The pair discussed Campbell’s career as both a player and a coach at Shepparton United and Tongala from the late 1960s through to the 1980s.
Campbell reflected on what football in the Goulburn Valley was like half a century ago, why he went back and forth between Shepparton United and the VFL, his love for interleague football and much more.
To give a small taste of the News’ extensive chat with Campbell, here are a couple of excerpts from the podcast to whet your appetite.
Marcus: Burst onto the scene as a young gun key forward - 69 goals as a 17-year-old - how was that experience winning a flag for Shepparton United in 1967?
Des: I was pretty lucky actually.
It’s hard to explain what happened; we had just made the finals and had no seconds players - the seconds were bottom of the ladder.
In the preliminary final we lost a couple of guys through suspension.
We got into the grand final and we were playing 'Shepp' who were going for their fourth flag in a row - (Tom) Hafey had just left there - we were total underdogs.
I’ll never forget on grand final day we lined up for the national anthem and Shepp was about 10m away from us and all you could hear was the United blokes really abusing the Shepp blokes and trying to get under their skin - it worked perfectly as I think we were up by five goals before they scored.
I was lucky enough to play in five premiership sides in the Goulburn Valley, but I reckon that United side was one side that I wouldn’t have liked to play against.
Marcus: Any scraps or fights that stick out to you during your time playing in the GVL?
Des: (One moment in the) 1980 grand final is probably one of the funniest things that ever really happened (in my career).
Me and another guy were having a bit of blue on the boundary line in the grand final against Shepp when I was coaching Shepparton United.
(The coach of Shepp) as it turned out, his son was watching the game - wasn’t playing - and he ran out onto the ground and jumped onto my back.
I had already been knocked to the ground, so I was on the ground and there was this kid on my back and I am just thinking, ‘What is going on here?’
That was a funny one.
The young bloke came around knocking on my door a few days later apologising, but there was no damage done.
Marcus: Before we step into the main part of your VFL career, let’s sidestep across to cricket for a moment, I believe you faced a spell from Jeff Thomson at Deakin Reserve, how did that come about and how did you survive?
Des: I love my cricket, but football had to take priority, especially when you were coaching.
I was lucky enough to be captain of, well they called the Victorian Country side but it was more so the Goulburn Valley area.
We played the Queensland Shield side two years in a row.
Bert Lightfoot was an outstanding operator at 'Shepp' Cricket Association, he got them to prop at Shepp on their way to 'Tassie'.
(There was a) massive crowd.
I have started walking out (to bat) without a helmet and these dimple gloves on and everyone is going, ‘You have got to wear a helmet’.
So I put one on and I thought, ‘I can’t use this’, so I threw it away.
At one stage, Thomson bowled me a bouncer and it hit me on the shoulder and he goes, ‘Are you alright?’
I went, ‘Yeah’, and the umpire reckons (Thomson) turned around and said, ‘Well I will knock his ‘effing’ head off next time’.
Listen to the full podcast here: https://tinyurl.com/3xav2bsv
