promise. He shone at times’ (‘E.J.T’, The Star, Geelong, Friday June 22, 1956)

‘Rugged John Haygarth in his first senior match this season did exceptionally well, and while his breakaways and disposal were not of the Pianto standard, he was one of the Cats’ best and battled ruggedly all day’ (‘Half-back’ (author), The Star, Geelong, Friday June 22, 1956)

With Pianto and O’Neill returning, John was relegated to 19th man for the Round Eleven (June 30) match against St Kilda at Geelong. The Cats won narrowly (9.8-8.9). Neither reserve went on to the field, despite the terrible conditions.

John was back in the Seconds for Rounds Twelve (versus South Melbourne) and Fourteen (versus Hawthorn). (He appears not to have played in either Firsts or Seconds in Round Thirteen versus North Melbourne). In the 10.7-11.15 loss at Lake Oval John started at half-back flank but was moved to full-forward after half-time. In the team loss (6.8-11.9) to Hawthorn, John, selected at full-back, was named Geelong’s best player. The Geelong Advertiser described a first-quarter incident:

‘Haygarth with a long kick from the defence line found Nicholls who landed play with the forwards and Sexton raced in for a goal.’

John played only one further Seconds match in season 1956 – as a half-forward flanker in the Round Seventeen (August 11) loss (8.8-13.13) to Collingwood at Victoria Park, and, monotonously, he was again among the ‘best’. Forty-five rounds of VFL football would be played before he once again appeared for Geelong’s Reserve Grade side.

John Haygarth and Fred Wooller, in their dressing gowns, sat beside one another on the reserve bench at Punt Road (Round 15, July 28) and Kardinia Park (Round 16, August 4). Geelong won both games, defeating Richmond 11.13-9.11 and Melbourne 8.10-8.8. The match against the Demons was memorable for a number of reasons. The Geelong selectors shocked all by dropping Noel Rayson, the leading VFL goal-kicker of 1955. The 29,687 fans who squeezed into Kardinia Park roared through the frantic last quarter of a ‘great game’. John Haygarth replaced Pianto (leg) in the ‘breathless last few minutes’:

John Haygarth was shaken but not forsaken. Two weeks later, faced with the problem of replacing Bernie Smith, the selectors at long last found a place for John on the half-back flank in the senior team. The Geelong team for the Round Eighteen (August 18) match at Essendon was:

Emergency: Bartle.
In: Sharp Wooller Le Deux Haygarth
Out: Smith (injured) Herbert Bartle Sutcliffe.

One can state categorically that this particular (Round Eighteen) match at ‘Windy Hill’ was John Haygarth’s ‘break-out’ game. Geelong lost the match (9.15-14.13) but it was not Haygarth’s fault. He played a blinder, proving himself more than ready to assume a regular spot in the Geelong line-up:

‘John Haygarth who gave a most encouraging display of pace, determination and keen anticipation in Geelong’s re-organised defence’……. ‘……Haygarth, after waiting patiently to show his prowess, seized the opportunity to impress and did so in no uncertain manner. His pace, anticipation and courage made him Geelong’s best defender’ (Tom Morrow, Geelong Advertiser)

‘There were early indications that Haygarth was well on his game as he was one of the dominating factors in the Geelong defence…’ (‘Pivot’, Geelong Advertiser)

In the Geelong Advertiser both Morrow and ‘Pivot’ nominated John as Geelong’s third-best player, behind Norm Sharp and Peter Pianto. The Argus too had him among the ‘best’. The Age, however, went even further, naming John as Geelong’s best player, ahead of Pianto and Sharp.

John was understandably retained for the First Semi Final against Footscray. The fractured hand sustained by Geoff Williams against Essendon meant that John lined up on the half-back line again, with two ‘greats’ - Smith and Davis.

Geelong’s First Semi Final team:

Emergencies: Wiltshire Nicholls
In: Sutcliffe Smith Bartle
Out: Williams (injured) Wiltshire Le Deux.

In a tense, low-scoring encounter, in which only one solitary goal was scored in the second half, the Bulldogs scraped home by two points - 5.13 (43) to 6.5 (41). In the Geelong Advertiser’s report of the match there are several references to John’s efforts frustrating Footscray attacks. The pundits, without exception, had John down as one of Geelong’s ‘best’. Tom Morrow described his play as ‘outstanding’, Percy Taylor in The Argus had him as Geelong’s fourth-best player, and in The Sun both Kevin Hogan (‘steady and purposeful in defence’) and Lloyd Hagger (‘always prominent’) also had nice things to say. (According to The Sporting Globe, John had fourteen kicks, three handpasses, four marks, three free kicks, and only one free against. The Argus gave him fifteen kicks).

The highlight (lowlight for Geelong) of the 1956 First Semi Final was the disastrous collision between Geelong stars Norm Sharp and Bob Davis late in the third quarter. John remembers it well:

John Haygarth comfortably won the Geelong Seconds ‘Best and Fairest’ in 1956 after having played only half the season. This was a fitting reward for a player who had persevered for so long, and given so much to his club, at Reserve Grade level. Now, however, he had firmly established himself as a regular in the Geelong senior team. John would play continuously, for over two seasons, in the senior half-back flank position, and with some authority stamp his name on it.

Geelong Adelaide Oval 1956 (John third from right in front row)

Geelong Adelaide Oval 1956 (John second from right in second top row)

Top row: Roger Bullen, Fred Le Deux, Bruce Bartle, John O’Connell, Glen Bow, Fred Wooller, Max Sutcliffe, Geoff Williams
Second top row: Len Metherell, Eric Nicholls, Ken Beardsley, Geoff Umbers, Bernie Ryan, John Goldsmith, Matt Goggin, John Haygarth, Cliff Rankin
Second front row: Bruce Ferrari, George McGrath, Jack Jennings, Bob Davis, Bernie Smith, David Pescott, John Helmer, Ron Hovey
Front row: Les May, Bob Gazzard, Norm Sharp, Noel Rayson, Les Borrack, Neil Trezise

Geelong Adelaide Oval 1956

Chapter Five: Stardom (Geelong Firsts 1957-58)

1957

Geelong plummeted from fourth place to last in 1957 – the first of two consecutive ‘wooden spoon’ seasons – and the year will always be remembered as one of the club’s worst years. The Cats finished with only five-and-a-half wins (including a draw against Footscray in Round One) but there were some close games and the team could quite easily have won nine matches. The winning of the ‘wooden spoon’ is therefore somewhat misleading. Geelong was probably not the worst team.

‘1957’ was undoubtedly John Haygarth’s best season with the Geelong Football Club. Along with Bernie Smith and Neil ‘Nipper’ Trezise, John played the entire season of eighteen games with the senior team. He lined-up in every one of them on the half-back flank, his now well-established position. More than just a regular, John had become a star. He finished third in Geelong’s 1957 ‘Best and Fairest’ award (behind Bob Davis and Peter Pianto) and received an impressive seven votes in the Brownlow Medal (second only to Peter Pianto among Geelong players). Pianto received 12 votes. 28

John Haygarth – Coca-Cola football card 1957

In this Chapter I will sketch only a summarised version of John’s (and Geelong’s) 1957 and 1958 seasons because I have already dealt with them in a detailed fashion elsewhere on this website, and duplication here seems to be unnecessary. (For seasons 1957 and 1958 in this article, I have not consulted the Geelong Advertiser, as I did meticulously for the 1949-1956, 1959 period).

Readers are referred to the following articles, all based on the statistical notebooks I maintained in Geelong’s 1957, 1958 and 1959 seasons. All are available on this website:

Geelong – Season 1956
Raymond Morris – National Museum of Australia
Catapult – On Top and Loving it (1950-1956)
Catastrophe – Winning the Wooden Spoon (1957-58)
Catacomb – Struggling Along in the Gloom (1959)
Statistician Extraordinaire (Eat your heart out Ted Hopkins!)

In the 1957 pre-season John Haygarth began where he left off – taking on all-comers. Even as early as February The Age was predicting:

‘The availability of a natural half-back in John Haygarth – who played in the concluding two games of the 1956 season but impressed greatly – makes Davis’s switch (from half-back to half-forward – KM) possible’. 29

In Geelong’s third practice match John played on the same side as Bob Davis (captain of the ‘Red and Black’ team), but in the final (April 13) practice match John was given the unenviable task of countering the speedster. Judging by the report in The Age he seems to have succeeded:

‘The duel between Bob Davis and John Haygarth was full of interest. Although Haygarth conceded Davis a lot of weight and experience, his close play, pace and determination made Davis work hard for his kicks’.

As an eleven-year-old I attended one of Geelong’s 1957 practice matches and rushed to the three-quarter time huddle to get autographs. I went away with several, including ‘J.M.Haygarth’. John explains the middle initial:

Signatures 1957 Practice Match

Senior players: Ray Harrip, Bob Gazzard, Ron Hovey, Ken Beardsley, Reg Fisher, John Haygarth, Eric Nicholls.

Geelong’s opening match of the 1957 season, against Footscray at Kardinia Park (Easter Monday, April 22), was a re-run of the previous season’s First Semi Final. John was an automatic selection on the half-back flank, beside two champions in Geoff Williams and Bernie Smith. Doug Long, Ian O’Halloran and Ray Harrip were new names; Ken Cameron was displaced.

The Geelong line-up (Round One 1957):

Emergency: Cameron

The match, the last quarter of which was televised, was an exciting draw (Geelong 11.11-Footscray 10.17). Fred Wooller kicked seven goals and, in The Age, John Haygarth was named Geelong’s fifth best player. The naming of John Haygarth among Geelong’s best players in newspaper reports was a recurring, and eventually predictable, pattern in season 1957.

John played a blinder in Round Three against Collingwood at Kardinia Park. The Cats lost narrowly (12.5-12.15) but John was arguably Geelong’s best player. According to my perfectly infallible system (listening to 3GL) he had 28 kicks and took 5 marks.

1957 exercise book R3 1957

1957 exercise book R3 1957

I judged John among Geelong’s best players in Round Four against Carlton at Carlton (20 kicks, 3 marks), in Round Five against Hawthorn at Geelong, and in Round Six against St. Kilda.

John Haygarth and Bill Haygarth have both told me about an incident that they say occurred in Geelong’s exciting Round Four match against Carlton in 1957. John apparently had a mild altercation with coach Reg Hickey when ‘Hickey got stuck into the backline for being loose’. According to Bill, John told Hickey that the rovers (in this case Peter Pianto and Neil Trezise) should follow their men (presumably Jack Mills and Jack Sullivan) down the ground to eliminate loose men in Geelong’s backline – and this advice (‘I can’t stop them all’) from a player who had notched up only sixteen senior games did not go down well. The story has the ring of authenticity. I gave Haygarth 20 kicks that day, 19 of them in the second half. One can imagine him, without Bernie Smith, desperately holding the besieged fort. (I gave Pianto twenty-nine kicks). This might possibly have been the first occasion that John stood up to Reg Hickey. It would not be the last.

I selected John as Geelong’s best player against Essendon in the Round Eight match at ‘Windy Hill’. (The Age nominated him as fourth-best). It was a terrible day for the Cats. Essendon kicked 9.3 in the last quarter to romp home by 36 points (21.12-15.12), but the worst part of it was the extraordinary Coleman-like performance of Essendon full-forward Fred Gallagher who finished with 12 goals. The Geelong full-back, Max Hetherington, a recruit from Eaglehawk, was playing his first game. Standing behind the outer goals I became so frustrated at one point I yelled ‘You’re hopeless Hetherington!’, nicely alliterate but hardly fair as a succession of Geelong defenders proved equally hopeless at containing the rampant Bomber.

John was again among my ‘best’ Geelong players in the Round Nine loss (14.10-23.16) to Melbourne at the MCG (19 kicks, 7 marks), the Round Thirteen 26-point win against North Melbourne at Kardinia Park, the Round Fourteen loss to Collingwood at Collingwood (6.9-13.14), and the Round Eighteen clash with Fitzroy.

In Round Fifteen (August 3) Geelong (11.19) had possibly their best win of the year - against Carlton (6.7) at Geelong. John Haygarth, outclassing Laurie Kerr, was universally judged as best player on the ground, ahead of even Smith, Pianto and Davis. Including John among the weekend’s ‘League Stars’, The Age commented:

‘The magnificent judgment, safe marking and speed of half-back John Haygarth foiled countless Carlton attacking moves and made him best afield at Geelong’.

'League Stars' The Age August 5, 1957

Dressing room scene (includes Bob Gazzard, George McGrath, John O’Neill, John Helmer, Eric Nicholls), n.d

Before the game at Glenferrie the following Saturday (August 10), The Age predicted ‘Geelong will almost certainly give star half-back flanker John Haygarth the task of curbing Graham Arthur.’ In atrocious conditions, The Cats were subjected to a 48-point drubbing (8.7-14.19). John, the senior member of an unorthodox back-line (Haygarth, Hetherington, Gazzard), was again not far from being Geelong’s best player, accumulating 23 kicks to three-quarter time. 30

The VFL’s ‘Night Premiership’, involving the eight clubs who had missed the VFL Finals, was first held at the Lake Oval at the conclusion of the 1956 ‘home and away’ season. Geelong was not expected to perform well in the 1957 series because the club’s only previous experience of playing under the lights was in a 1956 exhibition match against Footscray. The Geelong team for the Night match against Richmond at South Melbourne (Tuesday September 3), was:

A crowd of 14,000 saw the Cats register an upset win – 13.13 (91) to 9.12 (66) – with Pianto, Haygarth and Trezise starring for Geelong. The Cats continued on their merry way, first defeating North Melbourne (by twelve points) and then Footscray. John was again praised in The Age - ‘Geelong half-backs Haygarth and Borrack got on top to drive North out on many occasions.’ The brave Cats were nevertheless outclassed (8.4-15.13) by 1956 Night premiers South Melbourne in the Grand Final (October 7), watched by a healthy crowd of 25,000. John remembers:

I followed Geelong as a 3GL listener in season 1957. Each Saturday I recorded the Geelong players’ kicks and marks in an exercise book and maintained three separate voting systems to determine the ‘best player’ of the year. I recorded John Haygarth coming fourth for the total number of kicks in 1957, behind Trezise, Pianto and Davis, but in front of Bernie Smith. I voted Haygarth as Geelong’s best player in three matches (Round Three v Collingwood, Round Eight v Essendon, Round Sixteen v Hawthorn). Out of eighteen matches, he made my list of ‘best players’ a total of eleven times. In my 6-5-4-3-2-1 voting system Haygarth finished third with 41 votes, behind Pianto 50 and Smith 42, but in front of Davis 37. In my 3-2-1 voting system Haygarth again finished third with 12 votes, behind Davis and Pianto (both 16) and equal with Smith. In the system that I cannot fathom sixty years on, Haygarth finished second (585) behind only Pianto (630).

1958

After his stellar season in 1957, John Haygarth had a lot to live up to - a hard-won reputation to maintain. His performances in 1958 did not quite measure up to 1957 but he was still regularly among Geelong’s best players. He would again have played every match if not for a bout of influenza in early August which caused him to miss the Round Sixteen (August 9) game against Richmond at Punt Road. (Ironically, the only Geelong player to play every game in 1958 was Swan Hill recruit ruckman Neville Martin who returned to the farm at the end of the season and never played for the Cats again. Neil Trezise and John Haygarth were next, on 17 games).

John once again figured prominently in Brownlow Medal voting, polling six votes (three lots of ‘2’ votes), behind only Peter Falconer (11) and Geoff Williams (8) among Geelong players. John gave his team a consistent season in 1958, but three of his performances stand out. He was Geelong’s best player in the Round Two loss (6.6-17.8) to Melbourne at Kardinia Park; he was close to being the ‘best’ in the home-ground win (9.16-6.8) against St. Kilda in Round Seven; and he was best-on-ground in the Round Nine loss (6.15-8.18) at Fitzroy. The Sun journalist Rex Pullen nominated John as ‘match-winner’ and ‘best-on-ground’ in the St. Kilda match, ‘for a superb performance on his half-back flank’. The Age of June 9 was lyrical after the Fitzroy game:

‘No defensive play could have surpassed that produced by Geelong’s half-back flanker John Haygarth at Fitzroy. His pace, marking and anticipation thwarted many attacks’.

'Star Players' The Age June 9, 1958

John Haygarth 1958

Geelong 1958 (Robert Pockley photo)

Back row: John O’Connell, Neville Martin, Doug Long, Geoff Williams, Bruce Bartle, Bob Gazzard, Colin Barton.
Middle row: John O’Neill, Bill Goggin, John Haygarth, Bob Davis, Neil Trezise, Ron Hovey, Bill Cook.
Front row: Peter Falconer, Les Borrack, Matt Goggin, George McGrath.

John was still regularly positioned on the half-back flank, and playing well, at season’s end. The Age had him as Geelong’s third-best player in the Round Seventeen (August 16) win (13.14-12.13) against Footscray.

Geelong’s season ended ingloriously, with a 5.8-16.15 loss at St. Kilda – and a second successive ‘wooden spoon’.

In my own idiosyncratic ‘Ken Mansell Geelong Best and Fairest Award 1958’, based on my impressions from listening intently to 3GL, John Haygarth finished fourth with 655 votes, behind only Neil Trezise (1153), Bob Davis (1101) and Ron Hovey (723). It is therefore difficult to understand how a Geelong Advertiser ‘expert’ could arrive at the view Haygarth ‘did not enjoy a particularly good season on a half back flank’ (The Geelong Advertiser, Saturday March 28 (Easter), 1959).

According to Bill Haygarth, John did not participate in the 1958 Geelong Football Club end-of-season trip to Adelaide because he had been to Adelaide three or four times before on footy trips and was busy at work. Bill Haygarth also recounts the following amusing story. If one looks closely at the photo of the Geelong party at Norwood Oval one can discern a dark-skinned gentleman wearing a Geelong blazer. Geelong had no aboriginal footballers in 1958, in fact not until Graham ‘Polly’ Farmer arrived at the club in 1962. The dark-skinned gentleman was champion boxer George Bracken, a Geelong resident, wearing the blazer loaned to him by John Haygarth.

Geelong Annual Report 1958 - Geelong end-of-season trip Norwood Oval Adelaide 1958 (George Bracken third from right – third row from front)

Meanwhile the hero of this biography was busy, innocently preparing for the tennis season, as captain of the Teesdale team chasing its second successive premiership in ‘A Grade’ of the Bannockburn District Tennis Association.

PART TWO – MOVING ON

Chapter Six – Crisis (Geelong Firsts 1959)
Chapter Seven – Why?
Chapter Eight – Transition
Chapter Nine – Captain-Coach 1960-67 (Maryborough, Avoca, Winchelsea, Inverleigh)
Chapter Ten – A Geelong Man and Still Kicking
Appendix One – Geelong players remembered
Appendix Two – John Haygarth’s Five Greatest Ever

Chapter Six: Crisis (Geelong Firsts 1959)

As he prepared for Geelong’s 1959 VFL season John Haygarth might have imagined, with a good deal of reason, that after two solid years with the senior team, he had finally cemented his place. He may also have assumed he had finally secured his position on the half-back flank. As it turned out he would have been wrong on both counts.

When the teams for Geelong’s first practice match of the season (March 14) were announced, John’s name was missing. He was not injured. On the contrary, he was very fit, and raring to go – as captain of the Teesdale team playing Maude in an ‘A Grade’ Semi Final of the Bannockburn District Tennis Association at Bannockburn. John himself might not have attached a huge amount of significance to his decision to bypass the football, but one can bet a few Geelong officials (and the coach) did.

Bannockburn Tennis Association representative team City Oval (Ballarat) circa January/February 1955 (John in GFC blazer)

Teesdale team March 1956 (John left front row)

Teesdale team A Grade premiers 1957-58/1958-59 (John second from left back row)

The first sign that the Geelong selectors were considering an alternative field position for John was his selection as second rover (‘Blue and White’ team) in the second practice match (March 21). Playing in 91 degrees heat, John performed beyond expectations. The Geelong Advertiser was mild in its praise (‘John Haygarth occasionally played good football’) but The Age waxed lyrical:

‘Geelong selectors believe they have found the answer to the roving weakness - which has plagued the club since the loss of Peter Pianto – in dashing John Haygarth. Haygarth, at times brilliant on a half-back flank in the last two seasons, was tried as a rover in Saturday’s game and his pace, sure ball-handling, sound marking and sure kicking stamped him as a natural for the role……Haygarth is now expected to share the roving with Neil Trezise and Colin Rice’. 31

‘Former Defender stars as Rover’, The Age, March 23, 1959

As first rover for the ‘Blue and Whites’ in the third practice game (Easter Saturday-March 28) John again dominated. The Geelong Advertiser reported:

‘Supporters were delighted with the form displayed by John Haygarth who did not enjoy a particularly good season on a half back flank last year. Opposed to experienced Neil Trezise, Haygarth starred with excellent position play and good disposal. Hopes are high that he may be able to fill the roving berth left open by Peter Falconer…’

The Sporting Globe expressed a similar opinion:

‘A brilliant display of roving by last year’s half-back flanker John Haygarth delighted fans at Geelong’s practice match this afternoon. Haygarth was always in position and wasn’t afraid to sink his boot into the ball, often sending it fifty yards up the ground with raking drop kicks. He could easily fill the roving berth left vacant when Peter Falconer announced that he would go overseas this month’. 32

The teams for Geelong’s fourth practice match (April 4) were published, and again John’s name was missing. Perhaps he had been lulled into a false sense of complacency. His decision to play tennis (as captain of Teesdale in the ‘A Grade’ Grand Final against Maude) and spurn the football, while no doubt admirable, was not a safe one. This time, unlike the first time perhaps, John was obviously in open conflict with Reg Hickey:

John was back on a half-back flank (for the ‘Red and Black’ team) in the fifth and final practice match (April 11). The Geelong Advertiser commented:

‘John Haygarth had the better of Cougle in the first half but Cougle countered Haygarth’s pace with good marking’.

John was named on a half-back flank for the Round One (April 18) encounter against North Melbourne at Geelong. Geelong were no match for the Northerners, losing 8.15 (63)-12.14 (86). ‘The Pivot’ had John as one of Geelong’s best players. (Listening to 3GL, I had him eleven kicks/handpasses - including the first kick of the season - and three marks, but not one of the ‘best’). This was the last time the ‘proved flanker’ (Geelong Advertiser April 17) would ever be selected in this role for Geelong seniors.

For the Round Two (May 2) match against Hawthorn at Glenferrie, Haygarth was selected as second rover to cover the loss of Neil Trezise (out injured) and Bill Goggin. The selections for this match might have seemed strange – John Helmer as first rover; and a half-back line of ‘Rice, Borrack, Cougle’, with Geoff Williams dropped to the Seconds. Were the Geelong selectors panicking, terrified of a third ‘wooden-spoon’? A small crowd of 12,000 saw the Hawks win 18.15-12.12. Wooller contributed five goals, Haygarth one. Again ‘Pivot’ had Haygarth as one of Geelong’s best. (I concurred, naming him my third best).

John was selected as second rover-forward pocket (changing with his captain, Neil Trezise) for the next five matches.

In the Round Three (May 9) win (14.12-10.11) at Punt Road, John kicked one goal and earned mentions (‘Saddington’s kick was taken by Haygarth whose long punt sailed through/’a drive forward by Haygarth was cleared in the goal square’) but nothing to suggest he was among Geelong’s best players.

That John was settling into his new role and making a good fist of it became clear in the Round Four (May 16) match against Fitzroy at Geelong, when Trezise and Haygarth set the Cats on a winning course (a 35-point lead) in the first quarter. Geelong won 13.12 (90)-12.8 (80). John kicked three first quarter goals, and a fourth late in the game, to earn ‘best-on-ground’ status from ‘The Pivot’ (Geelong Advertiser) and The Football Record. (John was replaced by Clive Brown in the last quarter but his leg injury was apparently minor). Listening to 3GL, I had John as ‘best-on-ground’, with 19 kicks/handpasses and 7 marks. (‘The Age’ was more circumspect, naming John as Geelong’s fourth-best.) ‘Post-mortem’ comments were as follows:

‘Then Haygarth flashed into the picture with two wonderful goals and a behind……the Trezise-Haygarth combination operated again for Haygarth to add his third and the team’s fifth.’ (‘The Pivot’, Geelong Advertiser)
‘Trezise and Haygarth, in the forefront with intelligent play, especially up forward, were soon amongst the goals.’ (Bernie Smith, Geelong Advertiser)
‘Haygarth and Trezise were responsible for Geelong’s big first-quarter lead. Scouting cleverly, they picked up ‘crumbs’ around goal and made no mistake about scoring…….Haygarth, who had been playing brilliantly, had the next Geelong miss. He marked straight in front, was pushed, and ran into the goal without giving himself a chance to settle.’ (The Age)
‘John Haygarth capped a grand roving effort with four goals’ (The Football Record, May 23, 1959, p. 9)

‘The Pivot’ (Geelong Advertiser) had John as Geelong’s third-best player in the Round Five loss (11.18 (84)-7.12 (54) to Essendon at ‘Windy Hill’ on May 23. 34 In the Round Six (May 30) match against Melbourne at Kardinia Park John was seemingly quiet, having (according to my statistics) only 8 kicks. He was moved to the half-back flank late in the game to stop Melbourne’s goal spree, as the Demons raced to an easy (19.15-11.10) win. For the second week in a row, John kicked a single goal, this time in the first quarter (‘Geelong swept forward from the centre of the field and Wooller’s long kick was marked by Haygarth who opened Geelong’s scoring account with a nice goal’ commented the Geelong Advertiser). The Geelong paper added:

‘Geelong must find another way of getting goals without relying on the rovers. Trezise and Haygarth were blanketed in the second half, and the weaknesses on the half-forward and forward lines were pin-pointed.’ 35

John was back among the goals at Collingwood in Round Seven (June 6), kicking 3.3. The Magpies however were too good, winning 12.22-9.7. John scored first goal for the match when Bartle’s ‘wobbly kick fell into his arms more than five minutes after the start.’ The Geelong Advertiser reported a third quarter incident where ‘Haygarth was floored with a stadium punch.’ 36 It might not have compensated for John’s sore head but both the Geelong Advertiser and The Age had him among Geelong best players. (I had John with 13 kicks and 5 marks, but did not have him as one of Geelong’s ‘best’).

1959 Exercise Book - Geelong v Collingwood

1959 Exercise Book - Geelong v Collingwood

The Geelong teams for Round Five, Six and Seven were:

Round Five

Emergency: M.Goggin
In: O’Connell Brown
Out: R.Smith M.Goggin

Round Six

In: Bartle O’Neill
Out: Cougle (injured) S.Lord (unavailable)

Round Seven

Emergency: Boulton
In: M.Goggin Earnshaw Pomeroy
Out: Nicholls Cook Helmer

For the Round Eight (Queen’s Birthday-Monday June 15) clash against Carlton at Kardinia Park the Geelong selectors tossed the dice and gambled on four new players – Dale Mather, Greg Major, Paul Vinar and Fred Mundy. A possible further sign of frustration and instability was the replacement of Haygarth as second rover, by Colin Rice. But at least John still held his position in the team, albeit in the ‘graveyard’ position of half-forward flank:

In: Mather Major Vinar Mundy Helmer
Out: O’Connell (injured) Long (injured) Tresise (ill) Earnshaw Pomeroy

Bernie Smith, in his regular Friday Geelong Advertiser column, optimistically suggested:

‘With John O’Neill reaching his top form, Geelong will not be wanting around the packs. John Haygarth can also be used in the roving position.’

Geelong stormed home in the last quarter against the Blues, kicking 5.3 to 1.6, and failed by only 9 points (11.13-12.16). For the second time in three weeks John was moved to defence during the course of the game. It was clear the club was using him as a stop-gap (or, to use the more euphemistic term, ‘utility’) to cope with the inadequacies of other players. It was also becoming apparent the constant shifting was having a detrimental effect on John’s own performance. This Round Eight match was John’s second-last full senior game with the Geelong Football Club. It is a pity we don’t have documentary or video evidence of his play in this match, because the evidence we do have is contradictory. Listening to 3GL I had him having only nine kicks in the match, whereas the Geelong Advertiser had him as Geelong’s seventh best player (‘Hovey, Yeates, Borrack, Rice, Gazzard, O’Neill, Haygarth, Wooller’).

1959 Exercise Book - Geelong v Carlton

1959 Exercise Book - Geelong v Carlton

In the meantime, certainly some time before the Carlton match, John heard he had been selected in the Victorian team to play Tasmania in Devonport on June 20. (Another Victorian team, perhaps somewhat superior, were to play on the same day, against Western Australia on the MCG). ‘The North-West Football Union (NWFU) Record’ (souvenir program) described John (24, 5.9½, 11.4) thus:

‘Fine utility player who has performed splendidly in a back pocket, half back, centre or roving. A brilliant mark for his inches’.

‘Hovey and Haygarth for interstate matches’, Geelong Advertiser, n.d, circa June 1959

Victoria team Devonport June 1959 (John first player on left top row)

Victoria team Devonport June 1959 (John first player on left top row)

Unfortunately, when it came to picking the twenty players from the squad of twenty-one, John was the one who missed out – the sole emergency destined not to take the field. The Victorian team, captained by Fitzroy’s Alan Gale (with North’s John Brady as vice-captain) was no second-rate team. It included two (eventual) Brownlow Medallists (John James and Noel Teasdale) and several others who could easily have won the award. (The Tasmanian team was no second-rate side either and included legendary Tasmanians John Leedham, Daryl Baldock, Trevor Leo, and Don Gale, plus former Victorians Peter Marquis, Mal Pascoe, and Jim Ross).

The Victorian line-up (from the back-line):
Ron Reeves (Collingwood) Bob Henderson (Fitzroy) John Nicholls (Carlton)
Bill Gunn (South Melbourne) John Brady (North Melbourne) John James (Carlton)
Colin Youren (Hawthorn) Dave Cuzens (Richmond) Brian Dixon (Melbourne)
Frank Adams (Melbourne) Ken Fraser (Essendon) Bill Young (St. Kilda)
Hugh Mitchell (Essendon) Ray Baxter (Footscray) Gerald Eastmure (North Melbourne)
Alan Gale (Fitzroy) Noel Teasdale (North Melbourne) Brian McGowan (South Melbourne)
19/20 - Alan Jeans (St. Kilda) Albert Mantello (North Melbourne)
Emergency: John Haygarth (Geelong)

In Devonport Victoria won 17.17 (119)-9.10 (64), a slightly closer outcome than the slaughter inflicted on the ‘Sandgropers’ at the MCG: 31.21 (207)-3.11 (29).

The Geelong Advertiser editorialised about the similar fate of John Haygarth and Ron Hovey, the ‘Geelong player in each instance named as the emergency’:

‘It will go down in League records that Hovey and Haygarth were in the panel of players from which the victorious teams were selected. They will get all the honour associated with that selection but they have to carry the disappointment of not having taken part in the games’. 37

This, however, was nothing compared to the disappointment carried by John Haygarth when told on the evening of June 25 he had been dropped by Geelong, only five days after representing his state. The Geelong Advertiser, which only days before had gnashed its teeth over John’s omission from the Victorian twenty, appeared to show no interest in (the reasons for) John’s omission from the Round Nine Geelong team, merely noting his supposedly injured finger. 38

John took his place for Geelong Seconds, playing in the centre against St. Kilda at St. Kilda. The Seconds, apparently ‘lifeless’, were thrashed 5.11 (41)-17.19 (121) and John was not mentioned among the best players. (At the start of the 1959 VFL season, VFL ‘Second Eighteen’ matches took over from VFL ‘Third Eighteen’ (‘Under-19’) matches as ‘curtain-raisers’ to VFL ‘Firsts’ games.)

The Geelong Seconds team for Round Nine was:

Emergencies: G.Vautier L.Wiffen

The Geelong senior team for Round Nine was:

Emergency: Harrison
In: Nicholls Cook Pomeroy Cougle
Out: Wooller (injured) Haygarth Helmer Bartle

There was no explanation forthcoming from the Geelong selectors for John’s omission and he found himself in the Seconds again – this time on a half-back flank - for the Round Ten (July 4) Kardinia Park clash against Footscray. The Cats won 15.12-13.12. The only mention of John in the Geelong Advertiser report was not complimentary (‘Trusler, leading Haygarth a dance again.’). Yet, in my exercise book (presumably copying The Age), I have Ferrari and Haygarth as Geelong’s two best players in this match.

The July 3 edition of the Geelong Advertiser reported Ballarat League club Geelong West had made a bid for John Haygarth and Bruce Bartle, along with two former Geelong players - Noel Rayson (now with South Melbourne) and Bob Wiltshire (now with North Melbourne). 39 The Geelong Advertiser of July 27, after John had resigned July 24, stated ‘A few weeks ago Haygarth sought a clearance to Geelong West (Ballarat League) but it was refused by Geelong committee’. I find it difficult to believe John would have encouraged Geelong West. At that stage of affairs, as he contemplated a fightback into the Geelong senior team, why would he?

John was selected as 20th man for the senior team in Rounds Eleven (July 11) and Twelve (July 18). Elsewhere I have written (see 'Catacomb - Struggling Along in the Gloom') ‘John Haygarth was chosen to sit on the bench – the selectors apparently having forgiven him for whatever ‘sins’ he (allegedly) committed’. In the former match, a 12.12-17.16 loss to South Melbourne at Lake Oval, John came on in the last quarter, as the Geelong Advertiser recorded - ‘Haygarth went straight into play and a snappy piece of teamwork with Trezise and Goodland allowed Cook to punt Geelong’s eleventh goal.’ Prior to the Round Twelve match against North Melbourne at Arden Street – another Geelong loss (8.15-11.10) – the Geelong Advertiser commented:

‘John Haygarth is still unable to gain a place in the side. Unfortunately for him, the half-back flank positions have been filled too capably by Matt Goggin and Major to allow him to displace either of them. He has been named as 20th man.’

The comment was seemingly premature because it appears John did in fact gain a place in the side. My 1959 exercise book records a last-minute change in the selected eighteen – Haygarth replacing Wooller, with Helmer coming in as 19th man. The notes in the exercise book record Haygarth moving to the back pocket in a positional change during the game (which suggests he started on the forward line) and finishing with 7 kicks, one mark, 2 free kicks. 40

1959 Exercise Book - Geelong v North Melbourne

Round Eleven

In: Ferrari Goodland Long
Out: Wooller (injured) O’Neill (injured) Mather

Round Twelve

In: Wooller Harrison Barton W.Goggin
Out: Hovey Thomas Cook Helmer

Reg Hickey addressing Geelong players 1959 (John fourth from right)

'Wells' cartoon (The Age) - Geelong 1959

It is not difficult to appreciate how John Haygarth might have felt when he was dropped to the Seconds for the Round Thirteen (July 25) curtain-raiser against Hawthorn at Kardinia Park. 41 It was becoming a familiar feeling. Geelong officials became aware their half-back flanker had not turned up to play and replaced him in the selected side. John had apparently handed in his resignation the previous day (late on Friday). According to the Geelong Advertiser (July 27; July 28) John tendered his resignation as a player for the remainder of the 1959 season, gave no indication whether he considered himself available for the next season, and gave no reason for the resignation. However, there were reasons, as the following article made clear:

‘John Haygarth resigned at the weekend. He was chosen to play with Geelong Seconds but failed to arrive at the ground in time. He arrived later and watched the senior game. He said he had decided to stand out of football for the rest of the year. ‘I am just wasting my time training. Week after week I beat other players in match practice but can’t get back into the side. It’s ridiculous. I was in the state side one week, then dropped by Geelong the next. I have let them push me around for six weeks, but things don’t look like changing now, so I will give it away’. Haygarth’s resignation will be considered by the Geelong committee on Monday night.’ 42

"Cutting from

The Monday (July 27) meeting of the Geelong Committee decided not to accept John’s resignation and agreed to inform him his services were still required:

‘The meeting divided on the question but a motion to accept the resignation was lost. The general feeling among members of the Committee was that Haygarth should come back and earn a place in the senior team.’ 43

‘Geelong Committee refuses to accept Haygarth’s resignation’ (Geelong Advertiser July 28, 1959)

‘Geelong holds John Haygarth’, n.d, circa July 1959

John’s initial response, when informed of the club’s decision, was guarded: ‘I will have to think it over and probably see some officials tomorrow. I can’t say yet whether I’ll reconsider or whether I’ll train tomorrow night’. 44

On the Thursday (July 30) John made the decision to withdraw his resignation, resume training and play with the Seconds. No doubt the intervention of Geelong President Jack Jennings, who ‘interviewed’ John early Thursday afternoon, influenced John to resume training, but John credits the late Russell Renfrey for really turning his head:

Just how ridiculously formal and impersonal (and how different from Renfrey’s personal approach) the processes of the Geelong Committee were in those days can be gleaned from the following extract in the Geelong Advertiser:

‘Haygarth informed the President that up until midday yesterday (Thursday – KM) he had not received the letter conveying the Committee’s decision, but the President said the letter had been posted on Wednesday. There was no discussion between Haygarth and the match committee after training yesterday, as the decision of the general committee did not call for a conference.’ 45

John resumed with the Seconds in Round Fourteen (August 1st) against Richmond at Kardinia Park and played a big part in Geelong’s 10.10-7.12 victory. Playing on a half-back flank, John, ‘well in the play and weathering the storm’, was the most dominant player on the field.

Those unpredictable selectors were at it again, picking John in the centre (replacing an injured Ron Hovey) for the senior side’s Round Fifteen (August 8) clash with Fitzroy at Brunswick Street. Bernie Smith commented:

‘John Haygarth has been given the centre position and I can see no reason why he should not make a success of it. He is a renowned footballer and will be endeavouring to hold his place for the remainder of the season now that he has been recalled.’

Fitzroy won the match comfortably (11.15-6.11). John was not mentioned in the Geelong Advertiser’s match report, although curiously I had him as one of Geelong’s best players (18 kicks, two marks, three frees). This match would prove to be John Haygarth’s very last senior game for the Geelong Football Club. The selected team was:

In: Van T’Hag Haygarth O’Neill Goodland
Out: Brown (injured) Hovey (injured) Thomas (influenza) Cougle

John was dropped yet again, for the third time, and played with the Seconds in Rounds Sixteen (August 15) and Seventeen (August 22). The Geelong selectors wielded the axe when picking the senior side to play Essendon. John was not the only casualty - Van T’Hag, Barton, Goodland and Bartle were also dropped, making way for Brown, Hovey, Thomas, Peake and Wooller. Playing on the half-back flank in the Seconds John was not mentioned in the Geelong Advertiser report (of Geelong’s 10.17-10.16 win) and may have still been recovering from the influenza he suffered earlier in the week. Geelong Seconds lost their Round Seventeen match against Melbourne at the MCG (5.14-9.21). John, playing in the centre, was not named in the Geelong Advertiser list of best players, but was named Geelong’s second best (behind Colin Barton) in mine (presumably based on The Age). This match on the MCG might have been John’s last appearance for the Geelong Football Club.

These two signatures were collected at MCG Round Seventeen 1959 (Geelong versus Melbourne). Ken Goodland played in senior game, John Haygarth played in Seconds curtain-raiser. This was John's very last appearance for Geelong Football Club. Note missing 'M'

John was named (in the centre) in the Geelong Seconds team for the Round Eighteen (August 29) match against Collingwood at Kardinia Park, but I have been unable to determine whether he actually took the field. (The match report in the Geelong Advertiser is inconclusive). Geelong Seconds put on a good show, losing 8.7-8.17. 46 The senior team however was thrashed by 83 points - 5.8-17.19. They could have done with John Haygarth.

John Haygarth’s last Geelong team (Round 18, 1959):

Reserves from – Lever Zaitz Southern Vautier Gilmore

Geelong team Round Eighteen 1959 versus Collingwood at Kardinia Park.

Back row: John Yeates, Ron Murray, John Thomas, Tony Boulton, Frank Pomeroy, Paul Vinar, Ken Goodland, Brian Sharp, George McGrath
Middle row: Les Borrack, Bill Goggin, Neil Trezise, Ron Hovey, Fred Wooller, Hugh Routley
Front row: Bob Gazzard, Alex Perry, Clive Brown, Colin Rice, Matt Goggin
Bill’s email 13/1/19

In my own ‘Geelong Best and Fairest Award’ for the 1959 season, registering 6-5-4-3-2-1 votes based on my weekly statistical records, John Haygarth received 13 votes (four votes Round 2, six votes Round 4, one vote Round 5, two votes Round 15), somewhat further back behind Rice 59, Hovey 45, Trezise 40, and Borrack 40. John played eleven senior games in 1959 (Rounds 1-8, then Rounds 11, 12, and 15) and kicked eleven goals. The eleven senior appearances brought his overall Geelong senior games total to 59.

Chapter Seven: Why?

I was one Geelong supporter in 1959 who asked ‘why’ and sixty years later, like John Haygarth’s son Bill, I ask the question again.

There may have been a perception in 1959 that John had lost form. The strange Geelong Advertiser opinion (March 30, 1959) that John Haygarth ‘did not enjoy a particularly good season on a half back flank last year’, was perhaps an expression of a wider view, but is contradicted by the evidence – in particular his six Brownlow votes in the weak 1958 side. In the first half of the 1959 season John was moved, literally, from goalpost to goalpost. He was shifted from his customary half-back flank and asked to fill the gaps in Geelong’s roving division and forward line. (In answer to the suggestion that John had a tendency to be ‘unpredictable’, let me say - if anything was ‘unpredictable’ about Geelong in 1959 it was the unpredictability of the Geelong selectors and their chess board, not John’s own form). It is simply incomprehensible that John would have been selected as one of only two Geelong players to represent Victoria in 1959 if he had been playing poorly in 1959, poorly enough to be dropped unceremoniously from the Geelong senior team. Why would the souvenir program sold in Devonport say he had been performing ‘splendidly’? I confidently agree with John Haygarth:

We can also dismiss any suggestion John was dropped from the senior side because of fall-out from the June 1959 Tasmanian trip. It is very unlikely VFL Secretary Eric McCutcheon would have thanked John for his ‘outstanding contribution’ to the game if John had committed a breach of conduct in Tasmania. The rumours of a broken finger sustained in Tasmania were also untrue.

When I first asked John why he thought he had been kept out of the senior team in 1959 he pointed to the Geelong Seconds:

I found that explanation unsatisfactory, even far-fetched. In a later interview with John (November 14, 2018) he agreed there is no evidence that Tom Morrow (Geelong Seconds coach 1959) wanted to keep him in the Seconds, and that he (John) had been ‘only surmising’.

Difficult though it may be to accept, and write about, I believe the basic explanation for John’s fall from favour in 1959 lies in his relationship with the senior coach, legendary Geelong figure Reg Hickey. Let me state at the outset that I am not apportioning blame in discussing John’s relationship with Hickey, just stating the facts. I will let the reader make up his or her own mind. I accept that Hickey is an icon and have no wish to detract from his reputation, but when it is obvious something was amiss in the relationship between player and coach it should not be swept under the carpet.

Hickey’s relationship with his players was the subject of an early chapter (see pages 29-35) in James Button’s well-received 2016 book on Geelong Football Club history – Comeback: The Fall and Rise of Geelong. Button considered the view expressed by some of his interviewees (specifically ‘three fringe players from the late 1950s’) that ‘there was a prejudice that made it hard for non-Catholics to get a game.’ He also considered the suggestion Hickey was a ‘dogmatic Catholic’. Button alluded to an already well-known fact – two former Geelong stars who were key members of Geelong’s premiership teams of 1951 and 1952, full-forward George Goninon and captain Fred Flanagan, had blamed Hickey for Goninon being dropped for the 1953 Grand Final (the implication being this had cost Geelong the premiership). Goninon said he was axed because of his infidelity. Flanagan said in 2009 that Hickey dropped Goninon for ‘moral reasons’ (to do with Hickey’s Catholic faith). Button admitted ‘Hickey’s fierce moral code’ but, after considering alternative views, in particular Bill McMaster’s opinion that Goninon was ‘dropped for poor form’, concluded ‘there is almost no evidence that religious tensions touched the football club.’ 48

John’s problematic relationship with Reg Hickey in the fifties has been public knowledge for thirty years, at the very least. In the midst of John’s election campaign for the Geelong Committee in 1986, an article in the Geelong Advertiser reminded its readers ‘he left the club when he was 24 after a ‘blue’ with the coach Reg Hickey, and went to coach Maryborough in the Ballarat League.’ 49 An article in The Maryborough Advertiser in 2007, harking back to John’s 1960 premiership victory, carried the same message:

‘John, who says he had a falling out with the Geelong coach at the time and despite having played for his state in 1959, decided to leave the big-time for a country coaching role’. 50

According to Bill Haygarth, John has said, when quizzed about this matter over the years, ‘I can’t say much because Hickey is not here to defend himself.’ In my first interview with John, when Hickey’s name initially came up (three separate times), John said very little and then deflected the subject, preferring to attribute blame to the Seconds coach:

The ‘altercation’ John is referring to here is not the ‘shoving’ incident on the boundary line in Round 16 of the 1956 season, nor his animated discussion with Hickey about Geelong rovers not following their men in the 1957 Round Four clash against Carlton, nor their 1959 conflict over whether he should play in the Bannockburn tennis Grand Final. Rather he is referring to a Hickey habit that even Button mentions. Button quotes Russell Renfrey saying Hickey was ‘a grumpy bugger, rough as hell’ and mentions Hickey’s habit of greeting – men at least – with ‘a hard punch on the arm’.

In my first interview with John, he gradually opened up:

In the second interview (November 14) John was more explicit, largely because I was more assertive in my questioning:

Of course, if we were to follow the fashionable tendency to sweep contentious matters under the proverbial carpet, we would probably just say it was all a matter of clashing personalities. Bill Haygarth makes the interesting point that the Geelong Committee may have refused to accept John’s resignation because they knew Hickey was going and John would be right to play in 1960 under Davis. Let us therefore give Bob Davis, referring to his forerunner Reg Hickey, the very last word on the matter:

‘…..there were a couple who got on his wrong side that probably paid the penalty’. 52

Geelong Annual Report 1958 - Reg Hickey

Chapter Eight: Transition

As the 1959 season drew to a close John Haygarth was fed up. He wanted to leave Geelong:

When the Geelong Advertiser first announced John’s appointment as captain-coach of Maryborough, it couched its report in qualified terms reflecting a Geelong-centric view: the appointment was subject to a clearance from Geelong; Maryborough had permission to interview Haygarth but Geelong had made no decision about a clearance; if granted a clearance by Geelong, Haygarth would reside in Maryborough early in the new year. 54

In the end Geelong did grant John his clearance. For Geelong fans the departure of John Haygarth was disturbing but not unexpected. His inexplicable omission for Round Nine, his abrupt mid-season resignation, the unsuccessful Geelong West poaching attempt, all pointed to unresolved issues. Few, however, apart from perhaps the Geelong officials, knew John had ‘fallen out with the coach.’ 55

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and with the advantage of hindsight, John now regrets leaving Geelong at the end of 1959:

John could not have known it then, but he was leaving a club on the verge of success. Under the coaching of Bob Davis, and with astute recruiting, the Cats began their gradual rise up the ladder to premiership success in 1963. John is not being vain or egotistical (just a little dreamy) in believing he may have lodged a strong claim to the Geelong captaincy by 1963, if he had stayed after 1959. He had a rapport with Bob Davis, he had leadership skills (proven at Maryborough) and he was more senior than Fred Wooller:

Chapter Nine: Captain-Coach 1960-67 (Maryborough, Avoca, Winchelsea, Inverleigh)

Maryborough 1960

John’s two-year appointment at Maryborough gave him 20 pounds per week and a house rent-free. 56 He brought with him a young family – his wife Barbara, and three children, Billy (5), Annette (2) and Cheryl (nine months). 57 John gave up his job on Cr Harvey’s farm property at Murgheboluc and worked for a time behind the bar of the McIvor Hotel, and also at Patience and Nicholson. For a while he ran his own (‘24-hour’) taxi service – ‘John Haygarth’s Taxi Truck Maryborough Phone 745.’ 58

Pivot, ‘Maryborough FC Appoints Geelong Man as Coach’, Geelong Advertiser December 8, 1959

John and Barbara with their three children on arrival in Maryborough January 1960

Taxi - Maryborough

Taxi - Maryborough

John Haygarth had moved to a town with a strong football tradition. Some very fine VFL footballers had come from Maryborough – Fitzroy’s Colin Niven, Richmond’s Ron Branton, Hawthorn’s Ron Nalder, and Carlton’s John Nicholls. John was following in the footsteps of Geelong ‘Team of the Century’ full-back George ‘Jocka’ Todd who coached Maryborough in 1935. The Magpies had been coached in the Fifties by former Fitzroy full-back Vic Chanter (1953-55) and former Collingwood 1953 premiership player Jack Parker (1956-59).

Maryborough Football Club re-joined the Ballarat Football League in 1946, losing the Grand Final to Redan in that season. When John Haygarth took the reins in 1960, Maryborough had yet to win a premiership in the BFL since 1946 and had not won a premiership in any competition since 1931 (Ballarat League). The BFL competition had been dominated in the fifties by Geelong West who, under former Geelong premiership speedster Terry Fulton, had won four flags in a row (1956-59), the last in 1959 against North Ballarat (16.19-2.9). Maryborough finished fourth in 1959 – with ten wins and eight losses – but lost the First Semi Final to North Ballarat (6.9-10.13). The most dominant player in the Ballarat Football League when John Haygarth entered the fray was Daylesford’s goal-kicking supremo Jim Gull (91 goals in 1959). The on-field battles between Haygarth and Gull were to assume legendary proportions. Coincidentally, John Haygarth’s arrival at Maryborough coincided with the VFL’s decision to discontinue television coverage of (the last quarter) of VFL matches. This would have encouraged more people to attend local country games.

The opening round of the 1960 season pitted Maryborough against Daylesford at Daylesford, with new captain-coach Haygarth starting in the centre. Maryborough were without Kevin Connell, the club’s top goal-kicker in 1959 (35 goals) who had transferred to Hawthorn. Unfortunately for John, the home side was too good, winning comfortably 13-13 (91)-9.8 (62). 59

John seems to have played most of the rest of the 1960 ‘home and away’ season as Maryborough’s first rover. In this role he managed to have an impact on the scoreboard, kicking four goals at home against Ballarat on May 28, 3.6 against Golden Point on Queen’s Birthday (June 13), and, ‘playing havoc with the East defence’, six goals against East Ballarat on June 18.

John was clearly best on ground, not for the first or last time this season, in the extraordinary match against Redan at Maryborough’s Princes Park on July 9. Maryborough triumphed in a game that produced the amazing score-line 2.14-2.2. John, who kicked almost half his team’s score (1.4), was lauded for his ‘lion-hearted play’ and ‘inspiring and courageous’ leadership in abysmal conditions:

Maryborough v North City-Wendouree August 27, 1960 (courtesy Stanley Roberts)

After the ‘home and away’ matches Daylesford, benefiting from Gull’s efforts at full-forward (87 goals to that point), sat on top of the ladder (14.3.1 - 156.5%) with John Haygarth’s Maryborough in second spot (12.5.1 - 132.8%). Maryborough however defeated Daylesford (9.11-4.13) in the Second Semi Final to enter the Grand Final two weeks ahead of their arch-rivals.

Maryborough’s team for the 1960 Ballarat League Grand Final was:

Emergency: George Fergus

Telegrams - 1960 Grand Final

A record crowd of 12,000 at Ballarat’s Eastern Oval witnessed Haygarth’s Magpies move 17 points ahead in the second quarter after trailing by 9 points at the first change. Maryborough maintained its advantage in the third, and a late surge by the Demons was not enough to give victory. The final score: Maryborough 8.12 to Daylesford 6.14. Maryborough’s best player on the day was Nev Olver, a small player with a propensity for spectacular marks. John, who had the first kick in the match, played his usual courageous game. Merv Hobbs kicked two goals for the beaten side and was also their best player. Daylesford’s other star Jim Gull was well held by Graeme Bell and notched only one goal.

Quarter by quarter scores in the Grand Final were:
Maryborough 1.0, 5.4, 7.6, 8.12
Daylesford 2.3, 2.5, 3.11, 6.14

Best for Maryborough (as per The Maryborough Advertiser) – Olver, Bell, Webb, Haygarth, Ratcliffe, Everitt, Rich. (Others deserving a mention were Dowling and Bowen). Goals (Maryborough): Holden 2, Munari 2, Dowling, Marshall, Haygarth, Rich.

John carried off after 1960 premiership win

1960 Grand Final Eastern Oval

With the beautiful sound of the final siren still ringing in his ears John Haygarth was lifted up onto the shoulders of excited supporters and carried off the ground.60 That evening his players marched in procession down the main street of Maryborough, accompanied by the town’s pipe bands and brass bands. Over 2000 people packed into the Town Hall, and as John stood up proudly to address them, the Citizens Brass Band launched into a rousing rendition of ‘When Johnny Comes Marching Home’. Sitting at the Mayor’s table, decked out in the Mayoral robes and with gavel in hand, John, honoured for bringing home the town’s first football premiership in 29 years, was the town’s Mayor for a night. 61

John with gavel Maryborough Town Hall October 8 1960

Maryborough premiership team 1960

Back row: Jim Rogan, Ossie Nelson, Kevin Ryan, Graeme Bell (VC), Dave Chamberlain, Bruce Hutchinson.
Centre row: Charlie Williams (selector), Rupe Craigie (Chairman of Selectors), Ray Marshall, Bob Lovett, Bernie Dowling, Ian Webb, George Gollop (Selector).
Second front row: Barry Everitt, Ken Ratcliff, John Haygarth, Dino Munari, Denis Bowen, Doug Rowe.
Front row: Jack Looney (Secretary), Brian Holden, Nev Olver, Ian Sinclair (mascot), Peter Thomas, Eddie Rich, Frank Bartlett (President).

‘Magpies win BFL premiership’, Maryborough Advertiser October 10, 1960

Alan Fitcher, ‘Maryborough Too Strong’, The Sporting Globe, October 8, 1960

John performed superbly in his first season with Maryborough, topping the goal-kicking (along with veteran Ossie Nelson) with 24 goals and finishing second to Graeme Bell in the club’s ‘Best and Fairest’ award. He quickly built a reputation for his physical fitness and physical courage. 62 However, it was John’s leadership in handling his young team that drew the most plaudits. Praise for his coaching skills (‘forthright speaker, astute tactician’) was universal. 63 Maryborough won the 1960 premiership because its players were committed to the jumper, rather than motivated by personal reward. (It was later revealed that only John among the Magpie players had been paid in 1960. The officials were ‘honorary’ too.) In the premiership team, all except five players (Haygarth, Ryan, Munari, Chamberlain, and Nelson) were Maryborough ‘locals’. On this foundation stone of tribal loyalty, John Haygarth built a strong and resilient football team. John, super-fit himself and setting the example, asserted his authority over the players and brooked no Committee interference in selection issues:

It would be stretching a point to say that John’s influence percolated down into Maryborough’s Seconds team, but it might not have been entirely coincidental that in his first year at the club, the Seconds also triumphed, defeating Golden Point in their Grand Final. (Maryborough Seconds were runners-up in 1961).

Maryborough Football Club Premiers 1960 (Firsts and Seconds) (card)

In November 1960, John received a pleasant letter from VFL Secretary Eric McCutcheon responding to his ‘retirement as a player of the League’. The letter enclosed a cheque for 205 pounds (from the VFL Players Provident Fund) and ‘our warm appreciation of your outstanding contribution to the presentation of the game in this state and extend every good wish for your future welfare’. 64

Letter from Eric McCutcheon (VFL) November 3, 1960

Maryborough 1961

In 1961 the town of Maryborough was officially proclaimed a City, a happy occasion adding to the joy of its long-awaited football premiership. Only a temporary disturbance in John Haygarth’s relationship with the Maryborough committee dampened the celebratory mood. John asked the Committee for a raise – from 22 pounds ten shillings per week to 30 pounds per week tax-free – and was knocked back. He appears to have taken this on the chin and got on with the job. 65

John was instrumental in luring two star Dunolly footballers to play for Maryborough in season 1961, starting in Round One – speedy rover Tony Polinelli and former Essendon player Brian Coleman. Polinelli was not with Maryborough for long. He transferred to Geelong and played his first VFL match in Round Six 1961, kicking three goals. (Polinelli wanted to go to Carlton but John talked him into signing with the Cats. He was a member of Geelong’s 1963 VFL premiership team). Coleman was to perform brilliantly for the Magpies in 1961 and won the Ballarat League’s Henderson Medal for competition ‘Best and Fairest’.

Maryborough got off to a flying start, thrashing Ballarat (20.29-7.13) in the opening round and beating Golden Point (11.13-8.4) in Round Two, despite John’s absence with an ankle injury. The Round Three (May 6) encounter with Daylesford at Princes Park loomed as a grudge match. Maryborough lost the game in a tight finish (11.7-10.15). John started on the half-forward flank but took over the back pocket shortly before half time to mind Merv Hobbs. Late in the last quarter he copped a nasty knock and sustained a depressed cheekbone. It was first thought John would miss six weeks, but the brave skipper returned in only two, as a last-minute inclusion for the match against Redan on May 20. John’s injury concerns did not end there – in June he was troubled with an eye injury.

John finished the ‘home and away’ season playing as first rover, and kicked 5.4 in the (September 9) final round of the ‘home and away’ season as his team trounced North Ballarat 26.34 (190)-4.6 (30). It was Maryborough’s highest post-war score in Ballarat League matches. Daylesford, on the other hand, seemed to have Maryborough’s measure. In their July 1 return encounter at Daylesford, the Demons scraped home again (13.11-12.13), Jim Gull this time kicking ten goals.

A Ballarat League convention rewarded the coach of the previous season’s premiership team with automatic selection as coach of the League’s representative team, so there was never any question John Haygarth would captain-coach the Ballarat League team in the (Caltex) Country Championship of 1961. In the Zone semi-final of the Championship, Ballarat League hosted Western District League on June 10. Ballarat’s ‘The Footballer’ profiled 26-year-old John as ‘an astute tactician and forthright speaker’ and mentioned his role as one of the four selectors. 66 The Ballarat League team included Geelong West’s Les Borrack (ex-Geelong), North Ballarat’s Howard ‘Plugger’ Lockett (father of Tony Lockett), Jim Gull, and three players from Maryborough – John Haygarth (first rover), Graeme Bell and Kevin Ryan. (Golden Point’s Bruce Ferrari, formerly of Geelong, was selected but pulled out). The Western District League team, captained by Casterton’s Reg Burgess (formerly Essendon), included Hamilton Imperials veteran Denis Zeunert (formerly Carlton), Portland coach Max Hetherington (ex-Geelong), and star Heywood full-forward Kevin Malseed. Ballarat sneaked home, winning 9.15 (69)-8.13 (61), despite Malseed kicking three goals on Graeme Bell. In his report in The Sporting Globe Alan Fitcher nominated John Haygarth as one of the three best players on the ground: ‘roved with skill and judgement. Won the ball cleverly and always used it to full advantage.’

The Zone Final of the 1961 Country Championship was fought out between Ballarat League and Wimmera League at Ararat on Saturday June 15. Ballarat’s team included Borrack, Lockett, Gull (vice-captain), Geelong West’s Ron Smith (ex-Geelong), Ballarat’s Len Templar (ex-North Melbourne), and the three Maryborough representatives – John Haygarth (forward pocket), Kevin Ryan (centre-half back) and Graeme Bell (full-back). Wimmera’s team included captain Ken Smale (ex-Collingwood), ruckman Don Keyter (ex-South Melbourne), Graham Gross (ex-Geelong), Ken Beck (ex-Hawthorn), and Rupanyup’s 18-year-old full-forward Ian Morgan. Wimmera were too good on the day and won 13.5 (83)-10.17 (77). Morgan and Gull both kicked four goals. John Haygarth was again among the best players for his team. 67

The ‘home and away’ matches concluded, Maryborough sat third (15.5), below second-placed Geelong West (15.4.1) and top team Daylesford (17.3 - and a whopping percentage of 160.1%). The Magpies accounted for Redan in the First Semi Final at Maryborough (September 16), winning 14.9-6.7. The Maryborough Advertiser nominated John as clearly best-on-ground – for an ‘excellent captain’s game’ (‘brainy football’; ‘a brilliant first-quarter effort‘). In the First Semi Final John sustained a torn muscle behind his knee which was to limit his effectiveness for the rest of the Finals series. Restricted in his movements, he was unable to train before the Preliminary Final against Geelong West at the City Oval (September 30). Maryborough won convincingly (6.10-3.9) although, predictably, John was not among the ‘best’ or the goals.

Maryborough advanced to the Grand Final. Only Daylesford now stood in their way. But luck was running against the Magpies. Two top players, Ken Ratcliff and 1961 Henderson Medallist Brian Coleman, were both injured and unable play in the big game. During the week John travelled to Ballarat to have a cortisone jab in his knee, enough pain-killer to enable him to at least take his place on the field.

1961 Grand Final Saturday October 7 City Oval
Maryborough team:

Reserves: J.Wilks R.Haeberle T.Long

John Haygarth was fired up. The Maryborough Advertiser post-mortem Grand Final report (October 9) mentioned that play had been held up for some time in the first quarter ‘as Haygarth and Daylesford trainers tangled.’ Daylesford led early but Maryborough fought back with a spirited second quarter to lead by ten points at half-time. Unfortunately, from then on it was all Daylesford and the Demons raced away to capture their first flag in the Ballarat League by 27 points. The Magpies this time were unable to contain Jim Gull who kicked seven goals, to bring his 1961 season tally to 159.
Daylesford 13.10 (88) d Maryborough 8.13 (61).
Daylesford 5.3, 5.5, 9.9, 13.10
Maryborough 3.3, 6.9, 6.12, 8.13.

Best for Maryborough: Wanlace, Goodchild, Olver, Everitt, Chamberlain, Ryan, Hutchinson.
Maryborough goals – Goodchild 4, Ryan, Fergus, Nelson, Hutchinson.

Bill Haygarth recalls:

Maryborough Football Club Runners-up 1961 (card)

Maryborough 1962

John Haygarth’s Magpies were again in contention for the premiership in 1962, his third season. John performed his usual role as a ‘utility’, willing and able to play in a variety of positions on the field. No matter where - rover, centre, half-back flank, or half-forward flank – he could be relied upon to (as The Maryborough Advertiser put it) ‘throw himself into the fray regardless’. The highlight of the ‘home and away’ season was the Round Six ‘Queen’s Birthday’ (Monday June 4) clash at Princes Park when John, playing in the centre, and Daylesford’s Jim Gull tangled. A melee quickly developed around them in the centre of the ground and brought police onto the field. Maryborough won the match (if not the fight) 12.18-10.9. (Gull, who booted four goals, was reported for striking Haygarth but cleared at the Tribunal). 68

Maryborough finished third in the ‘home and away’ season behind Geelong West and Ballarat. John took his place in the First Semi Final against Redan at Princes Park, despite missing the previous two games with an ankle injury. The Magpies defeated Redan narrowly (9.8-8.9) in the Semi but lost the Preliminary Final to eventual premiers Ballarat 5.10-15.9. 69

John’s coaching philosophy was not simple, but it could be summed up in his oft-repeated phrase: ‘Give me eighteen battlers before eighteen stars any day’. The high regard in which he was held is clear. Commenting on John’s performance against arch-rival Daylesford on June 4, the writer of ‘Maryborough Notes’ opined: ‘Handicapped by injury, John Haygarth directed operations to perfection and was an inspiration in the vital last quarter.’ 70 The scribe was even more complimentary a fortnight later, after Maryborough’s close June 23 win (11.9-9.7) against Golden Point: ‘John Haygarth handled his side superbly, not only did he bob up in the right places with telling effect throughout the game, he also revitalised the team at half-time with a sensible inspiring address’. 71 At the Maryborough Football Club Annual Dinner on the evening of October 13, President Frank Bartlett took the opportunity to praise John’s ability to inculcate a ‘will-to-win spirit’ and overcome ‘the loss of twelve good players’ at the start of the season. 72

Maryborough Football Club 1962 (Firsts and Seconds) (card)

Maryborough 1963

The departure of Geelong West to the VFA reduced the Ballarat League to seven teams, necessitating a weekly bye. Maryborough finished fourth in the ‘home and away’ season with 11 wins and 7 losses. John’s Magpies lost the First Semi Final to Redan (10.11-11.19). North Ballarat won its first Ballarat League premiership, defeating Ballarat (Geoff Tunbridge and John Northey on board) in the Grand Final. Ted Lovett of North Ballarat won the Henderson Medal. Jim Gull finished on 71 goals. 73

The Country Championship continued in 1963. Ballarat League again defeated Western District League in the first Zone match. The Ballarat League team included captain and rover Paul Dodd (formerly of St. Kilda), Geoff Tunbridge (formerly of Melbourne), Bob Spargo (formerly of Footscray), Ian Aston (formerly of Fitzroy), John Trethowan (formerly of South Melbourne), Ted Lovett, Jim Gull, and Howard Lockett. The team was coached by Ballarat’s Len Templar (ex-North Melbourne). Ballarat League were defeated however by Hampden League (7.9-11.18) in the Zone Final. John Haygarth appears to have played in the Final, if not in both matches.

John Haygarth’s coaching contract, initiated in 1960 and renewed for a further two years in 1962, was not renewed for a third two-year period. John applied for the job but lost the position to former St. Kilda VFL player Max Nolan. There were apparently no reasons given for the termination, but John left the club as its 1963 ‘Best and Fairest’ (F.Bartlett Trophy) winner, and, one assumes, with its best wishes. The playing list John had built and bequeathed to the club stood it in good stead - in season 1964 Maryborough finished on top of the ‘home-and-away’ ladder (12-6, 128%) and only missed out on the premiership by three points, losing the Grand Final to East Ballarat (9.12 to 9.15). The following year (1965) the Magpies did win the flag and followed up with another in 1968. 74

Maryborough Football Club 1963 (card)

Maryborough v Daylesford at Daylesford (John No. 10)

Maryborough v Daylesford at Daylesford (John No. 10)

John in action v Geelong West at Princes Park

John in action v Geelong West at Princes Park

John in action Maryborough v East Ballarat

John in action v Geelong West at Princes Park

John swoops on the ball at Daylesford

John and Billy take the field

John in action for Maryborough

As a champion player in a champion team John came in for his share of attention from opposition players on the field. The Maryborough Advertiser, in its retrospective interview with John in 2007, claimed he had suffered four broken noses and a broken collarbone in his time at Maryborough – and was known by his team mates as ‘Crocs’. 75 John does not recall the nickname and the collar-bone:

John - busted nose again (Maryborough 1960)

John was also sometimes targeted by opposition supporters:

Avoca 1964

John recalls the next phase of his coaching career, with Avoca in the Lexton League:

The Haygarth family stayed in Maryborough and John travelled the 36 kilometres to Avoca for training, and on match days. Avoca finished third in the Lexton League in 1964, behind eventual premiers Beaufort. Needless to say, John won his club’s ‘Best and Fairest’.

Winchelsea 1965-66

John was appointed captain-coach of Winchelsea in the Polwarth League for seasons 1965 and 1966, with former Geelong wingman John Thomas as his vice-captain.

The Polwarth League comprised Queenscliff, Winchelsea, Forrest, Apollo Bay, Birregurra, Leopold, Lorne, Portarlington, Torquay. Winchelsea were premiership favourites in 1965. They entered the finals undefeated, and even on the eve of the Grand Final were firm favourites, having beaten challengers Queenscliff in the Second Semi Final. The return match, played at Birregurra on September 27, turned out to be a major upset, with Queenscliff, the underdogs, winning comfortably 9.13 (67)-6.8 (44). The match was a ‘tough, bone-jarring’ affair that nullified Winchelsea’s speed. Winchelsea’s best were D.Stephenson, J.Haygarth, W.Lowery, P.Lowery, J.Thomas, and N.Thomas. Former Fitzroy defender Arnie Bench and former Geelong Seconds player Kevin Coltish starred for the premiers.

Winchelsea were again undefeated in 1966 but this time did not progress to the Grand Final. 77

Winchelsea 1965 (John centre middle row)

Winchelsea 1965 (John centre middle row)

John Haygarth and John Thomas with fans

Inverleigh 1967

In 1967, after two ultimately frustrating years with Winchelsea, 32-year-old John Haygarth returned, in every sense of the word, to his roots. John and his family moved back to Inverleigh in 1965 but since then he had been coaching out of town. Now, in 1967, he was the captain-coach of the club he had first played for in 1948, and who he had last played for (as a raw 20-year-old ‘best and fairest’) thirteen years previous. Inverleigh in 1967 competed in the Geelong District League. John Haygarth too competed, and then, probably when it was least expected and no doubt without fanfare, hung up his boots and retired.

At the MCG in Melbourne on September 23 (1967) the Geelong Football Club came very close to winning the VFL premiership, going down by only nine points to Richmond. Only one player in that 1967 Geelong Grand Final team – Bill Goggin – was a Geelong contemporary of John Haygarth. One ventures to say very few of his Geelong contemporaries lasted as long as John Haygarth in Victorian football, and they had not started in 1948.

Offers declined

I am grateful to both John Haygarth and Bill Haygarth for information about John’s numerous coaching offers. John coached four Victorian country clubs (Maryborough, Avoca, Winchelsea and Inverleigh) but the figure could easily have been more. John apparently declined coaching job offers from Euroa in 1959, Warracknabeal in 1961, Shepparton in 1966, Geelong Seconds in 1971, North Ballarat in 1974, and South Barwon in 1986. Shepparton Football Club in 1966 were looking for a coach after the departure of Tom Hafey to Richmond. They approached John, who made the trip and was interviewed. John was offered the position and would have accepted it, except there was no house attached.

John’s decline of the Geelong Seconds offer is the cause for some regret. In 1971, after the retirement of Peter Pianto, John was interviewed for the senior coaching position at Geelong:

In 1974, as a 40-year-old, John played two games with the Bannockburn team on a half-back flank. He claims he was best on ground in both games - and I have no evidence to the contrary. His career as a Bannockburn ‘Tigers’ star was cut short however:

Chapter Ten: A Geelong Man and Still Kicking

After returning to Inverleigh with his family in November 1964 John worked as a labourer for a year, on a property adjacent to Harvey’s, between Bannockburn and Inverleigh. He was then asked by the owner to become farm manager. John fulfilled this responsibility for twenty years, until 1983.

John Haygarth’s training session with the Magpies 1983

John’s last job was as a ‘pick and shovel’ man with the Road Construction Authority. It was while working on the roads John made the decision to enter football politics. In 1986, and again in 1987, John stood for election to the Geelong Football Club Committee. In 1986, as a member of the Geelong Past Players Association, his campaign platform emphasised the need for greater past-player involvement in administration (‘football brains and football administration knowledge’). He declined an offer to be included on Dr Kevin Threlfall’s ticket composed of four businessmen, and stood unsuccessfully as part of a four-man opposition ticket. Nevertheless 919 Geelong members voted for him. 78

In the 1987 campaign John confidently decided to go it alone, offering himself as a ‘successful coach and football administrator’ (‘for strength and dedication vote 1 John Haygarth’). Against a background of growing corporate involvement in football life, John’s campaign was brave and unconventional. One can imagine eyebrows everywhere were raised when the working bloke from Inverleigh, now endorsed by the Geelong Trades and Labour Council, slammed the Geelong Committee for becoming ‘overburdened with too many business and marketing people’. An article in the Geelong Advertiser depicted John - Patrolman with the Road Construction Authority – ‘hoping to shovel businessmen off a new streamlined board’. 79

Election campaign 1987

After retiring from football in 1967 John continued to play competitive tennis. He captained Bannockburn to its ‘A Grade’ (Ballarat) Country Week tennis premiership in February 1971, and also played for Gheringhap Tennis Club in the seventies. Later in his sporting life, John was one of six Bannockburn identities who successfully owned and raced the gelding ‘Gembrook’.

John has never completely lost contact with the Geelong Football Club, or the club’s Past Players Association, and every year receives a thoughtful birthday greetings card from Bob Gartland, Geelong Football Club Vice-President and Chair of the Geelong Football Club History Society.

Geelong locker No 10

Geelong Under-15 team 1970 (Bill Haygarth extreme left top row; John Helmer at right).

Inverleigh Under-15 champions 1970 (Bill Haygarth third from left front row; Alan Woodman fifth from left back row)

Geelong’s new Inverleigh recruit

Appendix One: Geelong players remembered

‘Bernie Smith and Matty Goggin were probably the two best pals I had in Geelong’ – John Haygarth, May 2018.

Appendix Two: John Haygarth’s five greatest ever

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