As part of an ongoing peek back into Uni Blues history, we return to 1980.  Uni Blues finished the home-and-away season second behind De La Salle and then met them in the Grand Final…

Blues players and officials believed an incident in the first quarter determined the course of the game.  Joe Doolan, a De La Salle half-back and Catholic priest, was running along the club rooms wing when Blues wingman Jamie Bedford collared him from behind at just the moment that Michael Yeo approached from the side.  In what Yeo would later describe as a crude attempt to stop Doolan, his forearm crashed into the popular priest’s jaw.  The sight of Father Joe out cold before the most densely populated area of the crowd sparked outrage.  Blues officials believed that the De La Salle players were so affronted by the incident that the Blues had no chance from then on.  In windy conditions, De La Salle again bottled up play before holding on for victory.

This is an extract from “Black & Blue – The Story of Football at the University of Melbourne”.

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