John Somerville (8 December 1939 – 12 November 1984)Sourced from was an Australian rules footballer who played 106 senior games for the Essendon Football Club from 1960 to 1967.

Career Recruited from Moe Football Club, he played his first match for the Essendon senior team in Round 5 of the 1960 season, against Carlton, at Essendon's home ground, Windy Hill.

He played on the half-forward flank, kicking 96 goals in his 106 game career.

He played in the 1962 Essendon premiership team that beat Carlton 13.12 (90) to 8.10 (58).

1965 Preliminary Final Within the first 10 minutes of the 1965 Preliminary Final between Essendon and Collingwood Somerville was knocked unconscious by an opponent, the Collingwood half-back flanker Duncan Wright.According to the VFL's statistics for Duncan Wright, Wright only played a total of 23 senior games for Collingwood over the six years between 1960 and 1965, and had only played two other senior matches in 1965.

At the time, Wright and Somerville were some 90 metres behind the play and were isolated by some 30 metres from all other players, and were much closer to the boundary than they were to the central goal-to-goal line.

Somerville was so badly injured that he was taken off the field on a stretcher and was taken to hospital immediately.Given the severity of his head injury, it is relevant here to recall that Somerville died of a brain tumour nineteen years later. Due to the severity of his injuries, he was unable to play in the following week's Grand Final.As a mark of respect from his team-mates he appears as an additional (twenty-first) player in the team's Essendon's 1965 premiership photograph.1965 VFL season#Grand Final Teams

Essendon, backed by a now polarised crowd, went on to beat Collingwood 14.21 (105) to 6.6 (42).

Aftermath There was a public outcry; and the press was outraged:

The police (including the homicide squad) made some preliminary enquiries. The match officials, the field umpire Ron Brophy, the two boundary umpires, and the two goal umpires all claim to have seen nothing.

The field umpire, Ron Brophy, was never selected to umpire a VFL match again.See Australian Football League Umpires Association Biography: Ron Brophy

Wright, too, denied everything.Given that the Victorian Chief Secretary Arthur Rylah immediately announced that he was considering making new laws relating to on-field violence, and that Rylah, the Victorian Police Commissioner, and the VFL administration all conferred on the matter, and that the Victorian Police were seeking witnesses to the assault, it is not astonishing that his advisor, perhaps the greatest-ever Australian criminal defence lawyer, ex-Collingwood footballer, Frank Galbally (1922–2005) had Wright issue the following statement (i.e., not an affidavit or a statutory declaration, but a simple unsworn "statement") at the time: With reference to the Somerville affair I want to say I have not been given a fair go in all the publicity about it. I want to say clearly I am innocent in this affair and have done nothing wrong. Because of the publicity and for other reasons, I don't want to say any more now. I repeat I did nothing wrong – Duncan Wright (Hansen & Dyer, (1995), p.121.)

However, many years later, Wright openly admitted that he had indeed felled Somerville, and claimed that his actions had been in response to Somerville's nigglingHowever, the field umpire Ron Brophy, who knew both Wright and Somerville well, later spoke of Wright's claims that he was niggled by Somerville as rather hard to believe, commenting: "Somerville and Wright had some sort of exchange but it really wasn't Somerville's go to whip up a bloke like Duncan" (Hansen & Dyer, (1995), p.117). — which (Wright claimed) had started from the moment that the taller, far more skilful Somerville had been swapped over, by Essendon's coach John Coleman, from his selected position on the opposite half-forward flank, to play on Wright.Somerville was at least 8 cm taller than Wright, and 5 kg heavier.

Wright, was renowned for his hot-headed violence:

The Collingwood coach, the champion rover, the boxer, and Bob Rose were far from impressed with Wright's knockout. During the 1966 pre-season practice matches, Wright was told by football club secretary Jack Burns that his services were no longer required at Collingwood. He never played another VFL game.Strevens, (2004), p.151.

After Essendon Somerville left Essendon at the end of 1967, and was appointed coach of Numurkah Football Club in 1968. John Somerville Captain/Coached Hamilton Imperials, in the Western Boarder Football League in 1970 and 1971.

He is the father of Peter Somerville and Dean Somerville.

Notes

References Hansen, B. & Dyer, J., "Ron Brophy, the Larrikin Ump!", pp. 98–121 in Hansen, B. & Dyer, J., The Wild Men of Football, Volume III: If Ya Don't Mind Umpire!, B.E. Hansen, (Mount Waverley), 1995. Maplestone, M., Flying Higher: History of the Essendon Football Club 1872–1996, Essendon Football Club, (Melbourne), 1996. Miller, W., Petraitis, V. & Jeremiah, V., The Great John Coleman, Nivar Press, (Cheltenham), 1997. Ross, J. (ed), 100 Years of Australian Football 1897–1996: The Complete Story of the AFL, All the Big Stories, All the Great Pictures, All the Champions, Every AFL Season Reported, Viking, (Ringwood), 1996. Strevens, S., Bob Rose: A Dignified Life, Allen & Unwin, (Crows Nest), 2004.

External links

Steve Strevens, "A finals clash not for the faint-hearted" (The Age, Melbourne, 20 September 2003)