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Finals flashbacks
by PAUL DAFFEYMichael Cooke played his only two games of league footy in a second semi-final and a grand final, in 1975 for Hawthorn. Such a career means that his name has become popular on trivia nights, as was confirmed at a recent fund-raiser for the Auburn Primary School in Melbourne's eastern suburbs. "They asked the question," said Cooke, sounding more pleased than alarmed, "about the bloke whose only two games for Hawthorn were in the finals. And I was there!" Cooke played most of the 1975 season with Old Carey Grammarians in B-section in the Victorian Amateur Football Association. Late in the season, Old Carey had no chance of making the finals; Cooke, who was 21, and his brother Robert, 18, agreed to play the last three games of the season with the Hawthorn reserves. Michael kicked six goals in each of the final two rounds. In the reserves elimination final, against Melbourne at Waverley Park, Michael kicked seven goals while Robert kicked six. (Best on ground, incidentally, was Hawthorn centreman Brian Cook, the current Geelong chief executive.) Before the seniors second semi-final, which was to be played against North Melbourne at a sodden Waverley Park, Michael Cooke was chosen to make his senior debut. He played on David Dench, a champion full-back, and kicked four of Hawthorn's 12 goals as the Hawks won by 11 points. When asked whether he was daunted by playing on Dench, Cooke replied: "I beat him, didn't I?" Cooke was duly selected in the team to play North Melbourne in the grand final. "It was very exciting," he said. "But the ball was hardly down my end of the ground." Just before half-time, he was taken off. As there was no interchange bench, he took a trainer's advice to have a shower at half-time. North Melbourne won by 55 points. "I watched the second half in the stand," Cooke said. During the practice matches in 1976, Cooke was crunched in a pack and injured his back. He struggled through the season in the reserves before going to Sydney for five weeks in November, after his university exams had finished, and having his back fixed. Cooke was hoping to nail down a place at full-forward in the Hawthorn senior team in 1977 when Peter Hudson announced that he would return. The Hawks tried to off-load Cooke to Melbourne, but he refused. He joined University Blacks, which was in the VAFA's A-section. Now, as well as being a partner in a successful building and architecture company, he's vice-president of Old Carey, which is playing in the D1-section grand final this Saturday. Cooke has no regrets about turning his back on league football. "I put it down to a great experience," he said. This article first appeared in The Age on 12 September 2006 13 September 2006 |
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