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Footscray   Neil Sachse   Footscray

Number:

  6 Footscray

Western Bulldogs

Red white and Blue

Height:

   

Weight:

   

Birthday:

   

Period on list:

  1975

Senior Games:

  2

Goals:

  1

Disposals:

   

Recruited From:

  North Adelaide
Honours:    
  Recruited along with a number of other good players to take the Bulldogs to the top of the Ladder. Neil Sachse was a great centre-half-forward in North Adelaide's recent premiership.  

Footscray

    
Western Bulldogs Sachse had a reputation for being a tough guy and was recruited in a large part for his ruggedness. In his first match he didn't impress too much and was relegated to the reserves.  
     
  After only a few games in the reserves he struck good form. The fans were quite pleased to see him pick up one of the opposition players and dump him. Good, now we had our enforcer. A bright future looked set for the club  
     
  In his second game against Fitzroy at the Western Oval he was at centre half back, head over the ball ready to gather it up. In came Kevin O'Keefe, knee up under Neal's head. His head snapped backwards and he went to the ground and lay motionless. Peter Welsh came along to help him up, grabbing his hand and pulling him up. Neil's head slipped backwards, his neck was broken.  
     
Click to return to Home page  Neil became a quadriplegic. A huge donation campaign was started with big yellow bins at all football b\grounds to try to gather some funds for Neil's family. I don't know how much they got but of course it wouldn't have been enough. He was the first beneficiary of a new AFL insurance scheme, but they didn't get millions in those days. After his football days he became head of the spinal research foundation.  
   
 That single incident was one of the most traumatic in the club's history and set the club back many years, how many years I don't know, but many. The players were badly effected by it and their play suffered. There was doom and gloom for years. Players who retired many years down the track spoke of its effects. Laurie Sandilands said that it was draining on every-one, there was the 'Let's win for Neil hype', but it really hit home on how serious it really was and how they were all vulnerable to that sort of thing. Some lost the killer instinct and some were concerned about their own bodies.

You could feel it in the outer, watching the side, you could tell that the players were effected, for years. The club was effected financially for longer.