It was purely by chance that Don Ross, Footscray’s 1954 Premiership centreman, ended up at the Western Oval.
Footscray talent scouts had gone to watch another player at his original club, North Albury, when they discovered Ross to be the better prospect.
Ross didn’t know much about the VFL in those days and waited a couple of years before venturing from the country to Footscray.
‘We didn’t buy a Melbourne paper, we just got the Sporting Globe on a Saturday night and read about the footy,’ he said in an interview to be aired at the 1954 Celebration Gala Dinner to be held at Crown Palladium on April 8.
When he arrived at Footscray, Ross was asked to play in just about every position in his first couple of seasons, before settling into the developing ruck-rover role later in his career.
It was only very late in the 1954 season that the match committee swapped Ross, who had been holding down the centre half back position, with Ted Whitten who was playing centre.
This provided the Bulldogs with a more balanced structure heading into the finals series.
Ross is still a big wrap for Whitten: ‘You'd go to training and you’d have kick-to-kick and you wouldn’t get a damn kick against him…he was just a complete footballer. I haven’t seen one since…he could just play in any position and dominate.’
When the Grand Final came around, Ross was doing National Service at Puckapunyal and was not granted leave to play in the Grand Final because he had already used his quota of three leave passes.
‘I had my car parked in a garage in Seymour which Ray [Roy] Russell [Footscray secretary] had arranged…So I had to jump the fence, get in my car and drive down and play, then get in my car and drive back to “Puck” again,’ Ross explained.
He did manage to get to the Town Hall and Western Oval celebrations that night, before dropping his girlfriend home and heading back to Puckapunyal.
Asked about what he thought Footscray’s chances in the Grand Final were at the time, a supremely confident Ross declares, ‘I thought we had it won from the minute we ran on the ground.’
While Ross provided the bullocking in the centre, he also pays tribute to his two wingmen, Ron McCarthy and Doug Reynolds.
‘They were both very quick and they were both very good kicks. Ronny McCarthy was reasonably tall for a wingman at that time and Doug wasn’t very tall but had a lot of pace.’
Ross commends coach Charlie Sutton as providing the right atmosphere for the club to enjoy success.
‘We just all blended in so well and we were all good mates and I think that helped a lot. Charlie got that blend going and we all looked up to Charlie.
He was a real father figure and he made us a real family and that’s how we went out and played every week.’
In the recently taped interview recalling the Premiership, Ross provided an insight into why he thinks Footscray didn’t go on with it in the years following the Grand Final win.
‘The club didn’t seem to handle it all that well…Things just didn’t seem to fall into place the following year.’
