Hypnotherapy helps North Launceston to 1978 Premiership.

In 1978 the hit movie Grease starring John Travolta and Australia’s own Olivia Newton-John was a box office blockbuster along with Superman starring Christopher Reeve. On the radio we were listening to  ‘You’re the one that I want’ also from the movie Grease along with Wing’s ‘Mull of Kintyre’ and Kate Bush’s ‘Wuthering Heights’, all spending time at number one on the Australia charts throughout the year.

In the Northern Tasmanian Football Association (NTFA), North Launceston had also finished number one. The Robins finished two games clear on top of the ladder from Scottsdale with City-South (third) and Launceston (fourth) making up the top four.

North full-forward, Leigh Barnes, won the goal kicking with 62 from Launceston’s Ian Donnachy on 56. Scottsdale hard-man, Ricky Rattray, won the Hec Smith Medal count with 42 votes from North Launceston’s Rod Loone (29) and Launceston back pocket Wim Vaessen (27).

Launceston upset higher ranked City-South to win the first-semi-final by 41 points while in the second-semi-final North Launceston held off an inaccurate Scottsdale winning 11.13.79 to 9.19.73 in front of 4,402 fans at York Park.

In the Preliminary Final Scottsdale had been hotly tipped to make amends for their loss to the Robins by beating Launceston and earning the right for another crack at North Launceston in the Grand Final.

The Blues jumped Scottsdale in the opening quarter booting seven goals to three and by half-time an upset was brewing with Launceston 16-points ahead. Inaccuracy could well have cost the Pies again as they kicked six goals seven in the third quarter to recover and take a slender five point lead into the final change. However it could have been in the bag had they been on target.

The Blues regained the ascendency in the final quarter to record a 16-point win – 18.13.121 to 15.15.105 - and reserve their spot in the Grand Final against North Launceston. Almost four thousand witnessed the entertaining clash in the penultimate final and a big crowd was expected for the Grand Final on York Park the week later.

The Robins lost talented midfielder Steven Goulding, recruited from North Melbourne Under 19's at the start of the year, to injury in the lead up to the game, his replacement Stephen Mackrill. The Blues were forced to make a change with forward Malcolm Atkins also missing through injury being replaced by small forward Rod Howell.

On the Wednesday of the week of the Grand Final, Robin’s Coach Peter ‘Urko’ Daniels took his players to the viewing rooms of local TV station Channel Nine. Here they watched a replay of their Grand Final loss to Scottsdale the year before. Daniel was even able to obtain a copy of a 1975 Examiner newspaper showing the Robin’s last premiership success. 

They were treated to breakfast on the morning of the big game at the Colonial Motor Inn in town and would have been surprised to see hypnotherapist, Guy Grant, in attendance. “We’d got beaten in two grand finals and Daniels was a school teacher and one of those sort of blokes and he got him over (Grant) and he tried to hypnotise us”, recalled former North Launceston star forward Stan Reid from his Ulverstone home.

Grant, flown in from Melbourne, had been a big part of North Melbourne coach Ron Barrassi’s plans to plot the demise of Hawthorn in the 1975 VFL Grand Final. It worked! The Kangaroos recorded their first ever VFL Premiership.

The lateral thinking by Daniel wasn’t to everyone’s liking however. “I wasn’t big on that (going to team breakfast), I hated those things and most of the blokes did too, cause you want to do your own thing in the morning and just get up and have your couple a bits of toast”, said Reid. “We walked down to the ground after that I think”.

 Launceston Coach Grant Alford used similar tactics in order to rev up his players. The theme music to the hit movie ‘Rocky’ was played in the change rooms prior to running out onto the field on Grand Final day.  

It didn’t have the desired effect for Alford however. North came out all guns blazing booting five goals to one with the wind in the first quarter. Reid, still fuming from a shot on goal in the dying minutes of the ’76 final that may well have cost North the flag, was instrumental in their dominance. “Launceston beat us by a point in 1976, we were a ten goal better side than them, if we’d had played them another ten times we would have beaten them”, explained Reid. “You had to beat Launnie (Launceston) because you didn’t want them to beat you again”.

The Blues fought hard to keep the game alive but it looked all over by three-quarter-time with North leading by 35-points. However Launceston fought the game out and reduced the deficit to under two straight kicks with ten minutes remaining. “We were only seven points up and struggling and Launceston was kicking to the scoring end”, Reid said. “Launceston came from nowhere”. “We were under the pump, we were a good side but we weren’t standouts”, added Reid.

The Blues lacked a tall marking presence on the forward line however and wayward kicking in the last term cost them dearly booting four goals ten behinds to North’s two goals. An inspired effort from Daniels late in the game helping North get over the line. “We were lucky to win that probably. Daniels took a mark in the goal square in the last three or four minutes and kicked a goal and put us thirteen points up and that was the game”. “You could see him grit his teeth and grab it; he was a good leader Urko, he just went bang!”

“We had to grit our teeth otherwise we wouldn’t have won it”, Reid recalled. North has lost the previous two grand finals and were ecstatic about their win. On the clubroom walls was an excerpt from former American gridiron coach Vince Lombardi. ‘A man’s finest hour is that moment when he had worked his heart out in a good cause and lies on the field of battle, exhausted’, it came from Lombardi’s book titled ‘What it takes to be number one’.

Robin’s star rover, Ricky Young, tore it down after the game and with a glass of beer in his hand, recited it in full voice to a packed winner’s rooms full of players, officials and fans. North were back as number one in the NTFA.

Final ladder-

1-North Launceston               16 4 2283 1700 134.3 64 points

2-Scottsdale                             15 5 1905 1453 131.1 56

3-City-South                             10 10 1808 1805 100.1 40

4-Launceston                           9 11 1649 1670 98.7 36

5-Longford                                7 13 1722 1989 86.5 28

6-East Launceston                   4 16 1507 2257 66.3 16

Scores-

North Launceston    5.4 7.8  12.12 14.12.96

Launceston               1.1 4.2   7.7     11.17.83

 

Goals-

North Launceston: Daniel 3, Reid 3, Thomas 3, Barnes 2, Green 2, Knight 1.

Launceston: Donnachy, Robson, Evans, Cook 2, Davis, Blair, Allford 1.

Best players-

North Launceston: Thomas, Maynard, Daniel, Reid, R.Spencer, Delanty, Leedham.

Launceston: Kettle (until inj), Evans, Dutton, Alford, Robson, Davis, Ellis, D.Brown.

Att: 8,156.

Umpires: T.Davis & R.Davidson

Grand Final teams:

North Launceston –

B) Stephen Spencer Craig Delanty Ron Sellers
HB) Rod Loone Neil Maynard Alan Bushby
C) Shane Young Alex Downes Bill Hill
HF) Stephen Mackrill Stan Reid Ian Thomas
F) Scott Knight Rodney Green Ricky Young
Foll) Brian Leedham Peter Daniel (captain-coach) Richard Spencer
Int) Leigh Barnes Gary Bennetts
In) Mackrill
Out) Goulding (inj)

 

Launceston-
B) Wim Vaessen Grant Allford (captain-coach) Tim Blair
HB) Garry Davis Robin Nason Tony Furfaro
C) Michael Brown Paul Ellis Darrel Brown
HF) Chris Robson Guy Tuthill Michael Pyszkowski
F) Chris Kettle Ian Donnachy Michael Cook
Foll) Robert Dutton Rod Howell Kevin Evans
Int) Michael Stephens Colin Shadgett
In) Howell
Out) M.Atkins (inj)

Pic courtesy: Stan Reid.