Remembering the good old days
IT was a big weekend for former footy champions.
Past players were invited back to reminisce as Leongatha took on Sale and Inverloch-Kongwak faced new rivals Koo Wee Rup.
Leongatha’s 1979 seniors premiership team was remembered as one of the best sides the club has ever fielded, with stars on every line of the ground.
Those were the words of then player Tim Maxwell at a club reunion on Saturday to celebrate the Parrots’ 1979 seniors and reserves premierships, and also the seniors’ flag of 1989.
“Seventy-seven to ’82 was an era that we played in four grand finals and won three,” the club’s Cameron Kindellan told the crowd at the Leongatha clubrooms, with senior premierships in 1977, 1979 and 1982.
The 1979 seniors side featured the likes of Yarram brothers, midfielders Wayne and Peter Lynch, former Hawthorn player Ross Johnson on the backline, a three time seniors best and fairest winner in Maxwell, Dennis Hogan from MDU and the Salmon brothers: Ian (a former Footscray player), Graeme and Clive, all under the leadership of captain-coach Neville Stone.
“It was a big thing to play the big boys of Gippsland,” Stone said.
Leongatha players left town to a string of streamers hanging from posts and trees in Parrots’ colours, letting them know their community was behind them.
The seniors were buoyed by the reserves’ win, and the game was televised for all to see.
“Traralgon was the favourite to win even though we beat them by five points in the semi,” Stone said.
While Leongatha players were confident of a win, they were surprised by the extent of their victory: 21.23.149 to 10.12.72.
“We had a good nucleus of local guys who had played here through their juniors and some good guys who joined us from the Alberton league,” Stone said.
Paul Goss, then just 17, booted four goals and Tim Nuttall was named best on ground.
Chris Howard replaced the injured Clive Salmon 10 minutes into the third quarter, sealing Howard’s status as the only player to play every game that season.
Howard recalled how Wayne Lynch booted three goals, three behinds to advance the Parrots’ attack.
“It was a big crowd. Traralgon was coached by Peter Hall at that stage and they were equal favourites. The atmosphere was electrifying,” Howard said.
The Parrots reserves triumphed also over Traralgon, to claim their first premiership in the Latrobe Valley league, 12.17.89 to 12.9.81.
In 1989, coach Colin Boyd led the seniors to victory over Maffra by just two points to deny Maffra its last chance to win a premiership in the Gippsland League that century.
Players from Inverloch-Kongwak’s 1959 thirds premiership side, 1969 reserves premiership side, 1979 thirds premiership side and 2009 reserves premiership side all attended Saturday’s reunion.
Players from these premiership teams came in great numbers from all over Australia to reconnect with their teammates and their club.
The men spent time revisiting their playing days and congratulating each other on what they accomplished.
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Posted by Tayla Kershaw on Jun 4 2019. Filed under Sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
