aussie rules · 2020-04-23 · aussie rules dale fletcher ‘ ‘i loved the half forward line, all...

56 — Centralian Advocate, Friday, December 6, 2013

Coombe’s focus shifts to next genAUSSIE RULES

Dale Fletcher

‘‘I loved the half forward line, all you had to do was get one

good kick a game. If you kicked a goal you always got your

name in the newspaper

’

WHEN you think about Territoryfootball icons, one name thatalways springs to mind is StanCoombe.

Whoever you come across in thefootball circles of Alice Springsand Darwin, Coombe alwaysseems to rate a mention.

Coombe said life had been en-joyable with his ever-longing foot-ball involvement.

‘‘It’s just the best game in theworld,’’ he said.

Now acting as NT Thunder’ssouthern region talent co-ordinator based in Alice Springs,Coombe just loves being aroundthe game.

‘‘Helping and seeing the newtalent come through and reachtheir potential is really somethingI enjoy doing,’’ he said.

Coombe’s role includes a strongworking relationship with remoteCentral Australian communitiesand a lot of logistics, facilitatingtrainings while highlighting thepotential next generation stars.

‘‘The pathway to greater goals,that is what I’m all about,’’ he said.

His playing career with Banksand Wara-tahs includeda premiershipwith the Bull-dogs in 1991.

‘‘I snuck ins i x g a m e swith Waratahs, but then I movedback to Banks,’’ he said.

A Banks life member, Coombecontinued as B grade coach afterretiring, only to lose three grandfinals in the three seasons.

‘‘All those grand final losseswere less than two goals too. It waspretty disappointing,’’ he said.

By 1997, Coombe ended his con-stant travel between the RedCentre and the Top End and madea base in Alice Springs - where hestill resides today with partnerLynnette Hampton and his twodaughters.

‘‘Lynnette is the reason I’m stillin Alice Springs. I met her at

CAAMA and as they say ‘the restis history’,’’ he said.

Coombe did make a comeback tothe half forward line when helined up for CAFL side Rovers inthe B grade in 1997, only for ashoulder injury to end his footballdays on the field.

‘‘I had just come back from a

shoulder reconstruction and Ipopped out the other one and fromthen I knew that was it for meplaying,’’ he said.

‘‘I loved the half forward line, allyou had to do was get one goodkick a game.

‘‘If you kicked a goal you alwaysgot your name in the newspaper.’’

While play-i n g a n dcoaching hasbeen a hall-m a r k o fC o o m b e ’ stime in foot-

ball, it’s behind the microphonewhere most people know the manwho calls Alice Springs ‘‘the centreof Australian football’’.

‘‘I’ve always had an interest inthe media, even when I was play-ing,’’ he said.

His commentating careerstarted in 1994 with Top FM and

after basing in the Red Centre,Coombe was a pioneer forCAAMA’s radio coverage of theCAFL.

‘‘We did the finals in ’97 andweekly broadcasts from 1998,’’Coombe said.

The weekly broadcasts still con-tinue every Sunday during theCAFL season.

‘‘I just hope I get to call my Catswhen they are at Traeger Parknext year,’’ he said.

A highlight of his Territory foot-ball life was the years spentcommentating the CAFL Countrycompetition.

‘‘The style of bush footy is greatand the competition was so evenlymatched, it was a great package,’’he said.

Coombe chose former Mel-bourne livewire forward LiamJurrah as the best Territory foot-ball player to watch.

Steeledfor ironcontestIRONMAN

NINE Alice Springs com-petitors will test them-selves at the IronmanWestern Australia eventin Busselton.

Jesse Moretensen,Alicia Shoulta, JasonDawson, Sean Loader,Tim Pearson, SamanthaHacon, Kevin Coyle,Fiona Collier and MikeVandongen will be flyingthe Alice Springs flag inconditions that are ex-pected to be ideal accord-ing to Shoulta, with tem-peratures forecast to be inthe mid-20s.

The event consists of a3.8km swimming legaround the BusseltonJetty and then a testing180.2 km bike ride throughthe Tuart Forest andback twice into the townsite.

A marathon run of 42.2km along foreshore com-pletes the gruelling test.

JuniorscourtingsuccessTENNIS

Nick Kossatch

Katherine Campbell and Nick Whyte are ranked in the top two Territory-widePicture: BARRY SKIPSEY

ALICE Springs has comeinto national tennis promin-ence with the Tennis AliceSprings Club having pro-duced the most number ofnationally ranked juniorssince 2006.

High performance coachMatt Roberts said the clubis well on track to beat thatrecord in the near future.

‘‘We already have 65players ranked across Aust-ralia and I’m confident wecan improve on that amaz-ing figure,’’ he said.

George Shepheard andNick Whyte are the top tworanked male players in theNorthern Territory afterregistering huge improve-ments in big tournamentsthroughout the year whichincluded the Alice SpringsInternational in Septemberand tournament final ap-pearances and victories inthree states.

Eighteen-year-old TomZaleski and Jake Johan, 16,are the top two ranked boysin the Northern Territoryand both will be looking tomake an impression in theupcoming five event Victor-ian tennis tour in January.

Bonnie Usher and Kath-

erine Campbell are theTerritory’s top two rankedfemales respectively as wellas in the juniors which givesthe Alice a ‘‘clean sweep’’across all categories.

‘‘We are certainly club ofthe year when it comes torankings in 2013,’’ Robertssaid.

‘‘We started from no-where a little more than twoyears back so the playersshould be very proud oftheir efforts.’’

The biggest improvers ofthe year according to Ten-nis Australia were 17-year-old Ashley Diemer andSigrid Smith, 13, in the girls.

Diemer leapt 1000 placesafter recording some wins inlocal Optus Junior Tourevents.

Jingjo Brown, 15, and14-year-old Matty Bielefeldrose a tremendous 1900places each during 2013.

Roberts said that the pub-lic should keep an eye outfor Joel van Haaren.

‘‘He has already competedin two national titles and hisranking is already inside1000, which is not bad for a12-year-old on the samerankings list as LleytonH e w i t t a n d B e r h a r dTomic.’’

Tenacious young players smash endurance records for fundraiserTENNIS

WARM conditions did not stop arecord-breaking effort by tennisplayers last Saturday night/Sundaymorning at the Tennis AliceSprings courts at the annualTennis-a-thon fundraiser.

More than 50 local juniors partici-pated in the tennis marathon whichraised more than $6000 in funds forthe prestigious Victorian tennis

tour which begins on December 31.Joel Van Haaren and Imogen

Partington were two of nine prom-ising juniors who broke the longstanding mark of 14 hours of con-secutive tennis.

Van Haaren, 12, surged past themark, playing for 16 hours straightwhile Partington, 15, had a 14-hourmarathon stretch.

Jacob Stokes, Julian Lay, JosephLacerna, Talen Andrews, Rory

O’Dwyer, Matt Walsh and AninaConradie also smashed the previousmarathon records, all of them last-ing between 14 and 15 hours.

Van Haaren said he was wellprepared to stay on court for as longas possible. ‘‘I slept in on the Fridayand went home for a nap before theTennis-a-thon began.’’

High performance coach MattRoberts said events like these builtclub and community spirit.

‘‘The entire town got behind theseathletes and our club membersdonated heaps of money,’’ he said.

‘‘It’s healthy for our juniors toraise their own money insteadof sticking out their hand all thetime for money.’’

The team for the five-event Vic-torian Tour will be announced nextweek with the Alice Springs juniorsto compete against players fromaround the world.

Girls offto campRUGBY UNION

THE National IndigenousSchoolgirls Ella SevensRugby camp will be heldin Alice Springs from onTuesday to Thursday atAnzac Oval.

Throughout the event,the schoolgirls will bementored by high per-formance staff and ath-letes from AustralianRugby Union’s RugbySevens program includ-ing Qantas Women’sSevens Coach Tim Walshand National IndigenousWomen’s Sevens CoachSelena Tranter.

Walsh and Tranter willbe accompanied by cur-rent members of the Qan-tas Women’s Sevensteam, Charlotte Caslick,Emilee Cherry, ShannonParry and Alicia Quirk,who recently won theopening round of the IRBWomen’s World SevensSeries in Dubai.

Fifty-five Aboriginala n d T o r r e s S t r a i tIslander schoolgirls agedbetween 15 and 17 willtake part.