Almanac Footy History: The Nullawil Maroons Part 3 – Shane Hogan and the drama of 1969

In his capacity as the Hayden Kelly Scholar, Paddy Grindlay has been researching the history of a tiny Mallee town known for its sporting success. Here is Part 3:

 

Shane Hogan is taller and broader than me, wearing working boots, a checked shirt and a worn-in wide brim – well-dressed, yet part of the furniture of the Mallee. There’s a crinkle-eyed, gentle grin on his face, which shows the signs of a man who has spent a lifetime in sunlight and heat. The flies that investigate every freckle and sunspot do not irritate him. By contrast, I’m wearing a light shirt my mother bought for me, and the most breathable pair of shorts in the cupboard. There is sweat beading threateningly from my every pore. Shane, in the 36-degree Nullawil heat, is much more comfortable. He is one of Victoria’s most successful senior footballers, having won 10 senior premierships at the Nullawil Football Club.

 

 

 

 

We’re here to talk football. Nullawil plays on tough ground in Victoria’s Mallee region where the viscous sun of summer bakes a turf harder than the men I meet here. Shane suggests I meet him at the footy ground, the other side of the train tracks to town where a turf wicket is fenced off and the grass is as green as if the winter rains had never stopped. The indicator of summer is the dry grass that surrounds and the phantom dust that unsettles itself and never quite retreats.

 

Shane smiles at the good state of the ground, and points me to the similarly green tennis courts. “We’re not on any river here,” he says, a quirky grin playing at the corners of his mouth.

 

The journey to Nullawil is an enduring, cruise-controlled advance. It’s a windows-down start, retreating to air conditioning, shirt buttons increasingly undone. The heat haze widens on the asphalt with every northern-moving kilometre negotiated. It is very nearly intoxicating, a great slab of land that breathes in a traveler in their intrepid tin capsule and draws them ever toward the Murray. Towns – Inglewood, Wedderburn, Wycheproof – pass like afterthoughts. Click down to 60 and look for a bakery. And march on.

 

It moseys on up to you just in time, Nullawil, at the extent of what is a reasonable time to go without a bathroom break. For me, it’s just after my parents, still considered over the habits of their 20-year-old son, bite the bullet and wonder if I’ve kept the Forester on the road.

 

Shane Hogan drives a ute, white and well kept, parked by the side of Nullawil Recreation Reserve, which is at this moment having works done, extended the road around the ground and perhaps making more room for the standing spectator. He’s early for our meeting. Extending a handshake and a kind word, Shane gives me a tour of the Nullawil changing rooms and clubhouse. Like any sporting clubroom, the walls are adorned with honour boards, old photos of winning teams, trophy cabinets.

 

The difference at Nullawil to many other clubs is the sheer amount of real estate taken up by pennants and triumphant photographs. Success shouts from the walls and Shane speaks the language. There is Tex Lowry – a fitter and turner by trade, who played down at Williamstown and was captain of the under 18’s side – “he would’ve been a league footballer had he not done his knee down there,” muses Shane. There is Joe James – “he could kick a goal, and a damn fine ruckman as well.” There is Norm Sharp, who would rumble up from full-forward to show a young ruckman how to crash a pack, chanting “this is how you do it!,” and then returning to the goalsquare, anchored to the forward line by a dodgy knee done at Geelong. The Waterson brothers, Colin and Chris, are there too, with 79 league games of football between them. “You’ve got to include the Watersons when you’re talking (Nullawil’s) best players,” says Shane.

 

Colin kicked 10 goals in the 1976 Grand Final; Shane was at full back that day, blanketing a Culgoa-Berri forward by the name of Doran who was none too shy with his elbows, as recounted in an old verse written by Don McLennan and recorded in A History of the Nullawil Football Club by Ken Townrow.

 

They all peer at you from faded photos, eyes crinkled, arms folded.

 

Shane was a defender and a committed one at that, who won the 1969 Nullawil best and fairest from centre-half-back. He did his schooling in nearby Wycheproof, playing football with the products of the Mallee’s very best footy families. One such charger, Greg Kennedy, was recruited from Wycheproof to Eaglehawk, and then from Eaglehawk to Carlton. he would kick 12 goals in a match against Hawthorn in 1972.

 

Shane meanwhile left school at 14 and worked on a farm, like so many other Nullawil young men, in his youth. In 1962, he fell off a horse and badly injured his ankle. “They reckoned nothing was broken,” says Hogan, “but oh hell, there was something wrong with it for ages.”

 

Despite the dicky ankle, Shane made his debut in the Nullawil Reserves that year, “hobbling around” on a forward flank. He would break through for a senior debut in 1964 under the tutelage of the legendary Tony Tuck.

 

That season, Shane found his defensive straps in an under-18s interleague match “in Woomelang or Hopetoun”. Named at half-forward, he was thrown to full-back when his teammate playing the position “got the yipes up.”

 

“That was my first game in the backline,” remarks Shane. Then, chortling: “the centre-half-forward of the opposition kicked about 18 goals that day…I didn’t do too much kicking out.”

 

The forward was Graeme Cook, who would go on to play 37 games for Footscray in the late 1960s. Shane Hogan’s footballing career is dominated by paths crossed with league footballers.

 

Shane was “coming up on 17” in 1964, playing the last 7 games of the home-and-away year, but missing out on the Grand Final. He says he was poor in the seconds’ losing preliminary final. His brother ‘Whip’ Hogan reckoned he was unlucky.

 

“If I’d played a blinder I would have been a chance…(but) I played a shocker…some old bastard from Manangatang got a hold of me,” Shane reminisces.

 

“You weren’t supposed to take a mark against Manangatang, I can tell you.”

 

 

 

 

In 1966 under Norm Sharp, Shane was named on the half-back flank for his first senior flag, won comfortably over Sea Lake. In 1969, he played in his second Grand Final, which Nullawil lost in devastating circumstances.

 

“Of course, that one,” grimaces Shane. It was Shane’s dominant year at centre-half-back; he’d won the best-and-fairest by a decent margin. Under full-forward and playing coach Jeff Tracy – who had kicked 17 goals in a win over Berriwillock during the regular season – Nullawil played Sea Lake in the Grand Final. It was a rainy day at Sea Lake, one of very few. Nullawil had a good, tall side, and didn’t manage the wet weather well.

 

“We struggled a bit all day in that,” says Shane.

 

“(Jeff) Tracy came down and was helping us out in the backline in the last quarter. I said to him ‘I think we’re going a bit better, Jeff. I’d hate to get it up there and for you to not be there.’”

 

Tracy made his way back to full-forward, marking and, “after spending half-an-hour rubbing the mud off it,” put Nullawil in front late in the fourth quarter.

 

It was tough football. Nullawil were out on their feet, but had made the most of accurate kicking to lead 8.2 – 6.13. With the match now deep into time-on, the Maroons were surely safe.

 

Until, well.

 

Have a listen to find out what happened…

 

 

Sea Lake was a problem for Hogan and the Maroons – the next year, with Hogan best-and-fairest for a second straight season, Nullawil once again were runners-up to the powerful Mallee club.

 

But they would not need to wait long after for their next success.

 

 

 

 

Shane is still involved at the club, and he’s got his watchful eye on a list of young talents that Nullawil hopes to nurture. There’s a 14-year-old lanky forward who looks the type if he continues to grow and work on his kicking action. There’s a smaller, cheekier midfielder around the place, who could go league if he continues to work. Shane knows his football, proudly telling me of the time he and Jeff Gieschen picked out the same player for best on ground honours.

 

Of Nullawil, Shane echoes every reflection that I’ve heard from ex-players, every enduring takeaway from the Maroons.

 

“It’s always been a bloody good club. Everyone just loves coming back to it.”

 

 

Read more from Paddy Grindlay (including Part 1 and 2 of this series) Here.

 

 

 

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