By DAVID NAGEL
PRIDE – ‘A pleasant, sometimes exhilarating emotion that results from a positive self-evaluation.’
That’s one definition of the word pride, and also the definition of what took place at the Narre Warren Football Netball Club’s 60th Year Celebration at the Berwick Leisure Centre on Saturday night.
Nearly 250 people, including past and present players, presidents, committee, sponsors, supporters, life members, coaches and staff, gathered to hear a run-down of the first six decades of the club and also to induct nine new faces into its Hall of Fame.
There was also a parade of premiership cups, in both football and netball, which resulted in some of the biggest cheers for the evening.
The first decade, from 1954, was recounted by Bill Sweeney, who regaled the crowd with stories of his dad Pat, the club’s inaugural president, and how the club’s beginning was ably assisted by some financial contributions from now arch-rival Berwick. Sweeney described Peter Morris as the best coach, and Tom Cantwell as the best player through that era and how the spirit built between clubs was based around blokes who just loved to play football.
John Sullivan spoke of the club’s journey through the 60’s and 70’s, his love of the black and white and how he was paid $20 a week to coach both the seniors and reserves.
“They were the 12 happiest years of my life,” Sullivan said of his time at the club and how he was immensely proud of being a life member.
Norm ‘Skinny’ Allen added a splash of colour to his recollection of the 70’s and 80’s, while John ‘Fish’ Coulthard and Gary Duggan recalled how they had to drag people of the streets to get a quorum for the club’s AGM through the mid 80’s. The pair went back to a time when an extra hot-water service was installed after cold-showers became the norm, and how David Wade and Peter Lindsey, who earned the nickname ‘T-Bone’ after the amount steaks he ate after training, combined for five league best and fairest awards through that era.
Steven Kidd spoke of Cam Stewart’s three club best and fairest awards, Shane Dwyer’s magnificent 1997/98 and how Glenn Hamilton and Michael Collins were both important to the club’s current day success. Kidd also recalled building cubby-houses with Hamilton on the Sweeney family property and how the recruitment of Brett Evans, at the start of 2002, was the start of the club’s golden era of football.
Current day president Kahl Heinze then joined his predecessor, Kim McGill, in summing up the club’s most dominant era, the modern era, where the Magpies have claimed six of the last eight senior premierships on offer. McGill thanked Chris Donaldson and Jeanette McGill for their tireless work in getting the netball club up and running, and then joked how getting the junior toilets replaced with a senior toilet block was probably his greatest achievement.
Heinze then praised the community spirit of the NWFNC, and described how the current rooms that were built in the 70’s were battling to cater for the 100 netballers and 100 footballers who now use the facility.
Nine magnificent Magpies were then inducted into the club’s Hall of Fame.
Here follows a list of the inductees with the key message from their speeches.
Hall of Fame Inductees
Murray ‘Mocca’ McGill – “Very humbled and proud to be a part of this great club.”
Hugh and Dot Hodson – “Very surprised, very delighted… the honour of being at Narre Warren is reward enough.”
John Sullivan – “Honoured to be a part of the Hall of fame at Narre… very thankful and proud to be in the same league as some greats of the club.” ”
Ron Townsend – “Great honour. Congratulations to Narre Warren for the success of the last 10 years… keep it up.”
Kim McGill – “I’ve been lucky enough to attend every grand final that Narre Warren has played in. Thank you to John Sullivan and his family for taking me under their wing.”
Rob Marson – “A fantastic club, and in 15 years I met a lot of great people. It’s always been a privilege to play for this club and it always will be. Thank you to Andrew O’Halloran in particular.”
Brett ‘Birdman’ Evans – “Thank you Narre warren Football Netball Club. I remember in under 17s, walking in with a plastic bag with my boots and gear in it and you made me feel welcome from day one. It’s like a home away from home.”
Geoff Mullins – “I enjoyed every moment, such great guys and a great club.”
