Click here to read the full interview featured in this week's Program.
Doug Gott was a skilful defender over the course of 97 games in the Black and White. His career spanned nine seasons at Victoria Park, playing his final game in the famous 1977 Grand Final draw against North Melbourne. Gott was also a successful cricketer, representing Victoria in four First Class matches. He went on to coach football and cricket at various local clubs. He caught up with collingwoodfc.com.au during the week to reminisce on his career with Collingwood’s football and cricket clubs.
What are you up to these days?
Career wise, nothing, I just go and watch the Pies. I’m working, at a place called General Lighting Services, we service emergency lighting.
Do you have any current involvement at Collingwood?
No, I’m a member of the past players, but I’m not involved in anything.
Did you attend last year’s Grand Finals? What were your emotions like in both of them?
Yes, I went to the first one, not the second one. I watched one of them, but I didn’t watch the other, I was overseas for that one. I planned the trip on the Monday to go over to Italy, so I missed it, but for the first one I had that empty feeling again, it was, oh, no, the first thing I said was, we had a barbeque just prior to the game out in the car park, and I said I don’t care how the game goes, just as long as it’s a win or a loss, I don’t want a draw. And it comes up a draw.
How did you manage to follow the game over in Italy?
Nope, there was nothing, nothing at all. The boys were texting me on the phone, and the family, so I was just told that “we’re up”, “we’re this up, we’re that up”, and then they were saying “we’ve got it won, we’ve got it won”, so that was good. It’s good to know in that last quarter that you’ve won it!
You played under Bob Rose, Neil Mann, Murray Weideman and Tom Hafey - how did each differ from each other and under whom did you play your best footy?
I played my best footy under Neil Mann. I think I was probably fortunate that Manny was the reserves coach beforehand, and his assistant was Ronnie Richards, who was the under-19 coach, so I had a good relationship with those two when they were in charge, and I think for about three years I played under Manny and I played most of my games under him (Gott played 58 of his 97 games under Mann between 1972 and 1974). With Bob Rose, I think he had a set side. From the boys who played up until 1970, he had a set crew who he relied on heavily, you know, the Wayne Richardsons, the Barry Prices, Peter McKenna, Twiggy Dunne, and all those, and he stuck with those, he didn’t sort of experiment with too many new players. We had a lot of players go in and about but didn’t stabilise themselves under him. When he left, Manny took over and I think he sort of structured a few more, and then when Manny retired, and they gave it to ‘the Weed’. We went alright the first year but then after that, the second year was downhill. The poor old Weed, I think he sort of lost the plot with some of the players somehow - a lovely bloke, terrific, got on with everyone - but just wasn’t probably up with the new methods, and then we finished on the bottom. I think we won more games than anyone that’s finished on the bottom before. I think that we were only five or six games out from the finals, and I think we lost about seven games under 10-points. We finished in the finals the next year, and the following year we only had one change to the teams and I think we finished on top, so that was under (Tom) Hafey, and we did a huge pre-season and he brought new running techniques. His brother Peter Hafey was the runner, and he was very good, he took it for most of our training nights, so we had an open look of what you have to do. You have a little more training to get the advantage of being fitter than the opposition. He brought in new elements. You know, you heard stories saying ‘you’re going to be doing a lot of running, you’re gonna be doing 400ms’. It was early in the season in the summer, and I played cricket, so I had a bit of a clash with that, so I never trained as much as the other guys, and that probably put me a bit behind the eight-ball with Tommy a bit, so I didn’t play many games under Tom.
Your first game was a cliff-hanger at the MCG against Melbourne (Collingwood won by two points), what are your memories of the game?
That was an interesting day. I sat on the bench for most of the day, and I came on in the last quarter, it was about the 10min mark of the last quarter, and Melbourne were sort of catching up, we’d been in front for most of the day, and they got within a goal, I think. I remember Johnny Greening playing on the wing, and I remember a bloke called Johnny Townsend when I came on and he was a quick little rover, on the half back flank, and he was changing with a guy called Ken Hempsell, and they were the two rovers changing on the half forward flank, so I was running around like a mad hatter for a while.
Then I got moved onto Ross Dillon towards the end of the game, and I had a couple of kicks and that was about it. It was an experience. I started at the MCG, and my last game was against Melbourne in the seconds at the MCG. I couldn’t tell you the crowd, to tell you the truth; I was just overawed a bit, probably, and didn’t take much notice of the crowd. We didn’t get huge crowds like they get now with the 60,000-70,000, there were a few though. But I couldn’t tell you.
Your career really began to take off in 1972 after being in and out of the side in your first three years. Was there any particular reason for this?
I was lucky. I played four games in 1969, the last four games of the season, and I played finals for the seconds, and in the next year we started and I just couldn’t get in, because I was playing cricket, and I think we won. I think I played cricket that season and when I came back, Rosey wasn’t keen to put us in, he sort of left us out, so it took a while, and when I did get a game, the first game I played was out at Waverley, and I went to tackle Syd Jackson. He did a little baulk, and I tried to twist back to get him and my knee went on me, and I was out for most of the season. They couldn’t find out what it was. I don’t know what it was, but it just kept locking on me and causing me aggravation, so I only played one game that season, I think, and about two in the reserves. It put me behind the eight-ball and I think Rosey had lost a bit of faith in my then, and he probably believed that I was baulking it or something, but it was just not the case.
You only played three games prior to the drawn Grand Final in 1977, what was keeping you out of the side?
I played towards the latter part; I think Tommy just kept us out. I think I played most of the games in the reserves, and Tom was just not keen. It was a clash right from the start in the sense that I was a cricketer, a cricketer-footballer, and he wanted footballers.
Did you consider yourself a cricketer or a footballer?
Mainly a cricketer. I was recruited from a social game of cricket, we played against the footballers in early 1967, and they invited us down to play in the practice matches, because Keith Stackpole said that I’d played a bit of football out at Ivanhoe Amateurs, and they were in A-Grade at the time and they invited me down, and that was it.
Click here to read the full interview featured in this week's Program.
Doug Gott profile
Date of Birth: 30/6/50
Debut: Round 14, 1969 v Melbourne at the MCG
Last Game: Grand Final, 1977 v North Melbourne at the MCG
Recruited From: Ivanhoe
Games: 97 (165th most games played)
Goals: 26 (237th most goals kicked)
Finals Games: 9
Finals Goals: 3
Brownlow Medal Votes: 7
Sporting Honours: Victorian Cricketer 1973-1974 (High Score: 21 not out, Best Bowling: 2/28), Collingwood Cricket Club Team of the Century, Collingwood Football Club reserves captain 1978
