First of all - the Canterbury Bulldogs are no more! Not the club itself, of course, merely my support for them. I've been barracking for the blue-and-whites since the late 60s.
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As you know, everybody chose a Sydney club back then, and I went for 'The Berries' as they were then called. We've had many good years together since, and I would have happily stuck with them through the 'thin' were we just calculating the thin on the quality of the side's on-field performance.
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But the administration has been a joke for too long and last year was the last straw, culminating in the sacking of Dean Pay. Pay was doing a good job with what he had. They had salary cap problems - couldn't buy anyone - but, still, they were going ok. Sure, they weren't winning, but they were competitive. And the club goes and sacks Pay?
Not only that, they bring in a coach who's been given the arse by Manly! Manly!? Manly doesn't sack anybody who's any good... So it is here that the Bulldogs and I are, finally, parting ways. Which brings me to ...
TOMMY AND ME
I caught up with Tommy Raudonikus on Sunday. He was guest speaker at a luncheon in Newcastle and a crew of us went down. Tommy and I are old rivals and go way back. Actually - as we talked about on Sunday - we go even further back than is immediately obvious:
In 1967 I'd decided to go to Sydney and had been offered a three year contract with Wests. I went down to watch them play at Lidcombe Oval and the plan was to afterwards drive to the club in Ashfield to sign the contract. I watched the game (ten-all draw with Balmain) and got in the car.
The traffic was unbelievable. Maddening. By the time I got there I went in and told the president, "I can't do this. I'm going home."
Big decision ... but then you never know. You could break your leg in the first game... I had a good job in Maitland I'd be giving up, and the reality was that every Sydney club had a star half-back; there were a lot of great, great players around. I figured that attacking the whole thing from a thriving Newcastle competition may not necessarily be the worst way of going about it.
The alternative? I'll never know. But the point here is that, shortly afterwards, in 1969, Wests were still looking for a half-back and Arthur Summons sent them one Tommy Raudonikus, who was then playing for the Wagga Wallaroos. The rest is history. But, as I said to Raudonikus on Sunday: "Imagine if I'd signed that contract that day in '67, stayed, and done any good ..."
Anyway, a great day was had ... there were a lot of stories (mostly unprintable) ... the upshot being that, given my complete dissatisfaction with the Bulldogs, I will from now on support the Wests Tigers!
Raudonikus and I played together once, in 1970, for NSW against Queensland at Newcastle. I was picked at half-back (presumably to appease the hometown supporters) with Raudonikus as reserve back (presumably for if I didn't measure up).
NSW had pretty much the South Sydney forward pack with Graham Langlands as captain, so, playing with that lot, measuring up wasn't much of a problem. I scored two tries and kicked 1 from 1. Raudonikus ended up playing on the wing.
He might not have liked that much: The first time I played against him was a couple of years later in a City-Country match. The very first scrum, the moment the ball went in, Raudonikus reached up and tried to poke both of my eyes out with two dirty fingers. He was never known as the cleanest player on the park. City beat us that year.
I've always said, if I had to pick a 'greatest 15' from my era, the first two selected would be Panno and Tommy Raudonikus. The ultimate competitors.
VALE BARRIE
Barrie Baker died last Saturday, aged 82. You probably don't know who Barrie Baker is. You should.
Barrie grew up in Maitland, began caddying at the golf club at age nine, and went on to win the A-grade club championship for seven consecutive years from 1954. That, on its own, makes him one of Maitland's greatest ever sportspeople.
Afterwards, he went on to win the Australian Amateur Championship and the NSW Amateur before representing Australia at the Eisenhower Cup in Italy. The man is a legend!
From Maitland he settled in Bonnie Doon where he won the club championship 10 times and the seniors 12, quite a few of which you'd have to assume overlapped.
One of the great aspirations in golf is to 'shoot your age.' At age 80, playing off a handicap of 7 (the highest he ever got) Barrie used to have to shoot his age for only 35 points!
More often than not, he shot far better than his age for over a decade!
The best bit is he was known for not ever practising! He wouldn't even have so much as a practice swing on the 1st. Locals reckon the closest he'd ever been to the club's practice facility was hitting off the adjoining 14th tee.
They talk of the time he once spent seven months bed-ridden - a bout with the big C. As he began to recover, but still weak, he reckoned a competitive round was in order. It was medal day. He shot 71 and was, reportedly, not all that happy about having three-putted the 18th.
His favoured tee shot was a draw, but he could make the ball go either way. Asked how, he responded, 'I dunno. I just do it.'
A true Natural.
