A penny for this old fellah’s thoughts………He’s absorbed in watching the recent Milawa – Greta match from his vantage spot, just metres from the field of play…….
Nearby onlookers occasionally saunter over and engage him in conversation, but you suspect he’d rather be left in peace, engrossed as he is in following his team’s fortunes.
At half-time we renew acquaintances and I ask John Tanner if he’d mind me popping out to have a yarn…….”Dunno whether I can be much help,” he replies.
***
A few days later I’m negotiating my Ute through a herd of Friesian cattle which are lolling around the driveway leading up to his Greta South residence.
“Next year’s milkers” he explains .…..
The Tanners were among the original settlers in Greta almost 170 years ago……His grandfather selected land back in the 1850s…….And that’s where John has propped, living no more than a kilometre from where he was born….
He’s 91 (going on 92) and is a great rap for his old town……..”There’s nothing of it, but it’s got history to burn,” he says.
Of course, he grew up hearing all the stories about Greta’s link to bushrangers……His grandmother and Ned Kelly’s mum, Ellen, were first cousins and, in fact, his grandfather was once jailed for being a Kelly sympathiser…..
“As a little tacker I used to go down with Dad and visit Jim Kelly – Ned’s younger brother – when he was staying with old Albert Griffiths….I did have a photo, which got lost over the years, of me sitting between ‘em…….”
He’s been a long-term member of the Greta Cemetery Trust where Ned’s remains are buried near his mother’s unmarked grave………. He says it’s not so long ago that you’d round-up four or five locals to dig a grave for a person who had died…….”Not that I’m much of a help, physically, these days.”
***
John grew up with football in his blood…..
“Dad played for many years with Greta…..He’s in a couple of photos down at the Clubrooms, about 1921…..with a few other Tanners, O’Briens, old Harry Ryan, King Beattie and the rest….”
“They played in the King Valley comp in those days……They’d drape a sash of red across their shirts, or whatever, and nail stops into their Sunday-best boots…..”
He was 13 when Greta won its first Ovens and King flag…….
“I used to ride my horse down from here to the old ground (which was then over the road from the Greta cemetery) each Sunday.”
“There was a unique coaching arrangement whereby Fred O’Brien did the job during the week and the great Laurie Nash (who also coached Wangaratta to a premiership that season) would come out for a training session on Sundays.
“One of Nashy’s old South Melbourne team-mates, a big ruckman, would come up most weekends for a bit of a booze-up with Laurie,…….Us kids would follow ‘em around, of course….”
“I remember, the big fellah walking out to the centre of the ground, spotting a big bit of dry cowshit and saying to us: ‘Have a look at this will ya.’………He sat the ball on the cowshit and did a placekick…. straight through the big sticks, post-high!“
“Nashy got a lot of credit for the flag, but Fred O’Brien, who wasn’t short on confidence, used to say: ‘Laurie comes out on Sunday and tells ‘em exactly what I’ve told ‘em on Tuesday night’ “.
John saw Greta win that Grand Final against Myrtleford – on the Wangaratta Showgrounds – by 27 points…… One of the stars of the game was champion key position player Lionel Wallace who was to go on and win 7 Club Best and Fairests. He also won a League B & F and finished runner-up four times.
“Was he the best Greta player you’ve seen, John?” I ask.
“Yeah, by quite a bit….. ‘Liney’s fingers were about twice as long as mine, and his arms hung down around his ankles !……….Laurie Nash reckoned he’d have been a drawcard in Melbourne, but he never bothered to go down there…..Wang talked him into trying out with them, and he played centre half-back in three of their flags….”
Two years after watching Wallace dominate that 1946 Grand Final, John was playing alongside him…….
“The first year I started, I never got a game until one of the old blokes got injured….. I was able to hold onto my spot from then on….”
“A few of us started at about the same age – George Hillas, Max Newth, Fred Sudholz, Paddy Delaney and myself – and helped form the nucleus of the side for a few years……”
***
A bushfire which swept through Greta in the early fifties prompted the Club to move to its existing headquarters……It also ravaged the farm of its incumbent coach – Jimmy Hallahan – a former Fitzroy player.
“Jimmy was an old man when he started with us but, heck, he was a star…….A really skilful player. He had a big influence on us young fellahs, but he handed the job over to Ken Bodger in 1954…”
“Bodger was a bit unusual….He’d yell and roar like a bull…..When they shifted grounds they’d picked up an old hut from somewhere……That was our dressing-room…..In the midst of some of his tirades he’d slam the door and the whole hut would shudder……I dunno whether he taught us that much….”
Regardless, Bodger had a day out when he led the Purple and Golds into what became one of the most memorable of all O & K Grand Finals.
Greta trailed by 25 points at three quarter-time and had made little impression on Chiltern’s lead mid-way through the final term.
Many among the crowd had begun to wend their way home to milk their cows, convinced as they were that the Swans were impregnable.
But slowly, a change came over the match…..Greta nailed a couple…..Suddenly it was game on……Darkness was beginning to enshroud the ground when Bodger booted his ninth…..Then Greta West school-teacher-cum-forward flanker Bernie Greenwood snapped truly at the forty-four and a half minute mark to hand them the lead……Right on siren-time….
Outrage spread amongst Chiltern supporters who protested that the timekeepers had made a blunder………The game will forever be known for its ‘Long Last Quarter’…….
“I don’t know, but there were three time-keepers up there, and one of them was from Chiltern,” John recalls…….”When the bell did eventually go I was on Laurie Raines, the Chiltern coach…..All he could say was: ‘It’s too bloody late, it’s too late’….”
“We’ve never been friendly with Chiltern since…..”
Greta’s famous 1954 Premiership side
***
One of the stars of that game was Max Newth…. John Tanner’s life-long mate…….
“Gee, he was tough and determined, Max…..You could put him anywhere…..Played well above his size and weight …….When we decided to try our luck in town we travelled in to training together…..We got up to a fair bit of mischief over the years…”
The pair initially had a run with Wangaratta, Benalla and the Rovers.
“The Wang coach, Mac Holten, was a fairly regular visitor out here……He said to me one day: ‘Playing O & M footy is one thing but remember, playing with a successful side is another’…. That sort of stuck in my neck a bit….”
“The Rovers hadn’t been in the League all that long, but Dad was pretty cobbery with Manny Cochineas, an influential figure on their Committee…..That probably swayed us ….Besides, Bob Rose had just been appointed coach.”
John was milking around 80 cows in his old-style walk-through dairy……about as hard a yakka as you could get…….The Rovers organised for someone to take over the milking on Saturday nights….He’d train just once a week – Tuesday night.
“If we were playing up Albury way, we’d often have a team breakfast at Cochineas’ Cafe at 7.30am…..That’d mean getting up at about 4.30 to milk,” he recalls.
John and ‘Pigsy’ Newth became important cogs in a developing Rovers side. Max could be used anywhere, whilst John, a raw-boned six-footer, settled into a role either at full back, or keeping an eye on the resting ruckmen……
There was only one hiccup….. An early altercation against Corowa cost him two weeks.
“Some bloke drove the boots into ‘Rosey’……I took exception to it….Then another little fellah came in to remonstrate and I brushed him aside….probably a bit forcefully….”
He rated Rose as an exceptional leader.
“He was very genuine……I had a lot of time for him ….He, Elsie and the boys came out and stayed the night here a few times…… “
With Rose as their dynamo, the Hawks stormed to their first O & M Grand Final in 1958….John’s role in the big clash was to keep tabs on big Bulldog ruckman Percy Appleyard.
John Tanner tangles with Wodonga’s Percy Appleyard in the 1958 Grand Final
“It was a fairly tight tussle early on, but we managed to draw away and won fairly comfortably in the finish……I remember when we travelled back to the celebrations at the Rovers ground, there were about 3,000 people there…..It was a huge night….”
Wangaratta Rovers 1958 Premiership side. John Tanner is sixth from left, back row.
Max Newth is kneeling, next to Bob Rose.
1959 Prelim Final: Rovers players John McMonigle and John Tanner (No.4) defend against the Magpies.
The following season the Hawks again loomed large but Yarrawonga inflicted defeats upon them in successive games – Round 18 and the Second Semi.
When they met a fortnight later, the Hawks and Pigeons produced one of the great O & M Grand Finals, which went right down to the wire…….
The Chronicle reported of the high drama in the closing minutes: ‘A shock reverberated around the ground when the Rovers – down by three points – flashed the ball to Newth, who handballed quickly to Ray Burns racing past…..
“Burns fumbled, regained possession, and put the ball through…….Cheers quickly turned to groans, as umpire Beitzel, a trifle slow with his whistle, ruled a free against Newth for throwing…..Yarra quickly capitalised on the decision at the other end….”
The match ended in tears for the Hawks as they went down: 16.8 to 17.10……
John Tanner had been one of their stars, playing strongly in defence, and being shifted to centre half-back in an attempt to curb the dangerous Bob Flanagan.
It was the final game of his four-year stint with the Hawks…….
Hawks -Stan Trebilcock, Bob Rose, John Tanner and his brother-in-law Alan Bell – at a Club Ball.
With a young family and a hectic life on the dairy-farm, he decided to play out the remainder of his career with Greta, before hanging up the boots in his mid-thirties.
But two of his and Val’s sons continued the Tanner family’s tradition with their home Club (along with numerous cousins)…..
Barry played in their 1980 premiership and chalked up 105 games. Also an outstanding cricketer, he became a stalwart for Victorian Sub-District club, Balwyn.
Greg, a hard-hitting key position player, made 158 appearances with Greta, coached from 1985-‘87, and won a B & F in 1977.
When the Rovers lured him into town, Greg experienced immediate success, playing in flags in his first two seasons, and a Grand Final in his third……He finished his time at the Findlay Oval with 124 senior games.
John’s grand-daughter Lindsey notched up over 300 Netball games with Greta, played in 5 Premierships (coaching 3) and is a multiple Club B & F winner.
***
John’s youngest son Ian (“everyone calls him Bill”) has taken over the reins on the farm …..
“He came to me one day and said: ‘I think I’ll build a new dairy’…..and he did…….I just potter around, doing the noxious weeds, and feeding and yarding the cattle……If I had a new knee I’d be a lot handier…..”
He says dairying was all he knew…..” I started at 15, went out of it for 10-12 years, but never thought about doing anything else….”
Now the prospect of Greta potentially winning another flag puts a spring in his step…
“It’s a great club…..One of the few in the state without a pub in the town….It’s been a terrific effort to hang on……Thankfully, we’ve been fortunate to have a succession of good people running the place……”
If the Blues happen to reach their first Grand Final in 25 years, you can bet that the unofficial ‘Mayor’ of Greta will be there urging them on…..
This story appeared first on KB Hill’s website On Reflection and is used here with permission.
All photos sourced from KB Hill’s resources unless otherwise acknowledged.
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