Local Lines

Ernie i

Ernie Hug was a back pocket for The Pies in ‘65 but up front were his hands

With 28 centimetre spans those hands enclosed the ball when he clocked his marks

Ernie also handled prize bulls drove a Rolls Royce to training and represented Victoria ii

I had him for years rubber-banded with other Scanlens mates

Avuncular Ernie clutching a Ross Faulkner, gooby grin like Andy Griffith

And somehow, like legends EJ, Polly and Blue Barassi Ernie got to be die cut, his image poppable by pressing on the flat card with my tiny thumbs iii

Post-footy, a tree pressed on poor Ernie’s tractor and he was dead at 34

- Bill Wootton

Local Lines features poetry by locals about local and any other matters. Please submit poems to Bill Wootton at cottlesbreedge@gmail.com

Bill barracks for Collingwood and collected Scanlens footy cards from 19641969. He sold them to a collector for a small fortune ten years ago but still misses flicking through them occasionally.