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 oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

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 that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The club w ...

in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFL). He became famous for kicking the goal in the dying minutes of the

1977 VFL Grand Final The 1977 VFL Grand Final was a series of two Australian rules football matches between the North Melbourne Football Club and the Collingwood Football Club. Together they are considered the 80th and 81st grand finals of the Victorian Football Le ...

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 Plan_(drawing), plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a mea ...

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, Victoria, Moorabbin. The ground was most ...

, 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 ...

, 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 The 1970 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Carlton Football Club and Collingwood Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on 26 September 1970. It was the 73rd annual Grand Final of ...

. What is not well-known is that he had been suffering considerable mental trauma, as his father Frank had passed away 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 (Australia) Collingwood Football Club players Living people