Father son Joe and Ben Dixon played football with Yarrawonga and played VFL/AFL – Yarrawonga’s only father/son to play the latter and played a combined 208 games.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
“I would have thought someone did else but there’s no-one I can think of,” Dixon senior told the Yarrawonga Chronicle.
“Ben was a wonderful player. I’m very proud of him. He worked very hard.”
Dixon senior played with Fitzroy donning the Lions’ jumper five times. Bill Stephen (Yarrawonga’s premiership coach and former Fitzroy legend) lured him down to practice and a headline in the national newspaper read ‘Fitzroy find another Kevin Murray’.
“I lined up at centre-half-back, with Kevin Murray on one flank and John Hayes on the other,” Joe said. “The first game was against Essendon and I played on Ken Fraser (later to become Yarrawonga coach). I reckon I beat him but he doesn’t agree!
“At a ball in town hall ten years on I was MC and I interviewed all previous Yarrawonga coaches. I said he was the greatest centre-half-forward and was beaten only once!
“He was around here a couple of months ago and I reminded him he was only ever beaten once and he said; ‘I don’t think that’s right!’.”
Joe’s best game was his second, against Collingwood.
“Whereas Ken Fraser shook my hand before the game, my opponent spat on my boot. Weideman was captain. They made a change, put Terry Waters on to me, then Max Urquhart – he was from Corowa – then Kevin Rose. I got club votes that day.”
Next game was against Richmond. “The bloke on me got three votes,” Joe admitted. “Against North Melbourne I played on Bernie McCarthy. I think I went alright. The last game against South Melbourne I played on John Heriot and got beaten.”
In those days, footballers had a job and played football. Joe’s employment didn’t sit comfortably with him and he headed back to Yarrawonga.
In 1969 Joe joined the State Electricity Commission (SEC) where he worked his way up from junior clerk in the Yarrawonga branch to the in-charge position with some 40 people under his control in Cobram.
Joe’s impressive football playing and administration at Yarrawonga reads: 170 games, 1959 premiership, O and M representative, President five years (1991-1995), clubman 28 years; five years O and M Board.
We won’t go through each one of Ben’s 203 AFL games but there were many highlights. “The Carlton game where I kicked the goal after the siren (to win the game) was one of my best highlights,” and laughing, added: “I haven’t paid for a drink in Melbourne!“The preliminary final in 2001 against Essendon was one of the biggest games where we lost by nine points but in front of 90,000 is something you never forget.”
In his 13 years at the Hawks, he booted 289 goals. “I’m very grateful for such a long career because it’s an industry which can spit you out very quickly,” Ben said. “I was almost delisted in my second year which was a lesson for me not to be complacent and from then on I did everything I could to make it my own.”
Joe always played down his ability on a footy field according to Ben. “Dad said when he arrived at Fitzroy that the city wasn’t for him, then he always enjoyed Yarrawonga and was adamant the level of footy was good enough to be a steppingstone for AFL.
“The Pigeons was his life and ours, growing up in Yarra around the footy club was one of the best experiences because all you did was kick the footy, travel for games, head back to Burke’s Hotel after a win and I would always fall asleep under the pool table because Dad always wanted to be last to leave.
“When I arrived at Hawthorn and started playing, I happened to run into Ken Fraser the famous centre half forward for Essendon. Ken said congratulations on getting drafted and mentioned he was one of the first players to play against Dad when he arrived at Fitzroy. I asked was he any good because he never answers the question. Ken said he was a bloody good player and on that particular day Dad beat him and gave him a few fists to the back of his head!”
After his illustrious career, Ben has been in the media. For 2021, it will be a continuation of Fox Footy talent, radio and consultancy roles at AFL clubs.
“My wife Kristie has been enormous for me through my career and post with our family, she was a professional golfer on the European tour for years and retired from golf to start our family and that sacrifice is something I’ve never forgot,” he said.
“She teaches the kids golf so maybe they will all be golfers not footballers!”
It’s a busy program but Ben “always loves getting home”. “it’s important for my kids as they grow up to bring them home at every opportunity to show them country life and give them the same experiences I had. The city is where I live but not where I’m from and I always tell people that.
“Yarrawonga speaks for itself. Growing up it was never that busy but the town is on ‘steroids’ now, which tells you when people discover the lifestyle and the people they don’t want to leave, everything you want is at your fingertips - golf, tennis, squash, footy, cricket and the water.”
Like his father, Ben was brilliant at other sports. “I loved my cricket,” he said. “Glenn Brear introduced me to the competition one day and said how would you like to play for the Yarrawonga Footballers. I was rapt and loved the training during the week and games on the weekend. Footy was the best but when I was ready for the Thirds at the Pigeons I went to boarding school but every school holidays I would be first home to play.”
Joe was a local squash club champion three times and was obviously a good coach, teaching a young Wayne Dunn how to play the sport. “I taught him too well – he beat me and went on to win seven the club championships,” he said.
A five-time Yarrawonga tennis club champion and once at Numurkah, Joe had a big impact on former top 16 Wimbledon player John McCurdy’s early career, with John praising Joe and always visiting him when home.
“When I was a teenager a young John McCurdy would hit balls with me every Saturday morning,” Joe said. “He knocked on my door and said will you come down and have a hit with me?
“We did that for years and he went on in 1983 to be in the last sixteen at Wimbledon. I could never beat Jon Coleman. Jon was a very good tennis player and coach.” Joe was in awe of Pat O’Kane being Victorian champion “ten or eleven times”.
Record serving Yarrawonga Football Netball Club President Glenn Brear said Joe was a 19-year-old player who played in the 1959 premiership side at Yarrawonga, having progressed through the juniors.
“He was a very good Ovens and Murray player, played five games with Fitzroy seniors then went on to play 170 games with Yarrawonga,” the O and M Life Member said.
“President for five years and 25 years on the committee, he was on the Ovens and Murray Board of Directors and gave great service to the league and to Yarrawonga Football Netball Club as a player and administrator.
“Joe was an outstanding tennis and squash player. ‘Benny boy’ was a young footballer who played cricket and showed ability at both, playing footy for Rennie then going on to Yarrawonga. “He showed enough talent for his parents to send him to Assumption College Kilmore. He played seniors and football and cricket in his first year and was a leader in both sports.
“He played in Yarrawonga Footballers cricket grand-final in the 1990s and on a crook ankle won the association’s batting average with 102.5 and took 6/69 off 29 overs. He was a very promising cricketer who would have gone onto bigger things if not for his football. And we all know how good his football career turned out to be, and his media career!
Furthermore, we all know of Joe’s contribution to Yarrawonga and O and M football, both on and off the playing field.
Journalist