Victoria’s second tier competition provided plenty of fun, skill, brutality and great characters for well over a hundred years.
Of course the AFL has managed to get their claws and influence into the competition, turning it into their own reserves and development ‘baby’, but there was a time when tribal rivalries still existed.
It was all very new to me when I arrived in Melbourne at the end of 1986. I had just finished a six year stint with the army and along with a fellow team mate Andy Colenso, had been invited to train with Collingwood.
During my travels I was extremely fortunate to have played in a Riverina League premiership with North Wagga and two premierships with Coorparoo in the QAFL, but nothing prepared me for Collingwood’s pre-season.
I stuck it out for three months before getting the ‘lemonade and sars’. Despite the disappointment I loved the experience but naively had no plan B.
I met a great bloke at Collingwood, Danny Bourke and he invited me to play at Box Hill in the VFA so I followed him there and subsequently would play the worst ten games of my life.
I loved playing in mud but Box Hill City Oval in 1987 resembled Kokoda. We rarely trained on it, preferring the athletics track or a school oval 2km down the road.
Added to the challenges was a coach whose reputation as being unpredictable preceded him.
Harold Martin was a teacher at Pentridge Prison and a really nice guy but he had a short fuse. I have seen some footage of him playing for Preston in the 70’s and he was a bit like the Carl Ditterich of the VFA. Fearsome, dangerous and not to be provoked.
Harold will always be remembered for the ‘cherry picker’ moment at Box Hill. Suspended for abusing umpires the previous week, Harold in his wisdom decided that if he couldn’t coach on the ground then he would elevate himself over the fence. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
One of the most interesting footballers I’ve ever met was Brett Cooper. Harold met him at Pentridge where he was doing time for burglary offences relating to his heroin addiction.
Brett had played a game for Collingwood and was a powerhouse footballer, similar to a Degoey. He had dark eyes that saw right through you and I remember one game when he almost single-handedly won a game for us and was chaired off! One of those mythical footballers that often turn up in country footy.
I have to put Phil Cleary and Terry Wheeler in this list together simply because their influence over the VFA almost mirrored each other.
Both were intelligent, teachers, inspiring coaches and genuinely psychotic if you upset them. I think Terry was the worst because he always had a smiling assassin look about him.
Phil’s face was a bit easier to read whereas Terry could inflict damage when you least expected it. Both great men and did so much for Coburg and Williamstown respectively.
Tim Rieniets didn’t inflict a lot of physical pain but what he did with his silky skills could destroy opponents. A four time premiership player, two with Coburg, one with Werribee and one with Sandringham, as well as two Norm Goss Medals says everything about this humble champion.
One of the now deceased VFA clubs, Oakleigh had a proud history and during the 80’s and 90’s a full forward named Reno Pretto (a commentators dream) kicked 849 goals over 140 games. He played at a couple of other clubs and totalled 1071 goals. He had an effortless style and had an even temperament that you couldn’t help but admire given the amount of punches to the back of his head he received.
Williamstown along with Coburg were hugely successful throughout the 80’s and both sides produced plenty of excellent players with some unusual traits.
When I think of Coburg, Gary Sheldon and Ken Ingram spring to mind and Williamstown had plenty of ratbags to choose from! Probably Ian ‘Chops’ Rickman was a player who was capable of the miraculous like his 70m drop punt in the 1990 Grand Final which was soon superseded by Billy Swan’s dodgy 35m ‘mongrel’ to win the game.
The other one for me was Saade Ghazi, a man that many opponents totally underestimated. They took one look at this rover with legs like Stan Magro and a body that looked like it had been in a press, and they foolishly thought they were in for cruisy day.
Not on your life with Saady! He would have been even better these days running back into open 50m arcs. Saady was deceptively quick and had an extremely high footy IQ. One of Willy’s finest.
I only caught the destructive running of Dennis Knight later in my time in the VFA. We (Werribee) played Springvale in one the great VFA Prelim Finals in 1993 and Dennis was reaching his peak. I also admired his captain Rodd Morgan, a genuinely hard bugger who gave everything for his team.
I remember Neil Jordan taking over the playing coach role at Preston when the club was in dire straights financially around 1989. Neil was a former premiership player with Preston and a much loved figure.
He was an undersized ruckman who led a rag-tag bunch of players to an unforgettable run similar to Hawthorn in 2024. He was a straight shooter and did things his way. The last man I ever saw smoking at the quarter time breaks, Neil is a legend of Cramer St.
A big reason for Preston’s success that year and a few previous was Jamie ‘Spider’ Shaw. I always likened him to Joey Ramone. Tall, long arms and huge hands, Spider didn’t mind a quarter time dart and was a superb kick for goal. Laconic and naturally gifted, Spider was a true icon in the 80’s.
My old coach Donald McDonald has to be included because some of his stories had me in tears, especially those involving his under nineteen days at North Melbourne being coached by ‘Slug’ (get the boy off) Jordan.
Donald was a terrific coach and leader. He could be a genius and paradoxically at other times an imbecile. He would teach us ‘team first’ non-negotiable rules and then set about breaking them himself! You could never accuse him of being a bore. A two time premiership coach, he was also a fierce competitor who never took a backward step.
Joskun Aziz played in premierships with Williamstown and Werribee. He would have kicked 100 goals in our 1993 premiership year had the grand final not broke out into a riot where he took punches from civilian pitch invaders.
Joskun attracted a lot of attention from opposition players and spectators, some of it warranted as he was a very physical player but much of it unwarranted and racial.
I always saw Joskun as unperturbed and able to maintain his focus regardless of the circumstances. On the field he oozed charisma and was a beautiful kick for goal. His goal to win the 1993 Preliminary Final sits in VFA folklore.
Finally, two icons of Frankston, Jeff Sarau and Robbie Mace close off the list. These were two of the scariest opponents I can remember, and if I’m not very much mistaken, both school teachers.
I think Sarau was the most dangerous player I’ve played against. The former Saints ruckman had a huge frame and pointy elbows. He didn’t take kindly to having anyone tackle him, so when you did, you were guaranteed a ‘clip’ on the way out.
I have a soft spot for Robbie Mace because the Herald Sun did a survey of 1993 VFA Coaches as to who they thought would win the Grand Final. Mace was the only one to pick Werribee. Below is nice photo of Mace shaping up to Joskun Aziz. I’d still tip Joskun even with Robbie getting some assistance here from a team mate.
Both men were involved in a nasty finals game at Trevor Barker Oval in 1989 or 1990 I think. Former Carlton champ Alex Marcou was playing for Springvale and had his jaw broken effectively ending Marcou’s career.
The game, as you would expect became extremely spiteful. If I remember rightly Sarau received sixteen weeks suspension and Mace quite a few also. It would be Sarau’s last ever game, much to the relief of every other VFA club outside of Frankston.
As my beloved Werribee enter into the club’s seventh grand final this Sunday we wish them well. They have shown enormous resilience and hard work to be a stand alone team in their second consecutive ‘granny’.
It’s a different game now. I get it, but I loved those days of mud, deplorable visitors rooms and eclectic supporters.
At Werribee we had ‘The Beam Brothers’ and I’ll never forget ‘The Golden Girls’ of Preston.
A few of us were sitting in the old stand at Cramer St watching the reserves versus Preston in 1992. There were always three elderly ladies present at Preston’s games. White hair, thermos, sandwiches, cakes and always knitting something red and white.
Suddenly a fight broke out on the boundary in front of us and the three of them simultaneously yelled out, “hit ‘im and hit ‘im hard!”
Ahh, those were the days.
