Centralian Advocate, Friday, August 23, 2013 — 47

SPORT

Dragonsturn 50RUGBY LEAGUE

Nick Kossatch

Current and past Dragons players Shane Doolan, Elijiah Doolan, Keith McEwan, KipPritchard and Tim Gibbons look forward to the celebrations Picture: JUSTIN BRIERTY

AMONGST the manyWests players past and pres-ent who will be in celebrat-ion mode at the club’s50-year anniversary areK e i t h M c E w a n , K i pPritchard and current five-time premiership playerShane Doolan.

McEwan can certainly re-call some of the events thatultimately led to the forma-tion of this proud club, aclub that has played in 32 ofthe 49 grand finals.

The Dragons have won 18of those and number 19 isnot beyond them.

‘‘Mike Keegan was aliquor traveller in those daysand I was a publican at theMt Gillen Hotel and he usedto pester me every week formonths on end to start arugby league team.

‘‘He knew I had been as-sociated with Wests in Bris-bane and my family hasbeen with them since the1920s so I wrote to Wests inBrisbane asking them tosend us some jerseys andthings and they said ‘seewhat they can do’ but noth-ing turned up,’’ McEwansaid.

‘‘It was on the Wednesdayprior to the first game thatwe had no jerseys and thatwas when Jack Cotterill,who started Kings Canyon,that’s when he came to meand said ‘you’ve got a foot-ball team but no jerseys’,’’he said.

M c E w a n s a i d t h a tCotterill had jerseys avail-able but not before somefriendly verbal fire betweenthe pair.

‘‘He (Cotterill) said ‘wellI’ve got jerseys’ and I said ‘ifyou lend them to me forSaturday, I’d be your matefor life’ and he said ‘Iwouldn’t lend you anything,McEwan’.’’

‘‘So I was about to tell himwhat do with them but helooked at me and he said‘you know what I’d do withthem?’ and I said ‘what?’and he said ‘I’d give them toyou’,’’ McEwan said.

The jerseys were whitesoccer ones that were madefrom a very heavy wool.

‘‘They were white with ared ‘V’ and consequentlythat’s the reason they’re ourcolours now.’’

Wests is the only club inthe CARFL that has main-tained its original name andcolours.

Another proud formerplayer who represented theDragons from 1979-81,Pritchard, who played as afront rower, won theKeegan Medal in his lastyear.

Pritchard said there was agood portion of Westsplayers who had won themedal in the last 49 years.

‘‘Out of 49 years, 12 Westsplayers have won theKeegan Medal,’’ he said.

Doolan started at the clubat senior ranks in 1998 andhas been a part of the club’s2004-06, 2007 and 2009 prem-iership teams.

Memorieswill flowRUGBY LEAGUE

Nick Kossatch

WESTS Dragons will cele-brate 50 years joiningUnited Magpies as theCARFL foundation clubs.

The Dragons will have afunction tonight at the Gil-len Club and spokespersonHarry Stubbins said theweekend would featuremuch reminiscing.

‘‘We’re having a formaldinner tonight and expectpeople to arrive by six and beeating by about 7.15pm,’’Stubbins said. ‘‘We’re hop-ing for about 120 people . . .and the players will turn upabout 8pm after their game.’’

He added tonight wouldfeature some formalitiesand awards.

Tomorrow will be a ‘‘re-covery day’’ at the GillenClub before the 50th YearAnniversary Dinner at theConvention Centre.

‘‘Then on Sunday, we’regoing down to Anzac Oval at10am,’’ Stubbins said.

There will be a GoldenOldies touch football gamefrom 10.30am then a fare-well function at the GillenClub from 12.30pm.

Stubbins said there weretoo many good players tomention at Wests, but saidthere were three coacheswho have won three con-secutive grand finals each.

‘‘Mike Keegan, the found-ing member of the league,won the early three andthen Archie Tanna won aset of three and also WarrenCollits,’’ Stubbins said.

‘‘We got people comingfrom pretty much everystate to celebrate with usand the founding memberMike Keegan has been thedriving force, they namedthe medal after him for thework he’s done.’’

Ready set to celebrate historyRUGBY LEAGUE

Nick Kossatch

THE Central Australian Rugby Foot-ball League (CARFL) will be celebrat-ing 50 years since its formation in 1963on the back of a meeting on March 27of that year.

While cricket and Australian Rulesfootball was the main backdrop of thesporting landscape in Alice Springsduring that time, rugby league becamea part of the scene too.

The meeting prompted the forma-tion of the CARFL and rugby joinedAustralian Rules as a main winterseason sport.

The two founding clubs of the newleague, Wests and United, played thefirst official match at Traeger Park —with Wests winning 6-4.

Anzac Oval became the new home

ground for the CARFL in 1966 with thecompetition consisting of two gameseach week.

Wes Rose was the patron and MikeKeegan was the main architect in theformation of the league. Several yearslater in 1967, the Keegan Medal wasintroduced to award the league’s bestand fairest player.

The league enjoyed the talents ofArchie Tanna, who played and alsocoached the Wests Dragons inthe 1980s.

Tanna was the attraction with hiselegant swerving with verve throughdefences, often launching theDragons to domination.

The CARFL has enjoyed manyother highlights throughout its im-pressive journey and among those waswhen the Broncos and IllawaraSteelers played on Anzac Oval in 1992.

In February next year, the league

will introduce the Parramatta Eelsinto their sporting calendar to playtrial matches at a ‘‘new’’ Anzac Ovaluntil 2017.

Rugby’s rich past has and willcontinue to be the pathway to aburgeoning future for ‘‘the greatestgame of all’’.

Quite appropriately, tonight marksthe 50-year anniversary game betweenWests and United for the FoundingClub Charity Shield and so a hugecrowd is expected.

Celebrations will take place from6.30pm tomorrow at the Alice SpringsConvention Centre and the eveningwill feature Tommy Raudonikis andBenny Elias as guest speakers.

Mike Keegan will present theKeegan Medal to the CARFL best andfairest winner.

Feathers certain to fly at shield clash with MagpiesRUGBY LEAGUE

Nick Kossatch

IN A weekend of 50-yearcelebrations for the WestsDragons and the CARFL,the Dragons meet theUnited Magpies at AnzacOval tonight from 6pm.

The two teams will playfor the Founding ClubCharity Shield and it will bean enthralling prelude tothe preliminary final be-tween these sides next week.

Wests captain NathanCoelli was pleased withsome aspects of his team’s

p e r f o r m a n c e a g a i n s tpacesetters Vikings lastweek. But he wants a moreconsistent effort through-out on the back of a defens-ive focus at training.

‘‘We still got a few blokesto come back from injury,’’Coelli said.

‘‘Jethro Campbell, whohad done his ankle, willhopefully be right fortonight. Then we got thetwo Nelson boys (Tim andDean) to come back.’’

United Magpies coachGeoff Bates will be hopingfor another win, but admit-ted his team could ill afford

to give up the ball againstsome of the better teams.

Tonight looms as a test forthe Magpies that may bestrengthened with the re-turn of Wayd, Clint andPeter Nibbs.

‘‘It’s a 50th anniversaryand a shield involved, sowe’ll have a crack at them,’’Bates said. ‘‘We will go in ashard as we can even thoughit’s a dead rubber.’’

Vikings will be eager totune up for their grand finalin a fortnight when theymeet Memo Bulls in the lategame.

The Bulls will only have

pride to play for after theywas officially knocked out offinals contention by theMagpies last week.

Vikings will be almost atfull strength with only TuiFord Junior absent.

Vikings played an excitinggame against second-placedWests last week.

While the Vikings have agalaxy of stars such asSchaylen Parai, ChazSolomon, Nathan Johnsonand Junior Saena, Memowill rely on Geoff Radford,Hami Goldsmith andBrendon Taylor-McInnes toat least be competitive.

Statistics for the

month of AugustAverage daily max temp: 22.6

Average daily min temp: 6

Record highest temp: 35.2 on 22/8/2009

Record lowest temp: -4.1 on 16/8/2002

Average monthly rainfall: 9.2mm

Highest monthly rainfall: 144.1 in 1947

Rainfall this month: 0mm

Total rainfall last month: 40.2mm

Total rainfall this year: 146.2mm

Total rainfall last year: 209.4mm

Record annual rainfall: 782.5 in 1974

Sunrise: 7.06am Sunset: 6.15pm

Outlook issued by the Bureau of Meteorology forThursday: Sunny

Forecast:

Fri 23: 22(3) Sat 24: 23(3) Sun 25: 25(4) Mon 26: 26(6)