NEALES LETTER
Thanks to technology, Neale Daniher is able to transcribe messages by use of the eyes.
Last Wednesday, a letter arrived from Neale and he and his wife Jan won’t mind if some of it is printed in this column. Over the decades since Neale’s college days, it has been really good to keep in touch with him, his wife Jan, and his great parents Jim and Edna. Neale was a brilliant footballer at Assumption and also a brilliant cricketer. He led the XVIII and XI to premierships and if Essendon FC had not signed him straight from school, I believe he was good enough to reach the pinnacle of cricket as did a teammate Simon O’Donnell.
Hi Ray, (6th July)
Hope you are keeping warm up there in chilly Kilmore.
I am progressively getting weaker but am still able to walk for short distances. I enjoy walking to my local park here in Canterbury most days. Good to get out of the house every now and then.
I still get to the MCG to watch the footy. I went to last night’s match Essendon vs Collingwood. The MCC kindly make it very easy to attend as they provide an underground car park for me. I just park, catch a lift to level two and sit down. Very convenient and means I get out easily and home quickly so very grateful to the MCC. I am going tomorrow to see Melbourne V WCE. Will go with Bee and her husband Drew. Some Saturdays I drive down with Jan to Moe to watch my son Ben play. He is in his third season with them, I think this will be his last.
Jan and all my children are well. All married with kids except Ben. Six grandchildren which is fun. Four girls here in Melbourne and the two boys in Perth with son, Luke. We, as a family just finished the Big Freeze campaign which was a great success. Both Bee and Jan work for FightMND and I am on the Board but everyone gets involved. Bees husband designs and produces the beanies. In some way the fight against MND has helped galvanize the family.
Mum turned 90 on Anzac day this year. We had a big family get together in Wagga to celebrate the occasion. Was a great day. I was able to get there. I don’t travel far from home these days as I need a specialist bed and I have to take a lot of medical equipment. Mum is doing remarkably well for her age. Still lives on the farm and has someone that stays with her, my sisters regularly stay and Chris still manages the farm. She is coming to Melbourne for a week shortly and I will catch up with her on the 17th.
Enjoyed watching the cricket over the years. This Australian team has been fantastic but has come to the end. Warner gone, Smith not far off, aging bowlers so will be interesting what team we put out against India. Should be another fascinating series.
Ray, before I sign off just want to thank you for your support and guidance at my time at Assumption. It was only two years, but they were two very formative years in my development. They were which I remember fondly, so many friends that last to today. So many strong values learnt and reinforced that have stood the test of time which you were very much part of.
Many thanks. Wishing you well,
Kind regards,
Neale.
GOLDEN MOMENT
Across four decades as coach of Assumption’s First XI cricket teams and First XVIII football sides there were some wonderful times. Fine teams, many great players, memorable games and a combined total of 47 titles to celebrate. Great times with fine boys and a host of enthusiastic followers.
In winter times there were memorable, come-from-behind wins against the odds to nail AGSV premierships and some thrilling Shield victories at the famous MCG.
A whole cavalcade of young men, who, by their dedication and loyalty, forged new chapters in the inspiring story of college football.
And on the sun-drenched fields of summer, a similar story. Willow wielders and pod stingers who fought season-upon-season to literally the nth degree to make ACK the most successful cricket school in the major competitions with a record number of premierships.
Thus there were so many fantastic times and people down the years, but the truly golden moment transcended all that happened on the fields of play.
One late July afternoon in 1990, I was leaving the oval at St Pat’s Ballarat after yet another epic encounter with our renowned traditional rivals when a young man and an elderly lady stopped me near the boundary.
He was a farmer from way beyond Goroke in the west Wimmera. She was his 90-year-old grandmother who had with her a very faded Assumption football jersey and scarf.
This gracious lady told me her twin brother had come all the long way from the family farm fields near the South Australian border to school at Assumption in 1915-16. He was a member of the First XI and First XVIII. His parents and siblings treasured his times at home for holidays – only twice a year in that distant era.
He finished at ACK at the end of 1916 and only months later, he joined thousands of his young countrymen on the battlefields of Europe. He was wounded and died before 1917 was out.
His twin sister had tears in her eyes as she showed me the precious mementoes and told me about her beautiful brother forever young.
She was not the only one on the oval at the unexpected meeting who was in tears.
This was the golden moment. It transcended all the so-called triumphs of the decades past.
HE LOVES DANCING
Shane Crawford was not only a fine footballer – he played 305 games for Hawthorn, was a premiership star, and 1999 Brownlow Medallist. Shane gave me a Brownlow replica and has always kept in touch. Now a father of four young boys, he has indulged in another love – dancing – and has been appearing in TV’s Dancing With The Stars. The accompanying picture shows Shane at an ACK V SHC game in 2001 with former Geelong star Andrew Mackie. The pair were opponents when the two colleges met years before. The 68-year-old rivalry will resume at Assumption on Sunday, August 25.
BIRTHDAY COUPLE
Don Comans and his wife Frances are well known citizens of Kilmore. They have known the sunshine and shadows of life but have soldiered on. Their large extended family paid tribute to them recently as the couple celebrated milestone birthdays.
