Self-belief and confidence were their qualities
by Paul Amy
When Gary "Barrel'' Brice runs the 1980 VFA grand final through the projector of his memory, the thing that comes to him most is the fighting qualities of his Port Melbourne team.
"We had a group of players who refused to give up,'' Brice said.
"I saw Freddy Cook interviewed and he was asked which of his six premierships was the best.
"Freddy said 1980, just because we had a pretty young team and the guys never thought they were beaten.
Such self-belief was needed at three quarter time in the season-decider against minor premier Coburg at the Junction Oval.
The Lions, coached by Col Kinnear, took a 17-point lead into the final quarter. Soon they were four goals in front as they kicked with a bit of a wind.
"We were fairly confident we could beat them because we'd beaten them every time we played them that year (including the second semi-final),'' Brice said.
"But they bottled us right up, frustrated us.
"They were still four goals up with 10 to 12 minutes to play. We looked gone.
"But our blokes kept going, kept persisting.
"We were fit that year, very fit. We prided ourselves on being the fittest team in the VFA and it really made a difference.
"We finished really strongly. We got some centre clearances Jimmy Christou took a couple out of the middle and Tony Ebeyer kicked a couple of goals, Freddy kicked one that curled right back. It looked like it was heading to Bass Strait.
"So in the end we've ended up with an 11-point victory. Quite unbelievable, really. It was the old story of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.''
It was left to Jimmy Christou to kill off the Lions.
"Time was very scarce as the irrepressible Christou, playing with enormous confidence, grabbed the ball in the centre before skilfully weaving through a pack, taking a bounce or two and sealing the game with a goal on the run,'' wrote Marc Fiddian in his Roar of the Crowd.
"Port added six goals straight in its late bid for success.''
The captain-coach had the ball when the siren sounded. It was a triumphant return to the club for Brice, who'd left Port a decade earlier to play at South Melbourne, where he forged a fine career.
Thirty years after the grand final, as secretary of Port's past players and officials association, he is helping arrange a reunion of the premiership teams (the Boroughs also won the reserves flag that year, coached by club legend Bob Bonnett).
It will be held on Saturday, July 3 at TEAC Oval, when Port hosts the Coburg Tigers.
Port of 1980 featured such distinguished players as Cook, Vic "Stretch'' Aanensen, Billy Swan, John and Jim Christou, Greg "Biff'' Dermott and Buster Harland, as well as emergents Steve Allender (who won the 1980 JJ Liston Trophy), Grant O'Riley (now chairman of AFL Victoria) and the nippy Ebeyer.
The premiership was the first of three on the reel for Port Melbourne. In 1981 and '82, it defeated Preston, and the hat-trick has assumed greater significance because the Boroughs haven't won a flag since.
"If you'd said after then ('82) that we wouldn't win another one right through until 2010, I would have said bullshit, I would have put the house on it,'' Brice said.
"We've been in four or five grand finals, but not been able to get there. It shows how hard they are to win.''
The 1980 premiership team
B: Frank Johnson Junior, Terry O'Neill, John Christou
HB: Gary Brice, Peter Hall, Greg Dermott
C: Billy Swan
HF: Tony Ebeyer, Grant O'Riley, Glynn Evans
F: Jim Christou, Fred Cook, Steve Allender
FOLL: Vic Aanensen, Peter Wilkinson, Paul Goss
INTER: Russell Davies, Buster Harland
Last Modified on 28/06/2010 13:06