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Assumption is right up there with the best in this country having a list of 140 plus who graduated to VFL/AFL and more than 60 who have played at Premier level in all capitals, plus state players, UK leagues, and of course Simon O’Donnell at Test level. The first in the ACK footy line was local lad Angus MacIsaac who played for Richmond in the early 1900’s. Most recent was Hawthorn’s Mitchell Lewis who starred in the prelim final.
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There have been stars from ACK also in other sports – tennis, athletics in particular and as I write I just note Chloe Molloy who graduated about a decade ago, has given a “masterclass” display for Sydney in the AFLW.
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I can vouch for the fact that a very high percentage of boys and girls who have played at the top level of sports teams at ACK also did well academically and in their lives beyond college. I’ve long believed that the playing fields and courts are actually “classrooms” where valuable life lessons are learned.
ARMISTICE DAY
The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month endures as a special day in Australia’s life. Like ANZAC Day it focuses on the tragic toll of the nation’s youth in the two World Wars. Anthony Hill’s book “Soldier Boy” tells the true story of Jim Martin the youngest ANZAC. In June 1915 the fourteen-year-old sailed from Melbourne bound for Gallipoli. Only four months after leaving home and family he would be numbered among the dead, just one of the many solider boys who travelled to the other side of the world for the chance of adventure and a desire to join the vast numbers who were fighting for freedom from tyranny and oppression. Among the thousands of graves at Lone Pine is where James’ simple cross can be found. The story is not just about the youngest but also of a mother’s heartbreak. She had to let him go, his loving family – a lost son, brother and friend. Not long after his death his parents received a poignant letter- “Dear Mother and Father, don’t worry about me – I am doing splendid over here”. No doubt James, forever young, is part of the unseen army of the fallen whose spirits observe from Valhalla as they are honored a century and more on.
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ANNUAL POLICE XI CLASH
The annual game between the college 1st XI and a Victoria Police Cricket XI was played at ACK recently. The shield for the winning team honours the memory of a Constable George Howell, killed in the line of duty in Melbourne in 1952. He was only 25. For many years afterwards his parents and family members attended the memorial game. A regular member of the Police XI is Pyalong officer Daniel Sowden. He enjoys his duties in the small town. He grew up in the area and attended ACK where he was a good student and sportsman – captaining the First XI in 1999. He pads up each cricket season for the Pyalong cricket team. Daniel is a person I’ve held in high regard since school days. He told me he is thinking of lining up in 2027 for a local footy club. I wished the “young” 45-year-old well. He is a good guy.
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Another “good guy” is former state and federal MP Damien Drum. He keeps in touch regularly from his home base in Kialla near Shepparton. Damien was at ACK in the late seventies in the Neale Daniher era. A good footballer he later played 63 games for Geelong. He was noted as a tough and determined utility. He later played with Werribee and coached Port Melbourne prior to a period as coach of Fremantle in the AFL. His sister is the wife of ACK and Richmond legend Francis Bourke. Damien enjoyed his time in both parliaments and was a highly respected member. I think he is happy not to be involved in the business these days.
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CAPE TOWN SHAMBLES
Australia was not beaten in the Cape Town Test, it was humiliated as it had been in the previous Test. The South Africans’ tough cricketers living in a troubled land, their players, who fight like hell on the playing field, are paid a pittance compared with the Aussie millionaires. It’s time for sweeping changes in Australian cricket. Selectors and coaching staff should be sacked. Under their watch it has developed into a cosy “old boys club”. On the final day the hopeless batting against a spinner most Australians probably have never heard of was an embarrassment. Way back in 1949 Australia was faced with making well over 300 on the final day in Durban. Twenty-year-old Neil Harvey (the Fitzroy lad) hit a masterly 174 and Australia triumphed. He played the great S.A spinner Athol Rowan brilliantly. Harvey, like his contemporaries did not have a coach. He taught himself as a young kid on the back streets of where he lived. Steve Waugh or Allan Border as captains would never have put up with the approach of today’s so called elite.
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The great nurses
For nearly a century and a half Australia’s 300 or so colleges have been great providers of talent to all major sports. Some schools that have stood out in this regard are:
St Joseph’s (Sydney) rugby and cricket
Ashgrove (Brisbane) rugby and cricket
Assumption (Kilmore) AFL and cricket
St Patrick’s (Ballarat)
Parade (Bundoora) AFL and cricket
St Peter’s (Adelaide) AFL and cricket
Melbourne High (South Yarra) AFL and cricket
Hale College (Perth) AFL and cricket
These are just a few of the “nurseries”. Their counterparts in the UK number over a thousand with such famous schools as Eton and Harrow at the forefront.
