POACHING SCRAMBLE

Herald Sun - date and author unknown

There was a period in American history during the Civil War that became known as the Missouri Wars, when vengeance was something you carried to your rival’s grave and then went along just to take satisfaction from the burial.

I reckon that great outlaw Josey Wales may have done what a man had to do a few times in the Missouri Wars but little did he realise how long their influence would last.

One hundred and twenty years later a couple of VFL clubs known as Richmond and Collingwood fought their own version of the Missouri Wars, raping and pillaging at will without any thought of the end product.

As this team compiled by Sam Maniatis shows, small outbreaks occurred in the 1970s but it wasn’t until the early ‘80s that fully fledged warfare broke out.  

Around 1982-83 the two clubs went hammer and tongs at each other, irrespective of the outcome.

For instance Geoff Raines should be universally remembered as one of the game’s greatest centremen instead of a bloke who played with four clubs.

Raines had won three best and fairests in seven years with the Tigers, but the lure of a big dollar took him to Victoria Park and although a good player he never again reached the same heights.

Present-day Geelong runner Phillip Walsh played just one very good year with the Magpies before being enticed away before he had established himself (remember Frank Marchesani?)  

Then there were the bit-part players in the warfare such as Wally Lovett and Noel Lovell, two blokes who were caught up in the egos that ran the respective clubs at the time.

They were head days, if silly ones, as the end results proved.

Richmond/Collingwood recruiting wars

Backs

Noel Lovell (Coll ‘81-84 – Rich ‘85-86)

Peter McCormack (Coll ‘76-85 – Rich ’86)

Craig Stewart (Coll ‘78-83 – Rich ‘84-86)

H-Backs

Gerald Betts (Rich ‘74-75 – Coll ‘77-79)

Neil Peart (Coll ’82 – Rich ‘83-84, ’86)

Michael Lockman (‘83-86 – Coll ‘86-87)

Centres

Phillip Walsh (Coll ’83 – Rich ‘84-86)

Geoff Raines (Rich ‘76-82 – Coll ‘83-86)

Wally Lovett (Coll ’82 – Rich ‘83-84)

H-Fwds

Rod Oborne (Coll ‘72-76, ’78-79 – Rich ‘79-81)

Allan Edwards (Rich ‘75-79 – Coll ‘79-83)

Ross Brewer (Coll ‘79-81 – Rich ‘82-83)

Fwds

Bob Heard (Coll ‘70-75 – Rich ‘76-79)

Brian Taylor (Rich ‘80-84 – Coll ‘85-90)

Jon Hummell (Rich ‘77-78 – Coll ’80)

Foll

David Cloke (Rich ‘74-82, ‘90-91 – Coll ‘83-89)

Kevin Morris (Rich ‘71-76 – Coll ‘78-81)

John Annear (Coll ‘81-83 – Rich ‘84-86)

Inter

Steven Roach (Rich ’78 – Coll ‘79-80)

Wes Barrot (Rich ‘73-74 – Coll ’75)

Coach

Tom Hafey (Rich ‘66-76 – Coll ‘77-82)