Sixty-year celebration: Graeme “Chips” Taylor, Bob Knight and Trevor Randall were among a sprinkling of the Tigers’ legendary 1950s and 1960s Bendigo league “golden era”. The club played in eight successive grand finals during that time and this year celebrate 60 years since the 1963 premiership.
“Chips” Taylor, Bruce Knight and Trevor Randall sat comfortably alongside modern-day Tigers Mitch Cricelli, Nathan McCarty and Nathan Marrone — the younger generation probably jealous after hearing stories of the club’s golden era in the Bendigo league.
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Melbourne VFL great Noel McMahen was appointed as captain-coach for six years in late 1956, at £1000 a season. The Tigers made the finals in 1957, then won back-to-back titles in 1958-59.
Rochester lost the 1960-61 grand finals, before McMahen returned to Melbourne to coach South Melbourne.
Rochester was unbeaten in 1962 and went back to back in 1963.
Trevor Randall coached the team to a grand final in 1965, but by 1973 the Tigers had joined the Goulburn Valley League.
A 16-year-old John Williams, who went on to play for Essendon and Collingwood (finishing third in a Brownlow Medal along the way), was a member of that 1963 team alongside Taylor and Randall.
Graeme Taylor played under McMahon in 1961, then in the back-to-back wins of 1962-63, before losing under Randall in 1964-65.
Randall recalled Williams kicking seven behinds in one of the finals while playing centre-half forward.
He also recalled having the honour of letting Bob Knight know he had club’s won the best and fairest in 1967, when vote counts were conducted in a different fashion.
John Williams was at the luncheon with his wife Nola and son Lachlan and his wife Celina.
Host Brad McEwan asked Williams how he felt about Rochester, the former big-marking VFL star and state representative saying it would always be home.
“Mum and dad are both buried at Rochester, but when people ask where I am from I still say Ballendalla,” he said.
“We grew up (four children) on what was was 40-acre dairy farm with 40 cows and they (his parents) bought up four kids.
“I spent my first 17 years in Rochester and I will always have a connection.”
Williams shared the stage with another Rochester-born product, Carlton president Luke Sayers and an unlikely guest, former Essendon and Hawthorn champion Paul Salmon.
“Rochy is a special place for me. The Zephyr (Ford executive of a long-gone era) that my dad owned regularly broke down while transporting my family to visit our relations on a Cohuna dairy farm,” he said.
“There were six kids in the car and we always seemed to be stopping in Rochester for one reason or another, so my radar always goes up when I hear stories about the town.”
Salmon, who grew up in Ringwood (an Essendon zone), was a Hawthorn fan in his youth, but shared a story of a milk bar that was bought by his parents being in the Carlton zone when he was just 14-years-old.
“I was almost a Blue,” he said.
Bomber, Magpie and Tiger: John Williams and his wife Nola, with son Lachlan and his wife Celina, prior to his interview on stage with host Brad McEwan at the Rochester supporter luncheon on Friday. Williams played in the 1963 Rochester Bendigo league premiership as a 16-year-old before heading to the big league.
