Footscray rover, John Kerr, was widely regarded as the best player on the ground in the 1954 Grand Final victory against Melbourne. Ironically he could have been playing for Melbourne in 1954, rather than against them.
In an interview to be shown at the 1954 Celebration Gala Dinner at Crown Palladium on April 8, Kerr confesses to attempting to put one over the Bulldogs in an endeavour to get to Melbourne.
He was attending Melbourne Grammar School and had been persuaded to join the Demons, but he required a clearance from Footscray because he lived in their district.
Kerr was forced to have a try out at the Bulldogs, under the eagle eye of coach Charlie Sutton and, during the trial run, tried to mask his abilities.
Sutton was on to Kerr’s game of bluff and spotted the talent that he was attempting to mask, refusing him his clearance to Melbourne and insisting, if he was going to play League football, it would be with the Bulldogs. (Kerr did transfer to Melbourne at the end of his career, but played just one game.)
Kerr's big chance in VFL football came when he debuted for Footscray in the Lightning Premiership series of games in 1953.
He won a regular spot in the side after these appearances and made rapid advancements as a player during the 1954 season. So much so, that he was generally regarded as the most improved player in the competition.
After 50 years, Kerr’s memories of the 1954 Grand Final have diminished, but he does remember coach, Charlie Sutton, taking charge on the day. ‘ I remember Charlie was on [Melbourne captain] Geoff Collins…he got off to a very interesting start with them, there seemed to be a bit of turmoil down that way and they were a little perplexed towards the start of the game…because of some things Charlie might have been doing.’
Kerr’s game was one ‘right out of the box’ in the Grand Final. He eclipsed Melbourne rover, Stuart Spencer, on the way to gathering 24 kicks.
Ruckman, Harvey Stevens, thought that Kerr played a magnificent rover’s game and recalls one passage of play with delight: ‘I’d never seen a fella do so many turns in a short distance. At one stage there, he just went one way, then the other way, and then the other way about five or six times.
He had his team mates bamboozled and he had the opposition completely bamboozled, but John went on and passed it to Jack Collins. It was a great bit of football’.
The enormity of the Premiership victory didn’t really hit home to Johnny Kerr until back pocket and elder statesman, Wally Donald, had a chat with him on the way to the celebration dinner at the Mayfair Hotel. ‘Wally mentioned to me, “Do you realise all the good players that have gone before us, that hadn’t even got a sniff of a Grand Final, and here’s you, second year and you’ve walked into a Grand Final and a Premiership side,’ and it was then that it really hit me [that] this was something special,’ he says.
