Max Walker with Yarra Glen winery owner Jim Viggers and former Melbourne Football Club teammate Bryan Kenneally.
By Kath Gannaway
MAX ‘Tangles’ Walker was among friends when he spoke at a ‘blokes’ night out’ in Healesville on Wednesday 15 September.
Some, like Bryan Kenneally of Chum Creek and Graeme Collery of Narbethong, were old friends from his Melbourne Football Club and World Series Cricket days.
For everyone else, it just felt like he was an old friend, someone who has been in our loungerooms through his sporting and media career for the best part of 40 years.
Walker was speaking as part of the Shire of Yarra Ranges Bushfire Recovery ‘blokes’ nights’ designed to get men together.
As sporting heroes and role models go, the man who went from schoolboy sporting prodigy to play Test cricket in what is regarded as the golden era of the game, play VFL football and become one of the most recognisable faces in Australia, Walker was an inspired choice.
Healesville Football Club president Felix Fraraccio introduced him as ‘a fabulous guy and a master communicator’ and he delivered on both counts.
Graeme Collery, who lost part of his home on Black Saturday, was first in line to shake hands and get a signature on a special cricket bat.
As Victorian sales manager for the company that had the contract for Max Walker cricket equipment as part of World Series Cricket, he got to know the Australian cricketers during a controversial and exciting era in international cricket.
‘I designed this bat for Max many years ago and I’ve kept it for a lot of years,’ he said.’I don’t know yet what I’ll do with this one but it will go to some local group, perhaps the Marysville Football Club, for an auction item,’ he said.
Another of his bats, a prized possession, is signed by the 1980-81 Australian, New Zealand and Indian teams.
Kenneally, who was also affected by the fires, played 171 games with Melbourne from 1959 to 1969, including two premiership teams, 1960 and 1964, and was in the state team in ’67.
He enjoyed the chance to catch up and the feeling was clearly mutual.
Singling out Kenneally, Walker said catching up brought back many great memories of their time together at Melbourne. On the night, and probably any night, Walker’s warmth, enthusiasm and smile were contagious.
‘Not all our dreams come true, but it’s the dreams that we have as kids that get us across the line,’ he said, issuing an invitation to join him on a behind-the-scenes journey into the elite world of sport. Like every other kid in my class I wanted to play footy and I wanted to play cricket,’ he said. ‘I used to dream in technicolour. I used to dream of the green baggy cap. I could feel the texture ‘run my fingers over the gold braid ”
He spoke of three men who had been major influences in his life: his father, coach Norm Smith and Kerry Packer.
His personal insights into some of the teammates and opponents who are, like he is, legends of cricket and football, and his reliving of some of the most memorable moments on the oval and the pitch, were spellbinding, hilarious and moving ‘ at times, all three at once.
Names such as Ron Barassi, Hassa Mann, Noel Teasdale, ‘Polly’ Farmer, John Nicholls, Ted Whitten, Dennis Lillee, Rick McCosker, Viv Richards, Imran Khan, Joel Garner, David Hookes ‘ peppered his stories and drew flashes of recognition from the audience.
Jim Viggers, whose vineyard at Yarra Glen was hit by the fires, has been to all three talks ‘ Walker, Kevin Sheedy and Rex Hunt. He summed the series up as a good social event that gave men the chance to get back in touch.
‘I met up with a few people I haven’t seen for years,’ he said. ‘We talk about recovery, where you are at rather than the fires itself; it is more about how things are going.’
While he questions whether, with smaller numbers attending, it’s time to let go of the bushfire events, organiser Mandy Black said there was substantial support for them to continue.
Sam Kekovich, former VFL footballer and media personality, will speak on 6 October and Todd Russell one of the survivors of the Tasmanian mine disaster has been booked for 24 November.
‘For the 60 people who attended the feedback was fantastic,’ Ms Black said.
‘We still feel there is a need for fellows to be participating in activities that provide inspiration, motivation and the opportunity to just be blokes,’ she said.
