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      Western Bulldogs
Footscray   Laurie Sandilands   Footscray

Number:

  9 Footscray

Western Bulldogs

Red white and Blue

Height:

  186

Weight:

  88.5

Birthday:

  30 April 1949

Period on list:

  1966 to 1977

Senior Games:

  161

Goals:

  228

Disposals:

   

Recruited From:

  West Footscray
Honours:   Leading Goalkicker 1972 to 1975 (39, 34, 50, 47). Captain 1974 to 1976. Nominated for the Team of the Century. Victorian State Representative 1974. Finals 1974.
  Had a big chest, a big heart and was big and strong. He was born in Suffolk Street close to the Western Oval. His uncle was Jim Greenham who played 80 games with the Bulldogs in the 1930's.  

Footscray

  
Western Bulldogs He was tough and could dish it out, never took a back step. I  saw Sandilands sit the big tough Richmond bruiser Neil Balme and Ricky McLean on their a*** one day in short sharp flurry at the Geelong Rd end at the Western Oval. Two of the biggest and supposedly toughest guys going around at the time. After being a follower and backman for a while he eventually took the position at full-forward where he started to kick goals.  
   Kicked a lot of goals at full-forward with an accurate punt kicking style.

 

  
  One day he took one of the best marks I have ever seen. It was in the goal square and he jumped up behind the pack to take a mark. And up and up he went. Never seen such a high mark, even from Brett Montgomery later. Laurie had probably never taken such a high mark either because he came crashing down to the ground and injured himself.  He came to a few minutes later and popped it through for a goal from about 5 metres out.  
     
  In 1977 he came to the defence of Ray Huppatz who was having a dispute with the club over contractual obligations and Laurie suggested that there may be a player strike. This of course inflamed the situation. The next year saw Laurie at Collingwood and Huppatz at North Melbourne.  
     
Click to return to Home page At Collingwood he played 4 games and kicked 6 goals. He later became a radio broadcaster on 3KZ with Ian Major and jack Dyer.