Ken Piesse: Favourites sons of the GOULBURN VALLEY

KEN PIESSE: FAVOURITE SONS FROM THE GOULBURN VALLEY

Years ago I was interviewing an old Australian cricketer, one-Test wonder George Thoms, when he stopped in mid-sentence and said: ‘Ken… you’re a good listener.’

‘George,’ I said, ‘I just love hearing all your stories.’

Footy or cricket, I have been a sucker for a good yarn ever since I was a kid collecting and cutting up the old Footy Fan magazine (wish I hadn’t done that… they’re worth a small fortune now!)

Graduating from kid to journalist was an ever-so-happy process especially as it introduced me to some of football’s golden greats and those who recruited them. I can still relate how big Jim Wallis came from Quambatook and John Sharrock from Tooleybuc. These were mysterious, faraway places for a young sports-crazy kid like me.

In time I was to meet many of the bush wonders. Their tales were classic and I put many of the best of their stories into one of my books, The Greatest Game (available from www.cricketbooks.com.au, $20 post free.)

Probably my favorite concerns one of the most celebrated country legends, Jack Mueller from Echuca.

Percy Page was known as the prince of League secretaries back in the ‘30s and I met him years later and he was soon telling me about his greatest coup, the recruiting of Mueller, who was to play in almost a dozen League Grand Finals at Melbourne.

Percy was tipped off by an old mate about Mueller, who even at 16 was 6ft 3in and could outmark the men.

Percy soon heard, via the grapevine that a rival club was intending to head north the following weekend and sign Mueller.

It was a Monday and Percy downed tools and up he went to Echuca, by train, arriving just before dark fall. He didn’t want to miss his man.

‘Jack’s at work,’ he was told. ‘He’s on night shift.’

Percy said if the Mueller’s didn’t mind, he’d wait and shortly before midnight, in big Jack trooped, flour all over him from his work at the local mill.

Percy went into overdrive telling Jack what he’d told his parents. Opportunities abounded in Melbourne. He could make a great success of himself. Jack and his Mum were keen but Frank Mueller, a former Stawell Gift sprinter, kept shaking his head. The Great Depression of the early ‘30s was still biting. ‘I want him to have a nine to five job, Mr. Page,’ he said. ‘Regular money.’
In those days even the stars made very little. Football was very much a leisure.

Mrs Mueller asked Percy if he wouldn’t mind waiting in the kitchen. ‘Dad,’ she said, ‘this might be his (Jack’s) chance in life. We’d better let him go.’

On debut with the Demons, the spring-heeled 17-year-old from Echuca kicked four goals and followed with seven. He was to become an alltime legend of the game and in 1948, aged 33, he made a comeback and kicked 20 premiership-winning goals in three finals.

In those days Echuca played in the Bendigo League. Now they are entrenched in the Goulburn Valley, one of the proudest footballing areas of them all and recent winners of the Country Championship.

The lists of stars at every club made the selection of my 10 GVFL favorites particularly difficult… and the stories flowed from Mueller on.

One of country footy’s most passionate ‘Rocket’ Rod Gillett told me how proud he was when four of Kyabram’s 1965 Grand Final team, including his neighbour Dick Clay were included in opening round teams in 1966. Clay was in the XVIII at Richmond, Ross Dillon Melbourne, Maurie Fowler Carlton and Frank Fanning Footscray.

‘As a young boy in Kyabram in the mid-‘60s doing the breakfast dishes before school one morning,’ Rod told me. ‘I looked out the kitchen window and spotted a new Holden car in the Clay’s driveway. The next thing Dick snr walks outside and looks befuddled, goes inside and comes out with young Richard. They walked together around the car and looked totally mystified at its appearance. As it turns out officials of the Richmond Football Club had placed the car in the driveway overnight (as a signing-on gift).

‘At the time Dick jnr was signed to North Melbourne but once the agreement expired – and he had ran the car in – he signed with the Tigers! By then Shepparton coach Tommy Hafey had agreed to coach Richmond – and despite the fierce rivalry between “Ky” and “Shepp”, Dick joined Tommy at Richmond and was a part of all the great teams of the mid to late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Having four of our local boys make the opening round of the 1966 season in Melbourne is some feat, one I doubt can be bettered by any country, suburban or amateur club.’

Thanks so much Rod for those golden memories.

One club which comes to mind who also regularly produced League players was Sandhurst in the Bendigo League and in 1970, three of their rising local stars Trevor Keogh, Paul Hurst and Brian Walsh all debuted in round 1 with Carlton. Twelve months later, Geoff Southby, also a Sandhurst boy, debuted at Arden St. in the first round.

My task of narrowing a list of 30 or so favorites down to 10 was truly agonising. I would have loved to have also introduced post-war premiership specialist Normie Minns (from Wangaratta and Benalla), Carlton’s current star Andrew Walker and Shepparton’s will-o-the-wisp Barrie Vagg into the mix. Prolific goalkicker Trevor Eddy, from Shepparton United was another star and still one of the best drop kicks I’ve seen at any level.

In alphabetical order (as always), here they are… my favorites from the Goulburn Valley and immediate surrounds:

Dick Clay: Kicked a century of goals for Kyabram as a teenager (in 1964) to prompt a rare recruiting duel between North Melbourne and Richmond. The day after North’s hold on him expired, Richmond pounced and 200 games and four premierships later, Clay remains one of the Tiger immortals, a member of one of the great all-time centrelines: Bourke, Barrot and Clay.

Barry Connolly: Twenty-eight of his 50 years in footy were spent at Shepparton United.
Six premierships as a player, nine more as a coach and 32 inter-league representative selections stretching all over Victoria and into the Riverina cap off one of the most remarkable bush footballing CV’s of them all. Barry’s son, Chris, emulated his Dad and played League football in the Big Smoke. He also coached at AFL level and is still involved now at on-the-rise Melbourne.

Gary Cooper: Another Shepparton boy, Gary played 28 representative games including 21 for the Goulburn Valley and seven with the Western Border League. He clocked centuries at Tatura and Mooroopna and also played a couple of years at United. Everywhere he went he won best and fairest awards, including three Morrison Medals, the Goulburn Valley’s best and fairest award.

Gavin Exell: One of the great sticky-fingered talents still good enough at the age of 40 to kick 100 goals in the Kyabram & District League, Gavin was a success everywhere he played from Stanhope to Geelong. He booted nine that famous day at Princes Park in which Hawthorn came back from 10-1 goals to defeat the Cats in one of the great home-and-away comebacks of the ‘80s.

Garry Lyon: I was at Essendon sitting just behind Melbourne legend and a mate of mine ‘Big Bob’ Johnson one day. In front of us a teenage Garry Lyon was doing what he pleased. Bob turned around to me and nodded. This kid was going to be good. He was to be very, very good and like his father Peter, who played in a centre in the ‘63 Grand Final, he was a big match player of outstanding quality. One torpedo matchwinning goal in the mud against Hawthorn at Princes Park one holiday Monday was kicked virtually from the centre. I can still see its flight now. It was massive.

Anthony ‘Tank’ McPhee: Holder of the Rochester and Goulburn Valley games record (with 410 senior games), Tank first played senior footy as a 14-year-old and says he can still remember just about each and every kick from his three winning Rochie premierships. Tank went more than 20 years as a senior XVIII player at Rochester. He was a remarkable servant.

Perry Meka: More than 500 games of country football is a mighty achievement and Meka deserves his exulted status as one of the very best and most enduring players from central Victoria. With stints at Lemnos his original club where he first played as a 16-year-old, Numurkah, Tongala and the Shepparton Swans, alongside his nephew Adrian. He’s still in charge of the Swans and has his cousin Adem Yze as his assistant coach and star recruits in Russell Robertson and Nathan Brown.
His favourite moment came in 1993 when Ardmona defeated powerhouses Lancaster in the ‘Districts’ Grand Final. ‘The year before, my first year out coaching, we made the Grand Final and lost,’ he said. ‘I’d kicked 173 goals and was thinking I couldn’t do any better than that and might move on. But the committee talked me into having one more crack and in ‘93 we won the club’s first flag in 46 years. Lancaster had won more than 30 games in a row. They were red hot to win again and we beat them by three or four goals. It was an amazing day, one I’d never ever swap.’

Shane O’Bree: At least three O’Bree’s have played 100 games at Euroa, including Dick O’Bree who is coach of Euroa’s Team of the Century. Softly-spoken Shane has been an enduring influence at Collingwood and could even find himself in another Grand Final this year with the Pies vying strongly with Geelong and Fremantle for line honors. Mick Malthouse rates him and ‘wraps’ from Mick are hard to earn!

Ian ‘Bluey’ Shelton: A rough and tumble key defender from Avenal way, Shelton played in two Essendon premierships in the early to mid ‘60s before returning to the bush and continuing to intimidate. My neighbour would take me to Essendon’s Windy Hill as a kid on Saturdays and he’d always be urging me to watch No.10 (Shelton). He was big, aggressive and made teammates around him walk tall.

Damien Yze: A cousin of Perry Meka and a very gifted allround sportsman, Damien was Wayne Carey-like with his dominance of country football in the early 2000s. In one year he kicked 158 goals, including 25.6 (from 40 kicks) in a home-and-away game and 10 in the Grand Final. Injuries had interrupted his attempts to make it at Essendon and he re-assessed his priorities, preferring to play with family and friends in the bush. One of his brothers Adem remains one of Melbourne’s very best, having played more than 200 games and attaining All-Australian status.

* NEXT WEEK: Footy author Ken Piesse selects his favourite 10 players from….. the Sunraysia