By Russell Bennett
“The rivalry was already the Carlton versus Collingwood of our neck of the woods…” – Terry Dillon.
The Nar Nar Goon faithful had to endure a 30-year wait for their last senior flag, so another 12 months before they can celebrate that premiership’s first key reunion shouldn’t be beyond them.
The 2020 season was supposed to mark the 10-year reunion of The Goon’s famous victory over their storied rivals from Cora Lynn, on enemy territory at what was for decades known as the mecca of West Gippsland footy.
Nar Nar Goon was locked in to hold a 2010 EDFL premiership reunion early next month, but given the social distancing measures put in place in the battle against Covid-19, that won’t be happening.
Instead, it’s looking increasingly likely that the faithful will have to wait another 12 months before they celebrate their 2010 flag heroes.
This week, the Gazette starts its series of stories revisiting famous sporting rivalries throughout the region – and the first cab off the rank is Nar Nar Goon’s historic rivalry with its neighbouring nemesis, Cora Lynn.
The rivalry, itself, revolves around some of the most famous footballing names in the region – names like Cunningham, Doherty and Payne.
The first clash for the ‘Cunningham Cup’ between the two sides took place in 2001 after a family reunion between the Cunningham family, many of whom had played for both the Goon and the Cobras over the journey.
Cora Lynn’s coach in that first clash was Ben Cunningham, son of ‘Jumbo’ (John) – whose only taste of senior premiership success came at the Goon, of all places, in 1970.
Another member of the Cunningham clan, former Garfield president Gerry, awarded the cup to the Cobras after the game.
Jumbo has had as big of an influence around Cora Lynn as both his nickname and his imposing physical frame would suggest.
And he loves nothing more than to present the cup to the Cobras whenever they win the Cup named after his family.
Since its inception, the Cobras lead the Cup tally 11-8 in 19 clashes.
Since, 1945, in 146 head-to-head battles against the Goon, they lead 82-63 – with one draw.
Bill ‘Doc’ Doherty is a revered favourite son of both the Cobras and the Goon, and in recent years was bestowed official legend status at a match day function at Spencer Street.
After originally playing for Cora Lynn, Doc crossed to Nar Nar Goon. Though he was a more than handy footballer – and is the only surviving member of the combined 1944 Cora Lynn-Catani composite premiership side – his biggest impact was felt off the field. First elected at just 33, he served as Nar Nar Goon’s president for eight years. The crowning glory of that period was the famous 1965 flag, when he lured the great Bill Drake from Pakenham to coach for that one season and break a 28-year premiership drought.
Doc then made the switch to league duties and served as president of the West Gippsland Football League for eight years from 1973.
Again, he finished on a high – presenting the cup to Nar Nar Goon coach Jim Dore and captain Leo Kennelly after the Goon won the 1980 flag.
Since 2010, every time the Cunningham Cup clash is played in the first meeting between the two sides of each season, the ‘Doherty Medal’ has been awarded to the best player on the ground.
Fittingly, Doc was front and centre in 2010 when the Goon finally saluted again – this time after a 30-year senior flag drought.
That period spanned the entire career of some of the greats of both clubs, including Nick Collins – the six-time senior best and fairest winning, 300-game legend at Nar Nar Goon through the ‘80s, ‘90s, and early 2000s.
Remarkably, he never played in either a junior or senior final.
But he was also right in amongst it, celebrating with the 2010 group after its victory.
Collins is the uncle of current Cora Lynn skipper Tim Payne, who has won more finals – and even senior premierships – than most could even dream of. Collins is married to Payne’s father Ray’s sister, Michelle.
The Gazette has spoken with a number of influential figures involved in the rivalry over the years – particularly since that fateful day at Cora Lynn in 2010, where the Goon emerged triumphant by just eight points – 11.6 (72) to 9.10 (64).
That season, in three contests between the two sides, the biggest winning margin was just three goals.
Mick Keane – Nar Nar Goon’s president in 2010
Mick Keane was the president at Nar Nar Goon in the drought-breaking flag year of 2010, and he’s currently reprising that role at the club.
Not only does he vividly recall the first premiership at the Goon since 1980 – in the club’s centenary season, to boot – he remembers what it felt like to have two sons, Ben and Matt, as part of the victorious group.
He said the Goon had its premiership reunion locked in for 9 May this year, when the club was due to host the Cobras for the Cunningham Cup of 2020.
“If we don’t play football though, we won’t be having a reunion this year so we’d hope we’d perhaps be able to slot it in next season and have an 11-year reunion instead,” he explained.
“Another year won’t hurt us, and hopefully the world will be back to some kind of normal and we’ll be able to do whatever we can to celebrate that day.”
Looking back on such a momentous day in the Goon’s history, Keane was quick to recall the performance of superstar forward Brett Dore – of Nar Nar Goon’s famous Dore clan – who slotted six majors in a best on ground-winning performance.
“Certainly there were some big names playing in that game, but none bigger than Brett Dore,” he said.
“By his own standards he probably hadn’t had a magnificent year – with injuries and the like but his performance that day in the grand final was just outstanding.
“But that’s what you came to expect from him – he’s an outstanding person and is held in the highest of esteem at our club, for sure. He lived up to it big-time that day.”
Keane beamed when he spoke about the influence of “The Mentor” Tom Hallinan down back in 2010, as well as the likes of Ash Tivendale and Daniel Zajac, and Matt Keane, Brent Hughes, and Chris Adams when they went back there.
In speaking to former Gazette scribe Ken Moore after the grand final, then player-coach Clint Williams spoke with pride about his group only conceding, on average, 45 points per game – largely down to its defensive unit.
Keane admits the fact that the 2010 win came over Cora Lynn – a club just a 10-minute drive from Nar Nar Goon – made it all the more sweet.
“Any time you beat Cora Lynn is great, but to do it on that stage on such a big day was just sensational,” he said.
“They’re the team we always like to knock off, so to be able to do it that day was fantastic.
“They’re always so well-managed and coached, and their recruiting has always been very good. They’ve had some excellent teams over the years, and even that year their side was very good.
“But for me, being the president that year and having two boys play in that premiership side (Ben and Matt) was just fantastic.
“That whole group was very close – there were a lot of tight friendships there amongst them. They were definitely very well led by Clint as well – he was very focused on achieving the ultimate – and I think he had a lot of support by the likes of Tommy Hallinan, and also some of the younger boys who were naturally strong leaders.”
Clint Williams – Nar Nar Goon’s player-coach in 2010
Looking back to a decade ago, Clint Williams – unsurprisingly in a way – described his memories of the game as “a bit of a blur”.
“But first and foremost – winning the second semi a couple of weeks before (also against Cora Lynn) and making the grand final, even though we knew we had one more hurdle to get over, there was this huge sense of relief to win and get in,” he explained.
“The previous two finals series we’d made in my time as coach we’d gone out in straight sets – we hadn’t even won a final until that second semi where we won our way through.”
Williams said he didn’t remember a feeling of excitement of making the grand final, necessarily. In his mind back then, it was more relief.
When it came to the week of the game, he could barely concentrate at work. In fact, he can’t even remember working the Thursday or Friday.
“I just spent most of the Friday at the footy club watching them set-up and helping set-up for the function the following night,” he said.
“There was just this real anxiousness leading into the game.
“Come game day, we had teams in every single grade of footy, so it just made it even bigger.”
Reflecting on the day now, Williams remembers “the perfect outcome”.
“Given how long it’d been since Nar Nar Goon had won a premiership, the fact that we were able to beat Cora Lynn – clearly, by a long way, our biggest rival – and that we were able to do it on their ground, it all combined to make it the perfect outcome for us,” he said on Monday, looking at a premiership poster on his wall at home while following social distancing rules as part of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“In that game we jumped out of the blocks, but there were a couple of early incidents that were pretty controversial.
“We started to hit the scoreboard pretty hard after that and got a decent lead but most of that margin got pegged right back and had the game gone another five minutes, we probably wouldn’t have won.”
The biggest talking point stemming from the game was Jeremy Duiker leaving the field in the opening stages on a stretcher after a collision in the Nar Nar Goon forward line. He had the job on Dore that day.
“It was really unfortunate what happened, and there’s no doubt the story about it has become a kind of folklore since,” Williams said.
“I don’t think many people at all saw it, but everyone’s got an opinion on what did or didn’t happen and the impact it would have had on the game.
“That’s probably one of the things I was looking forward to most about having the reunion this year when we were to play Cora Lynn – to get chatting to everyone around the place about that and argue it out again.
“It’s just one that I think Nar Nar Goon and Cora Lynn will love to hate each other over for a long time to come.”
Williams’ reflective mood continued as he looked back on the game overall.
“We fell over the line and kicked some goals that maybe we wouldn’t have otherwise kicked,” he said.
“I just think it was meant to be on that day. Each time we played them that season we won narrowly, and that’s basically where it was at – two really evenly-matched teams. I guess history will say that we were just slightly better that year.
“We were a good team that season, yes, but that probably felt like a high point of the Ellinbank league in terms of the standard. There were some other really good teams that didn’t play in that grand final, and some superstar players at other clubs.
“To beat Cora Lynn, on their ground, in what was a high point for the standard of the competition, we remain really proud of what we achieved that year.
“To see what that meant to everyone at the club – of all my premierships it certainly means the most by a fair way. No doubt.
“There’s a different sense of pride you have when you coach one. There’s a lot of excitement playing in one, but to coach one is different.”
Of the key moments during the game, Williams said one stood out in particular.
“There was this huge mark Nick Mulcahy took out on the members’ wing when we were nearly gone. He clunked one in a huge pack of players and the siren went shortly after,” he said.
“After the game, the bus ride back to our club was pretty special, and the rooms were full when we got there – I’ve never seen so many people at a footy club.
“It was just massive, and it was so special seeing what a footy club can mean to a community like that.
“You probably think about that at times like these now (during Covid-19), where there is no footy to look forward to on the weekends. I can only think about the strain that puts on country communities by not having that outlet there. It’s really challenging for them and it makes you look back on the good times and understand the true value of footy clubs.”
One vivid memory Williams does have from the celebrations in the wake of that famous win is the singing of the club song – led by club legend Paddy Noonan – in the wee small hours of the morning in the middle of the oval.
“It was just so rewarding winning it for him, and other blokes at the footy club who’ve invested just as much time as he has.”
Ray Payne – Cora Lynn life member, former coach, and father of senior captain Tim
When Ray ‘Windows’ Payne made the switch from Garfield to Cora Lynn as a player, he wasn’t fully aware of just how big the Cobras’ rivalry with the Goon really was.
But that soon changed.
“There are quite a few people who’ve played in both camps, and clearly the Cunningham Cup points to that,” he said.
“Both clubs were always searching for the same juniors and were trying to get on top of each other – it was fascinating.”
A lasting memory he has of the Goon versus Cora Lynn rivalry was when he’d originally told the Cobras he was stepping down as coach and was moving on in the early 1990s.
“We played Nar Nar Goon in the last game of the year,” he recalled.
“My three-quarter time address was that it was the last time I’d ever be coaching Cora Lynn – that wasn’t to be, as it turns out – and that ‘this is Nar Nar Goon, we hate them with a passion, we’ve got to win this game’.
“We came from a fair way back and got in front, and in those days there wasn’t an electronic clock.
“We were at about the 30-minute mark and we were in front and one of our key players, Greg O’Neil, had given a free kick away but he hadn’t heard the whistle so he knocked the ball over the boundary line, the umpire paid a 50-metre penalty, the siren went, and the Nar Nar Goon player kicked a goal from 30 metres out after the siren to win them the game.
“It never matters where we are on the ladder, it’s always a very fierce rivalry.”
Payne believes the storied rivalry between the two clubs stems from the days of most of their young players rising through the ranks out of the same local Catholic primary school.
Bragging rights were absolutely on the line for these youngsters each Saturday – particularly when they had to show up for school on the Monday, rain, hail, or shine.
This was a rivalry taken from the field, into the schoolyard.
“Even decades later when Nar Nar Goon had a formidable side and we were struggling a little bit before the Chris Toner era, we’d set ourselves for our games against them,” Payne said.
“If you weren’t going to play finals and you wanted to take something out of your season, it’d be beating Nar Nar Goon.
“Even if we couldn’t make it, it’d be us trying to beat them so they couldn’t make the finals or finish in the top two.”
Darryl Adams – Cora Lynn life member, former Nar Nar Goon coach in 1994 and a selector in 2010, brother-in-law of Terry and Michael Dillon
Darryl Adams experienced the rivalry decades ago as a player, then later as a coach, and more recently as a selector – and the father of 2010 premiership player, and Nar Nar Goon favourite son Chris ‘Herb’ Adams.
Darryl’s wife is Terry and Michael Dillon’s sister, Kathy.
“There were two footy clubs and one Catholic school where all the kids went. This is where this thing starts,” Darryl confirmed.
“When I played senior footy at Cora Lynn everyone did look forward to the Nar Nar Goon versus Cora Lynn games – they were special.
“Everyone knew each other so well. There were bragging rights on the line, but it was a good-natured rivalry, don’t worry about that.”
Chris started playing junior footy for Nar Nar Goon at the same time Darryl coached – in 1994.
“And that was it, really – much to the dismay of the Dillon family!” Darryl said with a laugh.
But in reality, Chris wasn’t going to play anywhere else – not with so many of his school mates playing there. The tradition was continuing.
“Kathy’s parents were about as passionate Cora Lynn people as anyone could be,” Darryl explained.
“They were so heavily involved, so it was an interesting time!”
While Darryl wasn’t one of those local school kids in his generation as a player, he could always feel the significance of the rivalry.
“Every time we played Nar Nar Goon it was almost more than a home and away game – it almost felt like a semi-final. It did mean more,” he said.
“The feeling is still there, don’t worry. Neither club ever wants to lose that game.”
In 2010, by then as a long-time Nar Nar Goon convert, Darryl was overjoyed at seeing Chris accept his senior premiership medal.
“It couldn’t have got much better at the time, for me!” he said.
“When Nar Nar Goon won – having not won one for 30 years – it was just massive, particularly with Chris playing against Cora Lynn.”
Cora Lynn icon Terry Dillon – brother-in-law of Darryl Adams and uncle of Chris
“It almost was like the battle of the Catholics back then, for sure,” Terry Dillon explained of the rivalry when he was coming through as a school kid.
“And the history since then has just been incredible.
“Darryl is a life member at Cora Lynn and he went over and coached Nar Nar Goon and took Michael (Dillon) with him at the time!
“The rivalry was already the Carlton versus Collingwood of our neck of the woods, so when Michael went over as an assistant to our brother-in-law, there was a bit of tension.
“It was like (Dale) Daisy Thomas going from Collingwood to Carlton!”
And on one famous occasion, Michael wrote a new chapter into the rivalry.
“There was a game at Nar Nar Goon – kicking towards the Cora Lynn end, in front of the Nar Nar Goon coaches’ box and my brother took a mark 40 metres out, and the siren went,” Terry explained.
“Nar Nar Goon was behind, and Michael kicked the winning goal to beat Cora Lynn and he happened to be playing on our great mate Ronnie Hampton.”
Michael is one of the most revered goal-kickers in Cora Lynn football history.
Tim Payne – Cora Lynn senior captain, son of Ray, nephew of Nick Collins
Tim Payne’s first, full senior game of footy was against Nar Nar Goon in 2005.
He’s since gone on to become arguably Cora Lynn’s most decorated player and its most revered skipper.
He, like many, remembers the rivalry as spanning the generations – across different competitions and leagues.
“Oftentimes when we’ve played each other it’s represented one of the genuine opportunities for both sides to register a win,” he explained.
“If the games weren’t higher stakes in real terms, even if we had a losing streak of six, seven, eight games in a row, we’d always be similar on the ladder to them so it represented a chance to pick up a win.
“There almost hasn’t been a time over the past 20 years where we’ve been at completely different ends of the ladder.”
In Payne’s view, the geographical proximity of the two clubs is as big a factor as any in the current day chapter of the rivalry.
“I think if you look at the clubs, and with them occupying very similar territory, the pool of potential recruits is pretty much the same,” he explained.
“When you look at the other clubs we play against, whether they’re the teams towards Warragul in the Ellinbank league, or the teams from South Gippsland in the West Gippy competition, even though we do have rivalries with them, we’re not competing with them in the same territory off the field.
“In that south-eastern fringe on the outskirts of Pakenham, there’s a rivalry on the ground, but also off the ground when it comes to attracting younger players. There’s competition in all of it.
“It’s important to lay claim to a family early, because they don’t tend to go from one to the other too often!”
Payne’s competitive spirit and instinct is legendary around Cora Lynn, and it’s not hard to see why.
“If we fall away and we can’t compete consistently and we let a rival like them overshadow us, that can impact our club in the long-term,” he said.
“From a playing perspective, as long as I’ve played, our ladder positions have always pretty closely mirrored each other. There are real layers to the rivalry.”
Clearly Payne has a lot of respect for the Goon, given his direct involvement in the rivalry for such a sustained period of time.
And that’s echoed throughout his club – even in its own approach to developing its next generation.
“In strengthening our junior base, we looked at Nar Nar Goon as a model,” he said.
“If we were to be successful, we could see the model that we needed to follow – and that was the same sort of model as Nar Nar Goon.
“It was just unsustainable for us to try and recruit a large number of our 21 players year after year – you can’t do it as a club for myriad reasons.”
Of course, the rivalry is hardly one big love-in, either.
“If you look at guys like Jumbo – to best understand the rivalry is to hear his acceptance speech any time we win the Cunningham Cup!” Payne said with a laugh.
“It does give a very accurate insight into the meaning it holds for the people in our club. He’s very good at making sure that no matter how long a player has played for Cora Lynn, they understand the significance of the cup we play for.
“We always celebrate it – it’s something we cherish.
“There are moments when tensions flare, but those wounds literally and figuratively heal.
“Ultimately there’s a knowledge there that having two, strong clubs and having a strong rivalry makes each individual club better.
“Both clubs would be poorer, individually, if the other wasn’t around and I think that underpins the whole thing.”
And for Payne, the rivalry in the current day has taken on an even more significant meaning.
“Now, as much as any other time, you realise what being part of a football club means to people in the broader community, and the way it holds those communities together,” he said.
“It’s frustrating not playing right now (during the battle with Covid-19), but it’s entirely necessary that we follow the rules in place.
“We’ve seen in recent years at clubs like Cora Lynn and Dalyston how much a club can be impacted by the loss of one person, let alone the scale we’ve seen it on (around the world).
“If us not playing literally helps save just one person, then this entire thing is worth it.
“But it does make you stop, consider and reflect on what being part of a club really means. It’s really important that clubs keep up that community spirit, because it’s about so much more than the results each week – it’s about giving people a place to go, and something to be proud of and feel good about.”
