Hello and welcome to another week of the SLF. Well what an event the reunion was, superbly organised, everything went according to plan and what about the turn up, I recon there had to be around 400 in attendance.
Following are some of the observation that came from the night.

Former Marnoo tough guy Trevor “Arms and legs” Dempsey attended with his family and as expected turned up in his trademark moccasins. “I always where them and always will” the proud Western suburbs resident said.

The event wouldn’t have gone ahead without the financial contribution by Sandy “The know all” McGregor, he provided the seed capital to pay for some of the big ticket items and the organisers thank him for his contribution.

It was an unfortunate day for the know all with his horse Some are Bent running 3rd in the Hiskins Steeple, he and connections missed out on the $300,000 booty they would have received. But knowing the know all he wouldn’t of been to flustered and would have went to the bar as if the horse had won. After all the horse has won nearly $1 million dollar this time in.

Another interesting observation came out of the media lead up to Some are Bents record breaking feat, the syndicate manager indicted in the press that all the owners had golf handicaps between 4 and 13. Well either they don’t rate the know alls contribution to the syndicate or they haven’t seen him play golf. You could double the 13 and then add some and you would be somewhere around the mark.

Living Marnoo legend Ged “Father” Ryan was remembering his illustrious football career. The famous number 6 decided to bunk down in the equally famous room 6 at Marnoo’s leading motel with his lovely new girlfriend Belinda. Plenty of famous celebrities have bunked down in room 6 and it’s good to see that the legend still lives on.

You would think that buddies John “Jack” Cameron and Graeme “Old Maaaaaate” McNolty where joined at the hip. They certainly had a good time and celebrated the event with a few frothies and many darts.

The two Bobs, Bob Barham and Bob Anderson spoke of the great era the Marnoo football club had in the 50’s, a famous Marnoo name kept popping up in despatches, Weir Cameron has been rated by these two as arguably the best ever footballer to grace the hallowed MCG turf. If the following generations of Cameron’s are any indication then they have no argument from me.

There was one such attendee at the event who holds the MCG close to his heart, he said “if I’m not kicking goals I’m taking wickets out there” was the statement made by Colin “Big Cods” Whiting. If you didn’t know he was any good you only had to spend a minute or two with him and he would let you know.

The band were fantastic and very funny especially the old fella who chimed in every now and then one they got his pacemaker revved up to the required level. They provided some funny entertainment and at one point I heard them tell a patron to “Go mount a Merino”. However they where somewhat over shadowed by one Gary “Larry” Cameron who belted out the famous we are the navy blues…….

The scoreboard was unveiled at the start of the day and was renamed the “Don Murphy 50 years at Landmark” Scoreboard. It was unfortunate that the great man couldn’t attend to open the scoreboard the depicted his name but he was holidaying in sunny Queensland.

Steven “Ute doors” Bryce is a wonderful footballing name which commenced his career at Marnoo, he went on to play at many places both in WA and Vic and believe it or not after 3 years in retirement he has decided to pull the boots on again at the tender age of 36.

One of the characters the attended the event was Simon “Oggy” Ogden, Oggy used to be a navy boy and used to dress in white, now he has decided his colour is black and wouldn’t look out of place dining at the Kent hotel in Carlton beside Tony Mocbel and friends. But he isn’t anything like that at all and holds down a high position at the Victorian Racing Club. Apparently he entertained the masses that attended the Sunday session.

The night went late for some as I heard a report of patrons still wandering the streets of Marnoo at 7am on Sunday morning, when they turned the beer off a couple of enterprising natives managed to find another place to consume, I’ll give you two guesses as the where that was.

Rueben “Rostron” Cheeseman won the belt at the event according to my spies, I’m told that he had the patrons in stiches with his antics that resembled his behaviour BM (Before Marriage), I guess it’s a case of “you had to be there”, but I have in the past witnessed the behaviour of Rueben and friends BM and it is entertaining.

John “Coach” Drum was right in his element and his memory of the time is unprecedented, he can certainly recall everything that happened back then and he can even pass on some of the eccentric tactics he used to employ. He truly did a wonderful job to get that team over the line in 1987.

The record of the netballers didn’t go unnoticed and they certainly put the footballers to shame having played in 13 straight grand finals and won 8 or 9. They really did have a core group of talented netballers and there was non better than Kaye “Darky” Ellen.

As mentioned a great time was had by all and I could ramble on further about many a former natives who attended the event but I can only ramble on so much. But I’m sure I speak on behalf of all those that attended in saying well done to the organisers on a great event. It would have to be one of the biggest events ever in Marnoo.

That’s all folks