Raymond Thomas Gabelich (3 July 1933 – 18 July 2000) was an Australian rules footballer who played with Collingwood in the Victorian Football League (VFL).
Family The son of John (1902–1988)"Born in Australia but taken back to Yugoslavia as a baby and raised there … [and only returning] to Australia as a young man" (Collingwood Forever.), he was the son of Peter (1869-1928) and Perina Gabelich (1871-1949) (Deaths: GABELICH Perina, The West Australian, (3 January 1950), p.12). and Elizabeth Nina "Bessie" Gabelich, née Rerecich (1910–2006),She was the daughter of Antonio (1857-1927) (Deaths: RERECICH Antonio, The West Australian, (Monday 16 May 1927), p.1), and Antonia Nina Rerecich (1880-1952) (Deaths: RERECICH Antonia, The West Australian, (Friday 25 July 1952), p.20). Raymond Thomas Gabelich was born in Perth on 3 July 1933.
He married Glenda Beverley Huxtable on 5 September 1960;Magpies Have "Clean Bill", The Age, (7 September 1960), p.26. they had three children: Lisa, Raymond and Matthew.
Amateur football Prevented by East Perth from playing for West Perth on supposed residential grounds,"Recruits in the Limelight", The West Australian, (15 April 1953), p.16.'Follower', "Gabelich Trains at Leederville, The West Australian, (17 April 1953), p.17.Gabelich Wavers, The West Australian, (21 April 1953), p.20. Gabelich was unable to play first-grade football in Perth.
Mount Hawthorn (MJFA) Frustrated, he continued to play top-level, under-20s,"Football", The West Australian, (Wednesday (9 March 1921), p.9. amateur football for the Mt Hawthorn Amateur Football Club in Perth's Metropolitan Junior Football Association competition. He was the team's captain in 1953, and he was selected in a West Australian representative team to play in Melbourne.Gabelich Now Leads Team, The West Australian, (15 May 1953), p.29.Junior Side Will Visit Melbourne, The West Australian, (30 June 1953), p.1. He lodged numerous unsuccessful appeals against his prohibition from playing for West Perth.'Follower', "Change of Residence brings Complications, The West Australian, (15 April 1953), p.16.East Perth Still Wants Gabelich, The West Australian, (15 December 1953), p.24.Second Bid for Permit, The West Australian, (18 March 1954), p.26.'Forward;, "Gabelich Fails Again in Bid for Permit", The West Australian, (1 April 1954), p.25.'Forward', "West Perth takes Stand in Gabelich Case, The West Australian, (6 April 1954), p.21.
Parkside (VAFA) Gabelich, then aged 18, first came to Collingwood’s attention when he was one of the best players afield for the Mt. Hawthorn team that beat South Fremantle Ex-Scholars team (each were premiers in their respective amateur competitions that year) on 20 October 1951,"Good Junior Material", The West Australian, (19 October 1951), p.12; "Class Teams at Fremantle: Novel Ceremony", The West Australian, (20 October 1951), p.10; "Mt. Hawthorn's Success", The West Australian, (22 October 1951), p.11. in the curtain raiser for the match in which the visiting Collingwood team lost 22.9 (141) to South Fremantle 15.12 (102)."Collingwood Go Under To South", The (Perth) Mirror, (20 October 1951), p.14; Sweet, J,. "South's Break a 50-Year Hoodoo", (Perth) Sunday Times, (Sunday 21 October 1951), p.24; 'Follower', "Fast Teamwork Winning Factor", The West Australian, (Monday 22 October 1951), p.11.
He came to Collingwood from Western Australia as a centre half-forward in 1954 too late to be listed;'Forward', "Gabelich "Disgusted", to Leave Tonight", The West Australian, (30 April 1954), p.17.Gabelich will Train with Collingwood, The West Australian, (5 May 1954), p.30. and, so, he continued to play football with Parkside Amateurs, a team that was coached by ex-Preston (VFA) rover Les Ross,"Rovers for Preston", The Age, (1 June 1938), p.8. in the Victorian Amateur Football Association, for the remainder of the 1954: a season in which Parkside were C-Grade premiers, unbeaten throughout the entire season.de Lacy, H., "Chirping starts in Magpie Nest", The Sporting Globe, (3 November 1954), p.5. Gabelich played at centre half-back in the Grand Final where Parkside 15.19 (109) defeated Old Xaverians 8.12 (60).Victoria Amateur Football Association: Parkside Football Club: Winning Premiership Teams: C Section 1954.
The team also won the VAFA Lightning Premiership conducted on the Queen's Birthday weekend as a prelude to the Interstate match between the Victorian and South Australian Amateur representative teams.The sixteen teams involved were (a) Alphington Football Club, Hampton Rovers Football Club, Melbourne High School Old Boys (M.H.S.O.B.), Old Melburnians, and Ormond Amateur Football Club from A Section; (b) Brunswick Amateurs Football Club, Caulfield Grammarians Football Club, Coburg Amateurs Football Club, Collegians Football Club, and Ivanhoe Amateur Football Club from B Section; (c) Balwyn Football Club, East Malvern Football Club, and Parkside Football Club from C Section; Parkdale Football Club from D Section; and South Melbourne City Football Club, and Preston Amateurs Football Club from E Section (de Lacy, H., "Amateurs knock-out title on two grounds", The Sporting Globe, (2 June 1954), p.18)."Late burst saves State amateurs", The Argus, (15 June 1954), p.13.
The only loss the team experienced in 1954 — in fact, the team had won 29 matches consecutively over two (1953/1954) seasons — was when it was defeated, 10.6 (66) to 4.11 (35), by the 1954 Canberra Australian National Football League premiers, Queanbeyan-Acton,In 1952, the two A.C.T. Australian Rules clubs previously known as Acton and Queanbeyan merged to form Queanbeyan-Acton (see "Combined Team, Queenbeyan-Acton, For A-Grade", The Canberra Times, (13 March 1952), p.6). The merger was abandoned before the 1957 season commenced, and the Acton and Queanbeyan clubs competed, once again, as separate entities (see "Queanbeyan And Acton Football Clubs Separate", The Canberra Times, (9 November February 1956), p.16, "Queanbeyan Football Club Re-forms", The Canberra Times, (15 February 1957), p.16, and "Decision On Combine Footballers Likely", The Canberra Times, (3 April 1957), p.12). in a post–Grand Final match in Canberra on 19 September 1954. Gabelich, at centre half-back, was one of Parkside's best players."Victorian Amateur Premier side to Play at Canberra", The Canberra Times, (15 September 1954), p.8; "Premiership Team to Play Parkside", The Canberra Times, (17 September 1954), p.7; "Combine beats Undefeated Victorian Champions", The Canberra Times, (20 September 1954), p.6.
He also played for a Collingwood team, against South Fremantle, in July 1954."Gabelich Gains Selection In Side To Play South Fremantle", The West Australian, (27 July 1954), p.19.
Injury When working as a fitter and turner in Melbourne, he lost the top of his middle finger in an industrial accident in 1955 before he had played his first game for Collingwood.Banfield, P., "Magpies' Hope Hurt: Out 6 Weeks", The Argus, (17 March 1955), p.1.
Debut for Collingwood Granted a permit to play with Collingwood in March 1955,"Collingwood Has Plans For Gabelich", The West Australian, (20 November 1954), p.23."Magpies Say He's No.1 Recruit", The Argus, (9 March 1955), p.34: Note that this report is before he lost the tip of his finger.Banfield, P., "Magpies' Hope Hurt: Out 6 Weeks", The Argus, (17 March 1955), p.1; Banfield, P., "League Rejects Ban on Transfers", The Argus, (17 March 1955), p.20. Gabelich made his debut for Collingwood in the 30 April 1955 (round three) match against St Kilda — one commentator's view of his performance: "Gabelich: Nice mark and kick. Promising, except for ground play""How they went last week", The Argus, (6 May 1955), p.22. — he replaced an injured Murray Weideman at centre half-forward in the selected team; he scored 1.4 (10) (playing against Neil Roberts)."The League Scoreboard", The Argus, (2 May 1955), p.21.Richardson, J., "Magpies on Top", The Age, (2 May 1955), p.18. Gabelich also played (in the ruck) for Collingwood in its end-of-season match against Perth Football Club, who had won the 1955 West Australian Football League premiership team on the previous Saturday, in Perth, on 15 October 1955."Collingwood Hold On In Final Term", The (Perth) Mirror, 15 October 1955), p.13; "Magpies Beat Premier Team", The Age, (17 October 1955), p.19. He was described as "a superb athlete … deceptively quick and athletic for a man of his massive dimensions",Kevin Rose, quoted in Niall, J., "Magpies mourn the giant they knew as Gabbo", The Age, 20 July 2000.
Gabelich only played seven games in 1957. In the third quarter of the (round 6) match against North Melbourne on 25 May 1957, Gabelich was kicked in the lower leg and sustained a broken fibula. Rejecting the offer of a stretcher, Gabelich "walked unaided more than half the length of the ground" to the dressing room, where "[having been] asked in the dressing room how he knew the leg was broken Gabelich shocked the club doctor by inviting him to listen to the bones grate".Beames, P., "Gabelich Had Broken Leg, But Refused Help", The Age, (27 May 1957), p.16.
Gabelich's first post-injury appearance was for Collingwood's Second XVIII, playing against North Melbourne on 17 August 1957, where "until his condition gave out, [he] did well and was not troubled by his leg"."Marquis in Hospital and Adams is Doubtful", The Age, (19 August 1957), p.18."V.F.L. Statistics: V.F.L. Seconds, The Age, (19 August 1957), p.18. He was selected in the First XVIII for the important (round 18) last match of the season against St Kilda on 24 August 1957,If Collingwood had won the match (rather than St Kilda), and if Essendon had lost to Carlton (Essendon beat Carlton by 10 goals), Collingwood would have gone on to play in the First Semi-Final on the following Saturday. and was one of Collingwood's best players in a losing team.Taylor, G., "Saints Finish on Triumphant Note", (26 August 1957), p.16.
In his eleven-season, 160-game career with Collingwood, he played in 17 finals matches, including 5 Grand Finals. In 1958, when Collingwood won the Grand Final, defeating Melbourne 12.10 (82) to 9.10 (64) — and, in the process, preventing Melbourne from matching Collingwood's record of winning four premierships in a row (viz., 1927, 1928, 1920, and 1930) — Gabelich played a strong robust game as a back-pocket ruckman;"Grand Final Teams", The Age, (19 September 1958), p.36."Barassi Bites the Mud", The Age, (22 September 1958), p.18.. and, "with his terrific strength [and taking] control of the packs", Gabelich was instrumental in Collingwood turning a 17-point deficit at quarter-time into a two-point lead at half-time, and a 33-point lead at three-quarter time.Beames, P., "Magpies End Long Melbourne Reign: Great Comeback Wins 1958 Premiership", The Age, (22 September 1958), p.20.
He was runner-up in the 1959 Brownlow to St Kilda's Verdun Howell and South Melbourne's Bob Skilton (who had tied for first),AFL Tables: 1959 Brownlow Medal. and he won the Copeland Trophy as Collingwood's best and fairest in 1960.
Olympic Games He played as a back-pocket resting ruckman for the combined VFL and VFA team against the VAFA in the demonstration match of Australian rules football, during the Melbourne Olympic Games, on 7 December 1956.Mcfarlane, G., "Collingwood's connection with the Olympic Games", Collingwood Football Club, 1 August 2012.
Darwin