open-universities-australia, multimedia, ray mack, bloodbath, lavington

THERE is not many country footballers better known on the Border than RAY MACK. After carving a reputation as a tough and uncompromising defender in the Ovens and Murray for Lavington, Mack headed bush where he had stints with Holbrook, Thurgoona, Walla, Culcairn and home club Corryong. This week he sat down and reflected on his career with the Border Mail's BRENT GODDE. BRENT GODDE: No doubt you would have been asked about the 1990 Bloodbath grand final a million times by now. Lets make it a million and one. What is your recollection of the day? RAY MACK: I think the biggest misconception about the Bloodbath was that it was pre-meditated. I can assure you that it wasn't. The reserves grand final was also Lavington and Wodonga and it was really fiery. I remember Richard Bence getting carted off on a stretcher. And I think that got everyone on edge and up and about. Less than 30 seconds after the first bounce, all hell broke lose. I remember watching things unfold and had never seen so much blood spilt and how ugly things got. At quarter-time, instead of your normal quarter-time address trying to fire the boys up, it was just about finding out who could continue, how bad our injuries were and what we were capable of. The fights also overshadowed Wodonga's grand final success. We had beaten them three times during the year and they went into the match as massive underdogs. We were a couple of goals up at the last change and to their credit they kept us goalless in the final quarter and ended up winning by 20 points. I still can't believe the amount of publicity it generated. In the aftermath, 15 players were suspended for a total of 68 weeks and several players spent the night in hospital. The Lavington boys were on their trip away in Hawaii when all the suspensions come through and it made the national news. I realise now how infamous the Bloodbath was but I was surprised at the time that it made the national news. I honestly think it changed the Ovens and Murray from that day on. I think it took both Lavington and Wodonga three years to fully recover from the fallout with the suspensions and players leaving and just the focus on the clubs. It's nothing to be proud of I suppose. ​ BG: Peter Copley and yourself arrived at Lavington in the 1980s after being on South Melbourne's reserves list. How close were you to playing VFL/AFL? RM: My last year in the under-19s with South Melbourne I thought I would be given an opportunity to play seniors the following year. I probably played about ten games in the reserves in my first year and broke my collarbone a month before the end of the season. I made the senior list the following year. I probably should of stayed but I chose to play for Coolamon. I think my ego got in the way and I thought I should have been in the seniors at South Melbourne. I played on some of the big named forwards at the time like Ronnie Andrews from Essendon and Robbie Muir from St Kilda. BG: Why do you think you never got a senior opportunity? RM: I couldn't kick - everyone knows that. I think I had the rest covered but my kicking was a glaring deficiency. BG: Lavington was the richest club during the 1980s with the poker machines a goldmine for the club. As a player did you feel resentment from the opposition clubs and supporters? RM: Absolutely. We were the new club in the competition and enjoyed a lot of success early. It was always going to be inevitable that clubs were going to resent us. I suppose it's a bit like how Albury is now in the competition. But as a group we loved it and it just made us closer. We were a bit isolated out at Lavington and all the clubs hated us. We just had that us against them mentality and every game was the same. BG: Lavington boasted a star-studded line-up at the time. Who do you rate as the best player you played alongside. RM: We had a lot of really quality players like Peter King, Richard Hamilton, Ralphy Aalbers and Danny Murphy just to name a few. But the bloke I rated most highly was Bruce Stewart. He was just a champion player. BG: You were involved in one of the best pranks in country football when you stitched your good mate Peter Copley and misled him into believing he won Holbrook's best and fairest. Talk us through what happened? RM: Back when we were playing at South Melbourne, Copes and I went to visit my parents at Corryong one weekend. While we were there, Wayne Jamieson and Copes got hold of my tattslotto ticket and filled it out with the winning numbers. My old man, my girlfriend and I thought we had won lotto for a couple of hours before we realised we had been stitched. I was fuming at the time and went looking for him but he had already taken off. I vowed to myself that I was always going to get him back. So it was Holbrook's 1992 best and fairest count on the Sunday and Copes was away for it with work commitments in Adelaide that weekend. Laurie McInnes won the Barton medal that year and also ended up beating Copes in the best and fairest by three votes. Copes got back from Adelaide earlier than he expected and gave me a call asking who won the best and fairest. I said 'you did Copes' and he said 'I better come out then.' So I jumped on the microphone in the club rooms and told all the players and supporters, as a joke, I've just told Copes he has won the best and fairest and he is on his way out here. So everyone just go along with it and we will have a bit of fun. Knowing Copes as I do, I changed the votes on the whiteboard so it looked like he had won by three votes. Copes arrives at the front gate and there is a couple of kids sitting in the brick building where you pay to get in. He said to the kids 'who won the best and fairest?' and they said 'you did Copes, well done, congratulations.' So Copes comes into the club rooms with his chest puffed out like a peacock and goes straight to the whiteboard to check out the votes. Once he was convinced he had won, he grabs the microphone and went on and on about how good he was and how Laurie McInnes had won seven best and fairests and it took someone of the calibre of Copes to beat him. It was getting a bit cringeworthy so I went and stood next to him and tugged on his shirt and said 'Copes, you didn't win it.' It was priceless. I thought I had won "lotto" for the second time. The colour just drained from his face and he was speechless and just stood over the bar by himself for about 10 minutes. BG: I remember as a teenager watching the 1992 TDFL grand final and Maurice Eames from Bethanga ruffled your feathers and paid the price when you were playing for Holbrook. What did he do to rile you? RM: I remember a few players getting into an altercation in front of the club rooms. So I ran in and I was unlucky enough to come face to face with big Moose (Eames). He is a pretty scary looking bloke and an intimidating guy. It was just a matter of self preservation. It was always going to be a case of one of us is going to get hurt. It would of looked embarrassing for me if I had of just taken off with all the crowd watching. So I really had no choice other than to go toe-to-toe with him. I was lucky enough to land a few on him and thankfully I lived to tell the tale. BG: It's fair to say you earned the reputation as a bit of an enforcer throughout your career. Who else did you have mutual respect for in that regard? RM: I reckon 90 per cent of this enforcer stuff is bluff. I didn't really regard myself as an enforcer rather someone who looked after my teammates if anything untoward was going on. But as far as mutual respect for tough opponents, Moose Eames would be right up there and he was as hard as nails. He is just one bloke you didn't want to cross. I always regarded him as that little bit crazy. I still bump into him around town and rate him as a really good bloke. Merv Holmes from Wangaratta Rovers was another I played against a lot and he had a real presence about him. Hugh Giltrap from Mitta would be right up there as well. Hughie had a lot of respect and opponents just knew not to overstep the mark or Hughie would soon sort you out. ​BG: I know you don't like the term enforcer but did you find opposition players liked to 'poke the bear' so to speak because of your reputation? RM: Not really, most of the times I was just coming in to stick up for my teammates. I remember one day though it could of got ugly at East Lavington when I was coaching Walla. I had an altercation with their coach right before the final siren and he ended up on his backside. Just as I did it the siren sounded and all of sudden there was 300 East Lavington supporters on the ground who were about 10 cans deep into a session. It was all verbal and nothing physical but lets just say I was called a few interesting things that day as you could imagine. BG: It's fair to say you won most physical encounters on the football field that you were involved in. Is Dennis Sandral one bloke that lived to tell the tale when he was playing for Howlong and almost buried you alive at Walbundrie during the finals series? RM: Yes, Dennis did clean me up. I was running back into a pack and if I hadn't of got cleaned up they would of said it was courageous. But I got cleaned up so it looks like utter stupidity. I remember seeing stars for a bit and I was cranky when I got back out there. I copped a bit of concussion and I remember going into the ruck and couldn't remember which way we were going. I would have loved to even the score with Dennis but I never got the opportunity. If you dish it out, you have to be able to take it. I reckon I got cleaned up three times in my career and that was definitely one of them. BG: What would be some of the biggest changes in country football since you retired? RM: The physicality has been taken out of the game. Guys are game enough to do anything now because of the fear of litigation. I don't mean dirty stuff but just a good physical contest. If someone is in the road when you are going the ball, clean them up. BG: You have family ties at Corryong and played for the Demons in the twilight of your career. Do you think the Upper Murray league has got much of a future? RM: They will always have a future. Everyone up there lives and breathes football. Even if it comes down to Corryong and Federal playing each week, it will still keep going. BG: You are presently involved with Thurgoona and previously coached there when the Bulldogs first come into the league. The Bulldogs endured a tough initiation into the TDFL and were the league whipping boys for quite a while. What are you memories of those days? RM: When I was at Holbrook I remember playing against Thurgoona in 1992. I kicked 28.11 and I handballed a couple over the top as well. Thurgoona must of liked what they saw because I coached them the following year. BG: Can you envisage Thurgoona one day being in the Ovens and Murray? RM: I think they can and professionally they are up to it. I can see at least one of the lesser clubs in the Ovens and Murray folding in the next five years and the opportunity for Thurgoona will be there. BG: Who do you regard as the best player you have seen in the bush? RM: Laurie McInnes was the king of the bush. He just had a big engine and could read the player better than most. BG: Robbie Walker was just named in the O and M Team of the Century. Did you ever play on him? RM:I played centre half-back on Robbie Walker about four times and thought I beat him every time. I later found out later that he hadn't even turned 18 yet. BG: Your brother Kevin is a high-profile personality around the Border area. You just have to run into him and he will tell you. Do you think he is a better politician than footballer? RM: Kevin always tells me he is a better footballer than me because he has won a few best and fairests at Osborne, East Lavington and I never won one. Every time he comes around for a family BBQ he brings his trophies with him to remind me. But hopefully he ends up a better politician. BG: I suppose the bonus of having Kevin as your brother is you don't have to go and see him very often - you get to see him in the Border Mail every day? RM: I counted six full pages of coverage Kevin had in the four days after he announced he was running as an independent for the seat of Farrer. That would cost me at least $6000 in advertising if I wanted to get Ray Mack Real Estate in the paper. He is definitely getting himself out there.

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