Fishnchips,your mention of past greats like Percy ,brought many memories flooding back.
As a young 5 year old (now 71 years ago )i was privileged too be around many of those great players at Old Easts.
Percy was a family friend and so were many i will mentioin as i go along.
My Father was President of the East Fremantle Junior football club for many many years,and he was still involved with the senior club up to the last five years of his life.
Anyway to go way back ,my parenst were lucky enough as my father was a WW2 vet , and there was land availiable in the lesser known out in the sticks at the time suburb of Attadale,the 'ol qtr acre block ,we lived there till i left after i got married.Mum and Dad stayed there for many years after that .
So my ol man and his neighbor decide to split their back yard ,pulling down the fence and turning it into a tennis court.
So that meant every Sunday nearly all of our street was over playing tennis and making short work on an 18 gal keg,this went on all summer for many years .
Anyway because of his association with EF ,he asked if any of the players wanted to as part of the pre season come along and play tennis.(there was not much of a preseason back then )
Well it was something i did not appreciate at the time but ,the Wilson Onions ,all the Regans ,the list goes on were playing tennis in my back yard ,i was to busy trying to sneak a beer at the tender age of 12,i succeeded a few times,to not go ga ga over the fact league players were having fun at our house.
Also during the season i was playing footy for Aquinas College ,i was more developed at my early age than most so i played ruck and CHF,but it was while playing one day i got kneed in the thigh,did not think of it much at the time and played on.
But by Saturday it was as black and blue and it was hurting real bad.
By sunday the ol man said lets get you down to the club and one of the trainers will have a look.
So off we went .little did i know the pain that was to come.
I get there to the changerooms , and the eyes nearly fell out of my head , I was few years older than the tennis days and well aware of all the players playing league footy.
They were mainly there to have a light rubdown after Saturdays game ,so funnily enough ,they were sitting around telling jokes ,smoking , and bottles of beer were everywhere.A real country atmosphere .
Ray Sorrel was just sitting there chatting not drinking ,boy i remember the way he would swing out of the centre either left or right foot kick a goal as if he was having a sunday stroll.that's during a game of course.Champion.
Anyway you name a player from EF in that era they were in that room ,so friendly and polite to me and my ol man.
Anyway came the time to speak to the trainer who had finished with a couple of players,luckily none had gone through what i was aboout to.
Up on the table son lets have a look,by now i was only just able to walk,he said no worries i'll fix that you'll be right by about Tuesday.
So out comes the liniment oil and he slowly rubs up and down my leg,a for a couple, of minutes to get it warm,then holy holy shit in goes the thumbs,i tried extremely hard not to yell out,gripping the side of the table as hard as i could .
Up and down up and down for about 10 mins the pain was unreal,never experienced anything like it .
Then he said up you get you'll be ok.
i stepped down and could not feel my thigh at all .said thank you and struggled to get to the car,but he was right by Tuesday i was good and played Friday at school.
Great memories,there are plenty more but i've banged on too much .
