This is a poem about place and presence. It portrays that even in absence and change, any thing that once existed is not lost or forgotten, but has moved to an eternal and sacred place.
Brisbane Brothers rugby league club was based at Corbett Park in the inner north Brisbane suburb of the Grange. The park and the club have been consigned to that sacred place.
Corbett Park
by Tom Cranitch*
By the Kedron Brook it was found,
a land mass shaped amidst the meandering duck-filled creek’s banks.
A field of gold to which the football lover was bound.
An old dairy, then the lair of the fairytale.
Home to the leprechaun and the butcher boys.
From the clubhouse on the crest of its ridge, the players would trail to the field.
Greased giants descending to the holy dale.
Three grades on a Sunday to play, with the top boys on from the fifteenth hour.
From his position in the west facing stand, the boy had much to contemplate.
An older brother by his side, a sister in the cheer squad on the other line.
Family and faith were the virtues of this place.
The team in the blue and the white provided the power.
But the receivers came in and the dreams crashed down.
The butcher boys were kicked out.
The magic field lay a long time asunder,
until the dirt shifting machines gouged it into a residential jungle.
The golden field was lost and some said gone forever.
The boy, now a man, could only weep and frown.
Its loss was profound, mourned by many, with the blue and whites in the dark.
Time and the game callously moved on,
critics rejoiced and sceptics questioned the sacredness of the place.
But those who know appreciate absence is alive with hidden presence,
and that nothing is ever lost or forgotten.
The field is a living legacy to generations, forever young.
In God’s eternal city, there will always be Corbett Park.
* With acknowledgment to John O’Donohue, Sting, Phil Coulter, Dan Fogelberg and Rod Stewart
Read more about Corbett Park here.
Read more about Past Brothers Rugby League Football Club here.
Get a feel for Corbett Park by watching these highlights of Brothers v Wynnum-Manly from 1987:
To read more by Tom Cranitch click here.
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Great stuff, Tom. It brings back many fond memories and what a great tragedy that the man in the butcher stripes aren’t playing in the NRL.
love this Tom
As a young lad growing up in Kingaroy & Toowoomba in the 70’s & 80’s, this is the footy we cut our teeth on!
thanks for sharing
RITV