THE PROTÉGÉ II by Whispering Jack

There used to be a great little Italian restaurant in Hardware Lane in the heart of the city where they served superb pastas with vino, delicious lemon granitas and decent coffee. Campari attracted a mixed clientele of lawyers, office workers, sporting personalities and shoppers. At lunchtime, it was always crowded, noisy, full of atmosphere and lively conversation. Then one day about five years ago it just closed down never to reopen its doors although, for a long time, a sign on a window carried an unfulfilled promise that it would reopen "after renovations".

That was the venue where, back in the early eighties, we completed our great recruiting "coup" for the Melbourne Football Club.

Our little group, made up mainly of young lawyers, had a regular lunchtime table at Campari. There was "Redleg" who posts here on Demonland and who was on the MFC board at the time, "Night Life" who fancied himself as a cricketer and who has since passed on and an assortment of other characters including yours truly. From time to time, we had visitors to the table including VFL footballers and even the occasional County Court judge.

One of our guests was a young bloke by the name of Mark Louis who was coach of the Prahran Thirds in what was then known as the VFA. He assured us one day that he had a player who would make it all the way to the highest level in the game. His protégé was, he claimed, a "bloody good footballer."

Well that was enough for me. I pointed out to Redleg that Prahran was located in Melbourne's metropolitan zone and there was a fair chance that this "bloody good footballer" was tied to the Demons. We bent his arm a bit and Redleg promised to arrange for someone from the club to come down to watch one of his games. That promise was duly kept and the following year Graeme Yeats was wearing red and blue instead of Prahran's two blues.

That's how they used to recruit players before the days of drafts, trades and list managers. From the early fifties to the seventies, the MFC secretary Jim Cardwell was a one man recruiting department and that was only one of the many jobs he single-handedly carried out at the club. Today, clubs have about three different departments doing Jim's job. By the eighties there were a few part timers helping out but often the club relied on word of mouth advice from supporters and other spotters. In many ways therefore, it was a stroke of good fortune that a lunchtime chat at Campari in 1983 with the Prahran thirds coach led to the securing of his protégé as a player of a dozen years' excellent service and standing.

Melbourne and Yeats got a taste of finals football four years later and while the month of September 1987 was an exciting time, it ended in tragedy when Jimmy Stynes was penalised for crossing Gary Buckenara's mark as he lined up for the last kick of that year's Preliminary Final.

September was also an interesting time for the lunch time crew at Campari. Someone had come up with the idea of doing a radio show on 3CR to fill in a vacancy on their Thursday night programming so for about six months we were required to turn up to the Fitzroy studios and talk nonsense about sport. We were tucked in between a reggae music show and a lesbian discussion group and I reckon we might not have fitted in with the station's image. Mind you, I always thought the banter on our programme was easily the most coherent on their roster.

The week after our dramatic final loss to Hawthorn I made up a news item reporting that the Melbourne Football Club had successfully obtained an injunction in the Victorian Supreme Court to force a replay of the preliminary final because the 15 metre penalty against Jimmy Stynes was "unjust" and "unconscionable". We thought nobody listened to our show but the switchboard fairly blew up that night as our receptionist fielded dozens of calls from irate Hawthorn supporters. The excuse we gave the station boss was that I had become somewhat disoriented by the lingering fumes from whatever the reggae boys had been smoking in the studio during the hour before we came on air.

Anyway, my feeble attempt to win some justice for Jimmy, Yeata and the boys fell flat. and eventually 3CR gave us the flick and replaced us with a group of people who rambled on mindlessly about some national liberation movement in South America. Several months into their stint they were still getting phone calls halfway through their programme from a bloke who wanted their tips for the coming weekend's races.

Redleg and I bumped into Mark Louis at Etihad this year on 1 July and watched the Under 18 championships games with him. He's still involved and does some coaching at one of the APS schools. Like all of us, he was suitably impressed by his protégé's protégé.

It's uncanny when you think that more than two and a half decades afterwards, not only is Yeata coaching the young footballer who is likely to be taken by the Demons at #1 in this year's draft, but somewhere else there's someone else's protégé running around in a two blues guernsey who might well be selected at number two. Not only that but from what I've seen and heard about them, they're both "bloody good footballers".

FOOTNOTE

"Night Life" whose brother had played a few games for the Dees in 1981 suddenly and tragically passed away in 1989 from an aneurism still in his thirties. It was only a few hours after he'd watched his beloved Demons win a game at the MCG against the Swans. He would have loved Demonland and I dedicate this article to his memory even though his role in Yeata's recruitment was rather limited on account of the fact that he was more interested at the time in quaffing Campari's fine house red while the rest of us were busy recruiting a Demon.

It's uncanny when you think that more than two and a half decades afterwards, not only is Yeata coaching the young footballer who is likely to be taken by the Demons at #1 in this year's draft, but somewhere else there's someone else's protégé running around in a two blues guernsey who might well be selected at number two. Not only that but from what I've seen and heard about them, they're both "bloody good footballers".

In news just in, Jack Trengove played another good game in the SANFL qualifying final game which the SA two blues Sturt narrowly lost. Kicked a couple of goals and impressed all the good judges.

Great article with a nostalgia in the veins.

Whispering Jack & George on the Outer.

Many thanks for your reports. They have kept me riveted for many years now.

Thanls Jack. One of the reasons I love this site!!

That brings back memories WJ. I can still recall operating the control panel with my finger on the dump button ready to bleep more foul language from Mark Fine who is now on SEN. I also recall several girls in the corridor outside the studio ignoring me each week, which I couldn't understand as I was quite good looking in those days. My ego took a severe dent and it only recovered when you told me they were members of the Lesbian Radio show. I can also recall several top sportsmen and sportswomen being interviewed on our show, which incidentally was called the Super Summer Sports Show, which we started in the middle of winter, wondering what on earth they were doing on our show. They were indeed fun times.

The Yeats story is true and I recall if we had our way, Wayne Johnson, Graham Whitnall and then maybe his son Lance, Ray Byrne and others would have played for the Dees. We got them all to commit to the Dees but the club for one reason or another was unable to secure them.

Lastly I miss my late mate Greg "Nightlife" Korn, whose life ended far too early. You are right, he would have loved Demonland and would have been so excited about the future of the mighty Dees. If I can share one funny story with Demonlanders, I recall the day Nightlife decided to join our little cricket match at the local school ground. The teams were comprised of fathers and their young sons playing with a tennis ball. Nightlife who was a fair cricketer turned up in his creams and was surprized to find everyone else in shorts and thongs. His turn to bat came and he strode to the wicket in a manner resembling Greg Chappell in his heyday. On reaching the stumps he took block and the 7 year old umpire did his best to give him centre. He perused the field purposefully memorizing each fielder and deciding where he would hit his first six. Then it was time to receive his first ball and the 6 year old bowler in thongs steamed in, tennis ball in hand and bowled a lollypop. Nightlife stepped forward swung his bat and heard the sound of his stumps dislodging and the bails hitting the pitch. He tucked his bat under his arm and strode off back to the pavilion, which was in fact a bench, to join his team mates on the batting side. I was by this stage rolling around on the ground and laughing so hard that I [censored] my shorts. It remains my funniest sporting memory to this day. RIP Nightlife.

Awesome read again WJ. Had a couple of good laughs. I hope you didn't "tick off" the lesbian discussion group by overstaying your timeslot talking footy and giving tips. I take it they were Redleg's tips?

- laughed at "disorientated by the lingering fumes" from the reggae boys....

Wj hopefully you are as good lawyer (sol) as you are storyteller. Great reading.

Another fantastic read. Gives a great understanding to how far the recruiting system has come, but at the same time when you look at the Jurrah story it hasn't changed much either!

Campari was such a strange ending to that cafe. Used to be in there often for "work meetings".

Bravo..clap ..clap. bravo..

Kudos indeed to you gents. Indeed fortunate are we to have genuine history anecdoted straight to our screens.

Thankyou for sharing

Campari was a great little place for eating. Pity.

Loved Yeata. Hope he looks after young Tom for the next fortnight.

My ego took a severe dent and it only recovered when you told me they were members of the Lesbian Radio show.

It is called a challenge RedLeg, if only you had been good enough

It is called a challenge RedLeg, if only you had been good enough

If only.

Riveting stuff.

I read once that Kevin Sheedy also was a Prahran boy who was residentially bound to Melbourne and we let him go to Richmond. Strange decision that one!