A new heading! One of the favourite’s of our Aussie Refugee Groundskeeper here, absolutely loves this thing. Also, completely despises it.
Taddie
Charlie King’s OAM started the topic regarding Taddie, now we finish it. Starting here, the worst of the worst on a sporting field and we get better. Well, we get better before we get worse, Basketball, the worst. Again, however, let’s start where we start.
Living with Mum also gave me a second opportunity, play a season of football with my older brother. Beautiful experience getting to share a common interest with Danyel, one we both adore with all our hearts.
Danyel was a good Australian rules footballer, really good foot skills, however was in and out of the senior side. Dominated many reserves games but could not translate it consistently into first grade.
Country Australian football, basically social football, the first grade is generally called Seniors, the second grade Reserves, so we will use these words from now on.
Danyel was always up the top of the reserves club vote count for best player throughout the season, also found himself in the pointy end when it came to the the league best and fairest. Like another beautiful man we are about to discuss, Danyel’s leg speed was the thing that really stopped him. His fitness was good, had all the attributes to be successful in the upper grades with the exception of speed.
There are a lot of really good reserves footballers who do not translate their dominance to Seniors, pretty much each case has to do with leg speed. Scotty, this ridiculously diculously beautiful man were he to have a couple of extra yards of pace could have been a great country footballer.
Runs all day, never ever slows down, works his arse off and then some. The shittiest of shitty nights at training Scotty worked and worked and worked. He worked for the team, doing his best, knowing that he was never consistently going to reach the upper grade. It did not matter, Scotty loved the Rokewood Football Club and the Rokewood Football Club loved him. Everybody adored Scotty, absolute jet of a human being.
Reserves footy, he never stopped, the final siren was running as hard as the first, putting yards and yards on his opponents. Played in the midfield, excellent position for him, made for it. Put Scotty in seniors and nothing changed with the exception of the opponents around him slowing down by the end of the game. Unlike reserves they slowed down to Scotty’s pace, he was even now, but not ahead. Senior footy would always be tough for him.
Before I continue, there is another man at Rokewood who has the same name as Taddie, he is not a cop, him and Taddie are two completely different men, dragonflies and slugs. Please, do not get them confused should you ever meet. Taddie very short, the other Craig, not short.
The year Taddie coward punched Scotty he was playing for the Carngham-Linton Football Club, he was the playing Coach. A role model for everyone, particularly the young boys playing in the under 17 and 14 years age groups.
Carngham-Linton, anyone ever heard of them? Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting club.
Previously, the two or three years previously, Taddie was the senior coach of the Rokewood Senior side, I was the assistant coach in the one season I was at Rokewood. Scotty was in and out of his senior team, him and Taddie played, trained, drank piss, hung out together around the club for at least three years before the incident we discuss occured. Apparently supposed to be mates.
Team selection was a headache, mostly it was pretty simple until it came to Scotty and Danyel. Every conversation, they are too good to be playing reserves but how do we find a way to translate the dominance to the first grade, we never found a way. Both would come up and play well enough but would be outplayed too often, again simply not fast enough to make our decision consistently easy.
Grand Final, I’m going to say 2007 or 2008, the year after Mum died, maybe the one after that. Already, there were many stories about Taddie going around, the dirty DIRTY piece of shit he is but fortuntely I never had to witness it, he was injured most of the year I played. Also, I was not at the Grand Final mentioned.
Danyel told the story to me, the second time I watched as his heartbreak could not be contained amongst the words. First time, Fred striking Rachel when she was a toddler.
This year, I am almost 100% certain that Scotty won the league best and fairest for the reserves, best player in the competition. Not surprising.
Back to the GF, reserves grand final, second grade grand final, young kids just coming into seniors, older men running around for the last time, mates who come together to have fun on the football field, competitiveness isn’t always a priority.
The very first play. The siren to start the game goes, the umpire throws the ball up beginning play, two seconds later the game is stopped, a man is out cold in the centre of the ground. Not a single player has a posession, kick, handball, hit out, tackle, shepphard, mark or any other statistic, yet the game is stopped.
Scotty is lying on the ground limp and lifeless.
Let’s talk about the scenario in Aussie Rules first. At the start of each quarter and after each goal the ball is brought to the middle of the ground. In the centre there are eight players, four from each team, moving around a space about 5 metres squared, it is tight, it is chaos, the ball is the only thing that matters but it cannot be predicted where it will end up, one has to focus.
Scotty was great in the centre, especially when others players emotions were getting the better of them, he was super calm, his personality in general is super calm. He was extremely good in this scenario simply because he was able to read the play, know where the ball was going to land, gave full attention to what he was doing. Gave no attention to potentially being snipered by the biggest coward a football field has ever seen.
Taddie was playing on either the half-back or half-forward line, he is not allowed to enter the centre square until the umpire has thrown the ball up, he is watching Scotty like a predator from 10 metres away.
Two seconds remember, two seconds is all it took for the umpire to throw the ball up and Scotty’s life being threatened. Ball up, Taddie sprints 10 metres with no other intention than to take out the league’s best player. He did. Danyel tells me Scotty was sitting on the bench for the rest of the day in pure sickness, how does this shit not break your heart as it does mine?
Taddie is a police office, a community role model, a coach of a country football team, a role model for young boys, he has committed this act in front of a huge crowd. Yet, nothing was done by anybody, even the umpires, not even a suspension, how do you justify this everybody who was there? He is a Pig is NOT a fucking justification.
There is more detail to this, the main one we talk about is the premeditation. Unlike many coward punches that are done through alcohol, emotion, blah blah, they are not premeditated, this cleary was.
The premeditation too, do you think it was only when Taddie was standing there on the ground waiting for the whistle when it entered his thoughts? You are wrong, absolutely wrong. Taddie knew at least a week in advance that he would come up against his old team and his mate the leagues B&F winner. He had decided what he was going to do at least seven-days before he almost destroyed a man’s life, and the lives of his family.
Yeah buddies, Scotty is a beautiful father, he has beautiful children, a women who loves him. All these people had to watch this, heartbreaking.
Sadly, this is not the only story I have heard of Taddie’s behaviour on the field. Yet, again, nothing has ever been done.
Australian Police, how many examples do we need people? The people protecting us who we expect to keep us safe. I am only a little way into what I have to share about them.
First Constable Elizabeth and her mate at the Colac Police station letting a man walk to a cliff knowing how vulnerable his position was, after telling him he would be priority watch.
Tasmanian Police going out of their jurisdiction to bully easy targets, premeditated bullying of people they knew, or thought they knew, did not have the education or understanding to stand up for themselves and their own rights.
Taddie now. There are many many more to share. Nothing is being done.
All these people carry a gun, Taddie, this man who premeditates violence to win games of football carries a deadly weapon by his side, is anyone really safe when Australian police are their protectors?
You cannot tell me police in Australia are making a difference, they are not, I have no sympathy or empathy for any of them. Every single police officer is allowing this shit, it happens in every station, yet continues and continues to be swept under the rug.
Australian Police, Australian Government, Australian public are we ever going to do something for the safety of our citizens?
Back to the match, Carngham-Linton won, apparently they sang the song, accepted their medallions, held the trophy aloft above their heads, celebrated their season afterwards.
Did you Carngham-Linton? Did you celebrate this win?
I bet you did, you disgusting filth of a football club, disgusting filth of human fucking beings. You are the most disgusting thing that has ever walked the pitch. The story above, Taddie, nope not just him, the entire Carngham-Linton football club was notorious for this.
First game I played against them struggled, the second was playing well until I was targetted with a disgusting knee to the quad when my eye was on the ball and I was in the air, felt like I was shot with a shotgun. Fuck it hurt, I could not play for two weeks after, could barely walk at all.
The last game a preliminary final, was dominating this one and was pretty damn lucky in the end, would have won easily had I not pulverised my hamstring at the very start of the third quarter jumping for a mark. Shotgun again, this time the sound as the hammy went twang. We lost by one point, I played centre half forward, won the clubs goal kicking that year and right up the top for the league, one point.
One point however, one more goal by me that day I know what the outcome would be. Unlike Scotty who when other’s slowed he caught up, I was head and shoulders above all but three players in the league from a fitness and pace perspective from the start, I did not slow down. As others slowed down I dominated more and more and more. One point to Carngham would have been a few goals to us, but then again it wouldn’t have been because of this pathetic disgusting violent club, I would simply have been another Scotty, another victim of coward shit on a football field.
Coward shit to win games! Do you still have that trophy, those medallions Carngham? Do you really? Like, how buddies?
Every story of this club is the same, the dirtiest of dirty dirty cunts. Yet, nothing ever done, so much nothing that when the league disbanded Carngham were one of the clubs which were accepted into a new competition, a better one, one with more exposure. You still doing the same shit? Fucking hope not.
This is the truth here too, I know Carngham from then, I do not know them from now, they might have changed, there is a chance.
The reason to play
All of the time playing football there were two opponents I absolutely loved, adored, wanted to play against. They were the best challenges I had on the football field, every moment was completely safe, both ways, we played bloody football, and football only.
A young fella from Quenbeyan in the reserves when I was playing for Ainslie. Seven or eight years younger than me, 15 kilograms lighter, had a step on me and the fitness to keep up. The last game I played against him was the best of the best, at half time I only had one possession, popped my shoulder in the process.
Incredible mark (catch most people outside AFL know this word as), pure leap, I heard him behind me gasp. Turned around saw my mate was playing on Simon alone in the football line, knew he had him covered, bombed the ball in, mark to us, goal. My opponent, pretty sure he hadn’t touched the ball yet. It was fucking great mates.
Half-time my shoulder is ruined, would not work, everyone’s heads are down when they come to me, were having as much fun as we were. Pure football, great to watch.
The other bloke was playing for Navarre am pretty sure, me for Rokewood. Just loved playing on him, same as the above but fitness and speed were the same, our bodies very similar, him a little shorter. Second game against them was dissapointed, they put him on our other strong forward, a taller stronger bloke on me.
Ran him to the ground, received easy marks all over the forward line, kicked 60 goals or so that year, only maybe 10 points, did not miss these ones. Quarter time and I already have five goals. Navarre make a change, a massive smile comes on my face. Just loved playing against him, we both got a good amount of the ball but nothing was easy, I did not kick another goal, he would not allow me easy space like his mate.
It’s what footy is about folks, all sport, challenging yourself against the best. Making sure they know they are safe playing against you, them letting you know the same, we play fairly, it brings out the best in everyone.
One can be competitive at any level. Reserves and seniors are no different in their importance, nor are professional versus amateur. It’s the fact people are out there socialising, being active, creating community together, building spaces of trust, looking after their bodies, loving lives that matters.
Just because you will only ever be a 2’s player does not mean the game is less important to you. You don’t have the physical capabilities of those above you, so what, you do the best with what you are given, exactly as your mates are. It’s the best you can do, the best you are doing, the same thing everyone else is doing.
Football, sport, is important, it gives everybody the chance to be their best. Safety allows them to reach their own potential, people return to sport, community grows again.
Make the reason to play the challenge, not the fucking result. Especially not a win that comes with weakening someone else, that’s no win at all. It’s heartbreaking really.
Nauiyu
The thing above with Scotty and Taddie. Heartbreaking. You know already from what I have written had the victim not have been him it would have been Danyel. No doubt about it, Taddie’s intention was to take out the best player on the team, absolute coward. Not much difference between Scott and Danyel, a few league votes, Danyel top five or six, the second best Rokewood player in the competition.
Scotty survived, he was really lucky, Danyel may not have. All it takes with one of these disgusting acts is to be hit exactly in the right spot, wrong spot, and people die. They die all the time. Australian Police, Australian Government, when are you ever going to do something about thugs legally carrying deadly weapons?
Apparently you are serious about this Aus Pigs, apparently preserving life is your number one priority, is it? Is it really?
Hey Daly River, Nauiyu, I have not forgotten about you. Not sorry for ignoring you as one of the beautiful places I spent all my time on in the DV work. Not at all, you do not belong with Charlie, you belong here.
This community people, many beautiful things to it, many many.
Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann, ever heard this name? One of the most beautiful things to ever walk this earth. Ridiculously beautiful spirit. I encourage you to look her up, read about her. Read about a thing she teaches called Dadirri, deep listening, we’ll come back to it and her here or somewhere else, we may not, who knows, who cares, it is fucking beautiful, she is fucking beautiful.
Footy in this community, the last game I ever played, only about 15 minutes on the field. Content, pure highlight of my football.
It wasn’t just about football, actually football was fuck all to do with it.
The men, these men, these beautiful beautiful men. Leadership, oh boy, leadership.
There are a few men I would love to talk about, I’ll keep it to just one. Adam Sambono. Sorry everyone else, but not sorry too, you don’t need me to apologise for using this ridiculously beautiful man as the example for how beautiful you all are, hey? I know you are alright with it.
Had forgotten about Adam, there was no reason for him to continue popping up in my head, while having every reason. Without trying to sound weird I loved watching him around his brothers from Nauiyu, barely saw him on the field besides training.
Adam has personality, confidence, can seem like he has a massive stick up his arse, self-centred, from the outside. Many see him this way but when you look, when you watch, take away the judgement you will see what I saw. You will see the reason everyone loves him and looks up to him, even men 10 and 20 years his senior.
Great footballer, fucking good footballer, but it is not the reason. Helps of course, but not the reason.
Sitting at the backpacker in Banos the other week, the night before meeting Anja. Two Aussies are there, have completely forgotten their names, a beautiful young couple.
Talking about life in Australia, I tell them what I did and where. Mention Nauiyu, use the words Daly River, more commonly known.
‘Do you know Adam Sambono? We are good mates, plays for the Darwin Buffaloes.’
Haha, yeah mate, I know Adam.
Talked about him for a mimute, reflected one another’s statements, beautiful man. Great great leader.
‘It’s a small world.’
Adam does all the shit men do to one another, plays, teases, gets stuck into someone when they are being greedy and not playing for the team. Will dig right into his mates when they do something dumb, on or off the field. Sometimes serious, he needs to be, mostly not, the love that comes out of his mouth with every word towards his mates is beautiful.
Barely see him serious, it is underneath it all though. An incident happened in the community, a brother died in a car accident fuelled by alcohol. It happens all the time. The communities heart was breaking. What do we do? How do we move forward?
Sitting around training nobody wanted to do anything, it was another heartbreak amongst the ongoing heartbreak, again, what the fuck do we do?
It was simple, Adam knew it, we get on with our life, We start by taking that field, running around, kicking the football, doing what we bloody well love. Play football with our mates, brothers, cousins, the white guy sitting there saying nothing, his heart breaking with us.
He stood, grabbed a footy, didn’t say a single word. Matthius, I can’t remember the spelling, full forward who has a habit for kicking goals, many many goals, followed. Everyone stood, walked onto the pitch, not a word was said.
15 minutes later all one could hear from miles away were men shouting for the ball, calling each other’s names, encouraging one another, having a fucking good time playing football. What could not be seen were the smiles that had returned to every face.
Yeah people, footy does this. It gives people back their lives. All it takes is a man, or a woman, who gives a shit enough to give shit. This was Adam.
It wasn’t just Adam, it was every man on the team. God, it was beautiful.
We don’t bang on more here. Adam, like all the blokes, was sitting there in his own space, his own hurt, his own version of banging his head against a wall screaming, how, how can it always be like this, when is it ever going to stop, when are my FUCKING people going to be safe from this bullshit.
He was hurting people, just like his brothers, equally like his brothers, his heart was torn to pieces. I was watching him, sorry mate I wasn’t staring, but I was watching your every move. I could not help myself. I could see your mind ticking over, what do I do, what do we do, what can anybody do?
I watched you lift your head, you caught my eye, you turned and looked at your brothers. You stood, enough is enough, what we do is the best we can do, change the narrative, bring love back to our lives, play fucking football.
Like people, many of you hate sport, think it is the devil, believe it destroys many lives. It does, I absolutely agree, but these are the Taddies of the football world, not the Adam Sambono’s, there are many many more Adam’s than Taddies.
My life has been saved by many things, the Alvie Football Club, the beautiful men there, just like Adam are at the very top of that list. The club are at the top of the saved my life list for several of us who played.
Men like Adam are at almost every club, they save lives, at least give lives back.
A gentle man
To be honest, tears are already coming to my eyes, the loss of my world extends well beyond the family I was given. It extends to the family I chose, my mates, my beautiful beautiful mates. God, I really really miss you guys, God I really do. I love you all from the being of my being.
The timing for my last trip back to Colac was crazy appropriate, sadly Graeme died only a short time after arriving. Graeme is Josh’s Dad.
Josh and I came together through school but it was football that really made our bond what it was. Josh, a really good senior football player, however like our reservists the leg speed was never ever there to go further. Had all the other attributes, ridiculous work rate, could tackle calves like they were little boys in the playground.
No shit, watched him do it. Told Graeme, Graeme’s smiled beamed wide, he sat back and said nothing at all. It was so fucking beautiful people. My son, and his mate, are doing alright, it’s fucking alright.
Graeme, a man’s Man, to people meeting him for the first few times anyway. A cattle farmer, footballer, slower Australian drawl kind of voice, pretty damn specific with his words.
Damn or damned? I’ll check it out.
He was also a tulip farmer. Loved the things.
A man who would sit back in his armchair with his eyes close and not open them unless things really got out of hand in front of him. Almost never did, we weren’t like that, we liked to keep each other safe. Graeme’s space let us explore together, just be who we are, it was really really beautiful. He was the type of man’s Man I wanted to be, the gentlest of gentle men.
Gentleness, people, comes with strength, standing up for what is right. Graeme did this, Leslie continues to I know, Josh does this, Marnie, Haley, Pip and Lachie all do this. The family is the pinnacle of beautiful people, of gentle hearts and they are strongest of human beings. Were you to have heard Pip speak at Graeme’s wedding it was absolute heartbreak delivered with nothing but clarity.
These people accept who they are, understand the pain in life will always be there, we support each other and move forward, we do it together.
I showed up at their house before the funeral as I didn’t want to surprise Josh. We had a hard couple of years, I was absent, they were all concerned about me. Wanted to show him I was okay before adding another confusion to his confusion. He wasn’t home, it was the best thing, still I was invited inside. They were all hurting together but they invited me in. We all hugged.
Funny funny, Pip literally came running into my arms when I pulled up at the house and stepped out of the car. Fred, and ran at a fast jog for thirty metres straight to me, wrapped her arms wide around and said thankyou for coming. It was beautiful Pip. She kept running like this for another 45 minutes, yeah, haha, she was already going for a jog. Talk about beautiful women people, just beautiful people.
We had a chat, laughed three or four times, belly laughs. I left and when Josh and I saw each other at the funeral it was the right time. He knew I was okay already. We had the biggest hug and moved forward.
Thank you Josh for the birthday message. Thank you so much.
Graeme was gentle, his home and family were safe. Just a beautiful man, a man who loved footy.
Colac Football CLub, the last year of under 18s we won the Grand Final. Few people there that day would argue with me winning an award for one of the best players, not nearly the best, that was Hodgy, and then some. The other team had a future AFL player too, Brent Moloney, Hodgy didn’t stack us in any way, yeah better than Brent but not by a country mile. The bloke played 166 AFL games, like, he went alright.
Didn’t get one. Didn’t care. Graeme fixed it though, handed another award to the coach, the coach handed it to me, everybody cheered. Like, it was just. Graeme merely wanted to do the right thing and it broke my heart in the very best way, it’s what a gentle man does. It took strength for Graeme to stand up, many other boys played well that day, could have received an award, but he singled out me and he made sure it was known. He stopped the coach from moving on to other ceremonies to do it. Nobody argued.
The next day I called to say thank you, a nervous wreck, afraid of men isn’t word for what I was. They pertified me. Reaching out like this was very tough.
Graeme, Josh, nobody really knew what was happening behind our doors. Josh knew something, his mate continually declining, getting in his own way all the time, errant erratic and inconsistent behaviours to what we knew.
Football, Josh will admit I could have achieved a lot more than him if it wasn’t for me. Again, he didn’t understand why. His Dad was a good man, a really good man, I made sure he knew it after the funeral. I made sure Josh knew he was a good man too, he bloody well is. My Dad, was not. It was the reason why.
When I said thank you I almost broke down, Graeme’s voice broke when he finally went to speak. Thank you Frederick, you are welcome, said through almost tears. He knew what I was going through, he couldn’t know but he knew there was a lot more to my story than was coming through on the surface, but, it was all coming through on the surface. The phone call was the moment he understood.
The most important thing I learned from Graeme is that there are good men out there, I can be one if I want to. It really is okay. And, Josh, my beautiful beautiful friend, I really am okay mate and I, like you, am a good man, a gentle man, a strong man.
Mate, you’re a chip off the ol’ block, a gentle man with the heart of the lion.
Love you Pissles.
These are the men at Football Clubs, many sporting code clubs, they make them the places and safe spaces they are, can be, really must become. We just need a few more of them hanging around.