Col Hoy Diary OCR’D and Manual Edit from Scan of HANSR HAN12BSSRJ 10-13-89 14-20-35
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Col Hoy Diary OCR’d and manual edit from scan of HANSR HAN12BSSRJ 10-13-89 14-20-35 As time goes by the history of Australian Rules Football in Queensland is becoming increasingly cloudier. Lack of research by numerous reporters, plus the advent of former southerners in various sections of the media who think only of the Brisbane Bears, or the VFL, and to heck with the local competition, have a great number of people thinking the game started in the 20s or 30s and even as late as the 50s. So, the following is a hodge podge of our code from 1879 – yes, 1879 to the late sixties. It is not a statistical story, but one full of human interest and anecdotes. I hope you will like it, and to some of the older clan, I hope it stirs a few memories. The Queensland Association was formed in 18791 and a number of good coaches were sent north from Victoria to assist. There was no shortage of players, and clubs were formed and called The Valley, Sandgate, Eagle Farm, South Brisbane, Kelvin, Bulimba, Brunswick, Everton, Northgate, Albion Park, Brisbane Railways and Garrison Artillery. There were three clubs in Ipswich. By 1884 in Brisbane and leading inland towns there were 339 football clubs as well as 212 schools playing the Australian code. At that time only 22 rugby clubs were in existence. The game caught on at Longreach, Clermont, Mount Morgan, Dalby, Mount Perry, Toowoomba and Warwick, mainly through itinerant workers cutting sugar, wheat or shearing. The coastal fringe was not forgotten with Gympie, Cairns, Cooktown, Townsville, Rockhampton, Maryborough, Bundaberg, Southport and Gladstone fielding teams. In 1884 New South Wales beat the home side on the Albert ground 7-10 to 3-16. This was the first recorded interstate match. More clubs were formed in the Brisbane area with sides from Ascot, South Brisbane, St. Lucia, New Farm, Clayfield and Albion Park gracing the fields. Essendon went to Ipswich and were defeated! They were chased out of town and shots were fired at them.2 Just let your minds wander a little and think of the tough trips when Ipswich had to play say Maryborough. Road travel – what roads? Yes, what roads. Old timers told me they used to sleep beside the coaches! The game really prospered until 1914 when clouds from Europe spread over Australia. The country’s Prime Minister made a concerted call to the nation that all sport should be curtailed while the ‘Flower of Australian manhood was playing a bigger game overseas for all the people in the British Empire’. This fell upon the fertile ears of the QFL, and on the deciding vote of the then president, the code was put on hold. Unfortunately, other codes were not as patriotic as we were and they continued on. From the number one spot we tumbled, and the fledgling Rugby League got a toehold, but more of that later. Rugger was always very strong, while the round ball with English, Scottish and Irish migrants, plus a surprising number of Chinese, had the numbers, but even those days had internal problems. Let’s go back to Rugby League. In the 1920s a decision was made that had a far reaching effect on Australian Football here, and from which we have never fully recovered. The game was moving along after its hiccup during the 14-18 stoush. Quietly going along until an entrepreneur named Harry Sunderland approached the Executive of the day with an offer to make Rules the top code if they paid him two hundred pounds the first year, and progressively more the next four. From what I have been led to believe he was looked upon as a con man. Perhaps they were right, but every salesman or entrepreneur has a bit of “con” in him. So what! What made it worse, was that he wore spats over his patent leather shoes. Of course, you wouldn’t want to know, but that ruffians’ game, Rugby League, didn’t care if he had holes in his socks, they grabbed him and the rest is history. In fact, he became so good the powerful Wigan Page 1 of 10 Club in England wooed him over when his contract came up for renewal, despite a four figure “carrot” dangled in front of him by a grateful Rugby League. Rugby Union had rule problems which were only appreciated by the Welsh, Scots and the English, and also had that “toffy” image. Soccer really had the ball at its feet, both player and clubwise, but religious and racial tensions stopped them from being a stronger force. Somewhere along the line we had the “Aerial Ping Pong” tagged on to us, plus the fact that it came from Victoria, a zillion miles away – and Victorians were a strange people anyway, so that had a negative effect on our progress. Sunderland got to the people, dragged league from the gutter, got the Press on side and that code has never really looked back. We broke down in not recognising the code in country areas. There were very strong competitions on the Darling Downs and Atherton Tablelands, and intertown or intercity games dragged people from everywhere despite the road conditions. Unfortunately, all this died in the early 30s. Coming back to the local scene, we had grounds at the bottom end of Edward Street in the Botanical Gardens. Special trams used to take fans to the matches. Out at Rocklea, at the back of Kelly’s Hotel, it was always wise if you won the toss to kick downhill in the last quarter – that gives you an idea as to how the playing field sloped! Wynnum was near the railway station. Out Coorparoo way the playing field was ‘inside’ the race track. New Farm would have been a good one, nice and level – where the roses now grow. Old timers told me there was one out Mt. Coot-tha way, and Indooroopilly was another spot. Prior to the “A’s” there were exhibitions of aboriginal dancing and boomerang throwing. I really feel the best and most interesting “oval” was at the Domain3 where the Past Pupils used to play. It was necessary to have a chap in a rowboat in the Brisbane river. If a ball bounced into the said river it was his job to fish it out and throw it back. Sometimes the current was too strong for him and the game was called off and the ball was last seen in the shipping lanes in Moreton Bay. Don’t forget, the juniors had only one ball and it would be handed down after the seniors had played at least three or four games with it, and you can be sure it never went in to the river by design as a time-wasting tactic. Incidentally, the “rower” got two bob for his afternoon’s effort, which included supplying the boat. We kids in the school comp used to play on “The Flats”, Keith Beavis Oval or Windsor Number Two, depending on your vintage. At that time our ground was close to the children’s playground area and twice we had to pull up the goal posts at the southern end of the ground to allow aircraft to land. If vandals have not done their usual dirty work, there is a small plaque on the eastern side of the canteen dividing both ovals telling the Story of the airfield. The Windsor Number Two oval really only came into existence just at the start of World War II. Now, you didn’t think I had forgotten Perry Park, did you? How could I? Perry’s, as it was affectionately known prior to the building of the grandstand, used to have a decomposed, banked bicycle track around it. It was all ashes with no more than 10% grassed (I know a thousand players would question even that percentage). The change room was a blacksmith’s shop in that little street that used to finish at Mayne Station (now defunct) with Bowen Hills Station now doing its work. The Smithy’s had 3” x 5/8” battens spaced approximately three inches apart and the floor was charcoal. You undressed, carried your clothes across to Perry’s and put them in a heap and reverse the procedure after the game – no showers, nothing to clean you up, so home you would go looking like a chimney sweep. And, for the honour of being allowed to return home like this you paid one shilling and sixpence (5 cents) a game! Let me return to Past Pupils for a moment. Many was the time Windsor stalwart Stan Phillips would appear on the horizon in his rickety old truck to take some jerseys from us because the “A’s” were short. The game would be held up while this went on. One day an umpire complained of no numbers in case of a change. One kid, whose father was a painter, swiped a can of red ochre – he had been guaranteed the paint would be easily removed as it would not stick on sweaty bodies. For three matches it had remained unopened, then the fateful day arrived and some of us were going to be candidates for pneumonia ......... Stan appeared! You wouldn’t want to guess, my number 13, the late Les Larcy 11 and the late “Ticky” Geddes 18 went, never to be seen again at least for two games. We never Page 2 of 10 wanted to see that kid again, ever, as despite liberal quantities of turps, scrubbing brushes, kero and Barilla soap, those numbers stuck and I mean STUCK! Despite that, I have still to be convinced the team spirit of today is as good as yesteryear.