Shepparton Football Netball Club is set to party like the 1970s as it celebrates two of the club’s many grand final victories this weekend.
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The club will host 50 and 51-year reunions for its 1972 and 1973 premiership winning sides on Friday, April 28 and Saturday, April 29.
Players, partners, fans and anyone connected to the club are invited to the FJ Edwards Rooms to relive the glory of those two seasons.
Shepparton defeated Euroa by 51 points in 1972, before making it back-to-back flags a year later with a 47-point victory over Kyabram.
Bill Sykes was the playing coach of those triumphs and said he was looking forward to catching up with familiar faces.
“It is a way to reconnect with friends and seeing where they got to in their lives. What they did football-wise, but also what they have done in life in general,” Sykes said.
“I think we have something like 40 players coming, which is fantastic. We have all bar two or three coming, which is really, really good.”
Back-to-back glory
Sykes, who played in the VFL for Fitzroy for three seasons before shifting to Shepparton, said he had some fond memories from those two premiership wins.
He said there was one particular feat in the 1972 grand final that he only realised years later.
“In the first premiership, Darryl Twitt was playing on the forward flank,” Sykes said.
“I knew he played okay, but it wasn't until about 15 or 20 years later when I was going through the old Shepp News papers and the headline on Monday was ‘Twitt the magnificent’ – ‘Twitty’ kicked 11 goals in our premiership win.”
Sykes said his Shepparton side was not exactly held in high regard ability-wise that season, but it proved the doubters wrong.
“There was a Shepp News journo called Tom (Carey) who used to play for United and he was an outspoken fellow, he would use colourful language in the Shepp News, and he was very critical of our lack of ability,“ Sykes said.
“And so when we won, on mad Monday Tom happened to walk past down the street. So I called out rather boldly at about five o'clock on Monday afternoon, 'Tom, you so and so ― come in and join us for celebrating the premiership that you said we weren't worthy of'.
“I was silly enough, when we received the flag or the recognition at a league meeting, people were giving us cheek again, and I was silly enough to say ‘and we'll win next year as well’. So that set the bar high.”
It might have been a lofty goal, but it was one that Shepparton and Sykes were able to achieve with an eight-goal win over Kyabram.
“I know Twitty had an off day, he only kicked six in that grand final,“ Sykes said with a laugh.
But it wasn’t all smooth sailing in ’73.
After a tough start, Sykes said it was some club stalwarts who stepped up when the team needed them most to steer Shepp towards another premiership.
“Halfway through the year we weren't even in the four. And I as coach had no clues about how to change that,” he said.
“But then the old hands, Gerald Howard, Graham Pell, Chila McCarten – those fellows that had played in a number of premierships under Tommy Hafey – they worked out they had to do something and from then on, we won nearly every game, got into the finals and won the grand final.
“There were the Fighting Fangs - Laurie Shiels and Brian Shiels. They were fearsome, highly competitive boys on the ground and you knew that if you ever needed anyone to stand beside you in a difficult situation, the two Shiels boys would be there with you.
“There are just some very fond memories of some really good blokes and some ladies and their partners, just some great people.”
All for the club
Sykes spent three years as the playing coach at Shepparton and a further year as a player, and he said he would always have a special connection with the club.
“Shepparton Football Club was, and I believe still is, a fantastic community club and that's what I really got out of playing for Shepparton, was the strength of the community feeling.,” he said.
“It taught me and reinforced what I've always believed that is that you play for a club, not with a team. That's the first thing you understand.
“Secondly, you understand that the club has been there for many, many years, players come and go, but the club is there forever.”
At one point though, Sykes said it looked like the club might not be around forever.
Shepparton found itself in a difficult position financially, with members going to extraordinary lengths to save it.
“The club went into bad times and was financially really stressed,“ Sykes said.
“People had put their houses as security to get loans for the club to continue to exist, and it looked at one stage like those loans were going to be called in and those people were going to lose their houses. That's how dedicated the club members were.
“That's what a club is about. It's about just giving everything, enjoying each other's company and doing it for the club.”
Festivities will start at 6.30pm on Friday at the FJ Edwards Rooms at Deakin Reserve, with the celebrations set to kick on into the evening.
The party will continue on Saturday as Shepparton hosts Rochester at Deakin Reserve, with formalities in the rooms kicking off at 1pm.