In Jim Main's series, 'Swan Songs', on great players from the past, this week he talks to talented winger Gary Brice...
Gary Brice
Born: October 7, 1948
Played: 1970-79
Games: 171
Goals: 101
Although talented winger/centreman Gary Brice might have been a reluctant Swan when he first started his VFL career, he eventually gave the club wonderful service over 10 seasons and still follows the Swans with tremendous passion.
Brice was starring with neighbouring VFA club Port Melbourne when the Swans started knocking on his door. However, he was reluctant to make the move because he was happy and settled with the Borough.
He eventually changed his mind when South coach Norm Smith touched a nerve with the comment: “Don’t you want to know how good you can be? You have to test yourself at the highest level.”
Brice might have been a Port boy through and through, but Smith’s message hit home and he joined South Melbourne for the start of the 1970 season.
“I played every game in that wonderful season,” Brice recalled. “We made the finals for the first time in 25 years and the feeling around the club was sensational.
“It might have been a bit of a jolt leaving Port, but Shane McKew (33 games to 1973) moved to South with me and the Swans also had another former Port player in Peter Bedford, so there was a good Port connection.”
Brice settled in well with the Swans, but insisted that most of the credit for the club finishing fourth in 1970 after years of failure belonged to Smith.
“He was a sensational coach,” Brice enthused. “He had the knack of getting everyone working together and all the players were great mates, on and off the field.
“But he was tough, really tough. We used to meet as a group at the George Hotel, South Melbourne, and Smithy made sure he caught up with every player on an individual basis.
“He would always ask how we felt we had played as an individual and we knew not to blow our own trumpet. Even if we said we had gone OK, he would say ‘don’t flirt with your form’.
“If we had played a poor game, we would hide in the toilet. But he always caught up with us. There was no escape and he had an incredible memory of what had happened in a match.”
Brice, nickname “Barrel” because of his strong upper body, quickly established himself as a VFL star, firstly as a pacy and classy winger and later as a ball-winning centreman.
He was one of South’s few genuine stars in a mainly bleak period for the club but accepted the position as captain-coach of Port Melbourne for the start of the 1980 season.
Brice guided the Borough to three consecutive flags over the 1980-82 seasons before stepping down to be non-playing coach in 1983. “I was 34 years of age and my legs were giving me hell,” Brice explained.
After just one season as non-playing coach, Brice became Kevin Sheedy’s assistant coach at Essendon before returning to Port for one more season as coach in 1985.
Brice, a physical education teacher who was a school principal for 18 years before his retirement in 2003, also had a career as a radio commentator.
He spent 25 years with Melbourne station 3AW, mainly as an “around the grounds” commentator to 2005, working with broadcasting giants Harry Beitzel and Rex Hunt.
Brice in retirement lives in the bayside Melbourne suburb of Bonbeach and plays golf at least one a week, often with another former Swan winger in Greg “Racehorse” Lambert (167 games from 1966-79).
He gets to as many Port and Swans games as possible and will be barracking for the red and white when he attends the round 16 match against the Gold Coast on July 9.
