Dwyer's year

by PAUL DAFFEY

ONE of the more remarkable Brownlow Medal stories belongs to former cult wingman Mark Dwyer, who began the 1986 season playing for Koroit and ended it on the Brownlow leaders' board. For a brief time he was near the front of the pack. Few footballers are remembered so fondly for earning 10 votes.

Dwyer's rise from backyard hero to league star was the dream of every boy with a pair of boots. In this era of structured paths to professionalism, it would never happen. But in talking to Dwyer on a wet and wintry day in Warrnambool - the type of conditions in which he thrived in 1986 - it was hard to believe it happened then, either.

Dwyer was the source of excited chatter even before he began his senior career. When he was 16, the town of Koroit became embroiled in a debate over whether the young wingman who had grown up across the road from Victoria Park, Koroit's home ground, was too small to play with the men. In the end, Koroit coach Terry Keane put his foot down and selected him. Dwyer tore up the opposition in his first senior game.

In 1986, when he was 21, Dwyer agreed to play in a Fitzroy reserves game on permit. He played without distinction and returned home. In his second game, however, he picked up 40 possessions. During the week he took a call from Roys coach David Parkin, who offered him a senior game.

The Koroit recruit headed to the Junction Oval for his first training session with Fitzroy on the Thursday night before his senior debut in round 15. Fellow players from the Roys' country recruiting zone in the Western District, such as Ross Thornton and Gary Keane, Terry's son, did their best to welcome him. Rather than feeling overawed, Dwyer was struck by the skill level. "The ball never hit the ground," he said.

Even in the rooms before the match against Carlton at Waverley, he was too dazed to be nervous. On the ground, he lined up on a wing against Jim Buckley. Standing 174cm, and wearing a long-sleeved No. 58 guernsey, he must have looked like he had strayed on to the ground from a local park.

Buckley ignored him until it was apparent that Dwyer was creating havoc with his clean hands and neat disposal. The Carlton veteran warned him about respecting the pecking order, prompting Dwyer to offer a bit of lip. So Buckley whacked him. "I just thought he was going to have to hit me harder than that," Dwyer said.

At the end of the game, the wingman with the high number and the cheeky manner was widely voted best on ground. In the following weeks, his form continued. During a split round, he stayed home and played a blinder for Koroit. "I didn't think much of it; I was just playing footy," Dwyer said.

For the rest of the season, he trained with Koroit on Tuesdays and Fitzroy on Thursdays. On Saturdays, he starred. His best games were against Essendon at Windy Hill, where he towelled up Bill Duckworth, and Richmond at the MCG. By the end of the season, he was being tagged.

Dwyer's extraordinary tour into the unknown continued in September, when Mick Conlan kicked a goal from the boundary line to give Fitzroy victory over Essendon by a point in the elimination final and the Roys fell in by five points against Sydney in a semi final. Dwyer said the match against Sydney was his biggest thrill in football. Just weeks after running on to the field before a few cars at Koroit, he ran on to MCG before a crowd of 66,000. "All you can hear is this big, dull roar."

The season ended with a loss in the preliminary final to Hawthorn, in which Dwyer lowered his colours to Robert Dipierdomenico. Two days later, the Fitzroy players convened in a Melbourne pub hoping their teammate Paul Roos would win the Brownlow Medal. But those hopes took a battering whenever Dwyer's name popped up. He began with one vote in round 15, for his debut against Carlton; in round 18, he was awarded best on ground against Richmond. His teammates were barracking for Roos. "Every time I got a vote they threw things at me," Dwyer said.

After the count, which Dipper and Greg Williams won with 17 votes and Roos finished a vote behind, Dwyer returned to Koroit, happy to avoid the fuss. After the season, he knocked back the Fitzroy players' trip and instead went to the races in Melbourne with his mates from Koroit. "I still thought of myself as a Koroit player," he said.

In 1987, Dwyer graduated to Fitzroy's No.8 guernsey but injury kept him to two senior games. Before the next season, after putting himself through his first serious pre-season, he tore an Achilles tendon in the last practice match. Halfway through the season, Fitzroy off-loaded him to St Kilda, where he played one senior game.

David Parkin said Dwyer was one of those players who felt more comfortable at home, where he could ignore expectations in Melbourne and the growing emphasis on professionalism. "He played with natural expression," Parkin said.

On returning home in 1990, Dwyer churned through the Koroit midfield for almost a decade before finishing his career at Warrnambool. In recent years, he has served Warrnambool coach Scott Turner, the former Richmond defender, on the Blues' match committee.

Now a 39-year-old real estate agent, Dwyer is still barely able to comprehend that glorious 1986 season when he graduated from Koroit to Fitzroy. He looks at the teenagers bursting to prove themselves with the Geelong Falcons in the under-18 competition and wonders how they do it. "I never really took footy seriously," he said.

Brownlow Medal 1986

Robert Dipierdomenico, Hawthorn, 17

Greg Williams, Sydney, 17

Paul Roos, Fitzroy, 16

Glenn Hawker, Essendon, 15

John Platten, Hawthorn, 14

Bruce Abernethy, Collingwood, 13

Jon Dorotich, Carlton, 12

Wayne Harmes, Carlton, 12

Richard Loveridge, Hawthorn, 11

Mark Dwyer, Fitzroy, 10

Paul Meldrum, Carlton, 10

Peter Daicos, Collingwood, 10

Alan Ezard, Essendon, 10

Peter McConville, St Kilda, 10

Dennis Carroll, Sydney, 10

This article first appeared in The Age on 20 September 2003

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