In celebration of discovering an original OLD JUDGE card from overseas which was originally released around 1887 featuring Port Melbourne captain William Hannaysee, the Port Melbourne Football Club in conjunction with their sponsor Footycards.com.au is giving a unique opportunity to the first 200 patrons to buy a FOOTY RECORD on matchday will receive FREE, a limited edition reprint of the original card. Gates open from 10.10am for the reserves match against the Box Hill Hawks, with the seniors game kicking off 1.10pm in an ABC-televised game.
About the actual card
Released by New York-based American Tobacco company Goodwin and Co around 1887-1890, tobacco cards were inserted into packs of cigarettes, and the company produced cigarettes for the Australian market, and rather than inserting US baseballers, inserted cards featuring Australian celebrities and sports persons. The cards are rare, because of their age, but are also highly condition-sensitive because real photos were glued to cardboard to produce them, and prone to fading.
William Hannaysee, featured on the card was a Champion of the Colony equivalent to todays Brownlow Medal, was Port Melbourne Borough's leading goal kicker in 1886 (16 goals), 1888 (31 goals) and 1889 with tallies of 16, 31 and 17 goals respectively.
Short in stature with a shock of dark curly hair, Hanneysee's ability to get the ball, and then gain valuable yardage for his team with fast weaving runs through the swirling mass of players who wrestled for possession, made him a natural on-ball player - the consummate rover. He was also a regular goal scorer, an extremely valuable attribute in times when four or five goals was a high score for a team.
(From A Taste Of Port by Terry Keenan, pages 35-6.)
Last Modified on 19/08/2011 02:14