Early January 1984:
You can already sense it…….It’s looming as an absolute ‘stinker’ when I kick off the bedclothes around day-break…………
We undertake the obligatory pre-match ritual………Roll the centre-strip for three-quarters of an hour………line the wicket………tidy the surrounds……..then duck home for a quick ‘bite’ before heading off for a morning’s work…….
Excitement permeates the air today……..We’re unveiling a new quickie, and I’m looking forward to watching his opening overs…….Word is that he’s a ‘gun’……..Can make the Kookaburra talk……….
As I nose the ute through the gates of the Findlay Oval I notice a tall, well-structured, ginger-bearded fellah completing laps of the Oval…….
Heck, I surmise, shouldn’t he be conserving energy for the long afternoon ahead ?
Alas……..that’s the first lesson that a few of our emerging youngsters learn…..the match-preparation and competitiveness of this newcomer is second-to-none, and will set the standard for the way they play the game…..
***
It’s a touch over forty years since Rod Davis flashed across the local sporting kaleidoscope…I remind him that Gary Elliott, one of his Rovers team-mates that day , is still playing in the club’s minor grades:
“Amazing……I still check the scores to see how he’s going,” he quips…..…”My first recollection of him was as an U16 player batting in the Seniors……Their opening bowler bounced him and Gary took him on; hooked him in front of square leg, along the ground. …I knew we had a player with fight and temperament…..”
In the period that has elapsed, Rod has made a significant contribution to Wangaratta in various ways – as an Educator, Coach, Volunteer and Journalist, among other things…….But I’ve specifically tracked him down to have a yarn about a stellar sporting career which kicked off in his old home town……….
Geelong in the early sixties, he says, was typified by its multitude of textile factories, and businesses such as the International Harvester Company, which attracted workers from around the globe.
“The diversity at the school I attended – Bell Park High – was terrific and I enjoyed growing up with it. Sport was a big part of our lives….”
He and his brother Harvey (later to play 43 games with Geelong) gravitated to local club Newtown & Chilwell….
“Harvey’s had a lengthy association with the Club, and is a Life Member. I played my first Senior game of footy there at 15. It’s always been a good Club…..progressive, well-administered….In fact, they’ve recently appointed Wang boy Steve Johnson as non-playing coach…..”
After a season of cricket with Newtown & Chilwell, Rod was recruited to Geelong’s Sub-District team:
“They had a fantastic system, as they were able to pick the eyes out of the Geelong CA clubs and always had a very strong Senior side….The Seconds were led by a 42-year-old ex-Geelong footballer and outstanding cricketer called Frank Pike, in charge of a bunch of kids.”
“At 16 years of age, I was one of them….He was such a good captain…..didn’t over-coach you but gave simple instructions, like ‘Keep it pitched up and aim at the stumps’….Then he’d tell you: ‘I’ve put a bloke out there, Bowl to your field’….He just kept it simple.”
Rod took 62 wickets until just after Christmas….When they promoted him into the Firsts, he picked up another 20 wickets in the remaining five games.
Mid-way through the following season he was recruited by reigning District Premiers South Melbourne……….
“Everyone said: ‘What a great opportunity,” he recalls.
He went straight into the First XI side and picked up five wickets on debut, but often wonders whether it was a mistake going to South.
“Put it this way, they played the VFL Night Series at the Lake Oval which ate into the start of the cricket season. Consequently, there wouldn’t be a blade of grass on the pitch….just rolled clippings…After 5-6 overs the ball was chewed up……It was a bit of a fast bowler’s graveyard.”
“I regarded myself and (Shield and Test bowler) Alan Hurst as being on a par, but he was bowling on a hard, fast Footscray wicket…..I was a bit more sophisticated in terms of technique, but had to stumble along on this shit track at South….The slower wickets take the edge off you.”
“If I’d gone anywhere else I could’ve concentrated on my pace, but I had to develop another string to my bow and become more of a craftsman…..Quite by accident, that’s how I discovered reverse swing.”
He shared the new ball with Alan Connolly (when ‘Al Pal’ wasn’t on Test or Shield duty) and often bowled in tandem with a prolific leggie, Leigh Baker, and left-arm paceman (and South footballer) Russell Cooke.
Rod was 18 and finishing Year 12 when he started at South. He would often travel from home to training with fellow Geelong-ite Ian Redpath, who convinced him of the virtues of the Club, and their renowned senior coach Joe Plant.
It was Plant’s tuition and support, ‘Redders’ pointed out, that had assisted in his early development as a batsman. That was affirmation to the young quick who had also benefited from his advice and that of his assistant, Tommy Lahiff.
***
Rod’s consistent performances for the Swans were rewarded with selection in the State squad, but the opportunity to represent the ‘Big V’ never eventuated…..
He captured 154 wickets in his six VCA seasons, including eight 5-wicket hauls.
The best of them – 8/33 against Richmond in 1972 – included the scalps of State players Graeme Yallop, Peter Williams, Dave Cowper and Russell Sincock. His 6/68 against St. Kilda, in one of his early games, had initially brought him under notice.
Whilst attending University he continued to return home to play football with Newtown & Chilwell. When he enquired about somewhere close handy to train in the city, Tommy Lahiff suggested his old club, Port Melbourne.
“Port ended up talking me into playing……and what an experience that was….”
“My Senior debut was against Dandenong on an awful, boggy day…… I’m wearing glasses with plastic lenses and have taken an early mark when big Paddy Guinane arrives on the scene and stomps on me….all the way down my back.”
“The umpie handed me a 15-metre penalty and the old Port trainer ran out and gave Paddy a decent pay-out…….That was my first indication that Port people stick up for their own.”
“They were a really strong club with a working-class ethic and a host of colourful identities around the place…..A law unto themselves, I suppose you’d say….”
“Sixteen-a-side footy seemed to suit me…….They’d probably have regarded me as a better than average VFA player…..”
***
Armed with his Uni degree, Rod headed to Hamilton, in the far south-west of the state, for his first teaching appointment.
Initially, he took the three and a half hour trip back to play District cricket each weekend but eventually decided to saddle up with local club St. Andrews where he had forged some strong friendships.
In the ensuing ten years he was to re-write the H.C.A record-books……
St. Andrews featured in the Grand Final every year, snaring five flags…..The Davis pace and fire at first posed problems, not only to opposition batsmen, but for his team-mates behind the wicket, who struggled to get a hand to those flying edges.
In a master-stroke, live-wire 16-year-old fielder Robert Templeton was handed the gloves and a brilliant wicket-keeping career was born. Destined to keep for Victoria, and named in Melbourne Cricket Club’s Team of the Century, he assisted in many of the 317 wickets that Rod snared for the Saints.
Both Davis and Templeton were named in the Hamilton Cricket Association Team of the Century in 2008.
Rod made two trips to Melbourne Country Week with Hamilton and was a regular in their inter-town side. This led to his selection for the three international matches which were held in the area.
He took two wickets against India at Portland, snared four victims against the Pakistanis at Stawell and took great delight in knocking over legend Martin Crowe’s leg stump in Vic Country’s match against New Zealand at Horsham.
He enjoyed his taste of cricket captaincy with St. Andrews: “I could control things, read the tempo of the game.”
But he admits that his time as a footy coach came about quite by accident………
***
“When I first arrived in Hamilton I had a bit of a spell from football…….My only involvement was coaching in the local Junior League.”
“Hamilton hadn’t appointed a Senior coach at that stage, so they asked me to take training…
“Then, when the new coach arrived, an ex-Carlton player called Ted Aldridge, I decided to have a game….”
Hamilton fell just one point short of East Gambier in the Preliminary Final in Rod’s first year. He was lauded for the role he’d played as assistant-coach and for controlling the big man duels.
Expectation was high the following season. The Magpies had recruited strongly but dropped several early games and the pressure was on……As so often happens, coach Aldridge was in the firing line.
“A deputation arrived around home about 8am one Friday morning, with the news that they’d sacked Ted Aldridge and wanted me to replace him…..Of course, when that happens, everyone’s upset…. players, wives, supporters…not much good comes out of it.”
“I didn’t want to be coach but they were in a spot……The players were okay with it but I didn’t handle it too well at another level……Just took on too much responsibility…..”
“My coaching stint lasted for two years…..and that was plenty long enough….”
A local, Paul Cranage, who’d returned from Collingwood took over the reins.
Rod says that, with regards to leadership, he was better suited being a supporter of someone rather than calling the shots himself: “I could act strategically as an assistant-coach and make recommendations. But when you’re the coach, people are looking for you to do a whole range of other things…..”
***
His final move in employment was to Wangaratta….
“We’d had a great time in Hamilton….My wife Karen would have been happy to stay there….But I accepted an appointment at the High School and the Rovers contacted me about playing cricket with them…”
The Hawks hadn’t seen any finals action for a few years. Their side comprised a handful of veterans and a crop of promising youngsters in their first or second year of senior cricket, so the advent of a quality quick was ‘manna from heaven’.
They probably underestimated the talent of the player who landed in their lap…….
A couple of fellahs who have had a long association with WDCA cricket rate him among the best bowlers to have embraced its ranks.
He was aggressive, an avid trainer in the nets, rarely wasted a delivery, and was a brilliant technician.
To exemplify the work he put into his craft, Rod says it took him two years to learn to bowl a leg-cutter at will……..
“And if I decided I wasn’t going to bowl at your leg-stump, I’d concentrate outside the off peg……You just keep working until you learn how to do it…….At District level, that’s what separates the really good players from the battlers.”
In his two and a bit WDCA seasons he won the competition bowling average twice and helped the Rovers to successive flags.
He downplays his own influence in the premierships though, stating that the arrival of a crafty spinner (and fellow school-teacher), Alan White added the necessary variety to the attack.
The Hawks survived a close semi-final in 1984/85 before batting throughout the three days of a rain-interrupted Final. As the ladder-leaders they were awarded the flag.
The following year they amassed 410 in the Final against United who replied with 210:
“Gary Elliott bowled extra quick that day to take the first two wickets, then Alan White captured the rest, to finish with 8/73,” he recalls.
That game, in March 2006, was the Davis swansong. He coached the Rovers Under 16s for a couple of seasons, before moving on to other pursuits……
Rovers’ WDCA Premiership Team of 1984/85
Rod Davis is fourth from left, back row.
***
“I generally run in five-year cycles,” he says. “I get really interested in something, then find the need to take on another project.”
“Bushwalking became a real passion, then I took up bird-watching big-time…….Went all over Australia following it…..”
He’s been an avid bike-rider and, at one stage, was chalking up 10-12,000km a year……”We went to Europe 6 times with Pannier’s cycle touring group. Our longest ride was 4,500kms across six different countries …..Loved all that….”
He and Karen are still doing plenty of travelling and you might see him floating around town on a recumbent bike…..He finds that a touch more comfortable for his aching frame.
For seven years Rod was one of a group of volunteers who preserved the history of many St. John’s Village and Wangaratta citizens by penning their Life Stories….. 42 of them, in fact….. He says the book launches were exciting days.
One of his proudest productions was the history of Wangaratta’s Sheltered Workshop: ‘A Dream Come True’…….” It really is a fabulous place.”
He’s currently writing his family’s history with the help of his siblings Harvey and Johanne.
As I depart the Davis residence I notice a classic guitar sitting in the corner of his lounge-room.
“That’s another obsession of mine…..I devote about two hours a day to it,” says this man with many hats………..
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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