Greg Rosser is a self-confessed ‘sports-nut’……..
In his heyday – almost half-a-century ago – he was a quadruple O & M premiership footballer, an automatic selection against international cricket teams, and a former Victorian Second XI player………As a proven coach and administrator, he’s the obvious person to quiz about the local sporting heroes of his generation…….
‘The Happy Hooker’: Greg Rosser
***
“I’m walking past 21 Scott Street, Wangaratta, when a kid yells out: ‘Wanna play, mate ?‘………
It was 1952…..I was five; he was seven, and that was my introduction to footy and cricket in our wild, wild West End neighbourhood….
The participants in those hard-fought backyard games of cricket were the kid in question – John Welch – his little brother Geoff, me from nearby Orkney Street, and Eric Cornelius from around the corner, in Hogan Street…..
Even then, John was a star in my eyes………
I remember he, Eric and me running from Appin Park to the Sisely Avenue crossing in 1956, carrying Olympic Torch-style jam tins nailed to a stick, ablaze with a camphor-smothered rag……We were there to catch a glimpse of the real Olympic Torch being carried through town.
Were we imagining things when we spotted a dapper old bloke there in a neat brown suit and pork-pie hat ?……We reckoned it had to be Don Bradman…….
John and Eric would soon become gun players with Junior League club South Wanderers, and would both scurry from the High School to work part-time with the immortal Bob Rose, who operated the Sports Store in Murphy Street.
Youngsters Eric Cornelius and John Welch, with the great Bob Rose.
Geoff Welch grew up with, played and coached alongside Greg Rosser.
Here he provides his son Shane with some batting tips.
Imagine that !……You’d hardly call it work; spending time in the company of the person dubbed ‘Mr. Football’; acknowledged as the greatest player in Australia…..I was lucky enough to also land that job for a while and, to me, he remained my hero for the rest of his life.
The four of us backyard cricketers ?……..Well, we all went on to play a lot of footy and cricket together, and those Scott Street days proved an ideal launching-pad for our careers…..
Cornelius and Welch in later years
***
My grandfather, Graham Cairnduff, was an integral part of the sporting fabric of our town. He was typical of many an unsung hero when it came to sports administration…….
Graeme Cairnduff – ‘The Organiser’
A week in the life of the Cairnduffs would comprise outings on two or three weeknights and every weekend to either cricket, football, Golf, Lawn Bowls, Carpet Bowls, Tennis or Croquet……
You’d go to Bowls or Golf with Pop and he’d be the bloke taking the entries; getting people out on the rinks or the course……He loved it……At the trots on a Saturday night he was in the Secretary’s Office, organising fields and finalising nominations.
If you tuned in to 3NE on a Saturday morning, his dulcet tones would come across the air-waves, along with his mate ‘Doc’ Findlay……They’d ramble on for half an hour or so, but just about every bowler in the North-East would listen in for their popular prognostications.
The most important thing about Pop though, was that he ensured nobody was left out of things……..
***
On the occasions we’d walk up from our house to my grandparents who lived in Phillipson Street, we’d hopefully catch sight of a curly-haired young fellah who’d be visiting his girlfriend’s place three doors down from the back gate at West End Primary School…..
It was Lance Oswald who, in his mid-teens, was already a star with Wangaratta and was regarded as a hero among us local kids.
One of Wangaratta’s greatest sporting exports: Lance Oswald
Later, on our infrequent visits to Melbourne, Dad would pull up at the cafe’ in Kilmore where we’d order a ‘Burger…….Across the road, at the Red Lion pub there’d be 5-6 carloads of Wang people who’d travelled down to watch Lance play for St Kilda.
Of course, he was to become a League champion, eventually being named as the centreman in the Saints’ Team of the Century……….
***
I was a big bike-riding fan, and wouldn’t have missed a Wangaratta Carnival for more than thirty years. Some of those Aces 5-mile Scratch races were about as good as sport can get……. Come to think of it, the whole ANA weekend, with the accompanying Lawn Tennis Tournament, showed the town in a fantastic light.
And it reminds you of the unsung heroes that made it happen……Like Norm Minns and his mates spending weeks and months making sure the Gift and distance tracks were world-class…. ‘Mulga’ Smith flipping over the lap numbers and ringing the bell-lap……Kevin Howard on the starter’s pistol….Geoff Webster ensuring that the Gift track was brilliantly lit up for the major sprints…..
Ron Harding and his local Axemen hosted the world’s best wood-choppers…….the water-truck drivers kept the dirt bike track as safe as possible……St John’s First-Aid…the Gate-Attendants, Presidents, Secretaries and Committee members, all volunteers, contributed to an event which attracted the world’s best to the Showgrounds….
It was the same down at Merriwa Park where it was ‘all hands on deck’ to have the Lawn Courts in pristine condition and the ANA Tournament running as smoothly as ever……..
What about the hush that fell over the crowd when that legendary commentator Eddie Bush would dramatically announce: “And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, we come to the running of the Final of the Wangaratta Gift (or Wheelrace)…
I can still see ‘Puddy’ Vincent pushing his little legs to stave off the field in the 1975 Wheelrace Final……It was met with raucous applause whenever a local entered the record books as a winner of the coveted Wheelrace or Gift ……..
Norm Minns preparing for the Wangaratta Carnival (with Dave Wohlers)
Alan (Pud) Vincent takes out the 1975 Wang Wheelrace
That’s why ‘Pud’, ‘Pettsy’, ‘Clarkey’, ‘Simmo’, Terry Ryan, Wally ‘Pas’, Greg O’Keeffe, Jason Boulton, Jimmy Doolan and Jack Sommer all became local heroes in our eyes……..
***
When I was growing up, the big names in local cricket were Mac Holten, Max Bussell and Stan Trebilcock. I was around ten years of age when they played key roles in taking Wangaratta to its greatest triumph – Country Week Provincial-Group champions.
‘Tige’: Max Bussell
And they couldn’t be prouder of the fact that they paved the way for us to remain in Country Victoria’s elite group for 20 years competing against – and beating – some towns three and four times bigger than us…….
What a thrill it was to line up alongside ‘Tige’ and ‘Trebly’, two more of my heroes, as they helped initiate me and many others into the hurly-burly of Melbourne Country Week…..
I mentioned Norm Minns earlier…….He and ‘Hopper’ McCormick, staunch Magpies, and from the opposite side of the laneway in respect of my footy leanings, were heroes for their promotion of Junior football.
They couldn’t do enough to encourage kids in the town to play the game; to have the Junior League running smoothly, and providing a pathway for the more talented ones to be selected in the Schoolboys sides for the State Championships……..
***
“You are now working for the toughest boss in the World – the people of Wangaratta, ” they told me……
It was May 1st 1975, and the message was delivered by a couple of the city’s legends – the Mayor, Kevin Howard, and that great sportsman and bloke, Max Bussell….
I had just been appointed assistant-manager of the Wangaratta Stadium…….I resolved immediately that it would be my life’s work……and it was !
The following Labour Day week-end we welcomed every State and National Basketballer to a pre-season camp…..There he was, the famous coach, Lindsay Gaze, waving directions to basketball identities like his son Andrew, Brian Goorjian, Phil Smyth and Cal ( CJ) Bruton, surrounded by Boomers and Opals.
As we farewelled participants in one of the earliest tournaments, the best Basketballer I ever saw fired off the first high-five I’ve seen: “Best boards I ever played on, man,” said the effervescent Cal Bruton to Max Bussell…..
Volleyball, table-tennis, badminton, netball, cricket, soccer, squash and racquetball players made use of the facility……The Wangaratta Stadium teemed with enthusiastic sporting action…….
Every day for the next 28 years was a buzz, piloting the operation and management of Australia’s first-ever community transformer.
The versatility of the Stadium saw it take on a different persona, hour after hour, day after day……The vibe was continuously buoyant…..It was great to be a part of……..
***
In 1984, Greg was 37, and leading Whorouly in the O & K Preliminary Final, when he suffered a life-changing accident……….
Luckily, he was in reasonable physical shape, which helped him recover from being declared an incomplete quadriplegic, after spending months in the Austin Hospital………
The Austin doctors’ initial verdict of ‘never to walk again’ weighed heavily on his mind…….By comparison, he recalls the bloke in the next bed chomping on, and swallowing, a thermometer in a desperate bid to end it all………
He didn’t have the good fortune of being part of the Wangaratta sports-mad community…….
Greg’s family, and the mates he had lived, learned and played with joined arms and willed his lifeless body back into action by their compassionate reaction to his dilemma……..
They, he says, we’re his greatest heroes………
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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