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L00KING BACK
AT GRIFFITH SWANS PAST HOME MEETINGS WITH NARRANDERA IMPERIAL - 27.07.24
Saturday's fixture marks Narrandera Imperial 66th league visit to the Griffith Exies Oval, a ground where Eagles have not had any success in their last ten appearances against the Swans. Previous grounds in Griffith where visiting Narrandera teams have played on were the Scenic Hill Oval between 1931-37 and the Showground 1938-41 and 1945-61 seasons.
The club's first meeting was a friendly match on Sunday, September 20, 1931. The Narrandera boys proved too strong for the Griffith side and defeated the locals at Scenic Hill Oval by 69 points to 46. The Griffith "Tigers" line-up included Tasmanian Ken Pierce, who arrived back from Hobart club, New Town mid-season while for the Imperial, 1928-30 captain-coach Percy Willis donned a blue and gold jersey for the first time that season.
In 1956, the red and whites turned on one of their best exhibitions ever seen on the Showground to defeat the Imps., 83 to 61, only to have the game taken off them for playing John and Frank Conlan. The Judiciary upheld the protest, awarded the match to Narrandera and disqualified both the Conlan's until their clearances had been received by the SWDFL.
Griffith: — Wally Price (c-c), Don Bitcon, Bob Brown, Don Buchanan, Frank Conlan, John Conlan, Jim Fielder, Ted Feltwell, Geoff Habel, Don Hurst, Vic Ledwidge, Don Maples, Kevin McMahon, Charlie O'Brien, Vince O'Dwyer, Noel Tyndall, Bill Tyndall, Terry Wood.
Scenes unprecedented at an Australian Rules football game on the Ex-Servicemen's Oval took place in front of the season's biggest crowd on Sunday July 22, 1962. Narrandera won the game 108 to 45, when in the first term with some dazzling play outscored the Griffith team, 50-0, and then used their well-known hit and run, niggling tactics to unsettle Griffith players, who in turn played the man rather than the ball. None less than ten separate exhibitions of the pugilistic art occurred during the game. This was mainly due to the incapability of the umpire Jack Gray, he was, to say the least, very lax in his duty, and it all ended in the game getting almost beyond his control. When the game concluded about 400 odd angry, jeering fans, many armed with balls of mud, surrounded the umpire's dressing room and Police assistance (Constables Norris and Curran) had to be sought to get umpire Gray into the safety of his transport and on his way back to Melbourne.
Griffith: — Gordon Browne, Jim Eley, Bob Carroll; Fred Gambell, Jim Fielder, Les Collis; Doug Koehler, Allan Hudson, Mal Brauman; Len Sexton (c-c), Kevin Luhrs, Ray Davies; Colin Holt, Bob Tyndall, Ian Buck; Bill Biron, Jack Kloot, Bill Tyndall,
Narrandera: — Paddy Pledger, Athol Jackson, Gil Botten; Barry Peacock, Ross Forbes, Ian Hitchley; Ted Kirsopp, Peter Box (c-c), Cedric Briggs; Peter Mellington, Russell Turner, Gordon Stevens; Jim Bloomfield, Tom Sheather, Stan Sargent; Gerald O'Brien, Bruce Rava, Bruce Waters; John Clarke.
Swans record against Eagles at Griffith: Played 90, Won 61, Lost 27, Draw 2.
Biggest Swans win: 38.18 (236) - 5.4 (34), R17, August 17, 2003
Biggest Eagles win: 20.13 (133) - 7.8 (50), R16, August 15, 1976 & 25.15 (165) - 12.10 (82), R7, May 27, 2007.
Most Swans goals: 11 - Gary Argus, R14, July 20, 1997
Most Eagles goals: 11 - Jeff Hemphill, R16, August 15, 1976.