Australian Football World Tour

The Australian Football World Tour was a series of International Rules Football matches, organised by football sports broadcaster and former VFL umpire Harry Beitzel in 1967 and 1968 [cite web|url=http://www.footystamps.com/ot_int_rules.htm|title=History of International Rules Football|accessdate=2008-04-18] .

First tour

The first team was christened "The Galahs" by the Melbourne press after a comment made by the eccentric athletics coach Percy Cerutty, having seen their garish blazers, their slouch hats, and their hats' ostentatious plumes [A photograph of Bob Skilton, in full regalia appeared on the front cover of the Victorian Football League's March 1968 issue of "Football Life" magazine (a thumbnail of the cover appears at Ross (1996), p.238).] (deliberately chosen by Beitzel to evoke comparisons with the heroes of the Australian Light Horse Regiments in the Boer War and World War I [http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.diggerhistory.info/images/uniforms2/akubralighthorse.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-uniforms/slouch_hat6.htm&h=394&w=600&sz=24&hl=en&start=5&tbnid=-03RGbKSlhMP1M:&tbnh=89&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlight-horse%2Bslouch%2Bhat%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D100%26hl%3Den%26newwindow%3D1%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DG] ) and to the effect that they were "a pack of galahs". The name stuck. [Burke, 1998, p.12]

The games were played under the rules of Gaelic football with the single exception that the Australian players were not compelled to "toe" the ball from foot to hand every few yards, and they were allowed to bounce the ball.

First tour's itinerary

Their matches, opponents, and scores were as follows:
* Saturday, 28 October 1967: Civil Service, a Dublin club team, preliminary warm-up match. The Galahs won by two points. [Jim Stynes' father, Brian, played in this match for the Civil Service team. (Burke, 1998, p.12)]
* Sunday, 29 October 1967: The 1967 All-Ireland Senior Football Champions Meath, the first touring match, played at Croke Park, and won by The Galahs 25-13.
* Tuesday, 31 October 1967: Exhibition match of Australian Rules Football, conducted in heavy rain, under lights, at London's Crystal Palace between "Australia" and "Britain". The Britain team was comprised mainly of expatriates, plus several of The Galahs (including Alex Jesualenko). Australia beat Britain 101 to 75.
* Saturday, 4 November: The 1967 All-Ireland Senior Football runners up Mayo, the first touring match, played at Croke Park, and won by The Galahs 2-12 (18) to 2-5 (11). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaelic_football#Scoring]
* Sunday, 5 November: New York, played at Gaelic Park, New York City. The Galahs lost the match. There were many brawls during the match, with the Galahs coming off second best in all of them. Hassa Mann, king-hit behind the play, had his jaw broken in three places. Ron Barassi had his nose broken by a giant New York narcotics detective (Brendan Tumulty), who broke his own thumb in the process of hitting Barassi. [Burke, 1998, p.15. Burke does not supply the match's final score except to say that the New York Irish were in front 11-5 at half-time, and that the Galahs were unable to add to their half-time score. For more on Barassi's injury and his later friendship with Brendan Tumulty, see [http://www.ronbarassi.com.au/news/article1.htm] ]

econd tour

In 1968, a second representative team, consisting of elite players from the Victorian Football League, South Australian National Football League, West Australian Football League and the Victorian Football Association, was undefeated in the series, playing against Irish sides at Wembley Stadium, London, Croke Park, Dublin, Meath and Kerry in Ireland, and New York. The Galahs also played exhibition matches of Australian Rules Football throughout the tour, including a game in Bucharest, Romania.

1967 Touring Party

Original selections [Taken from Burke (1998), p.10.]

Harry Beitzel (Ex-umpire), promoter

Ron Barassi (Carlton, playing coach

Bob Skilton (South Melbourne)

Herbie Matthews jnr(South Melbourne) [http://stats.rleague.com/afl/stats/players/H/Herbie_Matthews1.html]

Stuart Magee (South Melbourne)

Norm Brown (Fitzroy)

Hassa Mann (Melbourne)

Don Williams (Melbourne)

Barry Davis (Essendon)

Ken Fraser (Essendon)

John Dugdale (North Melbourne)

Laurie Dwyer (North Melbourne)

Royce Hart (Richmond)

Paddy Guinane (Richmond)

Bill Barrot (Richmond)

Neville Crowe (Richmond)

Alex Jesaulenko (Carlton)

John Nicholls (Carlton)

John Jillard (Footscray)

Graeme Chalmers (Footscray) [http://stats.rleague.com/afl/stats/players/G/Graeme_Chalmers.html]

Ian Law (Hawthorn)

Later additions to original selections

Bob Keddie (Hawthorn)

Peter Body (Sydney Naval [http://www.fullpointsfooty.net/sydney_naval.htm] ) [Peter Body won the Sydney Football League's best and fairest award, known as the Phelan Medal, in 1967. [http://www.fullpointsfooty.net/sfl_summary_chart.htm#1963%20to%201972] ]

Roger Dean (Richmond) [Dean replaced Neville Crowe in the touring party, after Crowe had been injured in a practice game on the eve of the team's departure.]

1968 Touring Party

Victorian Football League

Harry Beitzel (Ex-umpire, promoter)

Ron Barassi (Carlton, playing coach)

Kevin Bartlett (Richmond)

Gary Dempsey (Footscray)

John Dugdale (North Melbourne)

Robert Farmer (Collingwood)

Royce Hart (Richmond)

Peter Hudson (Hawthorn)

Sidney Jackson (Carlton)

Alex Jesaulenko (Carlton)

R. Tassie Johnson (Melbourne)

Don McKenzie (Essendon)

Des Meagher (Hawthorn)

John Nicholls (Carlton)

Daryl O'Brien (North Melbourne)

Bryan Quirk (Carlton)

Wayne Richardson (Collingwood)

Brian Roet (Melbourne)

John Sharrock (Geelong)

David Thorpe (Footscray)

South Australian National Football League

John Birt (West Torrens)

Neil Kerley (Glenelg)

West Australian Football League

David Dyson (West Perth)

Graham Farmer (West Perth)

Murray Leeder (West Perth)

Bill Walker (Swan Districts)

John Wynne (West Perth)

Victorian Football Association

Fred Bayes (Box Hill)

Geoff Bryant (Box Hill)

Trevor Collins (Camberwell)

Gary Fenton (Sandringham)

Geoff Slade (Frankston)

Other Leagues

Mike O'Brien (Redan, Ballarat Football League)

Greg Tootell (Caulfield Grammarians, VAFA)

Roger Hogget (NSW)

Notes

References

* Burke, P., "Harry and the Galahs: Remembering the Meeting of Two Football Codes Thirty Years On", "Australian Society for Sports History Bulletin", Vol. 29, (1998), pp.9-17. [http://la84foundation.org/index/ASSHBulletinsf.html]
* 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