Around 80 members of the Uni Blues community attended a luncheon on Saturday at the Kingston Hotel to pay tribute to club stalwart Bob Girdwood.
After club President Grant “Treeo” Williams welcomed the supporters and past players in attendance and acknowledged Bob’s contribution to Uni Blues over the last four decades, Dr Peter “Brukie” Brukner presented a potted history of Bob’s time at Uni Oval. The first of Brukie’s guest speakers was Barry Johnson. Barry would go on to coach the senior Blues team in 1971 and 1972 but that lofty station was preceded by a stint as Under 19 coach that coincided with Bob’s arrival at the club as a junior player. As coach of the 1970 premiership team that had one Robert Girdwood at the helm as captain, Barry offered some recollections of Bob’s early playing days.
The records show that Bob Girdwood went on to serve as senior Uni Blues captain in 1974. His coach during that ill-fated season, Dave Mithen, was also on hand on Saturday and provided his assessment of Bob’s leadership qualities and onfield endeavour. Dave’s ruminations were followed by some tales from Dermot Small, a club stalwart of Uni Blues during the swinging 70’s who shared a house with Bob at Roden Street in North Melbourne.
Former player Brian Lowe was present to provide a thought-provoking overview of Bob’s career and character delivered in his own inimitable style. Dave Foster, club President in both the mid-80’s and the mid-90’s, spoke about Bob’s years of service and how he typified the qualities of the annual recipient the Chris Brown Memorial Trophy for best clubman, an honour bestowed on Bob in 1996. The final speaker in Brukie’s version of “This Is Your Life (at Uni Blues)” was 2004 premiership captain, Quentin Gleeson. He combined a frank assessment of Bob’s fashion sense with an explanation of the esteem in which members of the playing group in the club’s breakthrough 2004 season held their then President. According to Gleeson, Bob was also a particular source of inspiration when the senior team met Uni Blacks last season in the two clubs’ first encounter since 1982.
Following Brukie’s own heartfelt tribute and some words from Bob himself, the lunch culminated with the unveiling of the Bob Girdwood Honour Board. A new addition to the Pavilion, the board lists the Grade and Finishing position as well as the Presidents and senior Coaches of Uni Blues over the last 40 seasons.
The club thanks all those that were in attendance on Saturday and Tony Heinz in particular for his organisation of the event. It also acknowledges the efforts of those who were not able to be present by reason of attending to matchday duties at Uni Oval and the Crawford Oval to ensure that all four Blues teams took to the field on Saturday.
For those of you who couldn't make it to the lunch, here is a copy of Bob's speech delivered on the day...
Thank you Peter and Grant for those very kind words. Thank you all for coming along today – there aren’t many opportunities in life to get so many close friends together under one roof. Thank you all for your friendship and support for our football club over the last 40 years. I’d like to briefly share my reflections on 40 years of footy.
The driving force for me has always been the relationship with the current playing group. A lot of people talk about tradition and history of the club, friendships made 30 years ago, but for me the only thing that matters is the current players and officials. I guess that’s why I stayed so long ! I really enjoy the privilege of being in the rooms pre-match, at half-time and after the game.
I’ve seen some massive changes to our club over 40 years that I’d like to reflect upon. I had a state school education and I grew up supporting and playing for a district club before I came to Blues in 1969. I liked those down to earth district footy club family values, and I’d like to think I’ve helped instil some of those values at Blues over the years.
I wanted to play A Grade footy so I came to Blues when I started Uni. The club was pretty poorly much run by a team mgr who did everything, and got burnt out in 1-2 years. Barry Church and I were probably the only 2 people who ever brought females to the club. There were certainly no kids. The club didn’t have a family culture, it had a boozy male culture. That was the way we got blokes together quickly.
But even back then, Blues had a big focus on developing U19 players. I think that’s the first key ingredient of our success through the years. For 40 years we’ve probably been the best club in amateur footy at developing our U19’s into quality A Grade players.
At the end of 1974 Bruky and I interviewed and appointed Alan Salter for Blues coaching job. Salts brought Ted & Norma MacNamara and Jim and Marcia Gilchrist with him, and their “district footy club family values” instantly transformed Blues into what I regarded as a real football club. We started building on that family basis; we kept our U19 focus - 2 key ingredients for success.
We were successful without winning flags through the late 70’s and early 80’s – 4 or 5 Grand Finals, great teams, but no flags. I was lucky enough to coach Blues U19’s through the 80’s, and our emphasis on U19’s kept us in A Section until the early 90’s. But Uni football was on the wane with school teams signing up players before they left school, and quality recruits were very hard to find.
The other Uni’s were way down the grades, and Blues were at the bottom of B Grade at the end of 1992 when Grant Williams took over as Blues coach. Grant exemplifies the third ingredient to our clubs success – using the fantastic resource we have of country footballers coming to Melbourne to study.
Grant’s organisation and positive attitude, and building a recognised framework to develop those young country footballers had us back in A grade in ‘96 and playing in a Grand Final again. Our very young team got smashed by a mature Xavs, but we were back.
In the late 90’s the amalgamation issue emerged which I fought tooth and nail, because I couldn’t see how it would improve anything, and every player in the club was against it. We might have won an A Grade flag sooner if we hadn’t wasted months fighting battles with people who said we couldn’t win a flag with the existing structure, but couldn’t nominate a workable alternative structure.
Blues threatened a few times in the following years but it wasn’t til 2004 that we got it together. John Kanis had been driving coaches mad for 15 years saying we didn’t train the way we wanted to play. He got his chance as coach, we did train the way we played, and we won a flag. I’d waited 35 years for that A grade flag. We won the Reserves and C18s too! It was very special.
Our Intervarsity participation has probably been another key ingredient of our success in recent years. It was very difficult to summon the energy to reorganise AUG 10 years ago, and to instill some team values and responsible and humble behaviour to our AUG teams. But it’s been very rewarding in terms of winning 7 out of 10 championships, and building a development path for our U19’s and Reserves to play with senior players and bond our club together. John Kanis has made a mammoth commitment as coach in that achievement.
Reminiscing over 2004 already annoys our younger players. We should have won 2-3 flags in the last 5 years. We’ve got the best record in amateur football for participation in A grade since 1950 - 54 of 60 years, but we’ve got an atrocious record for winning flags. Beating Xavs for the C18 and Res flag last year was a step in the right direction.
I’ve always tried to be inclusive to best utilise the resources we have available. People bring complementary skills and points of view that help build success. John Kanis and I are probably good examples because our ideas are quite divergent but we’ve worked very closely and successfully for 5 years. Our district club family values, our emphasis on developing U19s, and our country base should continue to keep us at the top tier of amateur footy. I encourage you all to be part of it.
Special thanks to:
* My family for being part of the journey. Put plenty of strain on relationships, taken up a lot of time away from home, but been a great place for my kids to grow up and my boys to play footy.
* My respective employers for allowing me to devote so much time to footy!
* Tony Heinz/Bruky/Brian Lowe and all those who’ve helped organise today, and everyone who contributed to the incredible gift I’ve received.
* Bruky and Warwick Hutchins for their ongoing sponsorship of our club over an extraordinary time.
* Those who helped me through 11 difficult years as MUFC President - Jack McRae, Jim Gilchrist, Wayne Carroll.
* Key Committee people who really helped me through 11 years as Blues President – Michael Thomas, Bernie Angel, Tom Hutchins, George De Crespigny, Stephen Meade.
* Matchday helpers – Tony McInerney, John Carmody, Gerry Westmore, Bernie Angel, Alan Salter, Ray Scanlon, Tim Giles, Dave Phefley, Frank Henagan, Michael Robin, Ed Banks, Wayne Carroll, Richard Wilcox.
* Grant (and Bron) for making it possible for me to “recharge my batteries”.
* All the players who’ve made it such fun. Sometimes pre-season can be a real grind but the influx of fresh faced U19’s in March always provides the spark of enthusiasm.
* All of you for your ongoing friendship. Get your sombrero ready for Fiesta pavvy tonight!
