With the passing in Western Australia of the former Geelong ruckman Graham Farmer, thoughts invariably turn to what was and arguably remains the game’s most iconic rivalry - that which pitted the late great ‘Polly’ against the man widely acknowledged as Carlton’s greatest player, John Nicholls.
In 1996, Farmer and Nicholls – a three-time Carlton Premiership player and five-time winner of the best and fairest award which now carries his name - were amongst the first Legends to be inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.
That same year, both were named in the AFL’s Team of the 20th century – Farmer as No.1 ruckman, ‘Big Nick’ in a forward pocket.
Nicholls, Victoria’s most capped player who celebrated his 80th birthday on Tuesday (August 13), pays the following tribute to his great adversary on the field and lifelong friend off it.
While Graham Farmer’s passing was not unexpected given his struggles with health over many years, I am very sorry to hear the news.
The last time I saw ‘Polly’ was probably at an AFL Hall of Fame induction some time ago. To my knowledge, he hasn’t flown to Melbourne for many, many years and while I know Geelong had tried to bring him out he just wasn’t up for travelling.
As a person, ‘Polly’ was a good man. He has been a friend of mine for the best part of 60 years. As a player he was talked about as ahead of his time . . . and he was a freak.
At ruck contests the pair of us used to take two or three steps - never a long run. At centre bounces he jumped early and umpires like Jeff Crouch used to let him get away with it. I gave away height to ‘Polly’ and I realized that if I jumped at the same time as him I was gone, so I jumped into him early, body on body, and I was successful at it because I had a good spring.
This was a craft later perfected by Simon Madden, who was the best at it.
‘Polly’ was a teetotaller who spent half his time in the gym at Geelong. In the off-season he and Bill Goggin used to run at Stawell – 200 metres and 400 metres for memory.
He was one of the first to really perfect the art of handballing. He was very good at it. He was a brilliant footballer, I learnt a lot from him, he made me a better player and I respected him. He was a good friend of mine, a very good friend.
That photograph of ‘Polly’ and myself in full flight back in ’62 is not a false photo. We were a fair way up the ground. It evokes great memories for me of a time when there were so many wonderful individual contests, whether ruckman versus ruckman, full-forward versus full-back or centre half-forward versus centre half-back.
But the game has changed . . .
