In 1978 I had transferred out of
Sydney and had moved to a piece of paradise called
Narooma, on the far south coast of New South Wales.
Incidentally congratulations to the mighty Narooma
Devils of 2003 for winning the Claytons Shield,
(the best country side in NSW) and the Group 16
Premiership. and winning in 2004 and 2005.
In 1979 I decided to make another comeback, one
of about 5 before I did finally hang up the boots.
I was appointed Captain Coach of the Devils Reserve
Grade.
One particular game we played at Tathra, which is
a magical part of the coast and just south of Bega.
We were in the sheds getting ready to play and I
had an old front rower in my team by the name of
Reg Nolte. Reg was not the most skillful player
but he always gave a 100% and he loved a blue. In
those days, and in Reserve Grade, most of us did.
Reg playing for the Devils 1979
Reg was telling me a yarn about a previous time
he had played against Tathra some years earlier
when an all in erupted and all players were involved
in the brawl. As Reg stated the fight was calming
down when out of the blue the little halfback king
hit Reg and took off towards the eastern end of
the ground. Reg took off in hot pursuit and chased
the little bugger through the eastern goalposts,
out of the ground and down the main street to where
the tathra pub is located. A good klm from the ground.
He finally gave up the chase and returned to the
ground.
Reg was in hysterics about this incident and I found
it humorous too.
When it was time to run out onto the field to play,
Reg as was his habit, always followed me out to
the centre. As we were running out for the kickoff
and nearing the centre of the field Reg said to
me, "Hey you remember that little bugger of a halfback
I was telling you about?" I said, "yeah, why" or
words to that effect. Reg just said, "Don't look
now but the bastard is refereeing us".
When we got to the kickoff spot Reg just smiled
at the ref and said something like, " You want to
watch it, I won't stop chasing you this time you
bastard" and they both just started laughing.
We did get a good run from the ref that day......
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