Now there is a certain code amongst Bush footballers that the City folk don’t understand and it doesn’t matter whether you were a premiership winner with Parramatta or Parkes, Tamworth or Tumbarumba, there is a story to be told and a few yarns to swap about playing the game in those far-flung places.
Peter, who recently moved his famous sports goods store ‘a few paces’ down Church St to make way for a new international hotel, grew up in the bush and fell in love with game after watching a Saturday arvo clash in the legendary Maher Cup competition with his father.
The fire and the frenzy mesmerized him straight up. It was in the days when bush footy was as tough and hard as city football before bureaucratic bungling and greed destroyed most of it.
His father worked on the railways so he and younger brother Graeme moved around a bit and ended up playing for Werris Creek in the under 18s. They both went on to play for Australia and NSW and both won premierships -Peter with Parramatta and Graeme with St George.
Another famous “bushy” played with Peter in the representative weight divisions based around Tamworth – Steve Crawley who is now supreme boss at Fox Sports.
Where did you play Dal?
“I did all his tackling while he scored all the tries,” Steve quipped this week.
“Where did you play Dal?” Peter asked as we chatted on a Sunday afternoon recently after his first weekend of trading in the new store location. I rattled off my less than spectacular ‘career’ in Group 11 and he was genuinely interested.
“I played up around Tamworth area when we lived in Werris Creek,” he recalled. Peter fondly being picked for NSW under 18s against Queensland and his coach just happened to be Jack Gibson who later coached him in the successful Parramatta sides of the early eighties.
Graeme went to Newcastle and Peter went to Thirroul and the rest is history.
Peter was getting towards the end of his glittering career including three Eels premiership man of the match in an Origin and Australian Kangaroo tour selection, when he developed the idea of the sports store in downtown Para with his brother-in-law Mark Assef.
The store quickly took off and became ground zero for sports fans visiting Parramatta from all over the sporting universe. Peter has 50,000+ followers on his Facebook page and was quick to get involved with online sales.
But, I can’t help thinking in his quieter times Peter dreams of his bush days, when playing for the local footy team was the pinnace of sporting achievement.
