Faded shirt tells a tale

By Kath Gannaway
A FADED T-shirt declaring “Hurley’s Heroes” was a tangible reminder of the euphoria of Woori Yallock’s first ever Under 17 premiership. If any was needed.
All but two or three of the 1979 premiership team returned to the Tigers’ den on Saturday for a 30-year reunion – also a first.
There was also the premiership flag, hanging in pride of place in the centre of the clubrooms for the day. And of course, Dave Hurley – creator of ‘heroes’.
Dave Hurley had started work as a teacher at Upper Yarra High Tech when he was asked to coach the boys.
He remembers the team as a good bunch of boys – 15, 16 and 17-year-olds – who had come up through the ranks.
The game was played at Gembrook and with the firsts also lining up for a crack at the ’79 flag, there was a good crowd to cheer the youngsters on.
“We had two difficult rivals, Gembrook and Healesville and of those two sides the one which was always most difficult to win over was Healesville,” Hurley recalled.
“In those days you had to look at the drawing power a town like Healesville had in getting kids while we scrounged around here to get our 18 players. Healesville seemed to have a mortgage on it with that sort of drawing power.”
Healesville went in as favourites but the boys pulled out all stops on the day to come home with what Hurley recalls as a comfortable win.
He can’t remember the exact score – five or six goals. He says it’s not important now, but it must have been fantastic to come through as the underdogs for a win over the traditional rivals.
Captain Steve Osiurak was 16 and credits the young Hurley with getting the best out of the team against the taller and stronger rivals.
“I remember him giving each of us cards about five or six days before the game with what were basically our instructions … what we should remember when we ran out on to the ground.
“These days you would say it had your job description on it – what the coach wanted us to do on the day, and how he wanted us to do it.”
The win was certainly hailed as a milestone for the club.
“The success of the club was determined by how well your seniors did and they came runners-up that day, but just same it was a pretty momentous day, being the first ever Under 17 flag,” he said.
For Hurley, still a teacher, but no longer coaching, the real triumph for the Woori Yallock club in its ’79 premiership team was not just the football ability of its young players, but the character of the team members, and the culture of the club.
“The thing that has always stuck with me is that I never had any problems with the behaviour of these kids, on or off the field. Drinking was never an issue – when the kids are 15 and 16 it was recognised by the club with a code of no alcohol and good behaviour. This meant kids were really well mentored by people like Ron Hunter and Ivan Ferguson.
“They were fine young boys, grown into fine young men,” he said.