ONE FOR THE AGES
The 2026 AFL Grand Final was truly “one for the ages” and maybe the best of all time. A remarkable feat for coach Chris Fagan to emulate Leigh Matthews’ “triple” in the early 2000s. Both coaches are now legends of the game and may well be immortalised in bronze in the near future. At this stage it would be unwise to punt on 2027 not being able to triumph yet again. It was heartbreaking for Fremantle who had looked the slightly better team until those fateful last four minutes. Coach Justin Longmuir is a really fine guy, as is Chris Fagan and he looked still shell-shocked as he left the oval with his arms around his wife and daughter. From a great family in the farm belt a couple of hours inland from Perth he will bounce back I’m sure as will his shattered players when yet another winter comes.
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SUMMER IS COMING
After a long fairly bleak winter in these parts all will welcome the approaching summer. If the Bureau of Meteorology has got it right for a change it will be hot and wet. It’s great that farmers across the nation have for the most part had a good few months with good crops likely. The people on the land do it pretty tough with ever rising costs and crippling taxes along with the red tape.
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DOWN THE TOWN
During my first two or three decades at Assumption it was a nice touch that if you walked down the street in Kilmore virtually everyone was known to you and there would be a nice exchange of greetings. This was a feature of small towns everywhere. It doesn’t happen anymore which is a real pity. Its one of the prices of progress I suppose. Another sad failure of modern life is the disappearance of manners along with such phrases as “how are you” and “thank you” and as a fine writer in the “Australian” penned recently – “the words loyalty and tradition have almost disappeared from the dictionary”.
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A REAL CHARACTER
Peter (Crackers) Keenan was one of the great characters of football. He played 213 games for Melbourne, North and Essendon as a truly colourful ruckman. Beyond his time in the big league he forged a lengthy career in the mainstream media and was a “natural” for sports nights in all footy states. A health battle only last year saw him have his right leg amputated. Peter has made a steady recovery back in his old hometown Yarrawonga, greatly supported by college students of his time – names like Mick Cummins, Alan Tripp, Glenn Brear.
Peter was not only a fine footballer at Assumption he was a good student too. He won a prize in fifth form for the best poetry translation. The piece was:
“Isabile heres ago
Fortibusees in ero;
Noces mare Theibe trux
Vatis innem pesandux.
The classics scholar’s masterpiece was-
‘I say Billy, here’s a go,
Forty buses in a row.’
‘No’, says Marie, ‘they be trucks’.
‘What is in them, peas and ducks?’
It was an easy decision for the judges.”
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VARIA
James O’Donnell is forging a fine career in defence for the Bulldogs. The former St Pat’s, ACK and later Xavier student is well recalled locally for his junior years with Kilmore Cricket and Football clubs. He is the second son of Simon O’Donnell who played briefly for St Kilda in football prior to his cricket career which saw him play for Australia and captain Victoria. Simon was also a real star in Assumption cricket and football premiership sides. James was also a very promising cricketer who could have gone far in the game if AFL had not claimed him. Older brother Tom has captained Essendon in premier cricket. Simon’s dad Kevin played for St Kilda and was for years a champion sportsman in the Riverina. He was also a fighter pilot in the Battle of Britan where he served with cricket legends Keith Miller (Australia) and Denis Compton and Bill Edrich (England).
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Good news this week for my family. My sister’s grand daughter will graduate as a doctor at Southport University. She graduated from ACK just prior to Covid and has worked really hard to achieve her dream, including a lengthy placement in an outback hospital. She has an older sister, a nurse, and a younger brother, an army regular.
