Few debut seasons have been as successful as the one Mal Pascoe enjoyed when he moved from Essendon to be captain-coach of Hobart Football Club in 1959.
But after being announced as one of the latest inductees into the Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame, one of the best players to have graced Tasmanian footy said he wasn’t the first choice to lead Hobart into arguably its most successful period.
The 82-year-old Pascoe, a 94-gamer for Essendon, won premierships in 1959, 1960 and 1963 as captain-coach for Hobart, in addition to the 1966 flag in his last game.
He also won two leading goalkicker awards and a William Leitch Medal.
He won the gig after former Geelong great Bobby Davis couldn’t take the role because of his work in Victoria.
“Bobby Davis rang me up and asked if I was interested in going to Hobart,” Pascoe said.
“I said, ‘I would be but I thought you were nominated’, but he said, ‘I can’t go’, so I came down and we put it all together and, fair dinkum, we won the lot in my first season.”
Pascoe, who unsuccessfully applied for Essendon’s senior coaching position in 1971 after winning the 1966 grand final by a point over Glenorchy, was yesterday announced as one of 10 inductees to the Hall of Fame, now in its 11th year.
“It’s very, very special because we had some good players at Hobart at the time and they’ve been recognised, but I’m very lucky to be picked this time,” he said.
Pascoe was one of three inductees from the Early Golden Years of Tasmanian footy, from 1954 to 1969.
Former Cygnet, Sandy Bay, Kingston and Sorell defender Kerry Doran was another inductee from that stellar era.
“It [being inducted] was something I wasn’t expecting and hadn’t thought about too much but I’m extremely honoured,” Doran said.
Also inducted was Harold “Nunky” Ayres, from the Early Years of Tasmanian Football (1900 to 1954), who was said to have given more players nicknames than any other person when doing commentary on matches and drank milk at the bar after games, Roy Apted and Jim Leitch from the Early Golden Years period, Andrew Vanderfeen and Roland Curley, from the Later Golden Years (1970 to 1986), and Dion Scott, Scott McCallum and Ben Beams from the Modern Era (1987 to 2013).
Beams, who played in the 2000 AFL Grand Final won by Essendon over Melbourne, said his induction was up there with captaining the Tasmanian Devils in its first season as the highlight of his career.
“It’s something I thought would never come my way,” he said.
The official induction will take place at the annual Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame Gala dinner to be held at Wrest Point on July 3.
Courtesy: The Mercury
