Calling full-time on a memorable career

However, living the dream comes to end on Friday when I log off the last time as sports editor at the Daily Liberal and Fairfax Media.

John Armati gave me the opportunity to live the dream in 1981 and what a ride it has been. 

I’d come out of 18 years in telecommunications with Telstra and while in Sydney got a taste of newsrooms at Australian Association Press, The Australian newspaper, and with Radio 2GB.

After coming to Dubbo in 1974 I enjoyed a couple of years as secretary of the Dubbo Cricket Association and those duties included writing the cricket reviews.

Then when Gerry Collins went from sport to news at the Liberal, the Armati family gave me the opportunity to reinvent myself.

It wouldn’t have happened without the support of people like John, Gerry, Warren McLennan, John Rowsthorne and Ian Munro - in the main.

Fifteen years later the opportunity presented itself to have two years as editor and then I returned to sport and I kept learning more and more about the newspaper industry under Richard Lawson - undoubtedly one of the smartest editors this newspaper has had in many years.

Gee, it’s been good fun despite the many hours spent on the sidelines, in the dressing rooms and back at the office punching out stories about events and people.

When I first started at Macquarie Publications we were up in Wheelers Lane and the Liberal was an afternoon edition. We started early and worked hard to get the paper on the streets by lunchtime.

Then later the paper went to a morning edition and again there were more changes to the way we did things.

Many readers would also remember the nine years we had with the Sunday editions. Firstly it was a big paper with news from throughout the central west and included 24 pages of sport. Again, there was a lot of hard work put in on Saturdays by everyone involved and sport was the main ingredient for success.

We had reporters at all the sporting venues in Dubbo, Orange, Bathurst, Lithgow, Cowra, Mudgee and Parkes. You picked up your paper each Sunday morning and it was an edition complete with all the local and national sporting stories, plus the race results from all over Australia.

Not even the metropolitan papers could match that.

Later on, Dubbo had its own Sunday edition and Orange did similar.

Sadly that venture ended and we returned to six daily editions Monday to Saturday.

We also saw John Armati sell out to Rural Press and then we moved on to where we are now as Fairfax Media.

It’s impossible to fit 32 years of Dubbo sport into a story, so I’m not going to try.

The people are who make Dubbo sport one of the richest and best in regional Australia.

I remember covering rugby league games when Terry Fahey, Les Davidson, David Gillespie, Mark Soden, Dean Pay, David Peachey and Andrew Ryan were rookies and even juniors.

Soden captained an Australian schoolboys team from South Dubbo High School and Terry, Les, David, Dean, ‘Peach’ and Andrew went to the highest level in the game.

Those experiences I will never forget and still we talk about them every week at home or at the football.

The end of season junior and senior grand finals were also a highlight with plenty of colour and happy faces - others tinged with disappointment on the big day.

Four of my all-time favourites were (and are still) Melinda Gainsford, Megan Dunn, Melissa Russell and Jane Fardell.

Mel won sprint events at athletics carnivals all around the world; Megan was at the top of the world in track cycling; Melissa has dominated women’s golf in this area like no other for many years and her feats as Dubbo club champion will unlikely be beaten; and Jane has worked her way up from winning fun runs at the Dubbo zoo to being selected this year in the Australian Marathon Team for the World Championships in Moscow.

Sadly, Megan’s drop out of the sport was one of the real tragedies of my career, but who knows - maybe one day she’ll get back into the sport she thrived on.

Sports administrators are the life blood of any code and my life has been richer working with the likes of Jim Lang, Tom Nelson, Bob Walsh and Jock Colley in rugby league; Frank Newman (rugby union); Neil Millgate (junior league); Peter Hargreaves (basketball), Brian Gainsford and Warren Saunders (cricket).

Garry ‘Gus’ Dawson was the best coach and promoter of cycling any sport could hope for.

My years working with Tom Nelson came at a time when Dubbo hosted several Challenge Cup league matches featuring some of the best sides in the Australian Rugby League; then in 2006 we had the Country versus City Origin league here with Andrew Ryan leading Country to victory.

The indications are that we will have the same game here in 2014. Let’s hope so.

To have those major sporting events we needed the best venues. Apex Oval went from two slabs of concrete to a magnificent stadium; Dubbo Hockey has it’s own prestige pitch in West Dubbo; Dubbo Touch found a clubhouse of its own on the riverbank alongside Dubbo Netball; Morris Park Speedway become a major base for cars and bikes; and in the not too distant future we will have a similar facility for athletics at North Dubbo.

And let’s not forget the new club rooms in the building stage for cricket and junior rugby at Victoria Park. Our Lady Cutler soccer and cricket facilities are the envy of towns and cities all over Australia.

We are very fortunate to have a Dubbo City Council which, during my time with Tony Kelly and Mark Riley calling the shots, has supported these sports to the fullest.

Dubbo has also been privileged to have hosted teams in the Bowls NSW Premier League when the best lawn bowlers from around the world came here to play our local teams in front of local fans.

Thanks to people like Vic Simpson, Paul McKenzie, John Ferguson, Glenn Morrison and Anthony Brown for sharing that experience. 

Lawn bowls also provided me with a Bowls NSW award for the Liberal’s coverage of the Premier League, an honour to go alongside my awards from Cricket NSW for the same contribution to the game in country NSW.

I’m also proud to have been trackside to see jockey Greg Ryan ride a few of his 3000-plus winners on the race track. A champion man and a champion jockey.

And what about Karloo Mick? He’s been by far our best race horse in any code and getting to know Barry and Ronda Lew on a personal basis has also been a highlight.

One of the greatest strengths of the Daily Liberal sport section has been the information that comes in regularly from contributors - the people involved with the games at grassroots.

Names like Allan Biles, Pat Mumford, Jill Beith and Jane North aren’t necessarily household names in sport but never the less just as important.

Allan hand writes his West Dubbo Diggers bowls news on a small piece of writing paper each week; Pat’s cryptic notes were put into works of art for the Dubbo RSL Ducks swimming club; and Jill and Jane also dropped in a small result sheet for the Dubbo Bridge Club. 

Wonderful people and while you didn’t necessarily see them regularly, their copy was there on a regular basis.

Craig May in the schools; Kathy Furney (cycling); Rick Bohm (bowls) and Bryson Luff (rugby league) have also been long-time regulars and their efforts have been appreciated.

And let’s not forget our colleagues - sports writers and photographers from around the central west newspapers - who have shared their stories and photos.

More important are the people I’ve been working with and more recently with reporter Ben Walker, chief sports sub-editor Rob McIntyre and his colleagues, and our photographers Belinda Soole and Amy McIntyre. All professionals and very good at what they do.

Also to Julie Moran, who has made my job much easier by helping with all the behind-the-scenes jobs that get done on a day-to-day basis.

My pride and joy are the lads who have come through the sports desk. 

Ben is editor material if he makes the right career moves.

Mark Fuller and James Gardiner came straight out of high school as cadets. Mark went on to the Melbourne Age and enjoyed many years as it’s chief cricket writer touring with Australian teams and is still a senior editor at the same paper.

Tony Webeck came from Charles Sturt Uni at Bathurst and was undoubtedly one of the best. He’s currently editor of the Big League magazine for the NRL and before that was assistant editor of Australian Golf Digest.

James spends most of his time following the Newcastle Jets for the Newcastle Herald.

Tony Linnane and Tony Webber are two other ‘graduates’ and while not now in journalism have forged out meaningful careers and are fine family men.

Steven Ryan and Dan Proudman were also here in sport and now have senior reporting roles in news at the Newcastle Herald. The same can be said for Steve Cassell who is now one of the senior editors at the Illawarra Mercury.

Kevin Engeler and Les Ritchie were also players in the big game for mean and earned their guernseys through hard work.

I’m proud of them all, not just because they’ve gone on to forge careers, but because they’re all fine men and are still good friends.

Where to now? 

I’ve got a few golf mates who want to take their share of my retirement funds on a more regular basis. And, maybe there will be an opening for a couple of days of work somewhere to pay those golf vultures who are always praying on me having a bad day with the driver or putter.

And - I’d also like to think I could turn up at a sporting ground or venue and put together a story that would be worth publishing.

I can’t imagine me just walking away from sport all together - but the weekends off during long service have been great.

Thanks for sharing the back page with me.