Robbie Wallace has a chance to reflect on his glory days with Nirranda when the club unfurls its 2023 football and netball premiership flags at home on Saturday, April 13.
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The 84-year-old Nullawarre resident featured in the club's 1964 senior football grand final win against Allansford and is attending a 60-year reunion for the triumph at the Blues' club rooms.
Wallace is looking forward to the catch-up with his former teammates as the current team takes on Panmure.
The retired dairy farmer played in numerous flags at Nirranda during his 280-game career and recalls the club fielded a fresh-faced side in 1964.
"That year we had a lot of youth," he said.
"A lot of players left and we had a lot of new young players that year and we still won it."
Nirranda, now a Warrnambool and District league club, played in the Purnim league in 1964 and eventually merged with Nirranda South at the end of 1975.
Wallace said he could fill a number of roles on the field.
"The Standard wrote it up one year that I was Mr Versatile," he said.
"I started off as a rover then I got bigger and bigger and played half-back, back pocket.
"One of my jobs was to look after one of the opposition. A couple of times I got Bill Couch Senior."
Wallace remembered training standards being different back when he played.
"Most of the team were farmers or country people," he said.
"We had one fellow come after the amalgamation and he was going to make us fit.
"We noticed a difference when somebody came along and trained us hard. We weren't used to that."
Wallace served as president for nine years after his retirement from playing and also worked as a selector.
Nirranda's current president Lauren Parsons said the club was anticipating "eight or nine" players from 1964 to attend the reunion.
One of those is captain-coach of the side John Svenson, who will unfurl Nirranda's 2023 senior football flag with coach Nick Couch.
Svenson played 36 VFL games for South Melbourne during the 1950s.
Parson praised Wally Toohey for continually organising the reunions.
"He (Toohey) is absolute dynamite on these reunions, so whenever one pops up he lets us know and he knows who was in the team and goes back through photos and everything like that," she said.
"He's an absolute star in organising it.
"We try and honour as many reunions - and get them altogether - as we can. "
Matt Hughes
Matt is a sports journalist at The Standard.
Matt is a sports journalist at The Standard.
