He greets me in his standard holiday clobber…….Black tradie’s singlet, well-worn navy blue shorts, and slip-on sandals…….He’s no fashion-plate, that’s for sure…..
Admittedly, a bit of beef has been added to a 191cm frame, which, in his sporting heyday, tipped the scales at 88kg………Even so, for a rising 53-year-old who agrees that he’s conducive to a refreshing ale on a hot day, he still looks in reasonable shape…….
A hearty chuckle which emanates from somewhere deep within his throat regularly punctuates our conversation as Damien Simmonds reflects on bits and pieces of a colourful career in Basketball, Footy and Cricket……
‘Simmo’ sends one down, under the watchful eye of umpire Russ Ingram
***
Basketball has always been ‘Simmo’s’ number 1 sporting love…..still is.
“If I had my time over again I’d have really concentrated on it…….I grew up watching Mum and her sisters playing with Alpines in the local comp and spent a lot of time hanging around the Stadium………” he says.
It also helped that Trevor Trimble, a local Basketball legend and coach, was his next-door neighbour…..
Damien lined up with Hustlers, one of the WDBA’s power Clubs…… Blessed with agility and a prodigious leap, he won a competition B & F and was 16 when he played his first rep game for Wangaratta.
“In those days the Wangaratta Warriors always had good battles with Albury and sometimes beat ‘em in tournaments…..The standard was terrific,and there was the occasional American import, like John Miranda or Ken Henry, to boost our side……
The big highlight for me, though, was when we took on a Latvian touring team which included Olympians and World Champions. ….”
Later on, he says, basketball sometimes clashed with footy which tended to provoke the ire of his various coaches…….
“I’d say: ‘I won’t be at footy training on Tuesday night, Cardy (Ray Card)’…..’Why’s that ?’ he’d ask……’Oh, Basketball’…..It used to piss him off a bit but, then, it wasn’t like I was sitting on my arse doing nothing…….”
***
‘Simmo’ loves the Great Outdoors……As a young tacker he’d go fishing, ferreting and shooting with his Grandpop, Dave Meloury…….Even today, there’s nothing better, he says, than getting out in his canoe or spending a day or two camping.
He admits he wasn’t all that wrapped up in footy as a kid……….It was only when a prominent Magpie recruiter, ‘Ab’ Comensoli, knocked on his door that he gave it more than a passing thought…..
“I’d been playing with Junior Magpies, and ‘Ab’ said he hadn’t noticed me down at Thirds training yet……..I thought I’d better do the right thing by him……”
He played in the Thirds for half a season, got promoted to the Reserves, then made his Senior debut against Albury in the final Home and Home round of 1988.
“The following week we met Yarrawonga in the Elimination Final at the Rovers’ ground…..’Spud’ Adamo, our gun goal-kicker, did a hamstring early on so I got lumbered at full forward for the last half…..” .
He kicked five goals but the Pigeons came from 23 points down at three-quarter time to sneak over the Magpies by four points.
Then a few letters started to arrive in the mail…….
***
After just two O & M senior games, League scouts had been alerted to the gifted key forward who’d meteorically arrived on the scene, having bypassed all of the conventional recruiting channels……..
Eleven VFL/AFL clubs declared their interest…….It didn’t perturb ‘Simmo’ much, though….He was of the opinion that nothing would come of it……
But when he was invited to play in a State-wide Talent Carnival in Melbourne shortly after – and booted 14 goals in two matches – there was genuine excitement about the potential of the lithe, sleek-moving, high-leaping youngster……
One Tuesday, a month or so later, he was at the Wangaratta Bowls Club working as an apprentice green-keeper when his Mum turned up to tell him he’d been drafted…….
“Bullshit”, I replied…..”You’re kidding…..”
He was one of four draftees from the two Wangaratta clubs….Chris Naish was selected by Richmond with their number 5 pick, Danny Craven became a Saint at pick 12, Scott Williamson moved to West Coast at pick 44, and Fitzroy plumped for the 18 year-old Simmonds with the following selection.
Damien recalls that from the moment he arrived in the city he began to pine for the wide open spaces of home……
The Lions found board for him with a kind old soul out Dandenong way…….”Coming from the Meloury clan I was used to beautiful, home-cooked meals”, he says…….”But I’d arrive home from training to this deathly-quiet, dark house, sit down to some cold tucker, then off to bed……”
“I told ‘em: ‘I can’t do this….I don’t like it”…….”They said: ‘Oh, we’ll find somewhere else for you…..’ A bloke called Glenn Warry used to pick me up and cart me around everywhere and he could tell I wasn’t enjoying it…..I just didn’t give ‘em a chance…..I wasn’t mentally ready to make the move….”
He made eight appearances in the Thirds and admits he produced a reasonable vein of form ……”We were playing Essendon out at Windy Hill one day and this kid was playing about 2 metres in front of me……I kept sitting on his head all day, taking marks……..Right down my alley…..I remember his coach, ’Slug’ Jordan, squawking out from the boundary: ‘If ya keeping doin’ that, son, he’s gonna mark over ya all day…..For God’s sake play closer…”
Halfway through the 1989 season Damien had had enough…..He pulled the pin and returned to Wangaratta.
He looked every inch the League prospect that Fitzroy tipped he would become over the next few seasons; his aerial skills and agility proving equally effective at either half -orward or half-back.
His first O & M representative honours came in 1991 when, despite dreadful inaccuracy in front of goals, he helped the Black and Gold to an exciting 12-point victory over the Latrobe Valley League at Albury – 16.22 to 16.10.
Another handy performance against the Hampden League resulted in selection for the VCFL against South Australian Country in a curtain-raiser to a big Interstate clash at Adelaide’s Football Park.
Victorian Country v South Australian Country, 1991.Damien Simmonds is in the middle row, fourth from right. Robbie Walker is standing next to him. The team’s captain, Peter Tossol is seated, fourth from right. Other O & M players in the line-up were David Greenhill, Mark Stockdale and John Brunner. VCFL 21.17 (143) d South Australian Country 11.7 (73)
‘Simmo’ in full flight, against Albury
He proved to be a key figure in the Magpie line-up of the early nineties despite falling foul of the umpires on a couple of occasions resulting in extended ‘holidays’….
Some claimed ‘Simmo’ could run ‘hot and cold’ but ,on his day, there were few more exciting players….
Touching on the subject of inconsistency, he says he was diagnosed with SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) about this time – a form of depression that troubled him in the depths of winter:
“Once it got cold, from Queen’s Birthday onwards, I’d go missing on the footy field……You may as well have left me on the bench……Come springtime, away I’d go again,” he says.
***
Mid-way through 1995, Damien and the Magpies parted ways……He’d played 113 Senior games…..
They made a couple of attempts to lure him back in succeeding years but he was happy out at Tarrawingee where he was to spend the most enjoyable few years of his career……..
In 1999, though, he received a knock on the door from two mates – Moyhu coach Dessy Smith and key player Mark Higgs.
“They said: ‘We’ve gotta win a flag and we reckon you can play a big part in it.’ “
“Well, I couldn’t resist…..Tarra had the shits with me for a while…….Moyhu reached the Grand Final and Greta knocked us off by three points……”
“As much as I was dirty for losing, I was happy for two of my old Wang team-mates – Andy Haring and Chris Crimmins – who’d eventually got the flag they’d been chasing with Greta….”
He returned to Tarra the following season and finally hung up the boots in the early 2000s…..In the course of his itinerant journeys, though, he’d also had brief stints with Wollongong club Kiama, and North Wagga
***
It was a local cricket legend, Alan ‘Drag’ Harris, who first recruited ‘Simmo’ to WDCA ranks.
“ ‘Drag’ had been instrumental in kicking off the Yarrunga club…..I was about 16…..a tearaway quickie, coming off 23 yards….”
“ ‘Drag’ tried to teach me to use a bit of subtlety with my bowling but I was determined to let ‘em go at absolute express pace…”
Yarrunga folded after two seasons and Damien reverted to concentrating on Basketball before Mark Higgs came to see him about having a run with Bruck.
“I said: ‘Okay, I’ll play if you buy me a pair of spikes……’
So began an enjoyable relationship with Bruck which lasted many years,and resulted in him succeeding Russell Woods as the Club’s curator……He fulfilled that role for the best part of two decades.
He represented Wangaratta at Melbourne Country Week in 1997,and earned a reputation as a fiercely competitive, occasionally grumpy – and at times dangerous – quickie.
“I had one bad stretch there……I was bowling to a mate of mine,’ Chewy’ Brezac, at the Showgrounds……Helmets weren’t all that fashionable at the time and I’ve hit him flush on the mouth, knocking him out….”
“About three weeks later, we were playing Rutherglen at Bruck…..Jon Shaw’s batting….again with no helmet……He’s copped one from me……I rushed up and said: ‘Are you alright, mate?’……..’I think I’ve got a broken jaw,’ he replied……..Sure enough, it was.
Damien spent most week-nds through the nineties playing cricket…….With Bruck on Saturdays and West End each Sunday…..
“Social cricket was great fun…..We never had the same side two weeks in a row……You’d turn up after a big Saturday night eating KFC for your pre-game ‘brunch’ and cop a burst for being late from ‘Quota’ Donald, our chief organiser.”
“We won three flags in a row at our peak with blokes like ‘Higga’, ‘Peabo’, Mark Godfrey, Luke Norman, Graeme Oats, the Claytons and ‘Chimpy’ Lockyer……They were terrific times….”
***
Damien’s fascination for the outdoor life drew him to greenkeeping jobs at the Bowling Club, and ,later on, a twelve month stint with Jubilee Golf Club…….It’s no surprise, then, that he took such pride in rolling that strip of turf at Bruck.
He ran his own business – ‘Simmo’s Turf Care’ – for eight years, an occupation he approached with great passion……
“I’ve still got the machinery…….People come and borrow my gear and ask for a bit of advice…..I love doing that; just helping people out……They might offer me a box of beer for using my equipment……I’m happy…..”
As testimony to his curating days, the front and back lawns of his Tone Road home are in mint condition……superbly maintained premium turf, bordered by a variety of palm trees.
He’s converted the front lawn into a Golf Hole on which he regularly practices his putting….
“That’s the closest I get to playing golf these days……I was off 13 at one stage but it’s hard to find time these days…….I must get back into it…….”
He says he probably wouldn’t return to the Turf industry, though…….After all, he’s been at North East Water for thirteen years now and loves the work…….”It keeps me fit……..I occasionally get on the shovel………I lean on it a fair bit, too…….”
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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