If David Ackerly had wanted to orchestrate a low-profile debut in the AFL, hoping to sneak into the competition under the radar, he could hardly have done a better job.
It was 9 June 1979, 41 years ago today. Ackerly played his first game for South Melbourne against Essendon at Windy Hill. It was an a largely unheralded selection.
As much as it was a big thing for an 18-year-old to break into senior ranks it didn’t attract much coverage. Not even the fact that Ackerly had been training with the Under 19s right up until the week of his elevation could over-ride the big story of the week.
Coming off three consecutive losses and sitting ninth on the 12-team ladder at 3-6 after a 2-1 start, South coach Ian Stewart had made the huge decision to drop the star trio of John Murphy, Len Thompson and Max James.
It was massive news in football-crazy Melbourne.
Murphy had won the South best and fairest in 1978 in his first season at Lake Oval after a controversial move from Fitzroy, where he won had had been a five-time best and fairest winner in 1968, ’70, ’71, ’73 and ‘77 and been captain from 1973-77.
Thompson, the 1972 Brownlow Medallist, was a five -time Collingwood B&F winner and 1978 club captain who had joined South in 1979.
And James was a former SA State representative and Port Adelaide SANFL premiership player who had been a major recruiting coup by South in 1978.
In fact, there were five changes to the South side for Round 10, with youngster Stevie Wright and the well-established Colin Hounsell also missing out, but anything outside the axing of the big three was largely irrelevant to the media.
It was all about Murphy, Thompson and James, even if the collective media might have regretted their neglect of young Ackerly when two years later he became the youngest Swans club champion in history.
Murphy never played for South again. After a hurried exit he joined North Melbourne and debuted for his third club in Round 12.
Thompson, who had joined South in ’79 after long-time Collingwood teammate Des Tuddenham had coached South in 1978 following the defection of 1976-77 coach Ian Stewart to Carlton, found himself in a real quandary.
Thompson had believed Tuddenham would coach South again in ’79 when he agreed to join the club but although Tuddenham was contracted for a second season the club had other ideas.
They turned to Stewart, who had been forced to quit Carlton one game into the ’79 season for health reasons, and had recovered. And with Alex Jesaulenko entrenched at Carlton, Stewart was keen to return to Lake Oval.
Thompson spent two weeks out of the top side after his shock axing but returned in Round 12 and played out the season before moving to Fitzroy in 1980.
James was seven weeks out of the top side but returned in Round 16 and played the last seven games of the year and two more injury-disrupted years in 1981-82.
He moved to Sydney with the club in 1982 but after playing Rounds 1, 2 and 5 he went back to Port Adelaide and played in the SANFL until the end of 1985.
Ackerly was included with senior regulars Paul Morwood and Neville Fields, who had missed Round 9 with injury, and second-gamer Peter Hall and fourth-gamer Phillip Plumb.
Although Hall and Plumb failed to go on with it, Ackerly, player #1069 became a valuable player.
He quickly consolidated his spot in the defensive unit, playing 11 of the last 13 games in 1979 and 127 of a possible 132 from 1980-85, and won the Bob Skilton Medal as club champion in 1980-82.
When he was judged the club’s No.1 player for the first time at the end of the 1980 season the ever-reliable back pocket specialist surpassed the great Bob Skilton as the youngest Swans club champion.
Using 30 September as a benchmark date for comparison purposes, Ackerly was 19 years 308 days. Skilton had been 19 years 326 days when he won the first of nine club champion titles in a domination, which later saw the club name the medal in his honour.
Ron Clegg, the 1949 Brownlow Medallist, is the only other Swans player to win a club champion before his 21st birthday. He was 20 years 318 days when he picked up the first of three in 1948.
Ackerly won his second B&F at 21 in 1982. Other 21-year-old winners have been Billy Williams, Jim Taylor, Luke Parker and second-time winners Skilton and Clegg.
Ackerly played in the Swans’ first game at the SCG as a tenant in Round 1, 1982 and went back to Windy Hill in his 10th game in 1984 to collect a career-best 34 possessions.
Ackerly split with the Swans at the end of ’85 and later played 53 games with North Melbourne from 1986-89, but his heart was always with Sydney.
When he left the Swans, he was the club record-holder for most games played in guernsey #9 at 127 after he played his first 11 games in 1979 in #42. And today he still ranks second for games in his beloved #9 behind Nick Malceski (171).
Even as an ex-player his passion for the Swans remained, and he was positively overwhelmed when in 2019 he was inducted into the Swans Hall of Fame with David McLeish, a 213-gamer from 1969-80 who had played in Ackerly’s debut.
