MICK Ryan knew what was coming when summoned to meet some Kyabram Football Netball Club officials at the end of the 2003 Goulburn Valley League season.
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Affectionately known as ‘‘Dodger’’ he had been non-playing coach for the previous two seasons through one of the club’s darkest times and was ready.
When it was nervously announced by his interviewers the club was going to seek a playing coach for the following year Mick quickly snapped back, ‘‘I don’t know whether I can get myself fit enough to play again.’’
After all he hadn’t played for 13 years.
With puzzled looks on their faces his interviewers were obviously taken aback for a moment before one of Mick’s infectious grins eased the tension.
Yes, Mick was well aware his time as a coach, player and stalwart of the club was finally up.
‘‘I just wanted to get in first when I knew it was coming,’’ said Mick with that well known infectious grin.
Mick has been one of the club’s busiest and best loved servants since answering an advertisement in the old pink paper, the Sporting Globe, in 1980 while playing for the Windsor Zillmere Football Club in Queensland.
“One of my kids needed to get back south due to health reasons so I saw the ad and applied for the reserves coaching position at Ky and got it,” he recalled.
It’s a decision he has never regretted.
Mick’s Kyabram career includes coaching every side in the club - the under-18s, reserves, seniors - with two premierships and four grand final appearances at thirds level on his coaching resume.
A Glenroy boy from Melbourne’s inner suburbs, Mick cut his teeth as a player with North Melbourne's junior and reserves teams.
Then there was a stint with VFA side Brunswick and five years with Riddells Creek before making the move north to the Windsor Zillmere Football Club.
A tough, straight-through, no-nonsense defender, Mick quickly became a favourite with Kyabram fans during his senior days with the Bombers from 1981 to 1987.
At the end of his playing career he was able to squeeze in a season with Girgarre as a player under Ron Deledio in 1988 before taking the coaching reins of the Kyabram League Roos for two seasons, 1989 and 1990.
Mick attributes a Girgarre trainer, the late George Robinson, for giving him the message his use-by date as a player was up.
‘‘I couldn’t argue with him and I took his advice and hung up the boots for good,’’ Mick reflected.
Mick said naming his best Kyabram team from his days at the club as a player or coach was a particularly tough gig.
He coached and played with a host of classy players.
Josh Vick, Tony McDonell, Chris Atkins, Brenton Gray, Maurie Wingate, David Newman, Kayne Pettifer, Paul Newman, Josh Dicketts and Craig Whyte (now Kellow) were teammates he coached or played with and all who experienced premiership glory.
Mick said Brett Deledio was the best player he had been associated with at Kyabram in his playing and coaching days with the club, while David Newman Jr was the player he had admired most.
He listed players such as Geoff Berry, Kevin Williams, Gilbert Wanganeen, Bill Fry, David Newman Sr, Leigh Ryall and Brad Shepperd as players who could have easily made his best Kyabram team, ‘‘but there are only so many places.’’
While Mick’s playing and coaching days are well behind him he still does his bit around the club and is still a regular game day attender at Kyabram games although naturally frustrated this year with the cancellation of the season due to coronavirus.
He marks out the boundary lines, centre and goal square lines on the Kyabram ground before every home game.
And Mick is adamant about one thing regarding country football these days.
‘‘Players are paid far too much these days and I don’t think I’m on my own with that view,” he said.
Mick Ryan’s best Kyabram team
Backs: Peter White, Josh Vick, Nick Quirk.
Half backs: Tony McDonell, Shane Fitzsimmons, Chris Atkins.
Centres: Brenton Gray, Brett Deledio, Maurie Wingate.
Half forwards: Laurie Casey, Wayne Deledio, David Newman.
Forwards: Kayne Pettifer, Shane Loveless, Paul Newman.
Rucks: Josh Dicketts, Daryl Bourke, Josh Finn.
Interchange: Ben Langley, Paul Burnett, Andrew Trimby, Heath Barnett.
Co-coaches: Paul Newman and Peter White.
● THE Goulburn Valley region has lost some footy stalwarts in the past two weeks.
Murchison-Toolamba Football Netball Club is mourning the loss of a club stalwart and former president, Mick Kerrins.
A salt-of-the earth individual revered by everyone at the club and beyond, Mick was at the helm of the Grasshoppers for its 30-year 2013 drought-breaking premiership.
His eight-year reign as president also included the 2010 thirds premiership victory and the club’s first netball flag which turned into a three-peat between 2012 and 2014 for its C-grade team.
Other footy personalities to leave us were Debbie Warburtorn, wife of Shepparton United Football Netball Club and the GVL’s legendary player and coach Richard Warburton and Benalla’s larger-than-life Peter Mangles who served on the GVL board for many years.
Debbie was a great supporter of her husband and the Shepparton United club in his playing, coaching days.
● THE recent cancellation of the elite junior NAB League season will not spell the end for young players with ambitions of trying to play at the highest level.
That’s according to Bendigo Pioneers talent scout manager Steve Sharp.
But Sharp, a Kyabram footballer and Lancaster premiership coach, said he felt for 19-year-olds like Kyabram’s Aiden Robinson, one of seven over-aged players in this season’s Pioneers squad hoping to catch the attention of AFL scouts this year before the AFL draft.
But Sharp said there were other pathways players who wouldn’t be able to attract interest from AFL scouts this year could take to follow their dream.
‘‘You only have to look at (Moama’s) Lachie Schultz and (Echuca’s) Marty Hore back in 2015,” he said.
Neither got drafted but Schultz went to VFL club Williamstown and Hore to Collingwood and they are both now on their lists.
‘‘There’s still going to be a heap of opportunities for kids to get drafted and into the system so we don’t see this season’s cancellation as a disaster,’’ Sharp said.
Schultz had been a regular for Fremantle this season while Hore is currently sidelined after undergoing surgery earlier this year.
● AT THIS stage this year’s The Massive Murray Paddle, formerly known as the Murray River Marathon, is not quite up that well known creek.
The five-day event is scheduled to start in Yarrawonga on Sunday, November 18 and end at Swan Hill and is the longest event of its kind in the southern hemisphere.
Competitors are due to arrive at Echuca-Moama on the Wednesday.
No two Massive Murray Paddles are the same, and maps are updated annually.
Some 220 entries have already been received but organisers are still emphasising a start will still hinge on the coronavirus conditions at the time.
More information can be found at https://www.massivemurraypaddle.org.au/
● CRICKET Shepparton’s plans for the new season will be a bit clearer after the association’s annual online general meeting on Monday night, August 24.
With a ban on community sport until at least September 17, an originally planned October 3 start for the season is growing unlikely by the day.
Cricket Shepparton chief David D’Elia said communication with member clubs would be the key in the planning for a new season and obviously several options would be tabled for a possible start and season format.
D’Elia said one-day games and a shorter season would be among the options likely to be discussed.
● THE Murray Valley Cricket Association will have to dodge a few bouncers if and when its 2020-21 pennant season gets under way.
With teams in both Victoria and NSW and strict border crossing rules prevailing at present the association’s board may even have to opt for a NSW-only competition.
Murray Valley Association president and former Girgarre cricketer Anthony Holmes has predicted a late start to the season even if some sort of competition does get off the ground.
● HOME of the GVL Shepparton Swans, Princess Park Shepparton is getting a new lighting system.
The $350,000 upgrade will provide a 200-lux lighting system.
● THE Picola District Football League will stage its junior football and netball competition grand finals on September 12.
But the venue for the season deciders is yet to be named.
The six-week home-and-away season, contested only by NSW-based clubs due to coronavirus border restrictions, will end on August 29 with semi-finals to decide grand finalists being played on September 5.