Official newsletter of the Northern Districts Tigers Junior AFC

Since 1998

Season 2013 Issue No. 8 24th April www.juniortigersafc.com ______Tigers early history

Recent issues of Tiger Talk have featured a column on the history of Australian . In this holiday issue we look at the early history of the Tigers.

The history of the Northern Districts Tigers Junior AFC can be traced back to the year 1971 with the formation of the Bulli-Woonona Tigers Juniors.

The Bulli-Woonona Tigers were part of the Illawarra Junior League with each club having only one team; Under 15s. The Tigers’ colours were all yellow and they led

a nomadic existence; initially playing at Slacky Flat inside the current trotting track Phil O'Neil, current at Bulli, then moving to Cawley Park in Woonona (behind Magnolia Green) before U14s coach, has been finally settling at Hollymount Park Woonona. a four time premiership winning coach with the Tigers Continued on page 3 since 1999.

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Coming Events

Event Date Venue

Illawarra Round 3 28/4/13 Loseby Park

YG Come & Try 28/4/13 Myimbarr

MOUNTAIN VIEW MEATS Major sponsor of the Northern 395 PRINCES HWY, WOONONA NSW 2517 Districts Tigers Junior AFC (02) 4284 0595 Tigers Round 2 results at a FREE HOME glance Specialising in Club Raffles Bulk Orders U12 Swans 14.16-100 def Tigers B 1.0-6 Marinated & Gourmet Cuts Full Range of Pork, Veal, Lamb, Beef & Chicken U12 Tigers G 9.11-65 def Crows 9.5-59 PRODUCE OF AUSTRALIA Major Sponsor & proud suppliers U14 Swans 10.9-69 def Tigers 1.2-8 to Tigers canteen

U16 Tigers `16.14-110 def Swans 4.8-32

Note: Under AFL rules, scores for U9s and U10s are not recorded for publication.

Tiger Talk - Official newsletter of the Northern Districts Tigers Junior AFC ______

Raffle Ticket Collection Round 3 Draw –Sunday 28th April. For those members who th registered on line or who The Tigers are away on Sunday 28 , with the registered late, your raffle exception of: ticket booklets will be U12Gold and U16s who both play at Hollymount available at the Tigers Park. Match times are listed below. Canteen on home game days.

Remember, ticket holders have the right to Team Vs Ground Time on-sell their tickets and thereby recoup some of their registration fee. Aus Bye

U9 Hawks Loseby Pk 09:00am

______U10 Hawks Loseby Pk 10:10am

U12B Hawks Loseby Pk 11:20am

U12G Roos Hollymount 11:20am

U14 Hawks Loseby Park 12:45pm

Angela’s Cleaning U16 Ulladulla Hollymount 12:45pm Service and

JP Legends; proud co- sponsors Youth Girls Come & Try Day of Myimbarr Oval, Sunday 28th April Tigers U9s There will be another Come and Try day in Myimbarr Oval, Shellharbour, on the 28th April The event will run from 1:00am to 12:30pm

Whilst this day is primarily designed to attract girls from the southern suburbs, Tigers girls are ______welcome to attend and have kick.

2013 Executive & Officials Jesse Mulholland is busy recruiting from the schools and expects to field at least two more teams from the schools. She is of course Executive pushing for more.

President Geoffery Pryke The expectation is that a girls’ comp. will Vice President commence from the 5th May. Secretary Evie Highland

Treasurer Terrie Ryan Registrar Evie Highland

Officials

Ground Manager Steve Walsh Committee Meetings Canteen Manager Merchandising Helen Wood The Tigers committee meets on the second Gear Steward Shane Plumridge Tuesday of every month at the Woonona-Bulli Coaching Co-ord. David Kennedy RSL, commencing 7:30pm. Child Protection Alex Craigen Officers Kylie Craigen All members are welcome to attend. Newsletter Stuart Thomson 0412 200 570 stuart.thomson72@ gmail.com Next Meeting Tuesday 14th May 2013

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Tiger Talk - Official newsletter of the Northern Districts Tigers Junior AFC ______

Tigers 2013 Coaches Tigers history (continued from p1)

Team Coach Contact Right from the start the Tigers were one of the Mark McPhee 0400 308 789 top junior teams, narrowly losing the 1971 Auskick James Algie 4239 2557 Grand Final narrowly to Kully Bay (Port U9 Jeff Burton 0418 632 042 Kembla) and then winning the Illawarra Junior League premiership in 1972. U10 Murray Treffone 4268 5550 The club eventually fielded teams in the U13s, U12 Black Chris Druett 0420 303 848 U15s and U17s age groups. Unfortunately, the U12 Gold Tony Ryan 0448 663 339 local junior league collapsed in 1988, taking the David Kennedy 0447 443 712 Bulli-Woonona Tigers with it. U14 Phil O’Neil 0437 269 556 U16 Mick Davis 0401 994 502 A new era

IYG Mal Stanton 0411 396 091 The first seeds were planted for the current Team Training Days 2013 junior club in late 1998 when Alex Parsons (who

would later become the Team Day Date modern club’s first Auskick Thursday 4:30pm – 5:30pm president) attended a Swans training U9 Thursday 4:00pm – 5:00pm session at Beaton Park, , with Phil U10 Wednesday 4:30pm – 5:45pm Wollongong. At this O'Neil, was the Tigers first Auskick coach in 1999. Brad event he was the invited U12 Black Thursday 4:30pm – 5:30pm went on to win six to a meeting at the North premierships as a Tigers U12 Gold Thursday 4:30pm – 5:30pm Beach Novotel for people Juniors coach. U14 Thursday 4:30pm – 6:00pm interested in forming a U16 Wednesday 5:00pm – 6:30pm junior Australian football league in the Illawarra. IYG Thursday 4:30pm – 6:00pm Approximately 50 people attended the Novotel meeting and Alex volunteered to help form a Tiger Trivia new club in the Northern suburbs. It was at this meeting that Alex met John Hoyle and Steve In 1999, the modern era’s inaugural season, James who agreed to assist him. who were the Tigers Auskick coaches? The first Tigers club meeting was convened at

Bellambi Hotel in December 1998 and was a) David Kennedy attended by Alex Parsons, Lisa Parsons, Stan b) Brad Green Paulson (AFL development officer), John Hoyle c) Naomi Warth and Steve James. d) Phil O’Neil Positions determined at this meeting were: Alex Answer bottom P7 or read P1 of this issue. Parsons as President, Lisa Parsons as Treasurer/Canteen Manager, John Hoyle as Secretary and Steve James as Registrar/Ground Manager.

There were several meetings to form an Illawarra Junior AFL Association in late 1998 and early 1999. Many of the people attending had current or previous links to senior clubs which led to a good dose of energetic political

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Tiger Talk - Official newsletter of the Northern Districts Tigers Junior AFC ______discussion about the names of the new junior Why we love kids footy clubs.

Many years ago (2008) I was the coach of the There was a push from U9s. some quarters that no junior clubs have the A question continually asked of me (and I’m same name as any senior sure other coaches in the Auskick to U9 age club in the south coast group) by players at every game, and league. There was a lively sometimes between every quarter is; ”can I be discussion that the a forward?” northern suburbs team be Tigers Guernsey called the “Bulli Pirates” 1999 - 2006 instead of the Northern Districts Tigers.

With support of representatives from Shellharbour and Port Kembla it was agreed to start a six team competition of clubs with the following names:

Northern Districts Tigers

Wollongong Lions Tigers U9s circa 2008 Port Kembla Magpies Due to the fact that in U9s the kids are rotated Figtree Kangaroos through backs, mids and forwards at every change, the oft repeated answer was; 1Shellharbour Wildcats

Kiama Power “of course, Freddy, everyone gets a chance to be in the forwards at every game.” The Shellharbour Wildcats deregistered in 2002. A new Shellharbour cub, the Swans, entered the Illawarra competition in One day when I was sorting the pre-match 2005 with Peter Gamble as the fledgling club’s first president. paperwork, a young player (he is in the photo above) came up to me and asked, you guessed References it; “can I be a forward?”

Northern Districts Tigers Junior Australian Football Club – a History Exasperated, I replied; “look Billy, why can’t 1998 to 2011. you ask how you might help me.” ______Without missing a beat the youngster replied; “Stuart, how can I help you and can I be a forward?” – proud sponsors Aquatech of Tigers U12 Gold ______

In future issues

Tiger Talk will contain more in the Know our game series and Tigers history articles plus another article on game day preparation dealing with hydration.

Readers’ contributions are also welcome.

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Tiger Talk - Official newsletter of the Northern Districts Tigers Junior AFC ______

Tigers Boot Pool Know our game – Battle of the codes The Tigers boot pool will operate again in 2013 with a range of pre-owned boots in varying sizes and styles available In England, The years 1845 – 1848 were for purchase at the club house. notable times in the development of the dominant football codes we know today. In These pre-loved boots sell for only $5.00 a pair those years, when young men left school and and rumor has it they enable a Tiger cub to went on to university, many of them wanted to kick impressive goals. continue to play football. The problem, So check out the boot pool soon and if the however, was; different schools, different shoe fits … wear it! rules.

At Cambridge University (1846), for example, ______an attempt to develop a set of rules acceptable to graduates from the great English public schools of Eton, Winchester, Shrewsbury and elstra

For all your business Communication needs call 02 4228 1000

Proud sponsors of Tigers Auskick

______

The rough and tumble of early Australian football 1870’s style. The LOGISTICS relatively hard dry grounds of Australia as opposed to the soft Proud sponsors of muddy English school playing grounds influenced the development Tigers Youth Girls of the Australian game. Note the official wearing a suit and the oval ball. ______Rugby was thwarted by “Old Rugbeans” whose rules allowed “hacking” (kicking the shin of an Pace Rowlands Bell opponent to force an error) and were Chartered Accountants complicated. For instance, Proud sponsors of our IY Girls football stipulated six rules to explain “off-side” Proud sponsors of Tigers U16s and no less than seven rules to regulate the use of physical force. ______

Two years later, in 1848, common sense The breakfast of champions prevailed and rules accepted by the majority saw the emergence of “Cambridge Rules”. A healthy balanced diet is the cornerstone of personal well-being and vitality; and never From an Australian Rules perspective it is more so than when engaging in strenuous interesting to note that , a sporting activity. co-author of the ten “ Rules” was a student at Cambridge at that time. So how do the champions of the AFL prepare themselves nutrition wise on game day? It was against this background that William Hammersley, , James Thompson and Continued on page 7 Thomas Smith met at Jerry Bryant’s Parade ______

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Tiger Talk - Official newsletter of the Northern Districts Tigers Junior AFC ______

Hotel, Melbourne, in 1859, to formulate a set of acceptable football rules. Thompson and Hammersley in particular wanted to avoid the proud sponsors of Tigers U12 peculiarities if English football, especially Black Rugby School “hacking.” At this time there was ______a growing aversion to extreme violence in football in both Australia and England, with the A day in the life of …. Surry (England) Football club rules stating “wilful kicking” was not welcome. Steve Walsh - Tigers Ground Manager A no-hacking rule was very significant in the formation of the different football codes. It was The Tigers’ Steve Walsh is felt that if allowed, football could be restricted the man who makes home th to a school boys’ game, as 19 game day happen in a working men could not afford to take time off dedicated, safe and work to nurse injuries sustained playing professional manner; a football. manner that ensures players, their parents, This was the main point over which the parties supporters and umpires in England finally divided – not over whether enjoy their game day experience at the ball should be just kicked or allowed to be Hollymount Park. handled. Steve’s “day” actually begins a week or so before the footy season starts. Armed with tape measure, spray can, some witches hats and a string-line he measures, sets out and marks the various field sizes according to guidelines contained in the AFL South Coast Rules and By-Laws.

On game day, Steve is usually first to arrive (around 7:00am) carrying his “magic” brief case that contains all the paperwork necessary to run a successful round of junior football.

Australian football in the 1870's starting to show the The magic brief case also contains hardware characteristics of the modern game we enjoy today. that includes the timers, batteries, pens, On this issue English football fell into two pencils and spare whistles for sometimes camps: one going on to form the Football forgetful umpires. Association (Soccer) in 1863 and the other wanting to retain hacking as part of “manly” With the morning sun now starting to filter football as played at Rugby School. This group through the trees lining Hollymount Park’s went on to form the Union in eastern boundary, our ground manager opens 1871. up the club house and sheds and removes the gear necessary to set up the fields of play. What this means for Australian Rules football is that the ten rule code established in Melbourne That achieved, he erects the temporary goal in 1859 is older than both Soccer and Rugby posts (on the pre-marked spots) and affixes Union and much older than Rugby League the padding to the permanent posts. Cones are which was founded as an offshoot of Rugby in then laid, (also on pre-marked positions) to England in 1895. delineate the U9, and U10 fields.

References: During these activities, the ground is inspected Hibbins.G, The Australian Game of Football. for foreign objects (glass, stones, bottle tops, De Moore.G, Tom Wills, first wild man of Australian sport. twigs etc.) that might cause injury to players. ______

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Tiger Talk - Official newsletter of the Northern Districts Tigers Junior AFC ______

Any foreign bodies that are found are Breakfast of Champions (continued removed, along with any dog poo that from p5) inconsiderate dog owners have left behind for others to deal with. Mick Malthouse (now Carlton Coach) in his 1980’s days playing days with the Richmond With the fields’ established and signed off on Tigers, and before the advent of sports as safe for play, our ground manager retires to scientists and dieticians, experimented with a the clubhouse (the office) to set up and lay out number of pre-match breakfast menus. the horn, timers, the club computer and all the paperwork required to administer game day. According to Mick Malthouse’s biographer, Christi Malthouse, “steak did not work as it The canteen will be open by now and Steve will sometimes made an ugly reappearance during probably grab a bite to eat and if the coffee a game. Cereal and fruit salad failed to fill him van has arrived, something hot to drink. up, bacon and eggs left him feeling queasy.”

It’s 9:00am and Steve sounds the horn and Eventually Mick Malthouse settled on presses to start button on the timer. The day’s something that seemed to work; “tinned play has commenced and the U9s begin their spaghetti on two slices of lightly buttered battle for the ball on the southern field. whole meal toast.”

At the end of each match, team managers and Fast forward to 2005 and umpires descend upon the ground manager to another AFL champion, the submit their team sheets and match reports. Swans Michael O’Loughlin. Scores are then entered onto Footyweb via the describes his pre-match club laptop. breakfast: “On Grand final day, 2005, I had my usual And so, match after match, the day proceeds; breakfast consisting of with Steve’s office routine broken by the need muesli, fruit juice and to change fields and remove temporary goal toast. No eggs, bacon or sausages.” The key posts for different age groups. He also word here is “usual”. conducts the occasional patrol to make his presence felt and to ensure sideline behavior Fiona Sutherland of Sorts Dieticians Australia complies with the Code of Conduct. (SDA) would no doubt have approved of both these players’ pre-match breakfasts. Finally, as the sun begins to approach the edge of the escarpment, and the U16s leave the Sutherland advises in her AFL Fact Sheet that ground, Steve starts to dismantle and store cereal, pasta, toast, and fruit provide both away all the field and office gear he assembled carbohydrates and protein as energy sources at the start of the day. for the match. “High fat foods should be avoided as they slow down the rate if digestion After one last look around to ensure everything and they don’t provide the body with the is locked away and secure, Steve Walsh picks appropriate fuel for optimal game up the magic briefcase, walks to his car and performance.” drives home. References: And so endeth a satisfying day in the life of our ground manager. Fiona Sutherland, Sports Dieticians Australia AFL ______Fact Sheet.

Michael O’Loughlin and Jim Main, Micky O.

Malthouse, A football life, Christi Malthouse.

Proud sponsors of Tigers U14s

______O’Neil Phil and Green rad

B (d), and (b)

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