TIGERS CLUB NEWS ARCHIVE

TIGERS NEWS - 3 AUGUST 2005

Bob Griffin – Our Volunteer Masseur of the World

This chap is probably one of the best known sporting identities in the district particularly in AFL and Rugby League circles.

A former player of the Tigers Club during which time he posted 151 1st Grade matches, Bobbie Griffin is an absolute legend in both codes of football due to his enormous physical strength and toughness he displayed when playing either code. In his retirement away from the playing field he became an active volunteer in numerous capacities – but especially as a masseur – of which he is rated as one of the absolute best.

With the Tigers Club he was highly regarded as a strong defender in some of the best teams ever fielded by the Club, particularly in the fifties when Queanbeyan and Acton formed the famous Combine teams which participated in five consecutive grand finals for three premierships in 1953, 1954 and 1956.

“Griffo” being a member of the undefeated 1956 team surrounded in that team by legends of the calibre of Alan Muir, Harold Williams, Roy Watterston, Roy Williams, Bill Gadd and Lindsay White.

He played in some very difficult times with the Tigers Club in the early sixties during which time he Coached the Senior Grade team in 1965.

After retirement he was coaxed back to the Tigers Club in the mid seventies when he became Chairman of Selectors under the leadership of Coach Kevin Delmenico. During this time, the Club enjoyed success on the field with high quality sides that played in the finals series between 1975 through to 1979 unfortunately incurring many injuries to key personal which limited their abilities to achieve ultimate premiership success.

He has always enjoyed his time with our organisation during which he also gained an enormous reputation world wide for his expertise in the Sports Medicine field of massage particularly with the Canberra Raiders Rugby League Club in their formative years and then hugely successful premiership years. He has travelled the world with the Australian Rugby League International team for Test Series matches in England and France and enjoyed a similar masseurs role with the NSW State of Origin Team.

In addition to treating injuries incurred by way of the footy field he also assists many Australian and local sporting stars plus the elderly at George Forbes House in Queanbeyan along with numerous citizens who frequent his home for the love of his “rough hands”.

Griffo returned to the Tigers this year to assist our sports medicine team after previously being a member of the volunteer group during the premiership years of 1998 – 2000. He has always welcomed injured players into his home for treatment regardless of whether he has been directly involved with the organisation or not and considers the Tigers Club as one of the best organisations he has been involved in.

One of the great sporting larrikins, Griffo is never shy of letting you know how he thinks or feels towards anyone and with his quick witted nature, can put the most confident of person back into the smallest of holes.

But the biggest secret of the toughest guy in town is that he can’t watch his team play. He is too nervous to watch and is often seen either resting in the change rooms while the game is being played or leaves for home during the match.

Pictured is “Griffo” pitching the canteen tent at the Queanbeyan Park Oval in the late seventies, then again at the Margaret Donoghoe Sportsground during the Clubs 75th Anniversary Reunion during which time he jumped into a hole dug for the purpose of a time capsule and finally as one of the faces of our Sports Medicine Team.

Bobbie Griffin – a true legendary volunteer of the Tigers Club