'It's one big family': Late Cutters legend's love for his club

Rex Creed could not quite put into words just how much the South Cairns Cutters family means to him, but one player’s immense journey showed how much he means to the club.

REX Creed could not quite put into words just how much the South Cairns Cutters family means to him.

Creed, a regular fixture at Fretwell Park for the past eight years and a tireless volunteer and committee member for the past four, was sitting in the Cutters’ home ground stands with ruckman Tyson Williams when he talked to the Cairns Post in January

The ultra-fit ruckman had just presented a cheque worth $8500 to Creed, raised through Cutters supporters and other kind-hearted people as he undertook a massive 1600km bike ride from Cairns to the Sunshine Coast.

South Cairns Cutters AFL player Tyson Williams and committee member Rex Creed at Fretwell Park.

The target was only $2000 at the start, but it ballooned as the community rallied to support a beloved member of the footy club.

“I find it very difficult to take. I don’t like asking people for help, I like helping people,” Creed said.

“It’s been very hard for me, personally. But with Toots (Cutters’ John Tootell), the committee, the club … it’s a family, it’s one big family. They all go behind me, they’ve supported me, Tyson doing this, it’s kept me afloat.”

Williams had been keen on the challenge for years, but he wanted a reason to make it even more meaningful.

So he got on the phone to football operations manager and former coach John Tootell, and soon had the plan to raise money for Creed.

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Creed was in the midst of a third battle with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and had an adenocarcinoma in the bowel, which resulted in half of it being removed.

It was when he was in the car on the way back from hospital that Williams called to reveal his idea.

“I was shocked at first,” Creed said. “I was in the car coming home from the hospital and Tyson rung me and said ‘I want to do this for you’.

“It all happened so quick.”

That was on the Monday afternoon. Williams visited Creed the following day to talk through his plan, and by Thursday he was off on two wheels, tackling the biggest ride of his life.

“I didn’t have a lot of time to stop and think about it or set things up for him,” Creed said. “People along the way encouraged him, helped him.

“I rung him every night to make sure he was all right. There was one stage there I had to tell him off, he wanted to keep going.”

South Cairns Cutters AFL player Tyson Williams and committee member Rex Creed at Fretwell Park.

When asked of the journey and the reasons behind it, Williams - the Sunshine Coast-raised footballer who only joined the club last year - highlighted that same family aspect which Creed, and many Cutters faithful, have experienced.

“Rex was in touch with me every day and that motivates me heaps,” he said.

“It’s not an easy pursuit.

“You get all the motivation you can and that just helps spur you on so much. It’s good to give back.

“I’ve only been here for a year to the day, maybe 11 months since I signed, and it’s been like a family to me. To give back to the club that’s giving me so much – I feel like I’ve been here for 10 years when it’s only been one.”

Just metres from where they sat is where Creed first discovered his love for the Cutters.

It was almost eight years ago Creed first rocked up to Fretwell Park, sat under a blanket and watched the Cutters fall just short of a shock win against the AFL Cairns powerhouse club, Port Douglas Crocs.

Creed had just been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma for the first time, and it was in those stands he discovered what would become another family.

He had been an avid footballer as a youngster - he played for Victoria as a junior and had an opportunity with North Melbourne in the 1970s - and it didn’t take long after his arrival in Cairns to find an Aussie Rules club to follow.

South Cairns Cutters committee member Rex Creed and ruckman Tyson Williams at Fretwell Park.

“That’s how I first came to the football club, I couldn’t go to work, I needed something to do so I came and sat up on the balcony here with a blanket over me and watched the football, and I’ve been coming ever since,” he said.

“I grew up in Broadmeadows in Melbourne, in a footy club called Dallas Blues.

“Back in those days, when I was a kid, the footy club was everything. Train on Friday nights for under-11s, Tuesdays and Thursdays when I got older, Saturdays for footy – the footy club was my life.

“When I came up here, I found a footy club with that same family atmosphere and wanted to be part of it. It means everything to me.”

And that’s why Creed pushed so hard for Williams, and the Cutters, to be recognised for their efforts, as well as the Leukaemia Foundation, which has been his “lifeline” during some of the most challenging years of his life.

Creed lost his battle this May, and will be sadly missed.

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Originally published as 'It's one big family': Late Cutters legend's love for his club