SOME of the most revered names in the sport of rugby league in this area were elevated to even higher ground on Saturday night with the inauguration of Bathurst Rugby League’s Hall of Fame.
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With the Centenary of League dinner attracting some 160 guests, St Pat’s, Bathurst Railway and a combined Bathurst Panthers group that also included Charlestons and Penguins, each put forward 10 names for the newly initiated Hall of Fame.
In many cases, the names were throwbacks to the earliest origins of the respective clubs, including the likes of Monsignor Leo Grant, who began the St Pat’s club, and the father of the Country Rugby League, John O’Toole.
Various outstanding players and club servants were also named, and in the case of St Pat’s, a handful who still have involvement with the club were honoured.
Among them was Gerard Toole, a man who began his playing career with the club as a junior and more than three decades later he still operates as their strapper.
Two of his former team-mates, Steve Vane and Richie Farrar, were also acknowledged for their contributions to the blue and whites.
“There are plenty of others who have done a lot of work for the club throughout the years and are deserving of that sort of honour, so absolutely it was a great surprise and a nice one,” Toole said.
“I played my junior footy with St Pat’s, won an under 18s competition there, won a first grade competition there in 1989, I’ve been part of the committee, been strapping out there for years. You could probably say I’ve got nothing better to do and that it keeps me off the drink,” he joked.
Like most people who have been involved with a sporting organisation for an extended period, it is the people within the club that have made Toole’s experience that much more enjoyable.
“It’s more the mates I’ve made out of being there than anything,” he said.
“Getting out to the games now keeps you in touch with the younger ones and how things are going. I don’t know what I’d do if I wasn’t involved. I’d probably be working seven days a week, whereas this gives me a good break.
“Richie has been there most of the time I have, we won a competition together and since he came over from Cowra he’s never left.
“Steve Vane is another one who has been with St Pat’s since I’ve been there. When we were really on our knees as a club 20 years ago or so, he worked so hard to keep us afloat and he’s still there doing a bit every now and then, even today.
“In terms of the team of the century, I played with a few of them like Richie and Glenn Boatswain, and I saw a lot of the others when I was a kid. There are some great names in there.”
Bathurst St Patrick’s: Kevin Woolfe, Monsignor Leo Grant, Jack Arrow, Lawrence ‘Buddy’ Burke, Neville Dawson, Steve ‘Stahl’ Vane, Gerard Toole, John Fish, Jack Holden, Richie Farrar.
Bathurst Railway: Snow Garlick, Albert Paul, Greg Hay, Billy Rose, Bob Adamson, Paul Dunn, John O’Toole, Danny Lavelle, Rex McDiamond, Warren Taylor.
Bathurst Panthers (Charlestons and Penguins): Neville Smith, Fred McGarry Sr, Harold ‘Dukey’ Lewis, Bill Bake, Tom Marsh, Brian ‘Butch’ Stevens, Robbie Cashen, Dave Nicholls, Greg Hay, Tony Burke.