‘Drop ten, turn and Face.’ Quilty’s Football Yarns 18 Building a competitive team – Berowra

‘Drop ten, turn and Face.’ Quilty’s Football Yarns 18

Building a competitive team – Berowra

Our first Over 30’S season at Berowra in 1992 was certainly a learning experience. The dominant side was Dalmatia, a prominently Croatian club that stood out as a fine footballing side. All their players were comfortable on the ball, smart tactically and the sort of side who could spoil your weekend. Wahroonga were also very competitive, as were North Turramurra who were ethnically German and Austrian. Near neighbours Brooklyn were a bunch of aggressive, committed never say die players who were always our bogey team. Most of the rest of the clubs didn’t like coming north of Hornsby and we could match/intimidate most of them on our day. We desperately lacked both depth and consistency. Colin Ing was our organiser while Billy Roberts was already mid forties. We had a solid keeper in Chris Rayner, tough fullbacks in Colin Strang and Gary Williams and the stylish John Everitt at Centre back. The late Ross Beattie was a fine athlete. Jimmy Everitt was in a class of his own further forward but in that first season we were accommodating a few players who had never really played seriously. I can hear the questions already. You were all into your late thirties, weren’t you just happy to be out there playing socially? Unfortunately, not! Sure we were a Vets team but we believed we could win it. As time went on we added some new faces. The experienced midfielder Dave Renn, Steve Czerif who wore more bandages than most mummies and the much travelled sailor Andy Hobbs who literally took no prisoners in any skirmish. By our second season we were gradually moving into the top half of the table while still shy of the top two and by the third year ‘baby faced assassin’ Paul Ryan was with us, as was the on his day brilliant Peter Raymen, who directed the midfield. By this time Dalmatia had disbanded and we all about to move to the newly established Over 35 version of the KDSA competition. Unfortunately, a super successful Kissing point All Age side decided to come in and proceeded to win the thing for at least the next five years. One year we made the grand final only to hear it was almost certainly to be washed out by torrential rain. This wouldn’t usually have been a problem but Andy Hobbs was going away so we just had to play the game. Montview Oval is usually one that tolerates a lot of rain but this weekend most of it was under water. Our opponents Kissing Point were looking at us bewildered that we intended to go on with it. The rain actually brought them down to our level and it proved to be a tough edgy contest of few chances. Predictably one error was to decide it and stand in keeper John Everitt allowed the slippery soap ball to squeeze in from a narrow-angled cross. There it was a 1-0 loss to a team we were usually inferior to by at least four goals. In that same season we had a fine run in the KDSA Cup to the semi-finals. In one round we downed All Age side Homenetmen, a game also played in the wet played at Norman Griffiths Oval. This was truly a clash of football cultures with our blokes getting a rare Australian opportunity to slide tackle. That pitch was absolutely destroyed and a muddy mess by the finish. More importantly we somehow held on for a 1-0 win to earn the right to face top Premiership side Chatswood Rangers in the semi-final. Playing at Berowra Oval we weren’t given much chance in the game but actually led 1-0 before going down 5-2 to the team who eventually won the Premier Division that season. Something that I particularly remember there was playing against Jimmy McBreen who even in his forties was a brilliant player. Jimmy had played for NSL sides Newcastle KB United, Wollongong Wolves and APIA-Leichhardt in Australia. Watching him glide effortlessly around controlling the game was a pleasure even when playing against him. His son Danny later played for Central Coast Mariners and was the top A League scorer but it was his dad Jimmy who carved out a legend on the North Shore. As the decade come to an end we were building a decent side but really went to another level when joined by an array of new faces but that is another story.

Clip from the Stunned Mullet Cup early 90’s

https://youtu.be/WeQeyKaKrJA