South Gambier South Gambier

Elijah Finnegan

Alexander Hill

Imogen Hopes

Blake Janeway

Jackson Janeway

Jackson Jones

Samuel Miller

Sebasan Radlmair

Connor Ruwoldt

Liam Salmon Beau Vivian

Nate Wakefield

West Gambier West Gambier

Jack Rees

Harry Sneath

Fletcher Walker

Last month Geelong celebrated the 60th anniversary of its 1963 VFL premiership victory

In that team was former West Gambier ruckman John Yeates who captained Geelong the previous two seasons in 1961 and62.

There are at least six former SANFL or VFL/AFL captains or captain-coaches who played and coached here in Mount Gambier, Penola or Millicent either after their league careers or on their way to play league.

The six league captains (that I can remember) were West Gambier’s John Yeates (Geelong), North Gambier’s Frank Davis (Melbourne), Penola’s Graham Robbins (Richmond and South Adelaide), Millicent’s Barry Goodingham (North and South Melbourne and Woodville) and North and West Gambier’s Johnnie Taylor (West Adelaide and Glenelg). The sixth and perhaps the exception was East Gambier’s Ralph Rogerson who played and coached the Bulldogs after arriving from North Adelaide in 1959 and then went to East Perth before moving to Fitzroy where was captainin1965and1966.HewontheSEBFL MailMedalin1960.

Johnnie Taylor was skipper of West Adelaide when they won the 1947 SANFL premiership and would later captain-coach WestAdelaidefortwoseasonsbeforebeing playing coach of Glenelg in the early 1950s. He then accepted a playing coaching role withNorthGambierinabout1954.

Later, in 1957 he would become West Gambier’sfirstpremiershipcoach.

He is one of only two SANFL or VFL playing coaches to become a captain-coach with a local SEBFL or WBFL team (Barry Goodingham was the other) and he was oneofsixVFLorSANFLcaptainswhowould playhereinthelocalleague.

Yeates left Mount Gambier as a teenager after playing in West Gambier’s first premiership in the South East and Border football League in 1957. After his stint at Geelong he returned to West Gambier to play in their 1971 WBFL premiership and wouldlatercoachtheteam intheearly1970s.

Frank Davis was a tough, close-checking, hard-at-the-ball half back for Melbourne. He moved into A grade or league ranks in 1964 and after six games played in Melbourne’s 1964 VFL premiership He later rose to become captain of the club from 1970 until 1973, winning the club’s best and fairest in 1970 and playing 168 leaguegames.

After a stellar VFL career Davis took up the North Gambier captain-coach role in 1974 replacingKenGladmanwhohadcomefrom Geelong in 1971. Davis returned to Melbournein1976andwasassistantcoach of Melbourne in 1979 and was acting nonplaying coach for one game when playing coachCarlDitterichwassuspended.

GrahamRobbinsarrivedatRichmondinthe VFL in 1969 and across three seasons played 13 league games before enjoying a stint with VFA club Oakleigh and then moved to South Adelaide He won the club’s goal kicking in 1975 and was captain in 1977 before being appointed captain coach of Penola in 1979 after being transferred in employment to Mount Gambier

NorthandSouthMelbourneruckmanBarry Goodingham played 188 VFL games with those two clubs (158 with North). He was on the bench in North’s first AFL/VFL premiership in 1975 He switched to Woodville in 1978 and became captaincoach in 1979 and 80. He took Woodville into the finals in 1979 but were wooden spoonersin1980.Hewaslaterappointedas captain-coachofMillicentinthe1980s.

Yeates, Davis, Robbins, Goodingham and Taylor are the only five players I can recall who came here (or returned) to Mount Gambier, Penola and Millicent to continue theircareersaftertheycaptainedaVFL/AFL or SANFL side. In this case all five became playing coaches of local clubs at some point. As stated, Ralph Rogerson was the exceptionandwentontocaptainaVFLside after playing and coaching in Mount