It was a thrill to have former VFL footballer Bryan Wood as our speaker last Monday night.
Bryan was still attending Melbourne High School when he started playing in the seniors at Richmond. Very unlike today's professionalism, he was also playing for the school footy team on a Wednesday afternoon. He also mentioned the huge changes in footy from his playing days to today with the large player payments, 50 to 80 staff working at the clubs, turnovers of between $60 and $80 million a year - the AFL is its own industry.
He does not consider that footy is as attractive a spectacle today due to more coaching and tactics and is surprised that with all the training and coaches, goal kicking is not more efficient. Bryan referred to the player's eating habit. At Tigerland they used to have a lunchtime steak meal before the game whereas today it is all about carbs and light meals.
Even though there have been significant changes, Bryan feels blessed to have been able to play the game. He rated Royce Hart, Gary Ablett senior, Keith Grieg and Wayne Carey as the best players he has ever seen (he did concede that Leigh Matthews was also very good but left him off his list because of tangle in the 1983 finals).
Bryan concluded that today he felt sympathy for the umpires because of the very difficult job they have to do - a view that he did not necessarily hold when he was playing.
Bryan very generously responded to heaps of questions and it was a pleasure to have him join us to talk footy during the finals.