St Pats drought breakers honour day they followed in their father’s footsteps

St Pats’ 1984 premiership winning side not only broke a flag drought, but several members followed their father’s footsteps by becoming premiership winners. This weekend, they’ll celebrate the 40th anniversary of that grand final win.

Front (from left) St Pats 1984 premiership winning captain-coach Gary Howell, 1954 team member Rod Milbourne, 1984 player Tim Coyle. Back (from left) 1984 player Peter Goggins and current St Pats president Ian McCallum

Tim Coyle admits the nostalgia of following his father’s footsteps as a St Pats senior premiership winner didn’t fully hit home when swept up in grand final glory.

Coyle, who later would coach Tasmania to a Sheffield Shield cricket title, helped the club break its 28-year TAFL North flag drought in 1984, and most of the team will gather for a 40-year reunion in Launceston this weekend.

He was one of five St Pats players that day whose dads featured in their 1955 grand final win, the second of three straight premierships for the club.

“All five dads were here at the club (in 1984), either as supporters or committee members or still involved,” Coyle said.

“One thing we didn’t do, which is one of our biggest regrets, is we didn’t get a photo of the five players with their dads on the (grand final) day.

“It was a great moment for the club, who had such a long drought between flags. Back then we probably didn’t recognise it as much as we should have done. We were in the moment after winning a flag, but looking back it (following fathers as premiership winners) was a great achievement.

The captain coach in 1984, Gary Howell said the pressure was on to not only break the drought in the decider, but justify their favourites tag after belting fellow grand finalists Rocherlea by over 90 points during the semis.

Scores were level at three quarter time, but St Pats held their nerve to record a 13.10 (88) to 10.8 (68) win.

“We just talked about making history. We used an empty picture frame to say here’s where the photo of the next premiership side will go, just to get their heads around it and keep them focused,” Howell said.

“We won the second semi against Rocherlea by over 90 points and the grand final, which the media described as a brutal game, we won by 20 points.

“We also had a 30 year reunion but it’s something well worth coming back for. I’ve come from interstate and so has Peter Goggins and a couple of others, so we’ll have a big contingent here to celebrate.

“The ‘84 side was the first winning grand final side for 28 years, so it was a pretty big day for us.”

The sole surviving member of the 1954 premiership side, Rod Milbourne, will also be in attendance for the reunion.

“It’s great because these guys (from the 1984 team) get excited about it and have a good time meeting up with each other again,” Milbourne said.

“It was great mateship and it was a family atmosphere back then.”