Ron Joseph: Legendary North Melbourne administrator dies aged, 77

The late Ron Joseph played a pivotal role in recruiting some of North Melbourne’s greatest players from the Ovens and Murray.

Long before the draft existed and the national competition was born, VFL clubs had exclusive access to a country area to recruit players from.

They were the golden days of country football in a lot of ways.

For more than a decade from the late 1960s, Carlton had Bendigo, St Kilda had Ballarat, Collingwood had Western Border, Essendon had Wimmera, Richmond had Sunraysia and Footscray and Hawthorn shared Gippsland.

A strong case can be made no club did better than North Melbourne from its zone, the Ovens and Murray, and one man, Ron Joseph, who died this week aged, 77, was largely responsible for recruiting a lot of the talent that transformed the Kangaroos into a powerhouse under the coaching of Ron Barassi.

Former Ovens and Murray players, from left, Phil Baker, Gary Cowton, Peter Chisnall and Mick Nolan, who were recruited to North Melbourne by Ron Joseph.

North Melbourne played in five successive grand finals in the 1970s.

But, in securing players such as Mick Nolan (Wangaratta Rovers), Gary Cowton (Benalla), Sam Kekovich (Myrtleford) and Ross Henshaw (North Albury) for the club’s first VFL flag in 1975 and John Byrne (Wangaratta Rovers), Xavier Tanner (Wodonga) and Phil Baker (Albury) for another two years later, Joseph made plenty of enemies in the O and M.

It’s clubs hated losing their best players, often for little in return.

“In those days they objected to clubs just walking in and taking their players and not having any respect for them trying to win a premiership,” Joseph said in an interview for the history of the Myrtleford Football Club: 1970: The Year of the Saints.

“They didn’t get a cracker and that was one of the issues we had with clubs and the Ovens and Murray as a league, but later on they certainly did.”

Sam Kekovich playing for North Melbourne in 1971 after he had been recruited from Myrtleford in 1968 by Ron Joseph

The signing of Kekovich from Myrtleford in 1968 was a case in point with Joseph recalling he was lucky to get out of town alive when he recruited the young star after the season had started.

He said the recruitment of Nolan, a 194cm, 140kg man mountain, was one of his finest achievements.

Ron Joseph has died at the age of 77 after losing a fight with lung cancer.

“I first saw him in a grand final between Rovers and Yarrawonga and in the second half he just took over,” Joseph said.

But, Barassi had some initial reservations.

“He just looked at me, glared and said ‘well, that is why we will never win a premiership because you don’t know how to recruit’.”

John Longmire playing for North Melbourne in 1990. He was recruited from Corowa-Rutherglen with Ron Joseph instrumental in the signing.

A later recruiting success story was current Sydney coach John Longmire, who had burst onto the scene as a teenage goal kicking star for Corowa-Rutherglen in the mid-1980s.

The sweetener to sign was a brand new Holden Commodore, but it had to sit in a shed at the family’s Balldale farm until he was able to legally drive.