Country football: Kyabram names press box after long-serving media man
Country footy has had its fair share of media giants over the years and 80-year-old Gus Underwood is still on the job.
Their collective contribution in years runs well into triple figures, but the impact can’t be measured in goals or best and fairest votes.
They’re a special breed that have kept footy the No.1 winter sport in the bush.
Sadly, many have passed, but they aren’t forgotten.
They are country footy media royalty, who have worked in newspapers, radio and television long before social media and live streaming sprung to life.
Kyabram’s Gus Underwood turned 80 in January is still covering the Bombers in the Goulburn Valley league after starting out as a 17-year-old cadet at the Kyabram Free Press in 1961.
He is old-school, hates mobile phones, but, most importantly, can still sniff out a decent yarn with the best contact book in his patch.
The Kyabram ground’s press box was named in his honour this year, cementing a link dating back to his junior days when he was ruckman and Dick Clay a “pint-sized” rover before developing into a Richmond champion in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Underwood’s playing days ended in the late 1970s, but his contribution to the game was just getting rolling.
“I get a lot more pleasure out of reporting country football because you know the players and their families personally,” he said.
“The time I’ve enjoyed covering Kyabram the most was between 2016 and 2019 when it won a Victorian record 52 games in succession under Paul Newman and also won 83 of their 84 games in that period.
“The only loss was in the 2018 grand final.”
Another highlight was coaching Kyabram’s under-18 team that included future Melbourne captain Garry Lyon to the 1983 premiership.
Underwood contributed match reports to the Shepparton News at a time when the paper boasted a crack team of footy reporters under sports editor and Stawell Gift winner Noel Hussey.
The GV’s electronic media was equally well served by the Kilgour identical twins, Don and his late brother Rod.
Their parents ran Katamatite’s general store with Rod the first to hit the airwaves at Warrnambool’s 3YB before Don joined Warragul’s 3UL.
They reunited at Shepparton’s 3SR where they worked together for five years with football featuring from Thursday night team selections to a Sunday morning wrap up.
GV footy broadcasts interrupted by capital city horse races were an irritation before the twins switched to television station GMV6 in the mid-1970s where they alternated presenting sport for 18 years.
Naturally, news from the GV and all surrounding leagues featured heavily.
“We loved footy,” Don said.
“While we didn’t get to see Katamatite play much, we still followed them and Rod wore his Katamatite jumper on the Monday night after they won a grand final.”
Don was Shepparton MP in the Victorian parliament for 11 years and in retirement he is on the GV Hall of Fame committee and chairs the league’s tribunal.
Rod died last year, aged 77.
Media power was instrumental in the Latrobe Valley league’s formation in 1954 when 3TR manager Gordon Lewis called a meeting of clubs from Sale to Warragul to break from their existing competitions.
Lewis also called football, but the station’s biggest star, Graeme Eddy, came on board in 1961 after a brief stint with Collingwood under-19s.
Gippsland’s GLV10 was Australia’s first regional television station to open in 1961 with Lewis and Eddy both making the switch from radio, even though Eddy continued calling games for 3TR with Richard Zachariah among others.
The 1978 LVFL grand final was the first televised and former Traralgon and Morwell premiership coach Peter Hall said Eddy “was larger than life”.
“Graeme was famous for a few of his big calls,” he said.
“He summed up a prediction for the 1978 grand final when Traralgon played Leongatha by saying ‘Leongatha will be too big, too strong and too talented. Full stop’.
“It turned out Traralgon won easily and the reply from the Traralgon boys was ‘too big, too strong and too (expletive deleted) talented.”
GLV10 partnered with BCV8 in Eddy’s hometown of Bendigo and soon country championships and Victorian Country games were broadcast into living rooms across regional Victoria with Eddy the coverage’s main man.
Advertising dollars flowed through the doors with footballer quiz programs, panel shows and vote counts all a feature of GLV10 programming with the grand final coverage lasting until the early 1990s.
Eddy died in Bendigo in 2015, aged 76.
An equally well respected Gippsland footy media identity, Kevin Hogan, played for South Melbourne before being appointed Sale coach in 1961.
“While Graeme was out there, flamboyant, not afraid to make a big statement or two, Kevin Hogan was the most humble fellow I’ve ever come across,” Hall said.
“He was thorough with his research and dedication towards promoting football, but he did it in the kindest way.”
Two of Hogan’s brothers, Frank and Pat, also played for South Melbourne with the family originally from Violet Town.
Sale became Kevin’s adopted home and he had a long and distinguished innings in radio and newspapers with footy rivalling cricket as his favourite, until his death in 2019.
Two sons, Damian and Brendan, played in Sale’s 1986 premiership team.
The late Jim Murphy was front and centre in Ballarat’s domination of the country championships under John Northey in the early 1980s as Ballarat Courier sports editor.
An East Ballarat fan from birth, footy was always to the fore, but he developed a soft spot for the Ballarat Miners’ basketball team.
“The way he showed respect and care for his community is the reason he was able to break so many big stories during his career,” News Corp’s national community sports editor Paul Nolan said.
“Jim rarely said goodbye to anyone, his farewell catchcry was always ‘keep smiling’.
“Even today, in Ballarat, when people talk about the history of the city’s sport, they will of course speak about Steve Moneghetti, Tony Lockett or Danny Frawley.
“But it’s usually the name of Jim Murphy, who the old folk remember the most, and speak about in the most reverential terms.”
COUNTRY FOOTY MEDIA GIANTS
Graeme Eddy: Initially called for Sale’s 3TR, but rose to even greater heights when interleague matches and grand finals were broadcast on television on GLV10 in Gippsland and BCV8 in Bendigo.
Dick Turner: Bendigo’s 3BO broadcaster for more than 30 years with his “call of the board at the QEO” being a long-time favourite catch cry among his listener army.
Jim Murphy: Originally a railways worker, Murphy went from Ballarat Courier “stringer” to sports editor, a role he held for three decades.
Ros Lanigan: Born into a Maffra sporting family, Lanigan was a trailblazer for country footy female reporters as she set about reshaping the multi-award winning Weekly Times’ coverage.
Rod and Don Kilgour: Identical twins from Katamatite, who alternated reading the sports news on GMV6 for 18 years after working together at 3SR.
Kevin Hogan: Legendary Gippsland ABC broadcaster and scribe for Gippsland Times newspaper. Played for South Melbourne before coming to Sale to coach in 1961.
Tom Carey: Chief football writer at Shepparton News in a golden era when the sports team included 1964 Stawell Gift winner Noel Hussey and Gus Underwood.
Ron McGann: From Chiltern, McGann called O&M footy on 2AY and 3NE for 25 years. Inducted into the league’s Hall of Fame in 2007.
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