The West Broken Hill Football Club Past Players and Officials Reunion will be held at the Club next Sunday with guest speaker David Parkin and John ‘Yabby’ Lynch emceeing.
Mr Parkin has had over 30 years experience in teaching and coaching, originally training as a primary teacher, he’s also been a lecturer at Deakin University since 1992. He is a level 3 Australian Coaching Council accredited coach in Australian Football.
He played 212 games for Hawthorn Football Club, and captained the team for six years, leading them to the 1971 premiership.
He has coached Hawthorn, Carlton and Fitzroy and is one of only five coaches to have coached more than 500 VFL/AFL games.
He coached premiership teams in 1978 at Hawthorn and in 1981, 1982 and 1995 at Carlton. He was also Victorian state coach four times and All Australian coach once.
In 2002 he was included in the Australian Football League’s Hall of Fame and was an inaugural member of the Hawthorn Football Club Hall of Fame in 2003.
He was also responsible for the development of Deakin’s Sport Coaching course, the first of its kind in Australia. The course gives students the theoretical and practical skills to coach the sport of their choice.
David’s lectures take students to the advanced coaching level, looking at tactics, how human behaviours affect performance, analysing the student’s own coaching performance and conducting performance testing. David invites elite coaches in a variety of sports to give lecturers in the course, widening the perspectives of students.
One of David’s special interests is physical activity in children, and he has served on the Board of the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation and is a member of the Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation.
Although no longer coaching actively, David maintains his involvement in sport through providing special comments on ABC radio football broadcasts, acting as coaching advisor to the University Blacks in the Victorian Amateur Football Association, providing ongoing mentoring to many past students and motivational speaking in the sporting and corporate sectors.
SAY HELLO TO THE MC
West Football Club 1980 Premiership Coach and player John Yabby Lynch will be MC and will be interviewing ex-players, including Alan Gill who played 89 League matches for Port Adelaide in the SANFL. Allan’s parents Pat and Dennis were great friends of Rusty Willcocks and Fred Sweet and Alan played as a junior in a scratch match at Renfrew Reserve in 1978 before he became a regular Port Adelaide player under Jack Cahill. Gilly loves the Hill, and especially the people at the West Football Club.
Ex-West player Kevin Tully will also be interviewed by Yabby Lynch. Kevin left West as a young man and played several years at Port Adelaide.
Peter Johns, retired South champion and President of the South Football Club Past Players, will be a guest of honour for his excellent contribution to Football.
West record League football game holder and past Players Association member, and premiership player, Allen Staker, says he is overwhelmed by the signing of David Parkin as guest speaker. Allen himself is a very big Carlton supporter and fashioned his game on Parkin’s style. Allen encourages as many ex-players as possible and officials to attend the reunion and support the club.
The Reunion is at West Broken Hill Football Club on Sunday June 18 from 11am to 5pm.
Tickets cost $60 per person, which includes beer, soft drinks, wine, and a meal.
Bookings are essential and tickets can be purchased from David Sedunary on 0419 033 545 or Andrew Wilson on 0419 839739.
