DAYLESFORD’S Merv Hobbs flew “like a rocket taking off from Cape Canaveral”, according to Western Bulldogs’ legend Ted Whitten. The rover flew with his legs bending up behind him, riding above Melbourne’s Tassie Johnson, in one of the game’s most iconic marks.
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It was the 1961 preliminary final, and the only prelim Western Bulldogs (then Footscray) had won before Saturday night’s triumph.
"I didn't touch him," Hobbs told Fairfax Media of the mark. "...I used to practise on my brother in the back bedroom for years." He says he took many similar marks in juniors and at Daylesford, but a sharp photographer captured this one.
Hobbs grew up in West Footscray and joined the Dogs’ junior team aged nine. A change in zones, put Hobbs in South Melbourne territory so Footscray packed him off to Daylesford at 16.
After three games of the 1961 season, still just 18, he was leading the competition goalkicking and the Courier Medal voting and the Dogs decided to bring him back.
