NEWSLETTER APRIL 2016

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "NEWSLETTER APRIL 2016"

Kristian Barber
6 years ago
Views:

1 Extracts from NEWSLETTER APRIL 2016 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING The 63 rd AGM of the Association was held on Sunday 20 th March at the Windy Hill Function Centre. The Association had another financial return for the year amounting to $2,758.76, leaving us with net assets to the value of $86, at the end of December There was no requirement to hold an election this year as nominations for Executive Positions and Committee did not exceed the numbers required, although Gavin Keane stood down as a Committee Member due to overseas commitments with the growth of his business during 2016, and Kelvin Steele nominated for a Committee position. We thanked Gavin for his great input and will continue to use his expertise in the IT industry, in a consultancy role. The Executive and Committee structure was endorsed by the members as follows for 2016: President Barry Capuano Vice Presidents Gary Grainger & Darryl Gerlach Secretary David Collins Treasurer Don Gross Committee-members Graham Leydin, Howard Staehr, Barry Besanko, Joel Reynolds & Kelvin Steele. The members endorsed the Committees recommendation in approving Life- Membership for the following members: Darryl Gerlach, Charlie Payne and Harold Lambert, each having qualified through outstanding service to the Association over many years.

THE EFC ANNUAL PREMIERSHIP PLAYERS DINNER WITH CURRENT PLAYERS & OFFICIALS The club invited Premiership players to meet up with the current players and officials at the Carlton Brew House on Saturday

The special guest speaker on the night was Paul Weston and he explained how frustrating it was for him to not to be able play in a Premiership team with Glenelg, having been five times in a Runner-up

2 THE EFC ANNUAL PREMIERSHIP PLAYERS DINNER WITH CURRENT PLAYERS & OFFICIALS The club invited Premiership players to meet up with the current players and officials at the Carlton Brew House on Saturday 13 th February. These nights are always excellent events, as it allows current players to mix with Premiership players over many eras and many good stories are told on the night. The special guest speaker on the night was Paul Weston and he explained how frustrating it was for him to not to be able play in a Premiership team with Glenelg, having been five times in a Runner-up team. He thought the same thing was going to happen when he came to Essendon in 1983 as the team was Runner-up to Hawthorn, however the table turned and Essendon won the Premierships in 1984 and His message was to never give up. It was great to see Harold Lambert and Jack Jones representing Premiership teams of 1946, 1949 and Harold will turn 93 in May and Jack is a very sprightly 91years of age. Together with new players drafted to the club, Premiership players were able to meet up with the majority of the players recruited to the club to replace the players suspended by WADA as a result of the CAS decision. All of these players showed an excellent character and will be a great asset to the club during this difficult time. Xavier Campbell, Brendan Goddard, Ryan Crowley, Matthew Lloyd & David Calthorpe enjoy the night.

WHO IS THIS PAST PLAYER? Geoff Blethyn Played: 1968 to 1972 Games played: 84 Goals kicked: 216 Number Worn: 11 Geoff was one of the few players to wear spectacles playing football.

3 WHO IS THIS PAST PLAYER? Geoff Blethyn Played: 1968 to 1972 Games played: 84 Goals kicked: 216 Number Worn: 11 Geoff was one of the few players to wear spectacles playing football. He was recruited from the Essendon District Football League and kicked many goals for the U19 and reserve grade teams. Due to an injury to Essendon Captain Ken Fletcher, Geoff was picked for only his third game with the seniors in the 1968 Grand Final and kicked 4 goals. Unfortunately the team lost to Carlton by 3 points Geoff was only the second player at that time to kick 100 goals in a season for Essendon, namely 107 in 1972, having kicked 11 goals against Footscray during that season. Later on, Geoff transferred to Claremont in WA and twice kicked in excess of 100 goals in a season. WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Name: Kelvin Steele Year played: 1979 Games played: 6 Number worn: 20 Recruited from: Hawthorn (played 19 games between ) What did you do, football wise, following your playing days with Essendon? Spent one year (1981) in the coaches box with Seconds Coach Bernie Sheehy. My role was to note down the comments that Bernie made during the game. What job/jobs did you pursue following your playing days, including what you are doing currently?

4 I graduated as an Architect in Over the next 30 years I became a Director of two Project Management companies, specialising in major hospital redevelopment projects. Are you still working? Yes. I retired from work in early 2015 and now do some consulting and mentoring. Have you suffered with any post football injuries and have any required surgery? Fortunately no. Do you have any ongoing medical problems? I did have bowel cancer detected in 2002 which required major surgery and chemotherapy-fortunately I fully recovered. In my view no (unless you count forgetting where your glasses are). According to my wife I have selective deafness. What are your thoughts on the modern game, and how would you change any of the areas that you don t like! A freewheeling game where there are plenty of goals is great. When all 36 players are in one quarter of the ground it s not great to watch. I would trial a rule that for the last five minutes of the final quarter, you weren t allowed to kick backwards within your 50m arc. Do you have any special anecdotes from your playing time to pass onto other past players? I transferred from Hawthorn in 1978 when I was 23, having stood out from football in 1977 to complete my Architectural Degree. Noel Allanson and Barry Capuano were a great help to me at that time. Playing alongside Ronnie Andrews I usually grew a foot taller! Who were your mates in your playing days with Essendon, do you keep in touch? I mainly keep in touch through past players functions and really enjoy the golf day. Whilst I played most of my footy in the twos, I regard Simon Madden, Graeme Schultz, Max Crow, Terry Daniher, Ian Morrison and Dennis Scanlon as mates. Who were the players you most admired in your playing days at Essendon? For Essendon: Terry Daniher, Simon Madden, Paul Vander Haar, Glenn Hawker, Max Crow, Ron Andrews and Tim Watson Other teams: Michael Tuck, Leigh Matthews, Ian Bremner, Kelvin Moore, Don Scott, David Polkinghorne and Rodney Eade. Do you have any comments that you would like to pass on about your time at Essendon? I was always made to feel welcome (having come from Hawthorn) and felt the club was well run. I respected Barry Davis and Ken Fraser (Senior Coach

5 and Seconds Coach) enormously and still do. I m proud to be a member of the Past Players at Essendon and Hawthorn and when I m asked by people who do you support? I say Essendon however Hawthorn is still a club that remains important to me. Name: Denis Scanlon Years played: Games played: 66 Number worn: 36 Recruited from: North Hobart What did you do, football wise, following your playing days with Essendon? I completed a PHD in Biochemistry and worked both commercially in Science and Medical Research at CSIRO and Melbourne University. What job/jobs did you pursue following your playing days, including what you are doing currently? Currently my wife and I are running a grazing property in South Australia. Are you still working? Yes Have you suffered with any post football injuries and have any required surgery? Knee and hip replacement. Do you have any ongoing medical problems? Arthritis. What are your thoughts on the modern game, and how would you change any of the areas that you don t like! Too many stoppages. Who were your mates in your playing days with Essendon, do you keep in touch? Alan Reid, Colin Boyd, Gary Foulds, Kelvin Steele, Steve Taubert Who were the players you most admired in your playing days at Essendon? For Essendon: Paul Vander Haar, Ken Fletcher, Simon Madden, Gary Foulds, Tim Watson Other teams: Hawthorn players. Do you have any comments that you would like to pass on about your time at Essendon? I needed to work hard to get a senior game. I am proud of the six years I had at Essendon and people are interested that I played at that level. I loved Barry Davis as a coach and wished we could have had more finals success while he was there. The 1984 & 1985 premiership team s players were developed from 1978 to 1980.

6 MILESTONES & ACHIEVEMENTS The following members have or will reach significant age milestones between the 1 st January and the 30 th April years of age Chris Daniher Gavin Keane 60 years of age Max Crow Paul McDonald Alan Reid 70 years of age + Barbara Cullen (70) Rex Dale (71) Keith Gent (71) Noel Judkins (71) Lindsay McGie (71) Darryl Gerlach (72) Greg Brown (73) Ray Horsburgh (73) Terry Rodgers (73) Des Tuddenham (73) Ken Forge (74) Ken Fraser (76) Ian Graham (76) Graham Leydin (76) Ian Shelton (76) Brian Crowe (77) Don McKenzie (77) Barry Mackie (78) John Welsh (78) John Birt (79) Don Carmichael (79) Robert Gluyas (79) Colin Hooper (79) 80 years of age + Jim Carter (80) Alan Dunn (80) James Matthews (80) Eric Webster (80) Barry Colliver (81) Kevin Green (81) Colin Stubbs (82) Mal Pascoe (83) Ron Smith (83) Brian Paine (84) Fred Gallagher (85) Sam Chazan (86) Allan Taylor (87) Tom Leehane (88) Bill Stephen (88) John Ward (88)

7 80 years of age + George Goninon (89) Fred Payne (89) 90 years of age + Jack Feain (98) Jack Feain is our oldest member, reaching the magnificent age of 98. Jack s contribution to the EFC has been very significant over many decades and we look forward to celebrating his century in two years time. We wish all of those members with birthdays in this period many years of health and happiness. THE FIRST HOME GAME AT THE MCG The club invited all past players to the home game against Melbourne on Saturday 2 nd April, and all were invited to participate in the march from Federation Square to the MCG to show support for the club in going forward. It was reported that up to 10,000 supporters participated in the march, which shows how strong our supporter base is. Many past players participated in the march. A light luncheon was supplied before the game and all players were invited to form a guard of honour for the team on the ground. This seemed to be greatly appreciated by the players, and we could, tongue in cheek, take some of the credit for the great win, which was considered highly unlikely by most of those attending the game. FACTS, FIGURES & OTHER TRIVIA The Essendon Football Club did not field teams in the VFL competition in 1916 and 1917, due to the First World War. Only four teams competed in 1916, namely, Carlton, Collingwood, Richmond and Fitzroy, however there was no Premiership that year. Alan Belcher was Captain of the club in 1910, and again in He played 176 games for the club and represented Victoria in 1906, 1907 and The most consecutive games played by an Essendon player is the great Jack Jones, playing 133 games on end between 1946 and During that time he played in the 1946, 1949 and 1950 Premiership teams, the 1947, 1948 (including a replay) and 1951 Runner Up teams, totalling 17 final appearances. It would be a shock to most supporters to find out that Jack was suspended for 4 games during the 1954 season, his last year at the club. How times have changed, these are invitations from the club, inviting players and past players to functions, in earlier days.

Both Dick Reynolds and Bill Hutchison made 10 Grand Final appearances during their careers. In the old Night Game series played up till 1994, Tim Watson played in 32 games and Terry Daniher in 28.

Up until the end of the 2015, 1,128 players (including 34 current players) had represented the club at senior level and the following statistics are intriguing: 1,094 past players have played 45,140

8 Both Dick Reynolds and Bill Hutchison made 10 Grand Final appearances during their careers. In the old Night Game series played up till 1994, Tim Watson played in 32 games and Terry Daniher in 28. Glenn Hawker, Roger Merrett, Joe Misiti and Damien Hardwick all won Reserve Grade Best & Fairest Awards before going on to be members of Senior Premiership Teams. Up until the end of the 2015, 1,128 players (including 34 current players) had represented the club at senior level and the following statistics are intriguing: 1,094 past players have played 45,140 games, representing an average of 41.3 games each. The 1,094 past players played for a combined total of 3,968 years, representing an average of 3.6 years per player. 117 players played one game only (10.7%) 445 players played less than 10 games (40.7%) 793 players played less than 50 games (74.5%)

9 THE LEYDIN GIRLS The sons of former AFL players tend to get the most attention around this time of year. But now there are grand-daughters showing their own sporting prowess as this Past Player update details below. Graham Leydin played 36 games for Essendon in the late 50 s and 60 s. After his playing career ended he coached Moonee Valley and Strathmore, before returning to the Bombers as Under 19 Coach. EFCPP&OA Committee member and former player Graham Leydin has been busy over the last few months following and supporting his two highly talented granddaughters who are making a name for themselves in their chosen sporting fields. Madelaine (Maddi) (18) has recently returned from Glasgow where she was part of the Australian gymnastic team that participated in the world championships with the main priority to qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio. Maddi performed very well being Australia's leading points scorer in the All Round Category. The Aussie team finished in 14 th place overall and will now participate in the final qualifying event in April 2016 against eight other international teams vying for the last four places. She started attending the Footscray City Gymnastics centre before moving to the Victorian Women's High Performance Centre, which is supported by the Victorian Institute of Sport - for more intensive coaching and development - and later to the National Centre of Excellence based in Melbourne. Her achievements as a junior in competition - and more significantly as a senior have been consistently outstanding and she is now reaping the rewards for her dedication and determination. As Maddi says - there are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going. She burst onto the scene in 2013 winning the National Senior All Round title at 15. This was followed by a second placing in 2014 and a third in 2015 despite battling a serious foot injury (stress fractures) that later required surgery and ruined her chances of Commonwealth Games selection. In the years prior to these World Championships Maddi had previously represented Australia in various other competitions around

the world including the Youth Commonwealth Games in the UK, the Pacific Rim Games in the USA as well as other international competitions in Canada, Italy, Spain and more recently she competed in

10 the world including the Youth Commonwealth Games in the UK, the Pacific Rim Games in the USA as well as other international competitions in Canada, Italy, Spain and more recently she competed in Perth against the Chinese. Younger sister Eleanor (Elli) (15) has taken another path being heavily involved in both netball and basketball from a young age. Prominent in under age teams at the Altona Gators, Elli has benefitted from sound coaching and encouragement to be regularly selected in regional representative teams and more lately she gained selection in the Victorian Under 16 team for the National Championships in Tasmania where she excelled as an elusive and tenacious point guard and play maker. In addition Elli has immense netball talent, which came to the fore when she started playing with the Williamstown Juniors Jellyfish team in the local competition at age the age of nine. Her natural ability quickly became prominent during these early years. Recently she gained selection in the Victorian Schoolgirls (15 years) team that played in the National Championships in Sydney in August where Victoria won the National title. Furthermore at the end of the championships Elli was selected in the School Sport Australia All Australian team to play a tournament in New Zealand later early next year. A wonderful achievement. Elli will have a tough decision to make soon. There are more and more demands being made on her to fully concentrate on one or the other sports as she reaches the stage where full commitment is required for both training time and competition in order to continue her development. Already identified by Netball Victoria through its Zone Academy Program - Elli is well entrenched in the athletes pathway that may lead to higher honours in the future. Despite her age she has been selected for a second season as a member of the City West Falcons VNL Under 19 team. This will present further opportunities for her to develop, mature and realise her potential against older and more experienced opponents. I'm sure she will relish the competition. All EFCPP&OA members are delighted to wish Maddi and Elli every success in their future efforts.

11 COMMENTS FROM THE PRESIDENT Our thoughts are with the 34 players suspended in the long running ASADA/WADA investigation and I am sure we all feel for the 12 current Essendon players and 5 players with other AFL clubs, and fully understand their determination to clear their names through the Court of Appeal. I, like most football followers, are heartily sick of this long saga and hope that the final outcome will be finalised shortly. In light of recent issues in respect to players testing positive to illicit drugs, I find it somewhat ironical that an AFL club has complained that they have been pushed under the bus by the release of these details. Our club has received little, if any support from other AFL clubs throughout the whole supplements saga, so I find it difficult to have any sympathy for clubs now complaining about illicit drug usage. This is particularly the case with the fact that not one Essendon player, to my knowledge, has tested positive to any performance enhancing or other banned drugs but have had to suffer the consequences of a judgement based on the likely hood that they took performance enhancing drugs. Let s hope they are successful in their appeal. The AFL Drug Rules are certainly under scrutiny and it is obvious that some issues need to be addressed quickly. For instance, if the AFL and the AFLPA have agreed to players being hair tested during their off season, what is the point of testing if there are no penalties attached for any positive tests? Either you test and inflict penalties or you don t test at all! From information I have received, the positive tests for illicit drugs taken by AFL players is quite frightening and needs urgent attention by the AFL. Most of the 12 suspended Essendon players together with Stewart Crameri from the Bulldogs, are training Monday and Friday mornings at 9.30pm at St Bernards College in East Keilor, and they have asked if past players could attend training, as it gives them an opportunity to meet with them and talk about their individual situations. Sean Wellman is coaching the players with the assistance of David Buttifant as fitness advisor, both being appointed by the AFLPA in these roles. Access to the oval is via Gate 8 if you would like to attend these sessions. As previously mentioned in earlier Newsletters, there are many grey areas in respect to what assistance can be given to the suspended players, however it is clear that we can meet with the players socially, assist in finding jobs or work experience for them and generally mentor them individually if they so wish. We are working closely with the AFLPA in these areas, as we have no wish to see the players penalised any further than they currently have been.

A CLUB CHAMPION DELIVERS Former Essendon great and Brownlow Medalist, Gavin Wanganeen, has certainly been busy since his playing days and although this article produced in the Adelaide Advertiser in

12 A CLUB CHAMPION DELIVERS Former Essendon great and Brownlow Medalist, Gavin Wanganeen, has certainly been busy since his playing days and although this article produced in the Adelaide Advertiser in March is directed to Port Adelaide fans, our club still considers him as an Essendon player and wishes him and his family all the best in the future. Gavin has been doing some work with the club recently and we hope that this continues. AFLCPP&OA BOWLS DAY. The first AFLCPP&OA bowls day for the year was held at the Altona Bowls club on Sunday 20 th March, the same day as our AGM, and the Association had two teams competing. Following a tight competition the Associations number 2 team finished up winning the competition with the Associations number one team finishing second. Our Association will now hold the Ken McCaig Cup until the next event in November.

The Winning Team was made up of: Brian Lanigan, Graeme Johnstone, Kevin Harwood, Ian Graham The Runner Up team was made up of: Alby Wilson, Kevin Parks, Ron Clarke, Geoff Barber The winning team will

13 The Winning Team was made up of: Brian Lanigan, Graeme Johnstone, Kevin Harwood, Ian Graham The Runner Up team was made up of: Alby Wilson, Kevin Parks, Ron Clarke, Geoff Barber The winning team will have their names engraved on the perpetual trophy. Congratulations to both teams a great effort. THE STORY OF JOHN COLEMAN During May 2014 a new book was published by Doug Ackerly, simply called Coleman. This is a great history record of a champion player and club Legend, John Coleman. This is a must read for all past players, officials and football followers. Very limited copies are now available at $175, so if you would like to purchase of one of these books, contact Barry Capuano.

Newsletter April 2013

Newsletter April 2013 Extracts from Members Newsletter OBITUARIES Unfortunately we have lost six of our members since our last Newsletter and our condolences are expressed to the families of the following: