Shinboner number: 618
Guernsey numbers: 44, 23
Born: August 23, 1951
North Melbourne games: 275 (1969-84)
Goals: 29
Captain: 1972, 1977 (acting)
North Melbourne Hall of Fame inductee: 2003
Elevated to Legend status: 2009

Hailing from West Coburg, David Dench arrived at Arden Street at the tender age of 17 — long before he grew his famous moustache — and made his senior debut in Round 15 against Fitzroy in July 1969, still a month shy of his 18th birthday, and wearing the 44 guernsey. 

As Neil Armstrong and ‘Buzz’ Aldrin prepared to walk on the moon for the first time, the Kangaroos went down to the Lions that day at the Junction Oval and the Monday papers (while discussing the moon landing excitedly) made no mention of Dench in the list of North’s best players.

But Dench must have been close to making that list, collecting 17 disposals on debut, 15 of them with that penetrating boot of his. Only six of his teammates had more. In any case, and far more importantly, Dench was impressive enough in the eyes of Kangaroos selectors to be retained for the following week’s game against Essendon. North won, knocking the Bombers out of finals contention and another solid game in defence saw Dench again keep his place in the team. In fact, Dench had proven to selectors he was made of the right stuff and became a permanent member of the side immediately.

Dench was not yet a regular full-back in those first few games, nor would he be the following season, in which he played all 22 games, now in the more familiar 23 jumper.

North’s key defensive post at that stage belonged to Peter Steward, who was doing a fine job in the role. During this early phase of his career, Dench slotted into other defensive roles as were required from week to week. The Kangaroos were by no means a successful side at this time (they won only four games in that year) but Steward was an outstanding full-back. He was also a fine leader and captain of the side for most games in the absence of the injured John Dugdale.

It came very much as a shock, therefore, when at the end of 1970, Steward requested a clearance to WAFL club West Perth. The North hierarchy was unimpressed by Steward’s attempt to jump ship and initially refused to clear him but Steward was adamant and the Kangaroos eventually acquiesced to his request.

Although the club was unhappy with Steward’s defection, David Dench was perhaps not quite as upset by the move. With the full-back post vacated, Dench now had a chance to step into Steward’s sizeable shoes. Standing at 191cm and weighing in at 89kg, there was no doubt Dench was built for the position. In Steward’s absence, the 1971 season would determine whether Dench also had the temperament and ability to hold down that pivotal role.

In fact, Dench spent part of the early stages of the 1971 season at the other end of the ground. In North’s Round 2 match against St Kilda, he kicked the first goal of his career. Dench would be called to the forward line at times of a need throughout the rest of his career but the 1971 season saw him—eventually—make the full-back position his own. He averaged 13 disposals a match, demonstrating that he was not just capable of containing opposition spearheads but could also get the ball himself. This ability to not only get the ball, but also use it to turn defence into attack, was to become a feature of his game.

Dench had an outstanding season in 1971, winning the club’s best and fairest award and even polling a Brownlow vote, no mean feat for a full-back, even in those days. But North Melbourne’s hierarchy was impressed not only by Dench’s undoubted football prowess, but also the young man’s leadership qualities.

Ruckman Barry Goodingham had assumed the captaincy for the 1971 season after the retirement of Dugdale but the Kangaroo selectors and coach Brian Dixon felt that Dench was ready to take up the mantle in the 1972. Thus, at only 20, Dench became one of the youngest captains in VFL history.

The added burden of captaincy did not hamper Dench’s ability to stop the best full-forwards in the business. He had another excellent year (polling seven Brownlow votes), although the same could not be said of the team as a whole. Dench had to wait until his 17th match as skipper before he tasted victory, North’s one and only win for the season coming on the last Saturday in July when the Roos pipped South Melbourne by nine points at Arden Street.

After such a disappointing season, drastic change was needed. For North Melbourne, the off-field revolution had begun a year earlier when Allen Aylett took on the presidency. But after two more years of finishing at the foot of the ladder, the time had come for an on-field revolution as well. The Kangaroos landed the biggest coaching fish of all, Ron Barassi, to take the reins and the League’s short-lived 10-year rule also allowed for the influx of some of the game’s superstars from other clubs, including Doug Wade (Geelong), John Rantall (South Melbourne) and Essendon’s Barry Davis.

The last of these, Davis, had previously had experience skippering the Bombers, and Barassi decided that someone of his years would be better suited to the captaincy of a team suddenly boasting stars, and Dench was relieved of the role after just one season.

If Dench was disappointed to lose the leadership, it didn’t show on the field and he had another excellent year in defence, although Barassi—ever the innovator—wasn’t afraid to throw him forward occasionally. Expecting his players to be versatile was a Barassi trademark, and was a tactic that would help North win its first flag in 1975.

The next few seasons saw North go from an easybeat to a powerhouse with not only Dench flourishing as a player. In Barassi’s first game as coach in 1973 were 13 players who would be part of North’s first premiership: Dench, Wade, Rantall, Davis, Goodingham, Gary Cowton, Garry Farrant, Paul Feltham, Keith Greig, Frank Gumbleton, Ross Henshaw, Sam Kekovich and Wayne Schimmelbusch; most of those raised at Arden Street were in their early twenties.

Rather than shrinking in the company of the imported superstars, Dench used their presence to make himself a better player. Dench loved to take a run out of defence but in previous seasons his forays forward had often seen the ball returned with interest because of an impotent North forward line. But with Wade on board at full-forward, Dench’s ability to turn defence into attack began to result in goals at the other end, and his bursts from the backline became a dangerous offensive weapon.

Having won only a solitary match in 1972, the Kangaroos came within a whisker of finals action under Barassi’s leadership. North’s rapid rise continued in 1974 and by the time Dench played his 100th VFL match against St Kilda in Round 17, the Kangaroos had won 14 matches and were only a game behind top-placed Collingwood.

How important Dench had become to the side was underlined by the fact that North’s only three losses for the season to that point were the three games Dench had missed. The Kangaroos’ first final since the 1958 preliminary final loss to Collingwood saw North big winners over Hawthorn, with captain Barry Davis and Dench the side’s best two players. The team progressed all the way to the Grand Final but fell well short of Richmond in the premiership decider, losing by 41 points after trailing all day.

The Roos unexpectedly lost the first four games of the next season and an elusive first VFL premiership seemed further away than ever. Dench also had a quiet start to the season but from May, he and the rest of the team really hit their straps. The Kangaroos won 14 of the next 18 games to finish third on the ladder before making its way once more into the 1975 Grand Final. This time, they went one better, defeating warm favourites Hawthorn and a 50-year wait for that first premiership was over. Dench, with 13 disposals, was among North’s best players.

The Kangaroos and Hawks again played off for the premiership in 1976, but the result was reversed, with Hawthorn prevailing by 30 points. Dench could not be held accountable, however. After having another great season—which saw him take home a second best-and-fairest award, after Davis, Rantall and Davis again had won the previous three—he was named North’s best in the losing Grand Final.

With North once again in contention in 1977, Dench’s fine form continued unabated, but his season took an unexpected mid-season turn when captain Keith Greig, appointed after Davis’ retirement after the 1975 premiership victory, succumbed to a knee injury that would sideline him for the rest of the year. Dench was asked to fill the breach, four and a half years after relinquishing the role to Davis.

If Barassi believed in experience when he took over in 1973, Dench had that in spades by 1977, having played 170 games when Greig’s season was over. He’d also played in three Grand Finals and represented Victoria twice. The captaincy had no negative impact on his game and if anything, he became an even better player than before. His magnificent season resulted in a best-ever ninth-place finish in the Brownlow Medal (with 26 votes), a remarkable effort for a full-back and an indicator of his impact when streaming from defence.

His form did not waver in the finals series, as North made it to the Grand Final the hard way (as seemed to be its way) after losing in the first week. Dench was listed in North’s best players in all four finals in September, including the Grand Final, which saw North come back from 27 points down at the last change to force a draw against Collingwood and a Grand Final rematch. Having been solid all day in that drawn Grand Final, Dench was thrown forward in the final term and kicked two vital goals to ensure the Magpies did not win.

A week later, after another epic MCG struggle, the Kangaroos broke away late in the match to defeat the Pies by 27 points and Dench held aloft the VFL premiership cup, North’s second. He capped off a truly great season by winning his third Syd Barker Medal.

Dench, still just 26 and with 187 games behind him, was on top of the world and at the top of his game. It seemed a sustained era of dominance was at hand for him and the Kangaroos. But in Round 3, 1978, that all changed. North had won its opening two matches and were on its way to a third against arch rival Hawthorn when Dench’s knee, like Greig’s a year earlier, gave way. Diagnosed with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament, Dench underwent a full reconstruction, one of the first under a new system of knee repair.

The Kangaroos did well to reach another Grand Final without Dench—Ross Glendinning taking the full-back role—but ultimately fell short, again to Hawthorn on the big day. Dench was back in action wearing a knee-brace at the beginning of 1979, but in that year and in 1980, he was limited to playing only 22 matches because of further injury woes.

North missed the finals in 1981 but returned to September action under Barry Cable’s coaching in 1982. Dench remained a model of consistency throughout this period, winning a fourth best and fairest award in 1981. His ability to spoil key marking forwards was as sharp as ever and his familiar dashes from defence still a feature. North made it through to a preliminary final in 1983 with Dench typically solid, but after the Roos lost the first two games of 1984 another injury saw him decide to call time on what had been a magnificent playing career.

That career spanned 15 seasons and 275 matches, with two premierships (one as captain), four Syd Barker Medals and state representation on four occasions. Dench was an obvious selection at full-back in North’s Team of the Century.