Meet the man who built Canberra’s Raiders’ Viking horn
Before the game, before the clap, there is the horn. And this is the story of a Gundagai sparkie, his mates, some beers and the biggest noise in the NRL.
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In a kitchen in Gundagai, there’s a pepper grinder without a top.
“My wife (Denise) hadn’t used this pepper grinder in a long time,’’ local electrician and Canberra Raiders Viking-horn maker Wayne Pollack said.
“So I pinched the top of the thing and that’s actually the mouthpiece of the horn.’’
If there’s one grand final story that encapsulates the underdog status and impossible-to-hate sentiment for the Raiders ahead of Sunday’s decider against the Roosters, then surely this it.
Forget Canberra, this is as about as Aussie as it gets.
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When Raiders legend Mal Meninga blows the horn to signal the biggest Viking clap in Australian sport on Sunday, a proud sparkie from Gundagai will shake his head and think of the six weeks he spent building rugby league’s favourite instrument, in his shed.
The horn doesn’t actually make any noise — that comes via the loudspeaker — but still took $2500 in materials for Pollack, a few mates and some beers to construct.
Assisting Pollack were Mark Smith, a spray painter from a Gundagai panel shop, retired local Pete Smith, who built garden sculptures and even foundation Raiders centre Frank Roddy, who helped with the steel stand.
Pollack had received a phone call from his son Ben, the Raiders’ media manager, in February, 2017.
In the back-end of the 2016 season, the Raiders fan base had introduced the The Viking Clap to their home games for the first time.
It created an instant boost in atmosphere and excitement prior to kick-off for supporters and brilliant colour for TV broadcasters.
Similar to the giant horn used before every game of NFL team the Minnesota Vikings, the Raiders felt that going into the 2017 season the Viking Clap needed a starting point — a call to arms and signal for fans to stand in preparation for the “clap”.
“They must have sent the idea around the smoko table at the Raiders, I don’t know what they do in those places, and they came up with this idea to make a giant horn,’’ Pollack said.
“They said, ‘Who are we going to get to make this thing?’ And Ben said, “Well, I know someone that would,’ and that’s when he gave me the call.’’
“I was my owner-builder of my house, I do all those handyman things.
“I rang Pete (Smith), who used to build concrete mounds for garden ornaments, and told him I’ve got this job from the Raiders, I’ve got five or six weeks to do this, what are we going to do?
“And he said, that’s easy.’’
Drawing the horn design on a piece of paper before then stencilling it also onto the concrete floor of his shed with a marker-pen, Pollack used “ a heap of polystyrene foam about 100 millimetres thick and I just cut some larger circles at the top down to the narrow ones.
“I stuck it all together with wire and some foam-a-fill and cut that off and sanded it off before Pete fibreglassed it.”
“We painted it and we sent a picture to Ben and asked, what do you think?
The reply from the Raiders wasn’t what Pollack was hoping for.
“He (Ben) handed it around the office and they said, ‘No good — it looks like an overripe banana’,’’ Pollack said.
“I had another mate who had the horns from an actual bull, so I took it to Wagga to a wholesale paint shop.
“And the bloke there matched the colour to the bull horn for me. He’s now got a colour in his shop called “Raiders horn.”
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Adding the lid of the pepper grinder to mimic the mouthpiece, which everyone from Alan Tongue, Brad Clyde and Rubén Wiki have used to commence the Viking Clap, Pollack completed the horn inside his six week deadline.
When the Raiders leave for Sydney behind them on the Hume Highway will be The Viking Horn — on route to ANZ Stadium for grand final day.
In the crowd on Sunday will be Pollack.
“No one knows I built it, but of course I’m proud of it,’’ Pollack said.
“It’s gone from my shed to the Raiders and now it’s going to ANZ Stadium and I’m going too.’’
Originally published as Meet the man who built Canberra’s Raiders’ Viking horn