Our land of plenty

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!

Comments

  1. pamela sherpa says

    Nice one Chris

  2. craig dodson says

    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.!

  3. 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!

Leave a Comment

*