Steve Ricketts (left) and Lismore solicitor Steve Pinchin
MONDAY DECEMBER 15
Singer/song writer Bradley McCaw picks my brains about State of Origin and other matters rugby league for his podcast. McCaw spends two hours at our place at Samford Grove and my voice is gone by the end of it. Originally from Bendigo in Victoria, he is a Brisbane Lions (AFL) fan who has been won over to rugby league to some extent. He attended the 2015 NRL Grand Final, a classic match in which the Cowboys beat the Broncos in extra time. My wife, Marie and I were in Paris at the time.
I also have a nice chat with Brisbane Brothers’ rugby league legend Brian ‘Big Boc’ O’Connor who is chasing film of the 1958 Brisbane Grand Final in which he played in Brothers’ win over Valleys. Brian scored a try with coach, Bob Bax declaring some years later it was the best pack to play under him in his long, illustrious career. O’Connor is a great fan of the works of former Courier-Mail chief league writer, the late Jack Reardon, who was vice-captain of the 1937-38 Kangaroos in Britain and France. “He knew his onions,” ‘Big Boc’ says. Sadly I can’t help Brian in his search for film. He is called ‘Big Boc’ because he is the older brother of the late Barry ‘Little Boc’ O’Connor (see Vale Barry O’Connor this website) who also played for Brothers and represented Queensland. Brian represented Brisbane.
The Courier-Mail’s coverage of yesterday’s Bondi Beach massacre is meagre considering 15 people were killed and the slaughter put our Muslim community under the microscope. But, of course, the massacre happened quite late in the day and deadlines now are earlier than ever (for the print edition) despite advances in technology. The paper will make up for it tomorrow. A father and son were responsible for the massacre and the father – a resident of western Sydney – had a licence for six guns. A farmer from Cobar would probably find it hard to get than many guns.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16
Local solicitor Steve Pinchin – like me a child of 1952 – proves great company at Lismore Golf Club where we are joined by Steve Ingram, like me a footy (rugby league) tragic. The Pinchin family have a road named after them at Keerrong near Nimbin, where they lived. As it turns out my wife, Marie and her family (surname Donnelly) had Pinchin Road, Keerrong as their address in the early 1970s (a dairy farm) before the family moved into Lismore. Marie’s sister Carolyn Soward recalls a party at the Donnelly farm when her parents were away and bikies gate crashed it. They obviously weren’t bad bikies because they left when told it was a private party. Another resident of Keerrong was Danny Lee who played rugby league for Lismore Marist Brothers and late Cronulla-Sutherland.
My conversation with the two Steves briefly turns to the Middle East conflict and I quickly change the subject. Steve Pinchin is a rugby union man, and is unaware that rugby league was on a par with union in France in the late 1930s and the early 1950s. I tell him the story of the Vichy Government banning league in World War II and he promises to look it up.
In England the owner of St Helens Eamonn McManus address the players about the history of the famous Merseyside rugby league club.
WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 17
At Lismore’s Muddle Puddle Cafe a fellow patron asks me if I am living my best life. Marie and I drive south to Taree stopping at Woolgoolga for a bacon and egg roll. We stay with former Widnes’ forward, Brian Atherton and his wife, Carole with Brian in charge of the BBQ. In Widnes our good mate Paddy Hart catches up with friends at The Crown pub. One of those at The Crown is former Great Britain five eighth, Dennis O’Neill a hero of Britain’s 1972 World Cup triumph in France.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18
Marie and I drive to Maitland in the Hunter Valley via lunch at Bulahdelah where a couple walking their large dog let it shit in the local park and then don’t bother to pick up the mess. It seems to be a real problem in this town going on what I saw on a previous visit – dog shit everywhere in the park near the river.
We stay at a motel at East Maitland and have dinner in the Chinese restaurant in the excellent East Maitland Bowls Club.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19
The reason for our trip south is to attend the funeral of my former Murwillumbah Brothers’ teammate and close friend and flatmate Greg Grainger. (Vale Greg Grainger see this website). I give a eulogy which I think is well received by Greg’s widow Maree (nee Dowling) and a packed congregation in the North Chapel of Newcastle Memorial Park. Two of Maree’s brothers, Gary ‘Mouse’ Dowling and Paul Dowling are present. They played for Brothers Murwillumbah. It is great to see another Brothers’ Old Boy, Malcolm Minns, in the congregation. The MC for the service is Ben Quinn, a former journalist and Maitland rugby league player who does a magnificent job. The other main eulogy is delivered by Greg’s cousin, Mick Tanner who does Greg proud. Also there is Newcastle Knights’ recruitment manager, Peter O’Sullivan. Greg’s grandson Chase Butler is contracted to the Knights. Peter later sends a lovely text to Chase about his grandad. “What a legend, your Pop. Now I know where you get your toughness from.”
Back in Taree that night Marie and I have dinner with Brian and Carole Atherton at Taree West ‘Bowlo’. On the way we pass what used to be a property owned by the Warboys which included a shack – and it was a shack – in which I live with a local bread vendor from WR Ruff and Sons, when I was a bachelor playing for Wingham Tigers, a club based just a few kms inland from Taree on the Manning River. The shack has been demolished. Or perhaps it just fell down.
There is an Australian rules ground in Taree which certainly wasn’t the case in 1975. A local league identity says he can’t remember the last time the ground was used.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 20
Marie and I drive back to Lismore via lunch at a riverside restaurant at lovely Nambucca Heads. People are enjoying themselves in and on the water although the serenity is broken by a couple of blokes hooning on an up-market rubber duckie. Captain coach of the nearby Macksville rugby league club is Aaron Wood who has signed two Frenchmen for the 2026 season. Marie and I travel into Lismore via Marom Falls where there a lots of young people swimming on this hot summer’s day. We went there in our courting days.
At Lismore Golf Club local baseball identity Paul Gahan says the game is not as strong as it once was in the city.
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 21
Lifelong Lismore resident Toby Daley and I enjoy talking about events and characters from the district, some of them mutual friends, some relations of mine. For instance, my Uncle, Jack Hartigan was a barber at North Lismore – a barber who refused to take long haired young blokes as customers. A great friend of my dad’s – a bloke who enjoyed a beer – had the nickname ‘milk bottle’ – he could be found on the front step each morning. South Murwillumbah Parish Priest Fr. Bede Parker also gets a mention. He was famous for the quickest Masses on the North Coast. You go to 5 pm Mass and be home in time for the 6 pm news, no problem. Fr Parker had a brother who was a priest as well, Toby says.
Learn of the passing of former North Sydney and Manly forward Mick Healey at Forster in NSW where he has been living for some time. Healey, a product of the Lane Cove club in Sydney, was a big man who possessed surprising pace. In 1977 North Sydney captain-coach Bill Hamilton moved him from the pack to the wing, the reverse of what usually happens. John Ribot is another example.
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