ROB Mackie may hold the record on the Border for the most number of clubs played at. Mackie played at nine different clubs as well as rugby league for Albury Roos and caught up with the Border Mail's BRENT GODDE during the week.
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BRENT GODDE: Is Joel a son of a gun or does he have a lot more ability than you?
ROB MACKIE: It's fair to say Joel has a lot more ability than I ever had. But in saying that I'm proud of my career and thought I got the best out of myself.
BG: I'm guessing you played your junior football at Culcairn?
RM: Yeah, I made my senior debut for the Lions as a 17-year-old in 1971 under Ross Elwin.
BG: What position did you mainly play?
RM: Predominantly as a ruck-rover and pinch hit in the ruck sometimes.
BG: I heard you were a bit restless in your younger days and played at nine different clubs?
RM: I played at Culcairn, South Melbourne under-19s, Port Melbourne, Lavington in the Tallangatta league, Osborne, Walla, Walbundrie, Tallangatta and a handful of matches for East Lavington reserves. I also played two seasons for Albury Roos.
BG: I believe between Joel and yourself you have won eight flags?
RM: That's true but the only problem is Joel has won all eight.
BG: Did you ever come close to claiming the holy grail?
RM: I played in two losing grand finals. In 1973-74 when I was at Lavington we went through the season undefeated. In 1973 Mitta United beat us by a point and in 1974 Tallangatta rolled us by five points.
BG: I heard you were the hard luck story of Walla's 1980 flag triumph when you were assistant coach under Lance Cushion.
RM: To be honest, I'm still fuming to this day about it because it would have been the only flag I won.
BG: What happened?
RM: About half-way through the season I suffered a back injury. I slowly worked my way back to full fitness but was overlooked for the grand final side. I was filthy at the time and still dark now because I never got to play in a premiership.
BG: I'm guessing you didn't play at Walla the following season?
RM: No, I told Walla what I thought of them and I was on the lookout for a new club.
BG: Did many clubs come knocking over the summer?
RM: Mainly Tim Robb who was coaching Walbundrie, it was like he was borderline stalking me.
BG: What, he wouldn't take no for an answer?
RM: Looking back it's a funny story. Tim Robb was a high profile coach and had previously coached Albury and was coaching Walbundrie in 1981. Tim was keen to sign me and would come around to my house but I was undecided what I wanted to do, so my wife, Joy and I would hide when he pulled up in the driveway. He would be looking through the windows to see if anyone was home and we would be hiding so he couldn't see us. Tim would even open up the carport to check if my car was in the shed. That happened quite a few times before he finally caught up with me and I ended up signing with Walbundrie.
BG: How did Walbundrie go that season?
RM: We lost the first five matches but knew we were a lot better side than that. About round six Tim started doing motivational speeches before matches that he was dying and that we needed to lift. He would come up with a different story each week to make you feel sorry for him and while unusual it motivated us as a group. We won every match up to the preliminary final where we got rolled by a point against Osborne. At the time we thought Tim was only making up stories about himself dying but he did have cancer and passed away at a young age.
BG: You coached Tallangatta and played against Culcairn in the Tallangatta league. Was that a tough decision to make?
RM: Not really, people probably class me as a nomadic footballer but I put my heart and soul into every match no matter what club I was playing for.
BG: But it must have been a strange feeling playing against Culcairn?
RM: I remember playing Culcairn at Tallangatta and the Lions secretary 'Chief' Smith come up to me before the match and asked if I was interested in having a $500 bet on the match which was a fair bit of money back then. I went and asked my teammates and we matched the bet. It was one of the sweetest collects I ever had after we rolled Culcairn. I rate it one of the highlights of my career collecting the $500 off Chief and just the look on his face was priceless. We put a fair bit of it over the bar that night and celebrated well into the night.
IN OTHER NEWS
BG: Your younger brother, Scott 'Filthy' Mackie was playing for Culcairn at the time. Did you ever cross paths?
RM: It's a bit hard when he was running around in the reserves.
BG: You coached Osborne in 1978 and 1979 and were able to land you fair share of recruits?
RM: Yeah a few of the Culcairn boys followed me out to Osborne including Frank Ravenna, Jim Lee, John Pannach and George Chomatek. The second year Paul Schultz came out as well.
BG: Was Culcairn dark on you at the time for poaching some handy players.
RM: There is no doubt they were but the only reason the boys followed me out there was because Culcairn was in the Farrer league at the time and they didn't have to play against them.
BG: Knowing you, you would have had some memorable road trips on the way home?
RM: Ha ha, that's a fair comment. I remember one night John Pannach was driving home from training and it was quite late. I was asleep in the front and there was three blokes in the back who were also asleep. Anyhow somewhere between Culcairn and Gerogery, John has run off the road and missed a couple of trees and went through the fence. We all woke up and John said 'don't panic boys' and kept driving home. I went and had a look at the tyre marks the next day and if we had of hit the tree I fairly sure most of us wouldn't be alive.
BG: Osborne weren't a powerhouse back then but socially it sounds like you had a good time?
RM: In the good old days out at Osborne they used to have two big bath tubs full of cans and stubbies every home match. After matches we would always stay until there was none left and get home in the early hours of the morning.
BG: What about in the Culcairn days in the Farrer league, you would have had some good road trips no doubt?
RM: There were some memorable bus trips to Temora that I always used to look forward to. 'Splinter' Liston had the school run at the time and would have the unenviable task of driving the bus. One year we were playing Temora in the final round and we were out of finals contention. I don't know why but we had a poker machine on the bus and we cracked a few cans on the way to the match which looking back was a bit ludicrous. We had a few stops on the way home and I reckon by the time we got back to Culcairn it was after 10pm.
BG: You used to play a bit of representative football?
RM: Back when I was playing for Culcairn in the Farrer league I played interleague for about six years straight. I remember back then the best on ground used to get a blazer which I won three times. It meant a lot back then because there was a lot of passion involved in representing your league in that era.
BG: You missed out on winning a flag, what about a best and fairest?
RM: I won one with Culcairn in 1976.
BG: You also said you played rugby league for the Albury Roos?
RM: Yeah in 1978-79 I played football on the Saturday and rugby on the Sunday.
BG: Did you have any success?
RM: I played in the grand final one year against the Albury Blues and no prizes for guessing I was part of another losing decider. I think there was six Purtell's playing for the Blues that year so we didn't have much hope of beating them.
BG: Did you used to train for rugby as well?
RM: Yep, I would train Monday for rugby, Tuesday for football, Wednesday for rugby, Thursday for football, play football on Saturday and have a few beers afterwards and then rock up for a game of rugby on the Sunday.
BG: Joel attracts a lot of headlines but your daughter, Emma, is also talented when it comes to sport, especially cycling and football?
RM: Emma is a gifted footballer as well but focused on her cycling when she was in her 20s. Now that the AFLW has been formed she is going to play for St. Kilda in the new season after playing for Western Bulldogs this year. I think she played six matches with St Kilda in the VFL this season and finished top-ten in the best and fairest which is a fair effort. I'm looking forward to watching her this season.
BG: Joel is a player that opposition supporters love to hate. Did you have any confrontations with rival supporters during his time at the Sportsground?
RM: Sometimes I couldn't bite my tongue any longer and had a few verbal stoushes. My wife Joy was always at the matches as well so I had to behave myself.