Ross 'Twiggy' Dunne (born 25 February 1948) is a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er who played for the

Collingwood Football Club The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed the Magpies or colloquially the Pies, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. ...

in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in east ...

(VFL). He became famous for kicking the goal in the dying minutes of the 1977 VFL Grand Final to draw the game. Nicknamed after the famous British

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person, or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin , . Models can be divided in ...

due to his slim frame, Dunne was a versatile, no-fuss player who spent much of his career at centre half-forward. Dunne made his senior VFL debut in the final round of the

1967 VFL season The 1967 VFL season was the 71st season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 15 April until 23 September, and comprised an ...

against at

Moorabbin Oval Moorabbin Oval (also known as RSEA Park under a naming rights agreement) is an Australian rules football ground in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia at Linton Street in the suburb of Moorabbin. The ground was most notable as the home ...

, lining up on champion full back Bob Murray. The Magpies would lose by 47 points, and despite also being manhandled by Saints ruckman

Carl Ditterich Carl Robert Ditterich (born 10 October 1945) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club and Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He also coached Melbourne for two years, as a pl ...

, Dunne performed admirably, kicking four goals straight. He was selected for the semi-final against eventual grand finalist , again kicking four goals in a 30-point defeat. Dunne was considered among Collingwood's best players in the club's infamous loss to Carlton in the 1970 VFL Grand Final. What is not well known is that he had been suffering considerable mental trauma, as his father Frank had died on the Monday leading up to the game. Dunne also played at least one season in the 1970s for Upwey-Tecoma in the Yarra Valley Mountain District Football League.

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at Collingwood Forever {{DEFAULTSORT:Dunne, Ross 1948 births Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Collingwood Football Club players Living people 20th-century Australian sportsmen