- Alex Duncan
Infobox afl player | firstname = Alex
lastname = Duncan
birthdate = 26 February 1900
birthplace =
heightweight = 188cm, 87 kg
originalteam =
dead = alive
deathdate =
deathplace =
debutdate = Round 1, 1921
debutteam = Carlton
debutopponent = Richmond
debutstadium =Punt Road
playingteams = Carlton (1921 – 1924, 1926 – 1930)141 games, 88 goals
coach = notcoach
coachingteams =
statsend = 1930
careerhighlights =Alex Duncan is a former
Australian rules football er in theAustralian Football League .Duncan made his debut for the
Carlton Football Club in Round 1 of the 1921 season. He retired from the game in 1930."Duncan's match"
The encounter between Carlton and
Collingwood Football Club at Victoria Park on Saturday, 25 June 1927, is one of the most famous games in AFL/VFL history; and is remembered as "Duncan's Match". [ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1927_VFL_season#Round_9] ; Ross, (1996), p.124; [http://www.blueseum.org/tiki-index.php?page=Round+9%2C+1927 Blueseum Game Review of Duncan's Match] ]Playing at centre-halfback, Duncan dominated the game as, perhaps, no other player before or since. [Without in any way denigrating Duncan's performance on that day, it should be remembered that — ostensibly to reduce "the unseemly bullocking in the ruck at boundary throwins" (Ross, 1996, p.114) — the laws of the game had been altered in 1925 so that the last player to have touched the ball before it went out of bounds was penalized by the awarding of a free kick to the opposing team. This meant that, whilst this law was in operation (1925-?1939), much of the play was directed up the centre of the ground along the goal-to-goal line, and very little was directed along the flanks.]
He took at least 33 marks (some claim he had taken as many as 45 [On 23 June 1951, in a drawn match between
Fitzroy Football Club 12.13 (85) and South Melbourne 12.13 (85) which, although conducted under different "out of bounds rules", was played at the small, narrow Brunswick Street Oval in North Fitzroy, the 1949Brownlow Medal winner, South Melbourne's Ron "Smokey" Clegg took 32 marks.] ); and his beautiful drop-kicks on that day were as flawless as his marking.Carlton won the match 14.11 (95) to Collingwood's 13.5 (83).
Collingwood, a football club not generally known for magnanimous gestures towards its opponents, were so impressed with Duncan's outstanding performance (perhaps, even, a best of all time performance) that they had the match ball suitably mounted and inscribed and presented the trophy to Duncan.
Notes
References
* Ross, J. (ed), "100 Years of Australian Football 1897-1996: The Complete Story of the AFL, All the Big Stories, All the Great Pictures, All the Champions, Every AFL Season Reported", Viking, (Ringwood), 1996. ISBN 0-670-86814-0
External links
* [http://www.blueseum.org/tiki-index.php?page=Alex+Duncan Blueseum Biography: Alex Duncan]
* [http://stats.rleague.com/afl/stats/players/A/Alex_Duncan.html AFL Statistics: Alex Duncan]
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