Not the most articulate on-air personality, Dyer's malapropisms became legendary. According to press obituaries, he was responsible for such gems as

• "Yes, we had an enjoyable time on the French Riverina" (The Riverina is a highly productive agricultural region of south-western New South Wales) and describing the problems with younger players by saying that "All they want to do is sit around and smoke marinara".

Other moments include ^[2]

• "I won't say anything in case I say something."
• "Bartlett's older than he's ever been before."
• "Johnston missed one from the 10 yard square - it was impossible to miss that."
• "The only way to tackle Justin Madden. I don't know."
• "That's the beauty of being small - your hands are close to your feet."
• "Bamblett made a great debut last week, and an even better one today."
• "The ball goes to Marceesie ... Marcheson ... McKann, er ..." before co-commentator Ian Major interjected: "Actually, Jack I don't think Marchesani was in that passage of play."
• "Mark Lee's long arms reaching up like giant testicles."
• "It's as dark out there as the Black Hole of Dakota."
• "The goal posts are moving so fast I can't keep up with the play."
• And on World Of Sport, Dyer declared that Fitzroy had "copulated to the opposition".

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Retirement and death

Retiring from the media in the early 1990s, when KZ-FM stopped broadcasting football, Dyer had one last impact on the game, successfully leading a fight to save his old club from a merger with St. Kilda.

Dyer married Sybil and had two children, Jackie (b. John R. Dyer Jnr December 15, 1940), who played 3 games for the Richmond Football Club in 1960, and Jill.

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Error in 1996 John Balmain painting

In the 1944 Preliminary Final, which was held at the Junction Oval, between Richmond and Essendon on Saturday 23 September 1944, Dyer played at full forward. Led by a four goal burst by Dyer, Richmond had an amazing first quarter, from which Essendon never really recovered, scoring 8.2 (50) to 0.5 (5). Although Essendon outscored Richmond 12 goals to 8 in the last three quarters, Richmond went on to win the match 16.12 (108) to 12.15 (87).

In the last quarter, Dyer fearlessly burst away from the pack and, freeing himself from three opponents, ran towards the Lake end of the ground, kicked a goal. It was his ninth goal for the day.

The moment of him breaking away from the pack, with his eyes so firmly fixed on the goals, was captured in the now famous newspaper photograph.[4]. It was also the basis for the logo of The Footy Show. It is very clear from viewing the actual press photograph that, in addition to some white strapping on his left thumb, Dyer was wearing his trademark dirty knee bandage on his left knee.^[3]

In 1996, the year the AFL celebrated the VFL/AFL centenary, it issued a set of four magnificent paintings by John Balmain of Ron Todd, Jack Dyer, John Coleman, and Alex Jesaulenko. All were taken from famous photographs; Dyer's was taken from the famous photograph of his break to score his ninth goal.

Unfortunately, despite the importance of the painting to the AFL in its 1996 centenary year, a very serious and glaring factual error was left unchecked in Balmain’s painting of Dyer in full flight. Driven by a lack of knowledge of Dyer and his knee injury, and the difference between the 1996 and 1944 treatment of sports injuries, Balmain totally misinterpreted the photographer’s image of the the natural whiteness of Dyer’s post-long-winter leg, and the grubbiness of his favourite knee bandage, and went on to paint Dyer’s left leg as if he had no knee bandage at all and, as well, as if he was wearing an elastic thigh bandage of a sort that AFL footballers were not to encounter for at least another 30 years.^[4]

Balmain's painting also appears on the front cover of Brian Hansen's 1996 book, The Jack Dyer Story: The Legend of Captain Blood.

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Notes

1. ^ Ross, (1996), p.162.
2. ^ Punt Road End
3. ^ This photograph was used as the model for Mitch Mitchell’s statue of Dyer (also the stylised logo[1] used in the Nine Network’s AFL Footy Show).
4. ^ Mitchell's statue shows Dyer without his trademark knee bandage.

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References

• Dyer, J., Captain Blood, as told to Brian Hansen, Paul, (London), 1965.
• Dyer, J. & Hansen, B., "'Captain Blood': Jack Dyer", pp.205-302 in Dyer, J. & Hansen, B., Captain Blood's Wild Men of Football, Brian Edward Hansen, (Cheltenham), 1993. ISBN 0-646-14782-X
• Hansen, B., The Jack Dyer Story: The Legend of Captain Blood, Brian Hansen Nominees, (Mount Waverley), 1996. ISBN 1-876-15101-3
• Hansen B: Tigerland: The History of the Richmond Football Club from 1885, Richmond Former Players and Officials Association, (Melbourne), 1989. ISBN 0-731-65047-6
• Hansen, B. & Dyer, J., The Wild Men of Football, Volume III: If Ya Don't Mind Umpire!, B.E. Hansen, (Mount Waverley), 1995. ISBN 0-64623-042-5
• Hogan P: The Tigers Of Old, Richmond FC, (Melbourne), 1996. ISBN 0-646-18748-1
• Ross, J. (ed), 100 Years of Australian Football 1897-1996: The Complete Story of the AFL, All the Big Stories, All the Great Pictures, All the Champions, Every AFL Season Reported, Viking, (Ringwood), 1996. ISBN 0-670-86814-0
• Wilmoth, P., Up Close: 28 Lives of Extraordinary Australians, Pan Macmillan, (Sydney), 2005. ISBN 1-405-03657-5
• Richmond Football Club - Hall of Fame

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See also

• AFL Team of the Century

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External links

• Jack Dyer profile on the Official AFL Website of the Richmond Football Club
• AFL Player Statistics: Jack Dyer
• The Age report of Dyer's death
• The Age obituary
• Jack Dyer's funeral celebrations
• Only Melbourne
• Speech by Senator Rod Kemp, at the unveiling of the Jack Dyer Statue on Sunday 21 September 2003
• Council Permit for Jack Dyer statue to be erected in Yarra Park