Dan Eddy is the author of King Richard: The Story of Dick Reynolds, as well as Skills of Australian Football. He is the co-author of Champions: Conversations with Great Players & Coaches of Australian Football, and The Will to Fly. Eddy is a current PhD scholarship recipient (Federation University), whose project will examine the career of AFL Legend Alex Jesaulenko, and this article is an extract from his upcoming book, 'Always Striving': The Moments That Have Made the Essendon Football Club.

The football world was stunned. Surely not? This must be a mistake. John Coleman rubbed out for four matches? But that was the reality: the most exciting full-forward in the game had just been suspended on the eve of the 1951 finals series for retaliating to the rough-house tactics of Carlton full-back, Harry Caspar. Most expected that Coleman would receive two weeks, at most, which would have seen him available for the Grand Final – Essendon’s seventh in succession. Now, they would have to win the premiership without him.

Since kicking 12 goals on debut, in round one 1949 against Hawthorn, Coleman had been elevated to a superstar status reserved for but a select few in the game’s history. Perhaps only Essendon’s Albert Thurgood, Richmond’s Jack Dyer, Collingwood’s Gordon Coventry, Fitzroy’s Haydn Bunton, South Melbourne’s Bob Pratt, and Coleman’s coach at Windy Hill, Dick Reynolds, had received the publicity and the accolades that ‘Coley’ had. Indeed in his first two seasons Coleman had kicked 100 goals in 1949 and 120 in 1950, and a highly talented Bombers outfit that had lost the 1947 Grand Final by one point, and drew the 1948 Grand Final before losing the replay, were suddenly back-to-back premiers. So dominant were they that in 1950 the club lost just one game all season, on their way to one of the greatest seasons in VFL history. By round 17, 1951 (in an 18-round season), the three-peat was well and truly on the cards. But, following the incident with Caspar in round 18, those odds had blown out substantially.

The image of a distraught Coleman leaving the tribunal hearing on Tuesday 4 September is one of the most iconic in VFL/AFL history. After deliberating for 12 minutes, and despite Caspar sticking to the ‘code’ – where reported players would regularly suffer from amnesia in order to assist their opponents from receiving large penalties – and denying that Coleman had struck him, both players were suspended for four weeks. So shattered was the star full-forward that he spent 20 minutes with his head buried in his hands before then braving the mass of people outside. 

Coleman leaves Harrison House after his suspension on the eve of the finals.

According to Coleman biographer Doug Ackerly had the incident happened today, with the present demerit points system in place, “Coleman may not have missed one match.” At worst, two at most. Moreover, Dick Reynolds, one of the fairest players in VFL/AFL history, later told his son Rick: “There’s no doubt in my mind that what Caspar did to him, they should have given Coleman a week or a suspended sentence or something like that.”   

Without their champion in the goal square, the Bombers struggled in the first semi-final against Footscray, trailing by 15 points at half-time before fighting back to edge out the Bulldogs by just eight points. Then in the preliminary final the Bombers trailed Collingwood by four goals at three quarter-time and it appeared their amazing run of Grand Finals was over. But since the end of the war Reynolds’ talented group had learned to never give in, and he always kept faith in them to find a way to win from any position. They kicked 5.3 to 1.1 in the final term to win by two points and book a date with Geelong for the 1951 premiership.

The morning of the Grand Final Reynolds was in a quandary. A team that could regularly rely on Coleman to kick it a match-winning score had managed just eight goals in the semi-final and 10 in the preliminary final, but against the speedy Cats they would need to kick a higher score. Compounding things further his young ruckman John Gill had been rushed to hospital 24 hours earlier with appendicitis; a fact that eluded the players until they arrived at the MCG late that Saturday morning. With the Essendon reserves also in the Grand Final, Reynolds – who had retired as a player after his best-on-ground display in the 1950 premiership triumph, and had not played at all in ’51, although he had continued to train with the players – made the controversial decision to come out of retirement and place himself on the interchange bench. He hoped that his presence alone could inspire his players to pull off an upset.

At the 11-minute mark of the final quarter, Geelong led by 39 points, and the Essendon forwards had managed just six goals. But, with a fresh 18-year-old Jack Clarke starting to have an impact after being brought onto the ground at the beginning of the final quarter, the Bombers kicked two quick goals through Jack Jones and Fred Payne. They had a sniff. Sensing the moment, Reynolds stood and removed his dressing gown. The clock read 21 minutes and they trailed by 21 points. It was now or never. He threw himself into the contest for one last time.

Reynolds jogged past young Geelong ruckman, Bill McMaster, who had no inkling the Essendon coach was even playing until then. “He ran past me,” McMaster recalled, “and straight away that’s when Essendon lifted and I thought things weren’t looking all that good.” Almost immediately Reynolds had an impact, cleverly tapping the ball to Greg Tate who goaled to cut the margin to 15 points. Reynolds would later say that his side had “revved up a little bit” when he came on. Moments later, Wally May goaled, it was nine points the difference as the game entered the time-on period.

As Essendon charged forward again, Ron McEwin had the ball on the outer forward flank in front of Bay 5. Coleman’s replacement at full-forward, Keith McDonald, set himself for the pass. From his vantage point in the press box, Coleman would have screamed in frustration with what happened next. Perhaps running on adrenaline, Reynolds rushed from the forward pocket, set himself for the mark and accidently collided with the unsuspecting McDonald who was ready to accept the mark and kick the goal; the ball spilled to the ground and Geelong full-back, Bruce Morrison, quickly cleared the area. In the previous two Grand Final Reynolds had been chaired from the MCG a hero, but this one mistake may well have cost the Dons their greatest premiership triumph.

Tate had one last opportunity to goal, but he missed, and with the margin increased to 11 points Geelong held on to win: 11.15 (81) to 10.10 (70).

Would Essendon have won with Coleman in the goal square? Interestingly, the following season, with the Cats charging towards back-to-back premierships, the two sides met in round eight, in Brisbane, as part of the VFL’s attempts to promote the code in the northern States. Coleman kicked 13.7 and Gill was outstanding in the ruck, the Bombers winning, 23.17 (155) to 12.14 (86).

You be the judge.