Almanac Footy: ‘A History of Australian Rules Football in Woomera 1948 to 1992’ – Part 7: 1966 – 1967

 

David ‘Dick’ Turpin  is a Brisbane friend of Almanacker Allan Barden. During the late 60s early 70s David spent a few years working in Woomera when it was quite a thriving community.

David has researched and written a history of footy in Woomera from the years 1948 to 1992.

The Footy Almanac will publish David’s extensive history over a number of weeks. 

Dick has also completed a history of Woomera water polo. 

 

1966

In 1964, Neil Kerley famous for Koolymilka’s 1953 premiership win was appointed coach of South Adelaide in the SANFL. The previous year South had finished last in the competition and it is SANFL folklore how Kerley took them from bottom in 1963 to the 1964 premiership.

 

One of the important players in that team was their centre-half forward Richard ‘Dick’ Roennfeldt.

 

An engineer by profession Dick Roennfeldt was transferred to the Department of Works at Woomera West at the beginning of 1966 and was subsequently appointed coach of Works.

 

Other coaches were Centrals – Peter Holness, Koolymilka – Len Grimes, RAAF – Peter Beare, and Village – Ken Rau.

 

During the year two well-known players Fred Brown from Centrals and Dallas Zeliff left the area.

 

Works won the lightning carnival early in the season.

 

Works suffered a heavy defeat by Village early in the season and then a 1-point loss to RAAF late in the season. The latter on a cold and windy day at the Newman Oval.

 

Village also had a good season with only two losses so the stage was set for an exciting finals campaign.

 

In the Area & Mail medal count the winner was Tony Betts from the Koolymilka club. Tony was the uncle of recently retired Crows and Carlton player Eddie Betts. Second in the count was Works’ centreman Jurgen Wagnitz. It was a fine effort by Jurgen who had only arrived in Australia with his brothers Wolfgang and Klaus in 1959. Already at the age of 15 he had been runner-up in the Mail medal for Cadell in the Mid-Murray League.

 

Another interesting point for this season was that no less than eight players graduated from the junior ranks. They included Ian Beckman, Gary Hele, Bob Spooner, Robert Davidson, Frank Corcoran, Trevor Harding, Bill Fox, and Peter Stone.

 

In addition, three players won major trophies whilst still at school. Ed Moika of Centrals won the trophy for the league’s top goalkicker; Ian Beckman won the Best & Fairest at Village and Jurgen Wagnitz won the Best & Fairest at Works. The formation of the Junior League 5 years earlier was beginning to pay dividends.

 

During the finals, Works regained one of their better players, Geoff Peek, however, because he had left Woomera for a period and played for his hometown team Millicent without a clearance he was ruled ineligible to play in the Woomera grand final. Glenelg had cleared him to both Works and Millicent but he had not been cleared from Works to Millicent.

 

In the end, Works won the grand final comfortably from Village but not without some heartache. Early in the game Works captain/coach Dick Roennfeldt had his legs taken out from under him and he crashed heavily to the ground. He continued to play but was heavily concussed and later said ‘I have no recollection of the game after the incident.’ In the dressing sheds after the game, he said to the Works players ‘Well done lads! We have just won the preliminary final, now for the grand final next week.’

 

The players were also upset as it was a tradition for the winning coach to shout them a keg of beer during the evening celebrations. This of course never occurred as the coach was off seeking medical attention.

 

Points at the end of the minor round were Works 26, Village 26, Koolymilka 14, RAAF 13, and Centrals 11. This was the first time Koolymilka had been in the finals since 1954.

 

Team	Wins	Byes	Losses	Draws	For	Against	%	Pts
Works	10	3	2		1284	627	67.19	26
Village	10	3	2		1069	619	63.33	26
Koolymilka	4	3	8		661	1031	35.71	14
RAAF	3	3	8	1	723	1037	41.08	13
Centrals	2	3	9	1	760	1056	41.85	11

 

 

Final	Team	G	B	Pts	Team	G	B	Pts
1st Semi	Koolymilka	15	10	100	RAAF	6	2	38
2nd Semi	Works	12	15	87	Village	11	7	73
Preliminary	Village	13	18	96	Koolymilka	9	13	67
Grand	Works	18	13	121	Village	9	8	62

 

 

Grand Final: Works defeated Village 18.13 (121) to 9.8 (62).

 

Premiership Coach: Dick Roennfeldt. Premiership Captain: Dick Roennfeldt.

 

Best in Grand Final: Jurgen Wagnitz – Works, Ken Rau – Village.

 

League Best & Fairest – Area & Mail Medals: 1^st Tony Betts – Koolymilka 18,

 

2^nd Jurgen Wagnitz – Works 14, =3^rd Gerry Tipping – RAAF 10, =3^rd Richard “Dick” Roennfeldt – Works 10.

 

Leading Goalkickers: 1^st Ed Moika – Centrals 47.

 

League President: William ‘Bill’ Leverington (RIP). Association Secretary: Graham Overall.

 

 1966 Area Medal won by Tony Betts of Koolymilka

 

 

Works Membership Badge 1966

 

 

 

1966 WJFL

 

In the first game of the season the Magpies, premiers for the previous 3 years, were unable to field a team, however with the League’s policy of equalization through transfers and allocation of new players this was quickly rectified.

 

Life Membership was awarded to Lee Davidson long-time Secretary/Treasurer of the WJFL.

 

The table at the end of the minor round showed the Demons as minor premiers.

 

Team	Played	Wins	Losses	Draws	For	Against	%	Pts
Demons	15	13	2	0	1034	480	71.59	26
Eagles	15	12	3	0	952	547	67.56	24
Roosters	15	3	12	0	842	793	51.74	6
Magpies	14	2	12	0	500	1724	22.48	4

 

The major rounds resulted in a premiership for the Eagles.

 

Final	Team	G	B	Pts	Team	G	B	Pts
1st Semi	Roosters	13	17	95	Magpies	5	8	38
2nd Semi	Eagles	10	13	73	Demons	7	2	44
Preliminary	Roosters			Def	Demons
Grand	Eagles	8	18	66	Roosters	5	10	40

 

Premiership Coach: Graham White. Premiership Captain: Terry Parker.

 

Best in Grand Final: Terry Parker – Eagles, Kim Treleaven – Roosters.

 

League Best & Fairest: 1^st A McGee – Demons, 2^nd Terry Parker – Eagles.

 

Leading Goalkickers: 1^st A McGee – Demons 43, 2^nd Terry Parker – Eagles 36, 3^rd Phid Henderson -Roosters 31.

Life Membership: Lee Davidson.

 

 Eagles Junior Football Club – Premiers 1966 – Graham White Coach, Terry Parker Captain

 

1967

 

Since the inception of the League in 1949, the RAAF had entered a team every year. Unfortunately, in 1967, 1 ATU was winding down and there were insufficient RAAF servicemen now available to form a team.

 

RAAF players over the years are to be commended for keeping the competition alive and competitive and although they never won a premiership they played in two grand finals, produced three Mail & Area medallists, and had many fine players.

 

Later in the year, the Department of Supply awarded contracts to Short Brothers & Harland Air Services from Northern Ireland to operate both the Target Aircraft complex and the Range Ferry and Recovery Flight from Tech Area. These functions were previously carried out by the RAAF.

 

The company was an amalgamation of Short Brothers and Harland & Wolff. If you have ever been to Belfast, Northern Ireland you would have seen the yellow twin shipbuilding gantry cranes (named Samson & Goliath) at the old shipyards. H & W (Harland & Wolff) is clearly painted on both cranes.

 

The connection with the RAAF was however not completely lost as one of their most consistent players in recent years, Paddy O’Neill, was discharged from the RAAF; obtained employment at WRE and later at the ASCO store; and joined the Centrals Football Club. At Centrals, Paddy continued to be a menace to opposing teams for many years.

 

The second item of interest was that a second grass oval had been constructed and was made available to the league. This meant that for the first time in the league’s history all games could be played on grass. Originally named the Arboretum Oval it later became the O’Donoghue Oval in honour of the ex-foreman at Area Services the late Tony O’Donoghue who was responsible for the ovals and community lawns in Woomera.

 

Coaches for the year were Centrals – Reg Pattison, Koolymilka – Bruce Grillett, Village – Lance Collins then Bill Hooker, Works – Ken Waller (Bluey Waller’s brother).

 

Village won the lightning carnival held early in the season.

 

Juniors who graduated to the senior league included Terry Parker, Michael Turpin, Wolfgang Zeptner, Kim Treleaven, Mick Henderson, Bill Bischoff, Des Warde, John Corcoran, Robert Leverington, and Louis Pryzbyla.

 

The Area & Mail medals were won by Geoff Peek who had been ruled ineligible for the previous year’s grand final. Runner-up was the very good Village ruckman Brian Dempsey.

 

At the end of the minor round, the points were Works 25, Village 23, Centrals 12, and Koolymilka 0.

 

Team	Wins	Byes	Losses	Draws	For	Against	%	Pts
Works	12		2	1	1383	818	62.84	25
Village	11		3	1	1581	758	67.59	23
Centrals	6		9		1103	1284	46.21	12
Koolymilka	0		15		547	1758	23.73	0

 

 

Final	Team	G	B	Pts	Team	G	B	Pts
1st Semi	Centrals	11	12	78	Koolymilka	7	9	51
2nd Semi	Village	10	18	78	Works	10	6	66
Preliminary	Centrals	8	12	60	Works	5	15	45
Grand	Village	8	14	62	Centrals	8	13	61

 

Grand Final: Village defeated Centrals 8.14 (62) to 8.13 (61).

 

Premiership Coach: Bill Hooker. Premiership Captain: Bill Hooker.

 

Best in Grand Final: Brian Dempsey – Village.

 

League Best & Fairest – Area & Mail Medals: 1^st Geoff Peek – Works 19,

 

2^nd Brian Dempsey – Village 18, 3^rd Chris Telfer – Koolymilka 13.

 

Leading Goalkickers: 1^st Des Treager – Village 46, 2^nd Brian Dempsey – Village 31,

 

3^rd Trevor Overall – Village 28.

 

Life Membership: Ray Simpson (RIP), Leon Muller.

 

League President: William “Bill” Leverington (RIP). League Secretary: Graham Overall.

 

 

1967 WJFL

 

In 1967 the senior and junior leagues agreed that each senior team would be responsible for the administration and coaching of one junior team.

 

Allocations were Demons to Works, Eagles to Centrals, Magpies to Koolymilka, and Roosters to Village.

 

Final	Team	G	B	Pts	Team	G	B	Pts
1st Semi	Roosters	10	8	68	Magpies	4	5	29
2nd Semi	Eagles	6	5	35	Demons	5	6	36
Preliminary	Demons			Def	Roosters
Grand	Eagles	5	10	40	Demons	4	11	35

 

Grand Final: Eagles defeated Demons 5.10 (40) to 4.11 (35).

 

Premiership Coach: Graham White. Premiership Captain: Ian Addison.

 

League Best & Fairest: 1^st Leigh Chamberlain – Demons, 2^nd Des Barrett – Eagles.

 

Leading Goalkickers: D Wright – Eagles 34.

 

 

Previous Episodes can be read Here.

 

To return to the www.footyalmanac.com.au  home page click HERE

 

Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.

 

Do you enjoy the Almanac concept?
And want to ensure it continues in its current form, and better? To help keep things ticking over please consider making your own contribution.

 

Become an Almanac (annual) member – CLICK HERE