by Gerard Cahill
On October 3, 1992, The Kennett Liberal government was elected in Victoria. The next day my wife, Jenny, and I left the country! Now I’m not saying the two events were necessarily related, I’m just trying to give some historical perspective.
Our destination was Wakayama Prefecture, Japan, where we to work as caddies at Kino Kuni Country Club, a private members’ golf course in the hills about 40 minutes from Wakayama City, which in turn was about 90 minutes from Osaka.
As a keen golfer, the idea of working six days a week at a golf course was very appealing to me, however as a keen student of Kyokushin Karate Jenny’s motivation was to obtain her black belt in Japan. Not long after we settled into our accommodation in Iwade, she found a local dojo where she could train. The dojo also hosted a group of Japanese ladies in a sewing group who Jenny became friendly with and who, after we had returned to Australia, came to visit us in Melbourne. One of the ladies had a teenage son named Taka and it came to pass that a couple of years later Taka came to stay with us for a few months at our place in St Kilda.
Our story now turns to footy; the caddying and karate is for another day!
Any visitor to Melbourne must take in a game at the MCG and so it was that in late winter 1996 Taka and I found ourselves on a tram heading to the ‘G for a Friday night game between Geelong and North Melbourne. The tram was packed with fans, and I explained to Taka that the Roos number 18 and the Cats number 5, which were highly prevalent, were respectively ‘The King’ and ‘God’, although I’m not sure how well understood this was! I should note at this point that my overall aim was to pass on my love of the Navy Blues to Taka and as such, whilst enroute to visit family in the Western District the next weekend we would take in the Geelong v Carlton game at Kardinia Park.
We met my mate Peter Houlihan at the ‘G and although the game was about to start, we deemed that a quick refreshment was in order before taking our seats in the members. As fate would have it, the very first thing that Taka saw as we emerged from the bar, with the lush green surface of the hallowed turf bathed in brilliant light, was one G Ablett Snr taking one of his trademark speccies! In Taka’s mind’s eye there may well have been a halo around ‘God’ as he ascended into the heavens and from that second on there was nothing I could do – Kernahan and Co be damned; there was no way Taka was supporting anyone other than Geelong!
We made it to Kardinia Park the following week and despite Carlton having a solid win, all that did was cement Taka as a fan of the hoops. When we arrived in Warrnambool and my father-in-law asked Taka what the best thing about Australian football was, he replied unhesitatingly
“Gary Abrett-o”.
Before his return to Osaka, and to honor his newfound hero, Taka purchased a Geelong jumper – number 5 of course! We again visited Japan in 1999 and although we met up with Taka, he was well and truly caught up in the grind that is Japanese working life and seemed much older than he was in those Ablett loving days in Victoria. My fervent hope however is that at some stage, an Aussie in Osaka saw Taka proudly wearing his Cats jersey and engaged him in conversation to work out how it all came about!
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