Clarrie Steenholdt looks over the Gazette’s 2003 coverage of the 1939 grand final through the eyes of Garfield legend Jack Smith.
By RUSSELL BENNETT
BUNYIP Football Club legend Clarrie Steenholdt was never going to play in the infamous 1939 grand final against Garfield.
But brought in as the 19th man 73 years ago, the young winger to get his behind in gear, literally, to get to the Nar Nar Goon ground on time.
“I was working out at Labertouche and got the message through the milk carter that I was required to come down and play,” Clarrie, now 92, said.
He had a motorbike and sidecar as a 17-year-old.
Clarrie had to pick up two of the Bulldogs’ best players – Don Laurie and Percy Wade – on the way because they had no other way of getting to the ground. One hopped in the sidecar and the other on the back.
The 1939 decider, itself, was a game that stopped two towns in their tracks. Just a few kilometres apart, the rivalry was thicker than Collingwood and Carlton at its most fierce.
Yet Clarrie said the controversy didn’t affect the friendships between the players on either side – it just strained relations between the opposition teams.
Clarrie retired after the 1952 season, but his involvement in sport continued – training a host of winning racehorses. He won six Drouin Picnic Cups in succession – including three with champion galloper Elleston.
There’s nothing in Bulldogs history that Clarrie hasn’t seen since 1939. He watched giant ruckman Shane Mumford dominate in the middle in the early 2000s, but he says today’s Bulldogs side could be the best he has seen.
Bunyip historian and life member Leigh Greening, 60, said people who had never even been to the local footy will be at Garfield this Saturday to take in the atmosphere.
“There are old players returning from both clubs, hopefully including big Mumford,” he said.
“It’s just a really intense, massive week.”
The Bunyip-Garfield rivalry was reignited in 1981 when the Bulldogs were instructed to merge with the Stars.
Leigh remembers Bunyip successfully putting its case forward at VFL House to stop the merger.
“We then had to wait from 1982 to 2010 for the two sides to play each other again because they were in different leagues,” he said.
“Garfield reckons they’re far superior, but Bunyip will rightfully go in as favourites.”
Clarrie knows today’s players and he thinks Garfield’s Marsh pose the biggest danger to Bunyip’s hopes on Saturday.
“I actually think Garfield has a “slight” advantage at home,” he said.
“They’ll be hard to top. There will only be a couple of points in it.
“On any given (Saturday), either side could win.”
