■ It was great to catch up with Werribee and Footscray legend Merv Hughes at the Bulldogs Trainers function last week. I hadn’t seen Merv since his stint on I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here and he was in fine form. He told the Bulldogs faithful the show was perfect for him as all he ever wanted to do was nothing. The only problem with doing nothing was you never knew when you were finished. Merv is doing a lot more than nothing. He is hosting a television fishing show, which goes to air on One HD at 4pm on Saturday, he’ll host an Ashes tour to England in the middle of the year and is off to the West Indies in the next few weeks.
■ Kelvin Templeton, the 1980 Brownlow medallist, was also there and joined Merv on stage to talk about his career. Templeton has spent time in the UAE over the past decade or so working for a Sheik. He told me he doesn’t rate his 15 goals against the Saints as his best day in the red, white and blue. He said he’d cleaned his one-bedroom flat because his parents were coming back after the game and he blamed that for his cramping in the final quarter. But the festivities after the game went on for so long his parents didn’t even go back to his flat.
■ Allan “Fatty” Cations passed away last week. He played 104 games for Richmond and was one of the people involved in getting Werribee into the VFA in 1964. He was the man responsible for the club’s black and gold colours as he procured Werribee’s first set of jumpers from Richmond. He was led to believe they were a donation but the club had to pay. Cations coached Werribee South in the old Western Suburbs competition and was a premiership coach. My condolences to his family and friends. Werribee players wore black armbands in his memory against Frankston on Sunday.
■ My great mate Doug Hawkins was a guest at Hoppers Crossing Football Club’s President’s Lunch last Saturday and relived his days at a suburban grass roots club at Braybrook. It’s interesting to see where Hoppers and Braybrook are today … Hoppers is a powerhouse while the Brookers are struggling to survive.
It’s an interesting situation and it will be intriguing to see how the WRFL addresses the future of inner city clubs against the likes of Hoppers Crossing.
Kevin Hillier
