Legendary team revealed – North Hobart team of 1987
The 1987 North Hobart Football Club team has been selected for induction into the Hall of Fame in June this year, under the ‘Legendary Team’ category.
The first great side of the state-wide era, the North Hobart team of 1987 set the benchmark for all TFL/TSL teams who followed, and in the subsequent 30 years it’s a benchmark very few have reached.
Former Geelong and Richmond player Garry Davidson was appointed to lead North Hobart for the 1987 season, looking to break a premiership drought that stretched back to 1974 and break the drought, they did.
Davidson inherited a very talented North Hobart team, many of whom had been developed under Davidson’s predecessor Darryl Sutton. As with any successful side, the Demons possessed a good mix of experience and youth, with old stagers like Jim Mathewson and Leigh Collidge alongside young stars such as Bradley Plain and Simon Minton-Connell.
North Hobart stormed out of the blocks, winning their opening 10 games and emphatically announcing themselves as the team to beat in 1987. In Round 11, they dropped their first match to Devonport and made it two losses in a row when they were beaten by more than 10 goals by Glenorchy. It was possibly the wake-up call the team needed, and in a sign of the group’s improved professionalism and maturity under Davidson, they responded superbly. The following week, the Demons triumphed over Sandy Bay in horrible conditions, and from that point on they did not put a foot wrong. North Hobart won their final six roster games by an average margin of 71 points, which included 125 and 121-point wins over Burnie and South Launceston.
A 16-2 record saw the Demons finish two games clear on top of the ladder to take the minor premiership, the club’s first since 1969. After a week off at the start of the finals, North Hobart faced Glenorchy in the second Semi-Final, and after a slow start they gradually put the foot down to win by 41 points and advance to the Grand Final. Glenorchy then defeated Clarence in a tight Preliminary Final to set up a rematch with the Demons the following week.
The two teams faced each other on September 12th in front of a packed North Hobart Oval crowd of 17,094 where the Demons ended a drought and started what would become a successful era for the club. The hero for North Hobart was Peter Hardman, who in his best game for the club booted seven goals in a dominant display at Full Forward. Fellow forward Steve McQueen was also at his elusive best, his five goals taking his season tally to 80 and into a three-way tie with Paul Dac (New Norfolk) and Wayne Fox (Hobart) as the season’s leading goal-kicker. In defence, young Full Back Simon Minton-Connell gradually got on top in his battle with David Pearce, while David Guley was a rock at Centre Half Back and was voted as Best on Ground by the ‘World of Sport’ team. However it was through the middle where the Demons won the flag: the midfield brigade of Darren Davies, Darryn Perry and Mick Elmer simply out-ran and out-tackled their experienced Glenorchy opponents, while the second quarter move of Ross Christensen from Centre Half Forward into the ruck was seen by many as a pivotal moment. The scenes of jubilation post-siren from the North Hobart supporters were a sight to behold – their 13 years in the football wilderness had finally come to an end.
For many, the 1987 premiership was the first step on the road to further success: two players – Darryn Perry (1993) and Michael Maple (1994) – would go on to win the William Leitch Medal as TFL Best and Fairest, while four others – Bradley Plain, Simon Minton-Connell, Darren Davies and David Noble – were eventually recruited to the VFL/AFL; a fifth (Steve McQueen) was also drafted but opted to stay in Tasmania. Most importantly, however, 11 of the 20 men that day would enjoy the thrill of being multiple premiership players, with North Hobart going on to claim further TFL flags in 1989, 1991 and 1992 in one of the proud club’s greatest eras; the latter two flags would be coached by Davidson’s successor Mark Yeats, yet another ex-Geelong player.
That fact by itself makes them a team of historical significance, however arguably the greatest praise to be bestowed upon them is that many experts still consider the Demons under Garry Davidson to be the greatest team ever to take the field in the famous red and blue. The North Hobart side of 1987 were – and remain – a Legendary Team, and will officially be acknowledged as such in the Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame later this year.
North Hobart President Craig Martin said the team was a start of a golden era for the club and that it is a fitting time to celebrate the Legendary Team, with the club returning to the North Hobart name in 2018.
“It’s a great honour for the North Hobart Footy club for this magnificent era in the club’s history to be recognised in this way.
“These were great North Hobart teams coached by two outstanding leaders in Garry Davidson and Mark Yeats. It’s most fitting that these teams are inducted into the Hall of Fame in the year our footy club returns to play as North Hobart.”
