NFL: Greensborough to honour ‘Boro matriarch’ Bonnie Dickson during Fight MND fundraiser
GREENSBOROUGH will honour the service and devotion of ‘Boro matriarch’ Bonnie Dickson during a Fight MND fundraiser this Saturday.
Local Footy
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BONNIE Dickson loved her Boro boys.
And the feeling was mutual.
Dickson, a member of Greensborough Football Club’s Hall of Fame since 1981, is described by current president Russell Grubb as the “Boro matriarch”.
The club will pay tribute to Dickson, who died in March from motor neurone disease, when it raises money for the Fight MND cause this weekend.
“It’s a very small thing that the club can do to give back to the community and a family that has done so much for us over the journey,” Greensborough co-captain Tristan Stead said.
Dickson was diagnosed with MND in October, when Stead issued a rally cry to Greensborough’s players.
A group of about 10 players donated their time to renovate her home so she could continue living with her family.
It was a show of gratitude to a woman who helped establish junior football in the suburb and never missed a Greensborough game.
“The boys came around and the back bedroom that went out into the back yard had a window in it,” Bonnie’s daughter Diane Dickson-Palaia said.
“They took that out and put in double doors so we could wheel mum to get her outside.
“Ricky Mullins converted the laundry into a shower room, waterproofed it and everything.”
On her induction to the Greensborough Hall of Fame, it was noted Bonnie had served on the ladies committee, as a team manager, washed “countless” football jumpers and worked in the canteen.
She was the type of old-fashioned volunteer who make community sporting clubs tick.
“She has been such a big part of our lives as a playing group and my life, with the family being close to us,” Stead said.
“They have been there for everything.”
Bonnie attended one last game before she died on March 22 at the age of 83, Greensborough’s first practice match of 2018.
“My brother (Russell) played for Greensborough and he went on to play for Collingwood,” Diane said.
“My younger sister Judy lives in the country but whenever she is up she goes to all the football club functions.
“Everybody around Greensborough Football Club knows my family and my mum.”
The Boro boys will carry Bonnie’s spirit with them when they wear a special blue and white jumper for this weekend’s home clash against Hurstbridge.
The jumpers will feature the Fight MND logo and a Bonnie 1934-2018 tribute.
“She was very close to the club and the players and it has really been a player-led effort to make a big day of it,” Grubb said.
Diane has been the Boro’s senior team manager for the past 13 years, continuing her family’s long association with the club.
She said this weekend’s fundraiser in honour of her mother would be “bittersweet”.
“It’s wonderful what Neale Daniher has done to bring the publicity to it all,” she said.
“The MND people are just absolutely magnificent with what they can assist with.
“But sometimes you think that we only had five months with mum.”
The club has a memorial award named after Bonnie’s late husband Ray, who played in two senior premierships before introducing under-13 and under-15 football to the Diamond Valley region in 1966.
Their son Russell was named in the Greensborough Team of the Century and featured in 20 VFL games for Collingwood.
Stead said the fundraiser was a chance for the club to show its appreciation to the Dickson family.
“This is something, a small thing … and I feel it’s something we owe to them and we owe to Bonnie,” he said.
Months after the renovations to her home were complete, Stead continued to visit Bonnie.
He would arrive at her door with a pizza and, much like Bonnie watching her Boro boys, would sit and show his support for someone he cared deeply for.
“She loved him to death, so that really used to tear her up,” Diane said.
“They were her boys. She always called them ‘my boys’.”
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