While the Seniors and Reserves made their way down to Elsternwick on Saturday afternoon, the Thirds and Under 19’s took centre stage on Uni Oval. Two Blues stalwarts added to the occasion as Yvonne Salter and Norma McNamara assumed their once-familiar position behind the counter of the canteen.

Generations of Blues players have fond memories of Yvonne and Norma’s presence around the club. They arrived in 1975 upon Yvonne’s wife Alan Salter being appointed Senior Coach. The story was taken up in MUFC history, “Black and Blue”:

“In the canteen at the University Oval, Salter’s wife Yvonne and team manager Ted McNamara’s wife Norma served pies and soft drinks as they had in the canteen at Coburg for more than a decade. In coming years, the women who formed the Blues ladies’ committee would perform many favours for Blues footballers, such as sewing numbers on the backs of jumpers and sewing small pouches for the players’ valuables, with each pouch having a number corresponding to the player’s number. Peter Brukner believed that, with the arrival of the Coburg connection, University Blues began to feel like a club.”

Yvonne and Norma were the driving force behind the afternoon tea that, 35 years on, remains the envy of the VAFA and it was great to see them back in the Pavvy on the weekend.

They were not the only veterans on hand at Uni. Alan Salter assumed his regular role as Under 19 Assistant Coach and none other than Frank Henagan was responsible for the timekeeping.