As part of the Fosters Challenge Cup, North played Melbourne in the final at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver.
PRESS PLAY above to watch match highlights | YouTube
The game was originally scheduled to be played in Los Angeles before the Whittier Narrows earthquake hit on October 1. With a magnitude of 5.9 the quake caused significant damage, throwing the game fixture at The Coliseum into doubt.
Eventually the authorities ruled that it was too risky to go ahead with the match, meaning North had to fly up to Vancouver having spent three days in Los Angeles.
Donald McDonald was part of the team in what was a very different time for professional football.
“We were all training in LA and what happened was about seven or eight guys went off the track with hamstring injuries,” McDonald told NMFC.com.au.
“I thought, ‘geez this is unusual’, and then later on I spoke to a few of the boys asking them what went wrong. Then they said we were having too good of a time in LA so they didn’t want to go to Vancouver!”
With minimal changes to the side from the game in Britain, the team made it to Vancouver in one piece. McDonald described the ground as ‘a big bubble’, with the smaller dimensions meaning only 15 players per team were on the ground at once.
On the synthetic grass, players wore shoulder, elbow and knee pads to prevent turf burns when tackled.
“The surface was hard, but not like the AstroTurf that’s around now,” McDonald explained.
“It was like an indoor cricket surface so it was pretty unforgiving. There’s no way known the AFL Players Association would pass that these days.
“It was still an unreal experience to play indoors at that time, obviously with Etihad Stadium not around in those days.”
The ground contributed to an injury that McDonald still has scars from today.
“I went up for one of the first ruck duels and because of the surface I slipped a little. The Melbourne ruckman just crashed straight into me and he pierced a muscle in my thigh. All of a sudden I had a big bubble pop up in my thigh and I still have the scar to this day.
“… because we were struggling a bit for numbers I had to get it taped up and I kept playing on.”
North was eventually narrowly defeated by a Melbourne side that had gotten used to the ground, having beaten Sydney there a week earlier.
After the game, the North team enjoyed a single night in Vancouver before flying home. Thanks to the sponsors, it was an enjoyable time.
“The player preparation was also quite interesting and the sponsors of the game over there really looked after us after the game,” McDonald added.
“They were driving us around in limousines to all the night spots in Vancouver so we were all high-rollers that night. It was a great experience but it wouldn’t happen these days.”
Keep an eye out for a 16 year old John Longmire and current AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou in the match highlights above.
Fosters Challenge Final
North Melbourne 2.2.14, 7.7.49, 13.10.88, 16.15.111
Melbourne 6.3.39, 8.8.56, 13.11.89, 19.13.127
