Almanac Footy: The golden years of the West Coburg Football Club

 

 

 

West Coburg Football Club is located on the corner of Melville Road and Reynards Road in West Coburg. It has been a steady beacon for football in the Northern Suburbs since 1927.

 

 

I joined West Coburg after spending one year with West Coburg Seniors in 1964, who had won the premiership in B-Grade of the Essendon and District Football League in 1963, before being promoted to A-Grade. It was a disaster. We were usually thrashed each week, and at the end of the season they disbanded. It was a no-brainer to join West Coburg, along with my mate, John Allan, from Seniors, because we were both locals and we knew the club was strong.

 

 

At that time, West Coburg had three senior teams and solid junior teams from Under 13 to Under 17. The club was well-administered, with Ron Cassell being a very efficient secretary, and a keen committee eager for success, having finished second the previous year. My first impression of the club was that the clubrooms had been painted throughout, with red, black and white colours prominent. It had also been refurbished and there was a positive feeling about the club.

 

 

The club was coached by Billy Barnes, a dynamic orator who clearly expressed the club’s aim for success. He stressed physical fitness and demanded that everyone trained two nights a week. A, B and C-Grade sides trained together, and we came to know everybody. Training would start with kick to kick, then Billy would bring the group in together and review the previous game. If A-Grade had lost, then training would be hard. It was pretty conventional; hand-balling practice and kicking to players leading, circle work and finishing with Indian file or repetition sprints. If you didn’t train on a Tuesday, you would have to do extra laps on Thursday. We trained this way rain, hail or shine, with Billy reminding us that we had to train harder than our opposition.

 

 

The result of his work was that success came to the club. A-Grade won the premiership in 1965, 1967, 1968, 1970 and 1971, but were surprisingly beaten by Glenroy in 1966. B-Grade won in 1963 and 1966, but were rarely out of the final four. In the four years that I played in C-Grade, we finished near the bottom of the ladder in 1965, were fourth in 1966, runners up by 2 points in 1967 and third in 1968.

 

 

Some of the A-Grade players I can remember were Mick Hughes, Bobby Fidler, Barry Murphy, Berry Jess and Bruce Martin, but they had many other good players.  The standard filtered through B-Grade and down to C-Grade where young players, mostly Under 17s who learned to play the West Coburg way under coaches like George Ross, an elderly but very smart man, who had played for Brighton in the VFA. On one occasion, we were playing an important game against a top opponent and we needed to win. As part of his address before the game, George opened an envelope and read what appeared to be telegrams all wishing us the best for the game. It fired everyone up and we won the game. Afterwards, we asked him who had sent the telegrams, but he just smiled and pulled an empty envelope out of his pocket. He had other surprises before a game, but our young team lapped it all up. C-Grade was also topped up by older players who added their experience to the team, like John Fidler, Bob Stewart, Paul Sully, Ray Roberts and Ian West.

 

 

It was a good place to play. After every game there would be a barrel and hot food, and most players would stay back, have a drink and watch the VFL football replay. I had never played in a club like that before. No matter in what team you played on, you were treated equally. There were plenty of social events, including reunions of former players, which all helped to build up club spirit. When you played at West Coburg, you played with pride and arrogance because you believed your club was the best.

 

 

The club has continued to be a force in the area. All power to it.

 

 

Richard Davis

 

To read more by Richard Davis click HERE.

 

 

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