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Noel remembers one of the GV’s best ever teams

Looking back: Gus Underwood and Noel Hussey at a McPherson Media Group 25-year luncheon at The Vault in Shepparton. Photo by Bethanie Sessions

Noel Hussey was a proud member of a celebrated group of Shepparton News journalists who developed a cult following during the 1970s and 1980s that will never be matched.

While our own Gus Underwood was also a widely acknowledged member of the McPherson Media conglomerate of the time, his strict Kyabram affiliation made him somewhat of an outcast among the crew.

It was Hussey who became the Goulburn Valley’s own version of modern-day scribes such as Gerard Wheatley, Mark Robinson and Carolyn Wilson — who have a presence on radio, television and in print.

Hussey’s name, face and voice were as much a part of the Goulburn Valley League’s golden era as the celebrated purple tops with the canary yellow GV lettering that were held in such high regard by playing personnel at the time.

A handful of Hussey’s colleagues — Tom Carey (chief football writer), Keith Esson, Bill Ludlow, Les Cranage and Bill McCarthy — used to carefully negotiate the manholes of club timekeeper’s boxes as they made the often challenging climbs to gain a bird’s eye view of the on-field action.

Having sat alongside each of the journalistic legends at one time or another during the early 1980s, as an inexperienced and probably not all that accurate statistician, I fondly recall the interaction and opinions of the men who cast the widely debated three, two and one in the Shepparton News Winfield award “back in the day’’.

Votes cast by the discerning judges of the sport used to set tongues wagging among not only the playing personnel but just as equally with followers of the clubs — such was the weight the opinions of these men carried in clubland.

The Winfield sponsorship of the rich country football award was fitting because I remember at least one or two of the “old school’’ scribes lighting up without too much concern for who was around them — fortunately many of the boxes had sliding glass frontage.

A lot has changed since those days when Seymour’s Kevin “Butch’’ Inness (father of current Western Bulldogs fitness boss Matt) allegedly broke his hand by punching the wall in the visitor’s rooms of the Deakin Reserve grandstand after having his jaw broken in an alleged on-field incident with Phil Harrison.

It was the same game as Peter O’Keeffe used the point of his elbow, again allegedly (although I am pretty sure I saw it while sitting just below the scoreboard on the wing of Deakin), to end Ray Smith’s game in a memorable qualifying final between the Lions and Tongala.

Hussey now lives in Queensland, but he was good enough to allow me to put the “shoe on the other foot’’ and question him on his memories of the Tongala teams of 1983 and 1984.

He has an amazing sports pedigree of his own, having won the 1964 Stawell Gift as a 21-year-old.

It was the only professional race win of his career, running off a handicap mark of 8½ yards and breasting the tape in a time of 12.1 seconds.

He won prize money of £750 and another £600 with the bookies after getting odds of 10/1.

Hussey was a handy boxer, winning 19 of 20 amateur fights, so disagreeing with his vote-casting ability vehemently could have come with consequences.

He started at the Shepparton News, then had a stint away before returning in 1975 as sports editor — a role he held for the next 20 years.

He is a renowned storyteller and shared one tale of he and colleague Les Cranage, a devotee of Tongala and, in particular, Des Campbell.

“Les was a cricket fanatic. I took him over on the Monday to have a beer with the boys (as was tradition) and he wore a cricket tie that someone had given him from Lords,’’ Hussy said.

“I put an old tie on, because I knew they (the footballers) had a habit of cutting it off at the knot.

“They got me and I made out I was upset and before I could say anything they had snipped off Les’ tie.

“He was shattered.’’

He said to win a GVL premiership back then you had to have a side as good, the standard was exceptional.

“You didn’t get a game of senior football back then unless you could really play. It was streets above the district leagues,” the now 81-year-old said.

Hussey regularly reported on the battles between Lemnos’ spring-heeled Robbie Britton and John Jones, Jake Cameron’s difficulty in keeping the high flying Darren Comi on terra firma and the struggle of United champion Richard Warburton to contain Tony Jones.

“Tonny, Seymour and United all had gun sides, even the lower sides all played good football,” he said.

As for the Winfield award, Hussey said he trusted the blokes that he sent there to do the job.

“Everyone has an opinion on who was the best and I trusted theirs,” he said.

Hussey explained he used to take on responsibility for making the tough decisions at the end of the year after discovering one member of his team was making phone calls to a trusted source from the bar of a hotel to deliver his votes — without having seen the game.

He recalled one day at Tongala, one of the wildest days he ever experienced in the grudge match against Kyabram when goalkicking legend Chris Stuhldreier was coaching, after players ended up embroiled a brawl.

Young author: A 13-year-old Rohan Aldous with the True Blue book that was published a week before Tongala’s 1983 grand final win. For the record the glasses were always crooked due to kick to kick at lunchtime on the Kyabram High School oval. Still didn't have contact lenses at that point.

* The 1983 premiership win was Tongala’s first in 22 years, champion centre-half-forward Tony Jones was best on ground with seven goals and the Blues beat Lemnos by 34 points after leading by just two points at three-quarter-time.

The gate was $4000 up on the previous year’s takings and the crowd watched Tongala kick five goals to none in the final term to win the title.

Mick Lovison, Kevin Currie, Phil Harrison, Vic Morris, Wally Davis, coach Des Campbell and Ray Smith were named the Blues best and other multiple goalkickers were Mick Souter (three) and captain Daryl Reid (two).

Ray Smith won the best and fairest year, by seven votes from Mick Lovison, with ruckman John Cortese third and Des Campbell fourth.

In 1984, Mick Souter kicked 15 in three finals matches, including four in the grand final, when the Blues completed back-to-back victories with a 39-point win against Shepparton United.

John Cortese was best on ground, along with Cameron and Kevin Currie, while Tony Jones kicked three goals.