Les Foote - Sixth Round 1947

Sixth Round 1947

Les Foote was responsible for one of the greatest comebacks ever seen in the last quarter of an AFL/VFL football match. In the sixth round of the home-and-home season (24 May 1947), playing at the Arden Street Oval against Essendon, North Melbourne was 44 points behind at three-quarter time: North 7.8 (50) v Essendon 14.10 (94).

Coming into the match, North Melbourne were on the bottom of the ladder and had lost the two preceding matches. In the fourth round (10 May 1947), North Melbourne had been thrashed by Fitzroy by 101 points, and did not kick a goal until the last quarter, while in the fifth round (17 May 1947), North Melbourne had been beaten by Footscray by 41 points after trailing all day.

Foote placed himself into the ruck at three quarter time. He dominated the ruck, and North Melbourne were so dominant during the last quarter that the ball was at Essendon's end of the ground only once, and North scored 8.4 (52) to Essendon's zero to win the match by 8 points: North 15.12 (102) d. Essendon 14.10 (94).

To put the magnitude of this astounding win into some sort of perspective, the team that North Melbourne thrashed in the last quarter of that match went on to play in the Grand Final that year, losing by a single point when Carlton's Fred Stafford goaled with 40 seconds left to play.

Further, to get some perspective of Foote's astonishing performance as a ruckman on that day, at 182 cm he was dominating the four ruckmen Essendon had selected to play that day; namely, Ivan Goodingham (191 cm ), Perc Bushby (189 cm ), Bob McClure (188 cm ), and Jack Cassin (183 cm ).

This record stood unbeaten for 45 years.