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TIGERS CLUB NEWS ARCHIVE
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Blast from the Past – 15 December 2004
The Year 1981.
Coach – James Black
Recruits: Very few. Geoff Deeble (Sutherland).
Robert Anderson (returning after a stint with VFL Club Footscray).
Jamie Belltowers (Belconnen).
Losses: Doug Cornish to Nowra, Richard
Whitney to Albury, Peter Vickery to Melbourne, Glen Taylor
– travelling around Australia, Gavin Nolan to ANU, Dennis
Hopkins (Belconnen).
 New
Acquisition: Bob Gardini – Professional Runner appointed
as Trainer / Conditioner.
The Season: Season 1981 would prove to be one of
the most difficult the Club would experience since the early seventies.
After aperiod of five years (1976 to 1980) under the guidance of former
Footscray player, Manuka Captain Coach and ACT Representative Coach Kevin
Delmenico, the Tigers Organisation decided on a change of Coach. (Delmenico
had guided the Club into the 1976,77,78 and 79 ACTAFL Finals series).
Unfortunately, before deciding on a change there had been
no real process in place to find a suitable replacement and before long
the 1981 Season was upon the Club with no successor. A desperate plea
to the Clubs legendary player James Black was accepted with notification
of a one year only agreement as he would be travelling overseas at years
end.
Unfortunately, the Tigers could not attract enough recruits
to back up a bold move to appoint one of its own and as the season progressed,
the Club experience an unprecedented amount of injuries including knee
injuries to Black and also to star players John Lysewycz and Robert
Anderson – Ando missing the first part of the season over a transfer
dispute with VFL Club Footscray.
Although hopeful of a resurgence (after a dismal 1980 season)
similar to the mid to late seventies whereby the Tigers became a force
in the competition, the Club soon realised they were in for another tough
season after losses in the first six rounds with scores such as:
Round 1: West Canberra 22.20 (152)
to 8.9. (57)
Round 2: Sutherland 12.13 (85) to 8.11 (59) –
The Bulldogs first win in three years.
Round 3: Ainslie 30.10 (190) to 6.15 (51)
Round 4: Eastlake 31.17 (203) to 7.14 (76)
Round 5: Belconnen 20.16 (136) to 15.16 (106)
Round 6: Manuka 16.19 (115) to 12.11 (83)
Their first win of the season (for both grades – the
Club could not field an Under 19 Grade team) came about in the most unusual
of circumstances.
Playing West Canberra at Jamison Oval on one of those horrendous
Canberra wet weather days, the Tigers defeated the competition leaders
11.6 (72) to 7.7 (49). Now one wonders how this could have been achieved
considering the scorelines mentioned in their first six matches.
Indeed the Tigers last two games prior to the West Canberra
match had seen marked improvement however in bizarre circumstances, the
Magpies took the field in the first quarter with only 16 players and by
quarter time in atrocious conditions were down by four goals and would
not recover this deficient by games end.
And the reason for taking the field with only 16 players
was that – they were waiting for four of their players to arrive
by plane from Melbourne – the plane being forced to circle the Canberra
region, not being able to land due to fog, mist and rain.
Described as the “rent a side” and having an import
list longer than “Lang Hancocks bank balance” quote Queanbeyan
Age May 25, 1981, the Magpies would fly four players in from Melbourne
each week to play. Unfortunately, on this occasion they didn’t arrive
at the ground until quarter time of the main match and subsequently the
Magpies could not make up the deficient. They had made the fatal mistake
of taking a win for granted against Queanbeyan and paid the ultimate price
– defeat.
The Tigers Reserve Grade also had a win - albeit during
the week following. Although losing the match, Queanbeyan gained the points
after the Magpies were deemed to have played an unregistered player.
Queanbeyan rested at the bottom of the ACTAFL table for
most of the season. There were few bright spots but underneath all the
doom and gloom including an ultimatum from the League - that if no improvements
were made – the Club would be forced from the competition, a number
of positives were happening. These included:
A liquor licensed was granted to the QAFC Ltd for the purpose
of constructing a Licensed Premises in South Queanbeyan.
The development of the Tigers new home ground – Margaret
Donoghoe Sportsground continued with training lights finally being installed.
The Tigers Under 17 Grade team played in the Grand Final
being defeated by St Edmunds. Future Tigers stars Tony Wynd, George
Stevens, Kevin Alles and Mark Thompson were members
of the team. Captain of the St Edmunds team later to join the Tigers was
Darren Fowlie.
As the season evolved the Tigers showed marked improvement,
but still remained lowly on the ladder and could not win at their new
home ground.
Since transferring to the Ground in 1980, the Tigers had
not tasted success and when a match against equal bottom placed team Sutherland
was scheduled for Margaret Donoghoe Sportsground, the Club decided they
needed to win this match and probably couldn’t do so on the wide
open spaces of “Mary Poppins Oval” – affectionately named
by Ainslie Coach at the time Kevin “Cowboy” Neale.
So Club officials had the game transferred to the old hunting
ground – the Queanbeyan Park Oval – claiming the MDO was unsuitable
to play on due to wet weather. (The Queanbeyan City Council was blamed
for moving the match but after all these years, the secret can be revealed
– it really was Club Officials who had the game transferred).
The Park Oval being a much smaller venue but more suitable
to the Tigers general play.
The transfer of the match worked and the Tigers climbed
off the bottom of the ladder with a “convincing” win over Sutherland
12 .15 (87) to 11.15 (81).
The Tigers eventually broke the ice at the Margaret Donoghoe
Sportsground defeating Belconnen at the venue in August to record their
first victory, the scores being 9.16 (70) to 6.26 (62).
The Tigers Club received a barrage of unwarranted criticism
during the year for its lack of success including many of the following
quotations from “The Observer” a reporter for the Queanbeyan
Age:
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Burglar – There was this Irish burglar who broke into
the Tigers Den to steal all the trophies – little did he know-
they don’t have any !!!!!!!!!!!!
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Towels – There has been a rush on giant towels at Coles.
The towels feature a Tigers head and are ideal for wiping away the
tears !
-
On the subject of Burglars again – Old Tiger (named not
supplied) had a break in party at his new house the other night. People
had to dress up as burglars to get in. Most of the Tigers 1st Grade
team turned up !
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After successive 30 goal defeats – “Fair dinkum,
the Tigers would be lucky to beat the local girl guides. Only their
fitness would be the advantage, because the girls would outsmart them
to three quarter time”.
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Glamour – The paper Tigers have little going for them
so to give their supporters a lift and to divert attention from their
displays they should form the Pussycats. Spectators do not want to
watch the Tigers, so they could hire a suitable smoke filled dingy
room for the Pussycats to grind away for four quarters !!!!
The Tigers conclude the Season in second last position with the enormously
talented John Lysewycz securing the First Grade Best and Fairest
Award after narrowly missing out on two major league awards including
the Mulrooney Medal.
Before the 1981 year had concluded the Tigers had appointed former Melbourne
player Peter Williamson as Coach for Season 1982 and with the spirit
and knowledge that a licensed club was not far away would move into a
new era that would see the Tigers contest the next 22 consecutive finals
series, playing in 16 Grand Finals up to and including 2004.
This information gained from the pages of scrapbooks collated by Allan,
Jill and Nicole Bright.
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