GENESIS: THE BIRTH OF THE BULLDOGS
contributed by several club Life Members
Geoff Crawford, Bert Brownlow and Ron Mills were founding members of North West Hobart Hockey Club in 1946-47. Bert and Geoff
started the planning meetings together in 1946, they both played cricket for the North West Hobart Cricket Club and Geoff recruited Bert to
hockey and he started in 1943 with Baptist. In 1946 they were both selected in the State team to play in Melbourne in the first championship
since the war. It was there that they recruited Ron Mills who had been selected in the championship to play in goals to join with them in their
efforts to form a new club.
The three founding members, Geoff, Bert and Ron, organised two teams to enter the competition in the 14th season at Risdon Park in
1947. They had recruited a sound side of players over the year of 1946 and at the end of the war it was not fair that they encourage any
more as the army team had disintegrated and players were scarce for all teams with only around seven or eight at that stage in the competition.
They knew they would need plenty of support so for their second side they found a player/coach Arthur Laughlin, a goalie and ten other men
who had never played but were willing to get started. The uniforms and equipment were ordered from Sydney and arrived by post on the
Saturday morning prior to their first game. Everyone got a shirt which fitted them - it was so amazing that they reckoned they must have
something going for them. The shirts were ordered in the two blues but when they arrived ‘primrose’ was included (this is the gold which has
remained to this day). A felt badge with the ‘bulldog’ was created and attached after washing by pressstuds on the front left. The deep “V”
on the front and the collar was navy blue.
There was no training facility at night so only those in representative sides trained on the Domain pushing a ball and running around the
gravel road in the dark. In the first season this newly formed club North West Hobart Hockey Club not only did well, it won both the A Grade
and Second Grade premierships and the State premierships. They appointed an outside President to lead them. Dan Kenna was an older
gentleman who knew Geoff well and encouraged other people outside the club to join and to look after the “behind the scene” work. It was
a great start and Dan was a great President.
They continued with the same two teams but did not win another premiership until 1951.
Before the war hockey was first played on New Town football/ cricket ground. The following year Clare Street Oval, then West Hobart
Oval and finally, after Alan Preshaw liaised with the Hobart City Council, it was established that all games be moved to Risdon Park, as it was
known, which was closer to the Cornelian Bay Cemetery than the grounds today. It was at this time North West was formed.
In the early days many of them played cricket with North West and it was a shame that their vision of joining the hockey and the cricket
club together for the purposes of grounds and facilities did not eventuate.
These three men were truly the ‘Founding Fathers’. They had the vision and it was for this that they were made Life Members. Geoff was
first in the early 50’s, then Bert and Ron around 1956. In the early days they shared the responsibilities of the club with two teams to begin
with and some men outside hockey to support them. Geoff and Bert were both captain/coaches. Ron served as Treasurer for the club and the
Association. It was his careful diligence to this responsibility that created the sound establishment of the affairs of both. Ron was best known
for his cool ability as a goalie and how he smoked a pipe for most of the games only putting it down to defend (obviously not often).
Geoff was an inspirational player reported in memorabilia and scrapbooks as a great striker and scoring in most games he ever played.
He was a great club man and he introduced his son Bruce to the game who in turn was a great forward for North West. It was a tragedy that
his life was cut short in his early 40s by a stroke. Even then the vision was for strength in personalities, some outside support and a sound
financial footing.
When Bert and Geoff commenced their work with SHA they decided that junior development was the way to go. They visited the
Headmaster and Sportsmaster both of Hobart High School and the Technical College (New Town High). They asked for 22 boys for two teams
and stated they would teach them the game. A date was set and when Geoff and Bert turned up at the ground there were 100 boys running
around. It started from there !!! Most schools were not interested in being involved in hockey as football was the game fostered, so it was up
to the club men to take care of them and arrange all the competitions, umpires, coaches, etc., which they did. This was the first sport to be
organised totally outside the school sports which were managed by the Sportsmasters.
A WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE . . .
MEMORIES OF THE 50s (provided from tapes made reminiscing down memory lane with Bert Brownlow and John Bessell)
Grounds and Shelter - Bert
The first shelter we had out there was a tin roof with hessian bag sides. It was on the corner of a fence near the road beside the factory
and the second year we played, it rained every day for about eight weeks straight. There was a creek that developed and ran down through
the middle of the tent, it was about two foot wide, and just enough on either side to stand and get changed. I don’t know why we tried to
shelter because it usually rained all the time anyway. The only washing facility we had, the only source of water, was one tap on the ground.
We never stopped playing due to rain as we thought we would never get started again. More often than not we spent a good deal of time
looking for the ball lost in the mud.
Umpires - Bert
As hockey grew we could not manage to provide the umpiring independent to the players, so we introduced a system where if you
became a registered player you were expected to learn the rules and umpire. The rosters commenced to draw on the players to umpire
men’s and school boy’s hockey and if you didn’t turn up you were immediately stood down the following week.
I umpired a hockey match once and got into a lot of trouble about it. When David (Brownlow) first played he was only 15, and played
for North West. They played OHA in the final and at that time the two best umpires in the south were Alan Preshaw and me. We knew it
would be difficult but I stuck my name down anyway. There were all sorts of problems in that match including me having to threaten David
I would send him off if he didn’t behave himself on the ground.
Secretaries - Bert
I am pretty sure that “Poley” operated pretty much the same way as I did and there wasn’t any doubt in anybody’s mind about who
was running hockey in the south and if I was President I wouldn’t have had it any other way. It’s very difficult to assess people and get
personalities to go and run an organisation like a hockey association the size of south and make it work without having some bastardy about
you.
Goalies - John
It was a bad day when Ron Mills placed his pipe down in haste in goal near the post and it was hit and broke into about four pieces.
He took weeks to recover.
Grounds - Bert
One of the members lived up on top of Mt Stuart and had a big milk business and he gave the cricket club a block of land so we had
visions of a cricket pitch and a practice area for hockey as well. We also had visions of club rooms, but really it was beyond us because we
had no transport, and we had to walk everywhere anyway. It was a hell of a long way to the top of Mt Stuart to practise hockey.
Training - John
The lights were erected on one end of Ground 5 and that was where all evening training was done. When you turned your back on the
lights you had to be careful not to lose your ball in the dark and continuous mud in that area, because of the overuse of the ground by all
clubs.
Players - John
I’ve got a lot of time for North West they taught me a lot about hockey and they were a great club.
We had about 11 of our senior players all coaching in those days because that was the future of North West and it was where all our
senior players came from.
It was very competitive in those days but the social atmosphere amongst all players in all clubs was fantastic. There were numerous
colourful players and also umpires.
MEMORIES OF THE 60s
John Bessell was President of the club in the early 60s. He was followed by Barrie Muir, one of the club’s longest serving Presidents.
Significant contributions were provided by committee men such as Ivan Green and Bill Gifford. Neville “Brad” Bradbury was also one of the
prime movers of the club in this era and of course would continue to epitomise the bulldog spirit for a long time to come in following years.
Brad’s barracking shout of “Up you bullies!” still rings in the ears of many club members today. Other very active, enthusiastic club members
were Gill Withington and Brian Johnson, the other half of the “Muirjon” trophy.
The club was not short of on-field success either as shown in this photo featuring some of the club’s past heroes.
During the 80s the club’s two A grade teams were hugely successful with several premierships and state premierships being being won
by both teams. The opening of the Astroturf ground in 1987 significantly changed the style of hockey played and the North West Grads teams
were quick adopters of the new patterns required for success. The club also performed very strongly in the lower grades and in juniors under
the leadership of Brad through this period.
Marty Bissett, one of the best players ever to wear the Bulldogs strip, joined the club in 1989 after a year with Derwent and became a
driving force both on and off the field for the ongoing success of the club in the 90s and beyond.
LEADING THE WAY WITH THE WHISTLE AND ON HOCKEY SOUTH
MANAGEMENT BOARD
From the 60s through to the 80s, the contribution of North West to the umpiring side of the games was extremely important. People
such as Brian Streets, Neville Patterson, Noel Richardson, Rod Street, Richard Fowler, Barrie Muir and others made major contributions both
on and off the field. Brian, Neville and Barrie were Australian badged umpires and conducted umpires' nights and field testing of umpires
for many years.
Barrie recalls that “It was rather embarrassing when it came to finals for several years as many of the best umpires in the South were
members of North West and so our teams didn’t always get the benefits of our hard work”.
The club has had strong representation right from the 60s through to today on the Hockey South (and previously on the STWHA and
SHA) management committee. People like Ron Mills, Bert Brownlow, John Bessell, Neville Bradbury, Noel Richardson, Rod Street, John Pratt,
Graeme Canny, Christine Bennett, Lesley Harrison, Jill Klye, Monika and Michael Irwin have all provided tremendous service to the running
of hockey in the south. Their efforts have made hockey arguably the best administered sport in the south over many years.
A FOCUS ON FAMILY VALUES AND JUNIORS
North West Graduates has always had a strong focus on family involvement in hockey. Families such as the Cannys, Richardsons, Muirs,
Cliffords, Pratts, Lawsons, Fowlers, Irwins, Streets, Potters, Bennetts, Brennans, Carricks to name just a few have all had strong family
involvement with the club over the decades and continue to have today.
The older members of these families, and of the club in general, have fond memories of the wonderful pub nights at the Empire and
other pubs over the years. Many a youngster had their first (legal?) drink at the hockey club pub in days gone by. Some might say not a lot has
changed but certainly the move from set game times on grass to the round the clock schedule of the turf has had a big impact on the social life
of the club.
Over the years, our club has had its name added to such trophies as the Lord Mayor’s Trophy (and others) because of the excellent work
done by our players i
