By David Nagel
John Martello is a living legend of local football that exudes the famous old saying – ‘If at first you don’t succeed then try, try again’.
A dual Norm Walker Medallist – as the best and fairest player in the South West Gippsland Football League (SWGFL) – centreman and deputy-vice-captain in the Cranbourne Team of the Century, Hall of Fame Member with Legend Status, and life membership at five different clubs are living proof that John Martello has lived his football life to the fullest.
But, remarkably, there’s plenty more to the story of Martello than just the glitz and glamour of those tremendous aforementioned achievements which span a playing career across six decades (1950’s to 2000’s).
Martello, or Marty to his friends, was born in June, 1942, to his parents, Jack, with Italian heritage, and his dinky-di Aussie mum Edna.
He and his four siblings, Seppi, Maria, Nancy and Bobby, were brought up in Mordialloc, in a big house, just steps away from their primary school.
“We had a terrific childhood, mum and dad had the fruit shop in Mordialloc for 23 years and we lived in a 13-room house just 15 steps from St Brigid’s school,” Martello began.
“I used to leave for school at one minute to nine and be home one minute after the bell rang.”
Martello was first introduced to football when he was eight years old, when he and four or five local kids would gather after school and on weekends, on the median strip, out the front of his mum and dad’s fruit shop on Main Street Mordialloc, kicking a rolled-up newspaper that was held together with a few elastic bands.
Angie, from the fish and chip shop opposite, was the only kid who could afford a real football back in those days.
It’s fair to say that the brilliant and successful career of John Martello was not evident early, when as an 11-year-old he joined the newly-formed Mordialloc under-16s in the then Federal League.
“I trained with Mordialloc for four years before I was good enough to get a game in the under 16s, then I was just about to get a game and the age division went up to under 17s,” Martello recalled with a hearty chuckle.
“I had no ability at all, and couldn’t kick over a peanut, honestly, kids used to trip over me at training I was that bad.”
At this time Martello was building a growing reputation as a boxer and at age 15 he won his first state title – the seven-stone seven division at the Victoria Amateurs in 1957.
He even had a short sparring session with future world champion Johnny Famechon.
And despite not playing, a young Martello was unknowingly gaining a great grounding in football, enjoying the company of the older players at training and taking a keen interest in the fortunes of the senior component of the Mordialloc Football Club.
He was a keen supporter of the club’s reserves, who won premierships in 1953, 54 and 57, and was in awe of a star-studded senior side that won three consecutive flags beginning in 1950.
His favourite players were George Ashman, Crofton Mudge and Des Frankhauser, who was partly paralysed between the waste and the knees before recovering to win a league best and fairest award.
The final straw for Martello came when Mordialloc moved to the VFA and its thirds team graduated to under-19’s football.
“That was it for me, so it was off to Edithvale-Aspendale to play in the under 17s,” Martello remembers.
“When I got to Edi-Asp, I pulled a leg muscle at training early in the season and kept training harder but that was making it worse.
“The end result was I didn’t get a game all season through injury, so that was five years in a row where I hadn’t played a game.”
Martello, who was injury free and a little more developed, had a great season, a great year in fact, in 1959.
He would play a key role in the Edi-Asp under-17 premiership, win the 10-stone division of the Victorian Amateur Boxing Titles, also the Victorian YMCA Golden Gloves title as well, and meet the love of his life, future wife Coral.
“And we bought our first block of land in Cranbourne…1959, that was the best year of my life,” Martello said.
He would stagnate for the next four years, being in and out of the Edi-Asp seniors for three seasons before his mate ‘Donga’ enticed him to Parkdale in 1963.
Martello had a keen interest in greyhounds at the time and didn’t dedicate himself entirely to his football.
But the penny started to drop in 1964 when he headed back to Edi-Asp under a tough mentor in Phil Cutler.
“He had a reputation for being a tough and ruthless footballer, but he was very fair towards me,” Martello recalls.
“I played 16 games that year and got in the best players in both finals but we ended up losing the grand final to Sorrento. We had some future VFL stars in that team in Stan Alves and Barry Goodingham.”
After building a house in Cranbourne, John and his new wife Coral then made an immediate impact after moving to the Eagles for the 1965 season.
Martello would win the club senior best and fairest award in his first year, while Coral refused to be upstaged and would take home the women’s A Grade basketball (now netball) best and fairest award.
The timing of the Martello’s move to Cranbourne was not impeccable, with his former club Edi-Asp winning the MPFL senior flag in 1965 while Cranbourne would finish second last in the SWGFL.
“We both worked in Mordialloc at the time so naturally I had to drive my new wife back to Cranbourne every night,” Martello explained.
“That ruled out training with Edi-Asp so they were completely out of the question.”
Martello would play a key role – alongside president Charlie Morley – in recruiting some great players to Cranbourne for the 1966 season.
The best of those – and the best that Martello ever played with – was incoming coach and champion centre-half-back Gerry Pennefather, who would lead the club to its first SWGFL flag with a five-point victory over Lyndhurst-Hampton Park.
Cranbourne would come close the following two years, at the same time that Martello was building a growing reputation as one of the fittest and most determined players in the district.
Through sheer hard work and dedication, he would become an impressive physical specimen, winning his second club best and fairest award in 1967 and running equal third in the Norm Walker Medal – presented to the fairest and best player in the league.
He would then win his third club best and fairest award, and claim his first Norm Walker Medal with an impressive 28 votes in 1968.
Runner up that year was a young 18-year-old gun from Lyndhurst-Hampton Park – Harvey Merrigan – who would go on to captain and be a best and fairest winner at Fitzroy…and also earn selection in the Fitzroy Team of the Century!
After a three-year stint at the club, Pennefather would move to Tooradin-Dalmore, allowing Martello to take over the captain-coach role at Cranbourne from one of his idols.
“Gerry Pennefather, well what can you say, I played with him at Cranbourne for three years and then against him at Tooradin for three and he was an absolute champion,” Martello said, with his trademark gentleman charm.
“He was a wonderful player Gerry, fair, talented, fast, never swore or ranted or raved when he coached, and was just a wonderful player to have on your side.”
Martello would gain further personal accolades in his first season as coach in 1969, winning his second Norm Walker Medal with 25 votes, and also leading the club best and fairest award.
But being the only paid player at the club, he ruled himself out of contention with reliable defender Ivan Chasemore taking home the club’s top individual honour.
Under Martello’s mentorship, the Eagles would finish fifth, fifth and sixth, from 1969 to ’71, and in all three years Martello would relinquish his club best and fairest award, in lieu of being paid.
Despite his fiercely loyal nature – being a life member at five different clubs is testament to that – Martello would end his senior playing days at four different clubs over a five-year journey.
He would captain-coach Pearcedale in 1972, ’73 – beginning a wonderful association with the Panthers – before heading to the West Gippsland Football League (WGFL) to coach Cora Lynn for one season in 1974.
He then returned to Cranbourne as playing coach in 1975, before being lured to Tooradin-Dalmore for one year by Billy Morrison and Graham ‘Doc’ Bell for the 1976 season.
“It was time to give senior football away, we were raising four children and I had a demanding job as a concreter, we were building our own house and I had a lot of work coming up,” Martello said.
“It was time to put the feet up and follow my kid’s interests.”
Martello would then coach his three sons, Rick, Brett and Darren, at the Cranbourne Junior Football Club for the next six years, earning life membership at the club in the process. His fourth child, daughter Lisa, was born as he began the junior football journey with his three boys.
It was during this time that he set up the next phase of his football journey, beginning a 22-year association with Super Rules.
Martello was the instigator and founder of Cranbourne Super Rules, and would lead the formation of the club that would become one of the first competitive over-35 football clubs in Victoria, and Australia.
It was during this time that Martello believes he was provided with the proudest achievement of any in his life-long association with the game.
“Forget all the other stuff, the medals and things like that, my proudest achievement is that both clubs, Cranbourne and Pearcedale, trusted me with the keys to their clubs for the first four years when we were trying to get Super Rules up and running,” Martello recalls.
“I was on the committee at Cranbourne, but we would train at Pearcedale and use both grounds, when either was available, to play our Sunday games.
“Trust is a huge thing for me, so for both clubs to trust me with the keys is something I look back on with great pride.”
Martello would then play three years of Super Rules at Beaconsfield, at the same time playing reserves football with Pearcedale and being on the Cranbourne FC committee.
He was also goal umpire for the Pearcedale under-15s, where his son Darren was working through the early stages of what would become a glittering career of his own.
Over the next six years – from 1987 to 1992 – Martello was a Pearcedale regular, captain-coaching the reserves, being runner for the firsts, and combining that important role with his other part-time gig as team manager.
But it was soon back to Cranbourne for a successful 1993 campaign.
“We were pouring concrete, a house slab in Cranbourne South, when along came my son Darren and a young Paul Garrett,” Martello said.
“Paul had been appointed coach at Cranbourne, and Darren his assistant, and they asked if I would help them out by being the senior runner.
“It was a great year and the grand final that season was one of my greatest memories in football, we beat Narre Warren by two points in a great game of footy.”
Martello was runner again for Cranbourne in 1994, the same year he earned life membership of the Pearcedale Football Club – where he would return as Chairman of Selectors for senior coach Peter Bastinac in 1995.
Pearcedale would go back-to-back in 1995, ’96, with Martello staying on as Chairman of selectors until 2002.
He would then round out his football career with a short stint as Chairman of Selectors at Kooweerup – once again under Bastinac, from 2004 to 2006.
The story of John Martello would not be complete without delving a little deeper into his ground-breaking time in Super Rules, which began in 1981 and continued unhindered until he played his last game with Cranbourne – aged 60 – in 2002.
Not only was Martello a trail-blazer for Super Rules in his own region, but he also became a popular figure for the game from the very tip, to the very bottom of Australia.
In 1981 he was named best on ground in an interstate game in Darwin in a Victorian team that included nine ex-VFL stars.
A nine-year-old Nathan Buckley would excitedly ask for Martello’s autograph after the game!
“Leo Kelly and I had a wonderful three or four days up there and we both played pretty well in that game,” Martello recalls.
“Leo and I worked hard on our fitness in our latter years where I think the league players didn’t do so much.
“Nathan’s (Buckley) dad Ray was captain coach of the Northern Territory side and was a top ex-South Australian ruckman as well. Nathan and two young indigenous boys asked me for my autograph as we walked off the ground.”
Martello and Kelly would return to Darwin in 1982 and then, at the request of Super Rules founder John Hammer, play in a promotional match in Tasmania against the likes of VFL stars Peter Hudson and Barry Lawrence.
He would continue to travel to Darwin until 1989 would travel to South Australia, Canberra, Leongatha, Benalla, Geelong, Werribee and Nhill to promote the game moving forward.
Kelly, Martello, and John’s great friend John Petzke, would build a mateship through those travels, and through their time at Cranbourne, that would see them become inseparable.
But the seemingly never-ending energy of John Martello would be harnessed quite considerably in August 2006 after he suffered a stroke.
He continued to be involved at both Cranbourne and Pearcedale, being on Hall of Fame and Team of the Century committees respectively.
He is now active and comfortable at his Cranbourne South property, where he has his family, donkeys, cows, and a couple of sheep to give the big-kid-at heart some company.
“I hope I never grow old and I get that many kicks out of talking to my mates about the good old days in Mordialloc and the rest of the places,” Martello says with a real spark in his voice.
“I’ll admit it I’m a big kid at heart, and I’m proud of it, I hope I never grow up.
“And I’ve loved being involved at both clubs, Cranbourne and Pearcedale, over the years, both clubs have been fantastic. I’ve tried my best to stay loyal to both clubs but sometimes it’s difficult to be in two places at the one time.
“Sometimes I wish I was twins because it would make life a lot easier for me, that’s for sure.”
And how, after such a glittering career, would he like to be remembered as a player?
“Just as an honest trier, I just hope people would respect me as that,” he said.
“I just put my head down and bum up, not naturally talented, no natural ability, but I had a go. Gerry Pennefather moved me to the centre and I started getting kicks because I was fit and I had strength in my body.
“I couldn’t mark over my head, I wasn’t fast, but I used to get by because I was as fit as anything and stayed fit all the time.
“And I was determined – that’s something that no one could ever say I wasn’t.”
Martello’s influence has been wide ranging and resulted in life membership of five different clubs or organisations.
He is a life member of the Cranbourne Football Club, Cranbourne Junior Football Club, Cranbourne Super Rules, Pearcedale Football Club and Victoria Super Rules.
“I was rapt to win the two league best and fairest awards, but to be a life member of five different clubs is unbelievable,” Martello said proudly.
“I’ve played over 600 games in my career, so football has been really good to me.”
Sporting talent certainly runs deep in the Martello family, with John’s brother Bobby a living legend and probably the best cricketer to emerge from the Mordialloc Cricket Club, while Bobby’s son Aaron is hot on his tail in both regards.
Aaron was also a star footballer for Edithvale-Aspendale, while John’s son Darren has played more than 500 senior games of football and was named in the back pocket in Cranbourne’s Team of 25 Years – 1990 to 2015.
