Kings of September: Leon Baker, the accidental footballer turned premiership maker

The year was 1977. South Bunbury were playing their fierce cross town rivals Bunbury in a home-and-away match and two blokes in a Kombi Van with a black Labrador dog named Casey arrived at the ground. One of the blokes was keen on a game of football. His name was Leon Baker. It wasn’t quite the beginning of the story of one of the game’s best big-game players, but it was the start of the Western Australian leg of the story. Kevin Sheedy would later dub him “Leon Baker Premiership Maker”. His brother reckoned he should write a book one day called “The Accidental Footballer”. You can call it whatever you like. Leon Baker could play, and the bigger the game, the better he played. There are myths and legends around the arrival of Baker in Bunbury. He had grown up at Avenel near Seymour (where David Mundy comes from) in Victoria. He had played footy in Bendigo and then gone travelling. When they arrived in Bunbury his mate decided to head north and look for work in the mines. Baker decided to hang around. The most popular myth is that Baker approached Bunbury for a game and the president looked at his long hair and told him in no uncertain terms they didn’t want his type. MORE KINGS OF SEPTEMBER: Barry Cable | The Riolis The truth is, South Bunbury had the same club colours as Avenel. So after the game that day in 1977, he wandered into their change rooms and asked if he could train with them. South Bunbury legend Peter Old remembers the first training session. Baker would later say in an interview he had long hair, wore a head band and board shorts and he wasn’t sure what they made of him. Old, who won a Hayward Medal (the competition’s equivalent to a Sandover or Brownlow) and a Pike Medal (the competition’s equivalent to a Simpson or Norm Smith Medal) and later played for Swan Districts, said they knew exactly what to make of him once he picked a ball up. “I remember it quite vividly. He had long hair and he said look I am looking to have a game of footy and we said yeah you can train no dramas at all,” he said. “From the first time he got on the training track you could see he was something special. We looked at him and thought Jesus. He was taking marks and kicking left and right foot. I think they gave him one game in the reserves and he absolutely dominated and then he was straight into the league side. “I probably remember more about his first ressies game because I watched it. He was something to see. He was way above the rest of them out there.” South Bunbury coach Doug Peake was also the coach of the South West Combined side and within weeks he had drafted Baker into that side to play in the Wesfarmers Country Championships in Perth. He played in a losing grand final that year for South against Donnybrook. And then he left. But in 1980 he was back and won the Pike Medal for the best on ground in a grand final. It would be the start of one of football’s more remarkable runs of premiership success and stellar performances in big games. In 1981 he shifted to Swan Districts and was one of Swans’ best in a losing preliminary final. In 1982 he decided to quit footy and head to Darwin but got as far as Port Hedland and discovered the road closed for six weeks because of flood damage. Running short on money, he turned back to Perth and resumed the premiership making. In the 1982 WAFL grand final he kicked three goals playing midfield and forward as Swans, under John Todd won their first flag since 1963. Graham Melrose won the Simpson Medal. Old, who admits some bias on the matter, thinks Baker should have. Todd swung him forward for the 1983 decider and he kicked two goals as Swans went back-to-back. Then, at the ripe old age of 28, Baker shifted to Essendon under Kevin Sheedy and in the 1984 decider kicked four goals and had 20 disposals as the Bombers broke through for their first flag since 1965. Billy Duckworth won the Norm Smith Medal but there is a strong case to argue that Baker was as good if not better. His four goals were Essendon’s first after the Hawks had kicked four unanswered goals to open the game, their fourth when they were in danger of losing touch, the first of the last quarter which they started 23 points down, then the one that put them in front after a brilliant blind turn away from a tackle 15 metres out from goal. He kicked 13 goals from three finals that year, including six in the preliminary final win over Collingwood. There wasn’t much argument about the Norm Smith Medal in 1985: Simon Madden’s 22 disposals, 14 marks and 22 hitouts made him a stand-out. But Baker’s two goals from 28 disposals were not too shabby either. Less than a day after the 1985 win he and his wife, affectionately known as Spider, avoided the premiership celebrations to fly out for a holiday in India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. It reflected two things. Baker loved playing but wasn’t fussed about the bells and whistles that came with the limelight. Also the travel season was about to change and if they hadn’t moved when they did the cost of the trip would have doubled. Old believed Baker’s understated nature was a key to performance in the big games. “In the change rooms before big games he was never the one trying to hype everyone up but he definitely had that steely look and he would just make a few positive comments,” he said. “He never seemed anxious or nervous. He would just have this steely look in his eye – I can still see that look now from when we ran out in the 1990 grand final. It was a look of determination and confidence. “He just turned up in the big games – whether that was a game during the year where we had to win or a final he, for us, and as you would have seen for Swans and for Essendon, he always performed.” Old and Baker still stay in touch. He lives at Port Douglas and Old says he is still much the same bloke today. “He was unassuming. We went up to Port Douglas to see him a couple of years ago and people didn’t know Leon Baker had played in Essendon’s grand finals. He just keeps a low profile . It was the way he was and still is. “He never big-noted himself. He just went out and played the game and loved it.”

Kings of September: Leon Baker, the accidental footballer turned premiership maker

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