Maureen Lane
It’s footy finals time again and supporters are looking forward with excitement and hope while looking back at past glories.
‘History is written by the victors’ but now is a time to redress this imbalance and listen to the oral history of some of our Indigenous footy players.
Footscray resident Bill Hunter has football in his blood.
Bill loves footy and is proud of his family’s contribution to the game.
His grandfather, Fred Hunter, was a star footballer from the early 1900s.
Fred Hunter played for Healesville Football Club for many years, winning best player awards and playing in their 1920 premiership team. Fred also played games for the Aboriginal Badger Creek team.
Bill wants the recognition due to his grandfather but especially to his great grandfather for the contribution they made to the modern game of football.
Bill says: “My great-grandfather, Richard Rowan invented the Banana Kick way back in the 1890s.”
A banana kick is a kick for goal from an impossible angle that screws at right angles. It was originally called the screw kick.
Bill’s grandfather, Fred Hunter, perfected it during his playing days to the point where fans yelled, “Kick it to Hunter, the screw kick punter!”
Bill said, “Jack Dyer was born in Yarra Junction and Lew Dyer (his father) saw my grandfather and so Jack Dyer knew all about it. He told Bobby Davis on World of Sport…1978 or 9 on the Sunday Footy Show. Daicos got the credit for the banana but a decade before that Williams from Melbourne had already called it the banana kick. Everybody credits Daicos for it but it was really my great grandfather Dick Rowan.”
Bill’s oral history is backed up by newspaper articles of the time.
The local Healesville Guardian football scribe, who wrote under the nom de plume of ‘Chips’, highlighted his grandfather’s remarkable goal kicking. “Hunter’s goal just as the bell rang was a beauty. He’s a bonzer on those screw kicks.”
Former Melbourne coach Alex ‘Joker’ Hall, retired Carlton dual premiership player Jim Marchbank and Leon Phillips (Footscray) were in the crowd when Hunter got another of his “fancy screw goals” against Wandin. It was in the middle of the footy season on the 28th June, 1919. Bill believes they were there to watch Fred and to learn the secrets of his kicking prowess.
Bill would like to set the record straight and put his great grandfather and grandfather in the history books.
Sadly, Bill Hunter passed away suddenly in his home on September 12, 2021. He will be sadly missed by family, friends and the Aboriginal community.
