Pride of Australia: How we made the Jets fly again

AT HENSON Park, home of the Newtown Jets, rugby league is like it used to be.

Terry Rowney (wearing hat), 0419204848, and Barry Vining, 0408 203 424, pictured at Henson oval Marrickville on Saturday 28th June 2014. Both men have poured huge amount of time and money to keep the club going. Pic: Mitch Cameron

AT HENSON Park, home of the Newtown Jets, rugby league is like it used to be.

Locals ­unfolding picnic rugs on the grass. Kids taking over the field at half-time. Beers on the hill in the fading light.

But the Jets would have died almost 40 years ago were it not for the tireless devotion of their two biggest fans.

In 1983, the Jets faced ­financial collapse and were forced out of the competition. Their enemies hoped that would be the end. But they hadn’t reckoned on Terry Rowney and Barry Vining.

For seven years, the two men kept the club alive by holding monthly board meetings. Both poured in thousands, and in Mr Rowney’s case, hundreds of thousands, of dollars to revive the Jets after seven years in exile, first in the Metropolitan Cup, and later in the VB Premier League.

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Mr Rowney built a gym in his factory so the players could train. He visited local pubs, schools and community centres encouraging locals to get behind them. Mr Vining worked the politicians for support and money.

“Newtown would be stone dead without the input of these fellows,” club official Glen Dwyer said.

Both grew up in the inner west when, as Mr Dwyer says, it was “like the Bronx, people would work hard to get out of there”. The blue and white of league’s oldest club runs through their veins.

Mr Vining has now been president for almost 30 years. and Mr Rowney has been one of the biggest personal financial backers in rugby league.

They do it entirely for love; they don’t even get free entry (in fact, ­directors pay double).

“My dad always said there’s spirit in Newtown,” says ­Mr Rowney.

“I was born in Marrickville. I love the club, I love the ­district. I just love it.”

For their outstanding devotion to their community, the two men have been nominated for the Pride of Australia’s community spirit medal.