A True Braveheart

There are few mothers who captured the imagination of me and fellow ABC caller, Ross Booth, in the way Mary Carroll did. Week in week out in good and bad times she and husband Brian, often with daughter, Jayne, were a conspicuous sight in the lens of the ABC camera. Last week, Mary, at age sixty-one, finally lost her long battle with cancer. Mary's status was assured because her sons, Damian and John, accumulated six VFA/VFL premierships between them with Springvale.

But that was only part of the story. Mary just happened to be one of life's gifts. An engaging and honest woman, she encapsulated so much that is special about football in the suburbs. Often I would bump into Mary and Brian after a game. Their concern for the integrity of the Springvale Club as an alliance with St Kilda emerged was patently obvious. Both understood the importance of the social fabric of a football club and how, like a good family, such a club could produce good people.

In a week where the great Dick Reynolds has been eulogised for his contribution to the Essendon Football Club's culture, and to life, it's important that we reflect on people such as Mary Carroll. In her own way, and to those who came across her, she's become a very famous person. It's no wonder Damian is still revered, as John was before he retired, at Springvale. With those parents they had a great start. To Brian, who played six games with Fitzroy in the old VFL, and the whole family, my dearest sympathy.

And so we're down to the preliminaries this weekend. We've been blessed with some fierce and inspiring football over the past weeks and the preliminaries won't disappoint. Can the contenders Geelong and Coburg get past Werribee and Port? How many men and women in hard hats will descend on Port on Saturday? Yes, as I said a few weeks back, the match on Saturday is being sponsored by a number of unions. We can only hope this adds some colour to what has been a great finals series.

Then on 18 September we're off to Windy Hill for the Coburg -TXU grand final luncheon. I can tell you that we've assembled some old footage of Colin Kinnear, Gary Brice, Ray Shaw, Terry Wheeler and Barry Round that will have you mesmerised. Seriously, Kinnear's bellbottoms and Billy Goggin's lapels in the 1979 are worth the ticket price. Ring Coburg on 9354 822 8 for details.