By David Nagel
It’s not exaggerating to suggest that Bill Morrison is the greatest and most influential figure in the proud 100-year plus history of the Tooradin-Dalmore Football Club.
It was 50 years ago when Morrison was the main conductor, leading from the front and orchestrating the greatest tune to ever emerge from the walls of Westernport Oval.
Five premierships, four as playing coach, three league best and fairest medals and four club awards have solidified Morrison’s legacy as the greatest Seagull of all.
But his journey getting to the club – well it’s a story almost as interesting as his journey at the club itself.
William Morrison – Bill or Billy to his mates – was born in September 1943 in the Melbourne bayside suburb of Hampton.
His younger brother David was also a keen footballer with the two boys traversing their own path in the game after their dad – who loved his sport – was unable to play football after being born with a cleft foot.
Morrison was brought up in Moorabbin and attended Moorabbin Tech as a kid, at the same time learning his early football craft at the East Sandringham Boy’s Club after joining the under-17’s as a bushy-tailed 13-year-old.
“At the time I loved my footy and cricket, just like most of us did back then, but footy was my main thing,” Morrison explained.
“I played three years with East Sandy in the under-17’s and was fortunate enough to win a league best and fairest award in my last year, which caught the eye of Richmond and St Kilda.”
His talent would be glaringly obvious as his magnificent career wore on, but Morrison was legitimately thought of as a future star of VFL football at the time.
He trained at both clubs, but St Kilda’s high expectations on such a young man persuaded him to sign with the Tigers instead.
“St Kilda was talking about senior footy and I was only 17,” Morrison explained.
“I probably panicked a bit and I thought they were expecting a bit too much from me.
“Richmond was going to play me through the under 19’s and I felt a bit more comfortable with that at the time.
“I ended up at Richmond in 1961 as a 17-year-old…I used to catch the train because I was too young to drive.
“I signed with Richmond but should have stopped at St Kilda as it turned out.”
Morrison was highly thought of at Punt Road, highly enough to be selected as captain of the Tiger’s under-19’s.
But a huge falling out with then under-19’s coach – and legendary administrator – Graeme Richmond, would bring a premature end to his VFL football dream.
“I had a blue with him one day and that was the end of me,” Morrison said bluntly.
“We were playing Melbourne at the MCG and they had a terrific side, Barry Bourke was full forward, Kenny Emselle, Johnny Townsend, they were a very good team.
“He (Richmond) gave me a job to do, which was to not only rove all day, but to drop in front of Barry Bourke as well, which apparently I didn’t do well enough.
“He kept on telling me how important I was during the week and then he gets up on the Saturday of the next game and tells me I wasn’t in the side, because I didn’t do as a I was told the week before.
“He didn’t tell me privately, he waited until we were all together and embarrassed me in front of all the players that I was captain of. He thought nothing of doing that to young men, he did it quite often, and he did it to me that day and that was it.
“I was a fiery young idiot and fired up and told him to stick his club up his jumper.
“The irony is I got three votes in the Morrish Medal that day. It was probably his way of testing us…and I failed the test.
“A lot of those players, that I played with and against, ended up having good VFL careers so maybe I should have just shut my mouth and got on with things.”
Morrison was just 18 when he had his falling out with Richmond – both club and individual – and decided to go down a different path in the tough and uncompromising world of the Federal Football League in 1963.
“Richmond was going to make it hard to get a clearance and I was playing cricket with Highett, I knew all the footballers so I played there for four years,” Morrison said.
“You didn’t need a clearance to get to the Federal League back in those days so there were some really good footballers who had fallen out with their clubs who were playing in that league.
“But once you crossed to the Federal League you were considered a naughty boy and it made it hard to get back to the VFL.
“There were some terrific footballers in that competition. It was a very tough brand of football and a good place to learn how to win the footy in a hard contest.”
Morrison was still four years away from joining Tooradin-Dalmore when he won, in his fourth year at Highett, the 1966 Federal League best and fairest award.
After his league medal win at East Sandringham – and subsequent three medals with Tooradin-Dalmore – his Federal League best and fairest award would be one of five in his illustrious career.
For a rover Morrison he was quite heavy set, almost 13 stone, which meant he could handle himself against some of the bigger players through the midfield. And that fiery disposition, which ended his time at Punt Road, was certainly an advantage to him on the football field.
“I didn’t fear pain and I used to like the competition of winning the football,” Morrison said humbly.
“I just loved getting the football. That’s what playing the game was all about to me and I would run through anyone to get my hands on it.”
He also began what would end up being a glorious coaching career at Highett, taking over the reins of the senior team at aged 20 after the club had sacked two coaches in one year.
But after four years at Highett, and at age 22, he would soon be lured to the country.
“A couple of country clubs got interested in me and I went to Birchip in the North Central League – I was assistant coach to Frank Tuck who was a great defender for Collingwood,” Morrison recalls.
“I remember it was a drought year, 1967 it was, and it was a tough year for people around the region, they had no work and no money. All of the people left town at the end of the footy season because there was no work for anyone in the district.”
Morrison would have a great season at Birchip, kicking 60 goals in a semi-final year, but it was the sense of community that was the main thing he took away from his one-year stint at the club.
“It was an eye opener for a young bloke, the whole town was behind the footy club, it was a football-mad town,” he said.
“On Thursday night the whole town would come to training. We’d cook up a couple of sheep and half the town would be at the footy club, it was remarkable when you look back.
“I was a plumber by trade and the club also looked after me for work.
“But I didn’t do much because everybody wanted to talk football.
“You would go to a job in the morning where someone had baked biscuits and cakes, then a lunchtime job where a local lady had cooked up a roast lunch.
“All they wanted to do was talk footy. I wasn’t very efficient with work back in those days,” he says with a hearty chuckle.
Morrison would then gradually find his way to Tooradin via a two-year stint as coach of Bunyip.
His brother-in-law was working on a dairy farm in Bunyip at the time and organised a meeting between an excited football club and prospective coach.
Morrison landed the job and really bought into the club, and the town, buying a house in Bunyip and building a really strong rapport with his payers.
“I coached there for two years, loved the players, but got the sack at the start of the third year,” Morrison explained.
“I was appointed coach for the third year and went to a meeting, just after Christmas it was, and I thought it was a meeting to plan for the season ahead.
“But the conversation quickly turned to coaching for less money, a lot less money, because now I was living in town and basically thought of as a local.
“I just wanted what I got the year before, nothing more, but they had a pow-wow and I was out.
“I was disappointed for the players more than anything else, I got to know them well. They would come around to my place and we had some great times at Bunyip.
“We were showing signs of success in the second year, which is why it was disappointing to leave. I was also living in town, bought a house there, so it wasn’t a great situation to be in.”
Morrison’s football journey would eventually set up camp at its most successful destination – the Tooradin-Dalmore Football Club.
“A bloke who was delivering my petrol at the time, Mick Riley, was involved at Tooradin and asked me if I’d like to talk to the club about coaching,” Morrison said.
“We met at the Tooradin Hotel and by the end of the meeting I was the new coach of the club. We won the flag in my first year…while I was still living in Bunyip.
“My first thoughts of the club were how well run it was. Ron Hardy was president and was a tremendous person who was genuinely interested in you as a person and wanted success for the club.
“The whole Tooradin experience was a breath of fresh air to be honest.”
Upon his arrival, post-Christmas 1970, Morrison had to cram in some education on his playing list, which he was uncomfortably unfamiliar with.
His first taste of football life at Tooradin bore no resemblance to the glittering career that would rubber-stamp him as the club’s greatest-ever player over the next nine years.
“I remember, in 1970, the first practice match we played against Cora Lynn at Cora Lynn…we lost by more than 20 goals,” he said.
“Gerry Pennefather was our star recruit and I remember sitting in the sheds after the game and Gerry turned to me and said, ‘What have we got ourselves into here.’
“We still have a laugh about it when we catch up today because we ended up winning three flags in a row. Gerry was tremendous, he would take care of the backline and let me look after the rest.”
Tooradin was a club that had intermittent success, winning premierships in the Clyde District Football Association (CDFA) in 1930 and ’33, before winning two flags in three years in the South West Gippsland Football League (SWGFL) in 1956 and ’58.
But what Morrison would achieve as playing-coach – alongside his loyal band of players – would take the word ‘success’ to a whole new stratosphere altogether.
The Seagulls would win three-consecutive premierships, from 1970 to 1972, and then strike again in 1975 to make it four premierships under Morrison’s care.
The club would then make the move to the West Gippsland Football League (WGFL) in 1976 and win a premiership in 1977 under new coach Barry Morris.
Bill Morrison played in his fifth premiership for Tooradin-Dalmore that year – and was president of the club at the same time!
Morrison was not only a great mentor during this days, but elevated himself to legend status in these parts by winning three Norm Walker Medals – presented to the best and fairest player in the SWGFL – in 1971, ’72 and ’74.
He also won club best and fairest awards in 1970, ’71, ’73 and ’74, and while the individual accolades were satisfying, and his days at Tooradin great…those successes did trigger some memories of his wasted opportunity at Punt Road.
“I was in my prime and playing good football at that stage, and that’s when I started to have regrets about not going on to better footy,” he said.
“By then I’d realised I had a bit of talent, not young and stupid like I was before, and had a lot more maturity to work with.
“Having said that I’m certainly proud of those medals and what we achieved as a club. I actually gave them to the footy club to keep because that’s where they belong.
“I loved footy, and the personal stuff was great. We all love a bit of acknowledgment, but the players were the main thing back then. All the friendships…there’s nothing like a life-long footy friendship when you’ve been through the cut and thrust of competition.”
So how did the best player in the competition handle having a regular target on his back?
“I used to love it to be honest, that was the way football was played in those days, if you wanted to play good football you had to expect a bit of the rough stuff coming your way.”
His first flag at Tooradin in 1970 was Morrison’s first in football.
“It sounds simple but we were just very fortunate to have a tremendous group of players, and half way through the year we started to click and were winning games well,” he recalls.
“The competition was strong. Doveton was a good side; Narre Hallam was a good team as well and we were just starting to match it with those sides.
“The win in 1970 was really special because sometimes when you’re coaching it seems so far away and you think it will never happen…but when it does it’s really special.”
The Seagulls finished second on the ladder in 1970 and rolled Doveton by 23 points in the second semi-final. Morrison and his side then trounced Narre-Hallam by 85 points in the grand final – 19.12 (126) to 6.5 (41) to win their first premiership in 12 years.
Despite a rugged grand final contest Morrison said the camaraderie between the two teams was a feature of their battles in the day.
“We belted the hell out of each other on the Saturday, but respected each other after the game,” he said.
“We were celebrating at the Dalmore Hall on the Sunday after the grand final, and we were just about to run out of beer, when three cars from Narre-Hallam turned up and bought a barrel of beer and we sat around the fire and had a great afternoon.
“Tom Campbell was coach of Narre Hallam and he was a really good bloke.”
The Seagulls would go back-to-back in 1971, defeating Narre-Hallam again – 15.19 (109) to 9.6 (60) – with a core group leading the Gulls to that significant achievement for the first time in club history.
“We didn’t recruit too much but we held our players, and we all got along very well,” he said.
“If we had something on, a pleasant Sunday morning or training session, there was always that core group of about 14 players that were always there. We backed each other all the way, that was the biggest thing for us.”
Morrison said that despite the great team ethos, there were a few people at the club that he relied on in particular. One did his stuff off the field and the other was the most feared ruckman in the region at the time.
“Doc Bell was on the bench, he was very good at that, I relied on him heavily, and we had some great players across every line,” he said.
“But the biggest weapon and biggest help for me was Tony Jenner…every opposition was scared of him and it was really handy that he was on our side.
“If ever I got collected and looked up, there’d be two big hairy legs standing either side of me…that was Tony. He would always look after me and never take a backward step, he was a great protector and the opposition would always have second thoughts about doing the same thing again.”
And Morrison also has kind words for Dennis Bartley, who was playing-coach of Tooradin when Morrison was brought in at late notice.
“Dennis had his friends at the club and could have made life difficult, but he accepted me and made the transition easy,” Morrison said.
“I just remember him being so happy for me, and so happy for himself, because we shared some great success together. It could have been a lot different if Dennis wasn’t so accepting.
“And he was a great player, he played in three different positions in all three grand finals.”
If 1970 and ’71 were special for being back-to-back, then the third premiership on the trot in 1972 was the stuff that dreams were made of.
The Seagulls would defeat Beaconsfield – 12.19 (91) to 7.13 (55) – to make it three on the trot.
“When we won the third one, that’s when we realised that we had achieved something special as a group,” Morrison said.
“We beat Narre-Hallam two years in a row and then played Beaconsfield in 1972.
“Jim Reid was coach of Beaconsfield; he was a great competitor but he picked on Tony Jenner just before half time in that grand final and it didn’t end well for him.
“Tony upended him and Jimmy never came out after half time and that was a huge lift for us, because they didn’t have their leader and we got going a bit after that.
“I think there was a real feeling of satisfaction after that win, I know I felt it, and maybe we just lost our edge a bit after that.”
The Seagulls would play finals in 1973 and ’74, but despite having a very similar list were not the dominant force of the competition. Narre-Hallam (1973) and Beaconsfield (1974) had overtaken the Seagulls as the 1975 season came around.
“We just lost our motivation for a couple of years, we weren’t as desperate and maybe picked and choosed when we wanted to go, and just being that little bit off can make all the difference,” Morrison said.
“We were switching leagues at the end of ’75 (from the SWGFL to WGFL) and that motivated us a fair bit. We wanted to finish with a ripper season and got into it a lot better.”
The Seagulls would play Keysborough in the 1975 grand final, and while a lot of things transpired that day there’s one memory that comes flooding back to Morrison in an instant.
“That was the closest grand final of them all,” he said with a heightened focus.
“We played Keysborough and we were five points up with a minute or so to go and Bob Cummings, who was a century goal-kicker for Keysborough, had a shot for goal from about 40 yards out, directly in front.
“I remember there were a lot of us who couldn’t watch, we were all looking the other way, and he missed the lot. We had a fair share of luck there because there was no time left if he had of kicked that goal.
“I genuinely felt sorry for Bob, he was a great player and would have felt terrible after that.”
Morrison then swapped responsibilities – from playing-coach to playing-president in 1977 – as the Seagulls made it five flags in eight years…this time with a 21-point victory over Korumburra, the premiership under the guidance of centre-half-forward Barry Morris.
Morrison would play his last year for Tooradin in 1978 after a big hit delivered the pain that he never experienced in his prime.
“We were playing Nar Nar Goon and I remember his name clearly, Kevin Corrigan, he got me a beauty,” Morrison recalls.
“He got me around the neck and shoulder, made a hell of a mess of me, and Stan Oakley came in, our full forward back then, and I was convulsing in the change rooms.
“I said ‘you can stick your football up your jumper Stanley’.
“I never felt pain early in my career, but the last couple of years I played I realised what pain was. I got hurt a couple of times and when that happens it takes the edge off and you lose your courage a bit.
“Pain didn’t hurt me, but from 34 on things hurt a lot more and you realise what the consequences are.”
Col Jones from Lang Lang then persuaded Morrison into being playing-coach of the Tigers in 1979, before he rounded out his football journey by being involved with Skipton in the Central Highlands Football League.
Morrison was assistant-coach to former St Kilda player Gary Lofts at Skipton, and was also under-17’s coach, chairman of selectors and president for two years!
In total Morrison was connected with eight clubs and won five league best and fairest awards and took home nine club best and fairests. He coached for 16 years, was president at two clubs, but most importantly played in five premierships, four as playing-coach, and in 2019 was announced as Tooradin’s greatest player from 1970 to 1994.
While not official…but based on facts and figures alone…he is certainly the most decorated player or coach for a club that was founded in the early 1900’s.
“It’s remarkable when I think about that,” Morrison said with humility.
“The team success, the medals, that announcement a few years back, it gives me great self-satisfaction and it’s humbling to get that recognition and I certainly don’t take that for granted.
“I respected a lot of players, loved the way they went about it, so to think that some people feel the same way about me is very humbling. I was no great tactician or great orator…I just tried to lead by my actions.”
And he looks back on his career with mixed emotions.
“Obviously there are some regrets with the early days, but I feel so lucky to have met so many good people along the way, to share so many great experiences, and to be able to still call a lot of those people friends,” he said.
“The successes at Tooradin, they were amazing, and it’s funny to look back now on how things turn out in your life. It’s been a great journey…football has been very good to me.”
Bill and his wife, childhood sweetheart Heather, have three children, Scott, Jodie and Samantha, and have 12 grandchildren and one great grandchild.
They currently live on an old farm in the country town of Diggora, 30-kilomtres west of Rochester, where Bill potters around the garden, with cutting grass and watering plants and his vegie garden now almost a full-time job.
He also likes to get the barbecue fired up, cook a few snags, and knock back a few Jim Beams.
“I look back now and think what a selfish bugger I was and I thank goodness for my family, especially Heather, for putting up with me through all that,” he said.
“I dedicated myself to my football and it’s a selfish game when you devote yourself like I did.”
And how would the greatest Seagull of all like to be remembered?
“If people remember me as a normal bloke, who loved a good time, loved a laugh and a drink, and was good company, above everything else, all the other achievements, that will do me.”
