Tony Hansen isn’t in a band, but if he and his six brothers did put one together there’s no doubt that the third eldest sibling of the dairy farming family would have been front and centre.
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High energy is probably an understatement when describing the certified practising accountant with the broad smile, his decades of community work in and around Kyabram making him an easy subject to interview.
Stints as president of two football clubs, a long history on the grass courts of the St Augustine’s Lawn Tennis Club and a handful of years behind the bar of the Blue Brick Hotel combine for a long, and entertaining, tale.
Tony grew up with his two elder brothers, Chris and Nick, and four younger brothers, Rob, Mark, Sam and Matthew, on a 188-acre property at Cooma, the usual array of pets and 120 cows the focus of the family’s activity.
His father, Pat, arrived at Kyabram (from Kotunga) in 1949, with the Commonwealth Bank and his mother, Gail (from the Mallee), is a member of the well known Wakenshaw family.
Tony and Nick, now working with Campaspe Shire Council, are the only brothers that still live in the area.
Chris is a retired school teacher who lives in Gippsland; Rob is in Vietnam working with RMIT; Mark is a banker; Sam is a computer whiz who has retired as a 52-year-old; and the baby of the family, Matthew, 51, has just ended a 25-year stint in the armed forces, having risen to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Australian Army.
“Funny thing about all the boys is that not one of us is a farmer,” Tony said.
All seven boys followed the same educational path, spending their entire education in the Catholic school system — from Prep to Year 10 at St Augustine’s College and then the final two years at Assumption College, Kilmore.
“Dad also attended Assumption. He was dux of his class two years in a row, 1947 and 1948,” Tony said.
The boys shared their college years with some of the biggest names in football and cricket, including Neale Daniher, Simon O’Donnell, Billy Brownless and David King.
“Mum and Dad were presented with a plaque after having an unbroken run of 14 years with at least one of us being at the college,” Tony said.
Tony help start a partnership at Valley Tax and Super with long-time friend, and co-conspirator in many of his after-hours exploits, Terry Nepean in 2013.
For the Hansen family, as with just about every other Kyabram sports-mad family of the 1980s, it was tennis in the summer and football in the winter.
Apart from a couple of years spent with the State Bank in Cobram, Tony has always called Kyabram home.
“When I finished with the bank I had a couple of years with the Department of Agriculture at the research institute, then was poached over to M&S Accounting (a division of Morrison and Sawers),” he said.
“I spent 23 years there, a lot of it as a director.”
Tony’s full-throttle approach to life resulted in him deciding to take three years to himself after he had built a new home in Kyabram in 2009.
“I didn’t work for a three-year stint there, but then took the opportunity to enjoy my new house as well as another stint at Kyabram Football Club as president.
“I also caught up with numerous friends and family.
“Max McKenzie, Liz Dillon and I took on the Blue Brick lease for five years.
“It was just an advert in the paper that we answered. It’s sad to see it closed after a new lessee took over and the hotel closed in 2019.”
Tony’s football career was solely in the blue with the yellow sash, at Lancaster, a broken ankle in the second last game of the 1981 season forcing him to watch from the sidelines as the club won that season’s Kyabram District League senior premiership.
“I ended up captain of a reserves flag in 1987 and finished with a few best and fairests at that level,” he said.
“But I probably did my best work off the ground.”
After a two-year stint as treasurer, as a 31-year-old in 1992 he became the club’s youngest ever president.
“That year, with Steve Sharp as coach, we won the firsts and seconds flags,” he said.
“The celebrations were huge and went on for months. Next year will be a 30-year reunion. That will be big.”
In 1995 Tony was approached to take on the Kyabram Football Club’s presidency and despite loving his time at Lancaster accepted the role.
He again struck gold when the Peter White-coached club was a surprise premier just two years later.
Tony and his committee reverted to almost entirely local players at the end of 1996, copping criticism in many circles for the change.
The Under 18s had won the flag under Mick “Dodger’’ Ryan and the club believed it had enough talent to be competitive.
The victory, in 1996, was the club’s first senior premiership in 21 years.
“We had a sad dose of reality not long after though, with the passing of Peter White (a 26-year-old Kyabram premiership player who shared the same name as the coach. White, the player, died in a boating accident at Port Campbell only a month after the grand final).”
Tony remains a Goulburn Valley Football League delegate for Kyabram and had another stint in the president’s chair only a decade ago. He was also treasurer of the club for three years.
He played a significant role in enticing Dave Williams to Kyabram as coach at the end of 2007, after a relatively unsuccessful period in the early 2000s. The club made the finals in 2008 and proceeded to win five premierships in the next 12 years.
“To be a dual premiership president by the time I was 35 was a huge thrill. You get so much more out of it then you put in,” he said.
Another of his great passions, horse racing, has been kind to he and his syndicate friends.
“We had a Melbourne Cup runner in 2019 and 2020 (Mustajeer), which Steve Grills (Kyabram newsagent), Peter, Russ and Nick (Gold Coast footballer) Holman all have a small interest in.
“Then there is the Bons Away syndicate of business partner Terry Nepean, Mark Schumann, Peter Hall, Brendan McConnell and Ross Meeking.
“We won a quaddie on a trip away one night and purchased a share in our first horse with the winnings (Bons Away),” he said.
Bons Away ended up winning $583,000 and Bon’s A Pearla, a three-year-old filly, has already amassed $240,000 in prize money.
Tony has many life-long friendships that have evolved through community or sporting involvement, one of the longest being his association with Peter and Bev Lyon, and their family.
“I played tennis with Bev for years and I used to race harness horses from an early age with Peter and his brother Graham. I suppose that’s why I felt so good about Melbourne winning, for Garry’s sake. I spent many afternoons at the AFL football with the Lyon family,” the long-suffering St Kilda supporter said.
“I would love to see a St Kilda premiership in my adult lifetime.”
He was a founding father of the Kyabram men’s longest lunch and is looking forward to the February 2022 event, which promotes men’s health and raises money for the Kyabram District Health Service.
He was on the KDHS board for six years in the early 2000s.
Tony is also on the Infinity Kyabram Sportstar committee and the annual awards will hopefully resume in 2022.
In Tony’s list of achievements, one of which he is very proud of is his affiliation with the Red Cross Blood Bank.
“I inherited a phobia of needles from my father and used to faint and all sorts of things when I had to have a needle,” he said.
“But now I have made well over 50 blood donations through the Red Cross.
“It’s so vital to have enough donors. If I can do it, anyone can.”
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