Our land of plenty, a faraway zone
That lodged in the mind of this schoolboy at home
O’er the horizon and far from my gaze
But a hot-bed of promise even in Bloods bad old days
The Farrer League clubs carried names full of song
There was Culcairn , Coolamon and Grong Grong Matong
And whilst not all our boys were ripped away from the farm
Our list had some magic through this country charm
Our zone marked the line between thin necks and thick
North of the line they’d sooner chuck it than kick
The club list in The Record, studied after the match
Spawned dreams of the next champ to come from our patch.
Henty and Osborne are etched in my brain and
Ganmain’s Dennis Carroll is in the same vein.
The Rock south of Wagga, linked with Yerong Creek
To give us Brett Scott; stand-in coach for a week!
Mangoplah-Cookardinia united as one
Was the home of Wayne Carroll, or “Christmas” to some
Lockhart’s Gleeson and the burly Max Kruse
Collingullie’s Hounsell; amongst the best we would choose.
Terry O’Neill who called full-back his home
From Narranderra in the far West of our zone
Ardlethan, Walbundrie where they trained in near-dark
And then there’s Quadey -our Captain- from Ariah Park.
The big smoke of Wagga has a legendary name
As the home town of heroes that have played many games
The Lawsons and Taylors and Slaters in creams
The Mortimer Brothers live in NRL dreams
But Wagga for me is their Tigers of old
That yielded Pitura and Hawke from their fold
Or beyond my youth but still putting fire in my belly
Captain Courageous; our legend Paul Kelly.
And Wagga has “burbs”; there’s the Turvey Park men
Murphy and Mooney and were huge amongst them
Greg Smith from East Wagga was our Bionic Man
But the Pies came and took him…as Collingwood can
Yes our zone had its raiders, they stole “Horse” and “Duck”
Cos the cheque book was king with the Swans down on luck
And some farmers from “Woop-Woop”; Ungarie’s the place
Have us ruing the day that Nifty Fields showed his face.
With the passage of time and from all I’ve been told
It is clear that the Farrer was not recruiting mans gold
But two games or two-fifty, it didn’t matter to me
It gave me my heroes that wore the Red “V”.
Chris Bracher
About chris bracher
Known to stare longingly down Clarendon St still wondering how his red and white heroes ever left him, Chris Bracher's pining for his relocated team has been somewhat appeased by recent Bloods glory....but the pain never truly goes away!
Nice one Chris
as a proud wagga boy who played a few Games for Turvey, the SOuth Wagga Tolland Dons (RIP!) and Mango i reaaly enjoyed reading this and remembering just how much the Riverina region has contributed to the Game. great read.!
Reg Gleeson, a handy back man in his day. What about Collingulie, home of Colin Hounsell. Are they Riverina league?
Glen!
PS: What league is Leeton in, the home of Rod Coelli ?
Glen!