2023 marks the 30th anniversary of Werribee FC’s first VFA/VFL premiership, so I thought I would provide an insiders view to that team and in addition, some ‘where are they now’s’.

Before you start at 1993 it’s important to acknowledge the work of Leon Harris who coached the club for the three years prior.

With the disbandment of the old VFA second division at the end of 1988 and Werribee promoted to the new single division, Leon’s professionalism was instrumental in the club quickly reaching its first VFA grand final in 1991.

Admittedly, some of his methods at training challenged the Geneva Convention, but he rapidly hardened up the players in order to play against the best in Division 1.

At the end of 1992 the club decided a change was needed. The search went out for a playing coach which then rendered Leon and captain Damian Drum obsolete.

The criteria was crystal clear. They needed someone who was intelligent, predictable and disciplined. Alas, no one could be found, so they hired Donald McDonald. 🙂

I jest of course. Donald came with 150 games experience at North Melbourne and was used by his mentor John Kennedy in a variety of roles from key forward to undersized ruckman. He was tough, passionate and respected at North so we were open to having him at the club.

The thing that struck me most about Donald was his natural leadership. A good listener and popular with everyone from the trainers to the supporters, he was also a very good story teller and would often have you doubled over laughing with his tales of self-deprecation.

We didn’t have cultural workshops or Leading Teams in those days. The responsibility for that was very much left to the senior coach. Both Leon and Donald excelled at that and earned respect as a result.

The extent of Donald’s cultural philosophy became apparent early at a January training session. “Listen boys. I’ve heard there might be some of you thinking of going elsewhere. Well, all I can say to all of you is, get on board or f**k off!” It definitely ‘shook the tree’ and a few left.

Donald’s game plan was very simple. In terms of ball movement he took us for a walk around Chirnside Park and ran us through a number of basic scenarios and what his expectations from us would be. The theme was very much ‘high percentage football’.

This theme ran through our team rules alongside a ‘team first’ attitude. We were expected to be ‘front and square’ at all contests, push back hard from a mark or free kick, always punch from behind, kick the ball to the top of the square when caught wide and never kick a torpedo.

With that in mind, allow me to take you to the first round of 1993, a home game versus Springvale. There were three moments that spring to mind.

At one stage in the first quarter, we created an overlap and I found myself clear in the centre where I received the ball heading toward goal. Next step, draw Donald’s centre half back and chip it over to him where he would now have a free run from 40m to goal.

The only players between Donald and the goal were full forward Jack Aziz and his opponent. All we needed was for the coach to have a bounce and kick the goal.

He had the bounce but continued running at a now perplexed Aziz who was doing his best to keep the full back stationary and along with myself, urging Donald to put it through the big sticks.

The full back wrestled Jack and pushed ahead of him to charge at Donald, who by now was getting closer and in two minds. Presumably disappointed at not being able to draw the fullback earlier so as to pop a handball over to Jack, the coach was now visibly confused.

Why he decided to take another bounce 10m out still baffles me but he did and as a consequence he somehow managed to not only trip himself up and fall flat on his face but he kicked the ball through for a behind.

I’ve never seen two football teams laugh simultaneously till then. But he wasn’t finished yet.

In the second quarter he found himself 50m out on the boundary line kicking to the Hungry Jacks end of the ground. Bearing in mind our aforementioned, not negotiable, high percentage rules, he chose to kick a torpedo. Out on the full.

Then, just on halftime, Donald found himself in almost exactly the same position, so as you can imagine the forwards are in anticipation of a kick to the top of the square. No. It was a torp, this time sailing half post high through for a goal.

When the subject of team rules and high percentage footy was raised at Monday night training in order to challenge the coach’s behaviour, his reply was, “don’t worry boys, there’s plenty more where that came from.”

He may have been an imbecile, but he was our imbecile. 🙂

Oddly enough, it would be the start of a long and successful coaching career for Donald. In 1993 he had two excellent assistants who would support his ambitions.

Tony Furey was a good friend of Donald’s from North. A teenage prodigy as a footballer, his career was cruelly cut short with knee injuries but ‘Fuzz’ was a terrific help and a steady hand for Donald which is imperative to have as a playing coach.

Dennis Davey had been an assistant to Malcom Blight at Geelong. As I was the only smoker in the team in those days I would often find myself having a sneaky puff with Dennis where he would share some wonderful Geelong stories of Gary Ablett and others.

One of my favourite stories of Dennis’s was of the classic 1989 AFL Grand Final between Geelong and Hawthorn. Regarded by many as the greatest grand final ever, both Denis and Malcolm in their state of nervous agitation, were chain smoking in the coaches box which in those days was open to the public and didn’t contain an army of statisticians.

Within a metre of the Geelong box in those days was the Hawthorn box. The Hawks Chairman of Selectors Brian Coleman was screaming over the crowd to Dennis and Malcolm, pleading for them to quit because both he and Alan Jeans were enveloped in clouds of secondary smoke!

We finished the season in third place which given the number of injuries we had, was a good result, with only Prahran just ahead of us and Port Melbourne on top.

We dispatched of Prahran reasonably well in the first final but went into the qualifier undermanned with illness and injury and subsequently lost to Port.

Despite the loss we knew that if we got another shot at Port we could be confident as we had beaten them by ten goals during the home and away at North Port. But we had to beat a rampaging Springvale first.

Coached by former right hand man to Leon Harris at Werribee, Bernie Sheehy, the Scorpions were young, fearless and full of belief.

The game was without doubt one of the best I’ve ever played in. The standard on a sodden Moorabbin was very high and the finish was astonishing. We were into our second Grand Final.

The next day we were frankly exhausted and for the first time all year we hopped on a bus and went to the Footscray indoor pool for some recovery instead of the regular 5km run.

Afterwards, we did a detour and visited the home of the forthcoming Grand Final, Princes Park, snuck onto the ground in the dark and walked around it aimlessly.

Was this a psychological strategy by Donald to extract some sub-conscious energy for the grand final through mindfulness and visualisation? Of course not, but what it did was inadvertently put the exultation of the previous day to bed and reset our focus to the coming week.

The most telling sign on Grand Final day for me was hearing the rain on the patio at my Hoppers Crossing house that morning. Port were young and fast, we were old and slow.

Welcome to mud city Port!

It’s a shame that the violence of the day marred our first premiership, but for everyone involved in the club it didn’t matter. We won fair and square and for all Donald’s ranting about high percentage footy, it was exactly that modus operandi that we executed in droves.

The following is the team that ran out that day and were VFA Premiers for 1993.

Backs – Glenn Wilkins, Tim Harrington, Peter Williams

How appropriate was it to have three schoolteachers in the last line of defence? Both ‘Wilko’ and Pete have had stellar careers over the last 30 years and are now senior teachers in a couple of private schools. Tim left teaching just prior to 1993 and has been in the AFL system since, employed in everything from coaching to list management. He is now 2IC for the AFLPA.

Half Backs – Neil Connell, Frank Lesiputty, Jason Watts

‘Codger’ spent 20 years at North Melbourne as a welfare manager and is now Director of Coaching at a Melbourne private school. Former Bulldog Franky has had his own successful building company and is still a knucklehead of the highest order. One of the great blokes you’re fortunate to meet on your footy journey. Wattsy was the only player drafted after 1993, being picked up by the Western Bulldogs and took out the B&F that year. He now lives on The Peninsular with his wife and three boys and by all reports his hair still hasn’t moved in 30 years.

Centres – Mark Cullen, Ian Wilson, Tim Rieniets

Former Bulldog ‘Booker’ was a natural, classy wingman and has had a career as a park ranger in the West of Melbourne. It’s always best to catch up with Mark early at reunions as he usually requires subtitles after a few beers. Willow was a one-paced distributor of the footy and is a retired sales manager, now a dubious writer and mental health worker. Former Blue Tim may well be Satan for all I know because he physically hasn’t changed in 30 years. I kid you not. He has been working for a wholesaler near the Vic markets for over 30 years and has not one, but four VFA/VFL premiership medals and a couple of Norm Goss Medals. Highly skilled and a humble champion.

Half Forward Line – Michael McMaster, Donald McDonald, Richard Geary

‘Mixer’ is a legend of the club, hard working and had one of those bony bodies that could really hurt you! A former club champion, he has made a huge contribution both on and off the field. Donald delivered in spades in 1993 and also over the next five years through the best and worst of times at Werribee FC. He coached Box Hill to the 2001 VFL flag and was interim Hawthorn coach for a few games. With his son Luke he has a super box at the MCG for hire and will be coaching in the VAFA in 2023. Former Fitzroy, West Coast and Richmond utility, Richard was a running machine however is still in denial that I beat him in a 5km preseason run. Now teaching in Yarrawonga, he inexplicably ran a Bakers Delight for a few years. More to the point his wife Kris ran the bakery while he slept. A very funny man we nicknamed “The Eel’. Slippery at avoiding opponents on the field and prone to disappearing when it was his ‘shout’ off the field. Kicked three excellent goals in the GF.

Full Forward Line – John Lamont, Jack Aziz, Andrew Button

‘Cocky’ was in and out of the side all year but struck form at the right time during the finals. He kicked three great goals in the GF and went on to become a fine coach from TAC level to North Melbourne and five years at Werribee. He is now settled in the Goulburn Valley closer to his home town of Benalla with his young family. Jack or Joskun came from Williamstown and had an enormous influence on the season kicking 97 goals. His goal on the siren in the preliminary final will go down in club folklore. A devout Muslim and very private person, Jack was last seen running a Turkish restaurant in Melbourne’s north-west. Hopefully we’ll see him again. ‘Butts’ and his Dad Henry are legends of the club. Now Detective Senior Sergeant Button, it may never have been that way after Donald and I misbehaved in Hobart during the end of season footy trip. On the last night, Donald and I took half a dozen of the young guys to a posh restaurant in up market Salamanca. Donald thought that doing a ‘runner’ (ducking out without paying) would be fun. I reluctantly agreed due to fatigue, so we organised the boys and then bolted out of the restaurant and sprinted down Salamanca Place laughing hysterically. We then did a quick head count and realised that Butts was missing. A few minutes later an LTD Ford pulled up, the rear electric window dropped and we could see Butts in the back seat dwarfed by a couple of burly men. “You owe us $300 or you won’t see your mate again.” We quickly assembled the required ransom and the exchange was over. Butts had been in the toilet when we exited the restaurant.

On Ballers – David Allday, Rod McPherson, Ritchie Raeburn

I nicknamed Dave ‘The Chief’ after the character in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. He was and is, simply shy by nature. It’s a quality you don’t often see in such a testosterone-filled sport, but my team mate Greg Buck and I found it so refreshing, we wrote two songs in honour of him in 1992. Dave was a club champion and won the Norm Goss Medal in the Grand Final. Recruited from Footscray via Melbourne he was an absolute workhorse, virtually rucking on his own each week. ‘Rocket’ was a big game player and I might be biased but personally he was the one I connected with the most on the field. A former Bulldog and Bear, he had an exceptional footy brain and skills to match. I think it was Scott Johnson who nicknamed Ritchie ‘The Mechanical Device’. A very apt description for this ball of muscle who ‘tom-bowlered’ his way around the ground. Richie had a great year in 1993 taking out second in the B&F. He is now settled on the Sunshine Coast with his long suffering partner and daughters.

Interchange – Cameron Wright, Matt Power

Former Bulldog ‘Cameo’ was a genuine pest but a terrific athlete. A lover of cycling and the appalling attire that goes with it, Cameo has ridden many a charity ride especially for the Neil Sachse Foundation. Now entrenched on the Peninsular with his three young kids who all have red hair like he had, we can only hope they terrorise him to the same level he applied to us.  Matty has had a successful career in building and is a close mate of Franky. The boy from Riddell turned up from Melbourne FC looking for a club and was being looked at by Port also. Our gain and Port’s loss, it was Matty who wheeled around and delivered the fateful pass to Jack in the dying seconds of the Preliminary Final. We will always be eternally grateful for that.

The following image shows the emergencies and many others, without whom we couldn’t have been premiers. I’m particularly fond of the support staff who were there like metronomes, week in week out. The late ‘Tiger’ Ryan was present without fail, and who will ever forget the raucous Irishman, Joe Mannagh who is now looking down proudly at the progress of his grandson Shaun.

There’s no secret formula when it comes to winning premierships at any level. You can have the greatest coach in the world, but you need good players who can give maximum effort and execute the skills required.

What I think we did have was leadership across the board and no reliance on any one player. When I look at the team as a whole, there aren’t many who didn’t go on to coach at high levels, whether it be A grade suburban to TAC Cup to VFL and AFL.

Ultimately you don’t want to leave anything on the park and I think the 1993 team gave their all in that year. It started promisingly with a pre-season premiership and ended with the ultimate prize.

There was plenty of adversity to overcome and we had a bit of luck on the way which I’ve always believed is just reward if you approach everything with positive intent, regardless of circumstance.

Congratulations to all concerned and we look forward to a memorable catch up in 2023.

If you would like to read more about Werribee FC, past player songs from 1992 and other stories go to www.isowilson.com and click on ‘Football’ in the menu.