Higher than Joe Cocker

I remember listening to that game as a young kid, the concern from the commentators was really apparent especially after the game when he was still out cold, it was very disturbing And what did it achieve, that king hit from behind? Collingwood rallied and won the game. St Kilda, the previous year's runners up, got the karma they deserved and went into an era of decline and irrelevance, and the footy gods made sure that they got no luck against Collingwood in the 2010 drawn GF and no mercy in the replay. No flags since that incident, no contrition either it seems What else did it achieve? O'Dea's name is tainted everywhere bar St Kilda. Jeans the coach is widely suspected to have arranged the assault, that's a stain on his legacy. Greening made a brief comeback just to show himself he could do it, then early retirement, perhaps the best player of his generation lost to footy and disillusioned with the game And why? Because he was seen as too good to beat fairly, within the rules, so someone decided he should be taken out and someone else did so. Violence in football was bad enough back then and for some time after, with fists often a first option when tempers frayed, shirt fronts were legal and wronged players sought square ups. But a club sanctioned taking out of a player too skilled to beat in a fair contest is as low as it gets, it happened in the bush, in the suburbs and in the big leagues and it is a disgraceful part of the games history Thanks for the info that Atkinson's mark was on that day, Len Thompson in his autobiography said that there was no way they were going to lose that game, total commitment for JG