LAURIE Burt believes coaching premiership teams is all about trust, work ethic and an unshakeable belief in each other.
Burt's wondrous record included four flags and a winning strike rate of 75 per cent, spread over his 230 games as coach of Ovens and Murray powerhouse Wangaratta Rovers.
At a premiership reunion of the 1971-72 and 1991 teams at W.J. Findlay Reserve earlier this month, you could have heard a pin drop as premiership coaches Neville Hogan and Burt told of the good times, the play-offs and the unique Rovers brotherhood.
"Not only did we have good players, we had good families and they are still all involved now," Burt said.
"It's a key reason why we have been so successful for so long."
Still involved at junior level as coach of the Rovers' under-16 team, Burt apologised for being late for our appointment, explaining one of the kids had hurt his leg at training so he took him back to the Findlay Reserve for a rub-down.
"The boy loved it, being where the seniors change and train. As much as I wanted to get home for a nice tea, it's also important to show the commitment to the players," he said.
"You get to know them and their families and be there for them, not only in footy season but at any time."
A schoolteacher who arrived for a year and is still in Wangaratta almost 30 years later, Burt's stumpy legs and squat stature made him the most unlikely of footy heroes.
But as the club's most iconic player Rob Walker said, "Laurie was fabulous for our club and the whole town".
"He was always reinforcing the team aspects - the guys who were injured or others who had missed out, the supporters who'd backed us all year and the whole community that was behind us," Walker said.
"We weren't playing just for us, he'd say to us, but for them as well. The flags weren't just ours, they belonged to the whole town."
A five-time Morris medallist as the Ovens and Murray's best and fairest, Walker rates the 1994 grand final as the sweetest moment of all, as it meant back-to-back premierships for Rovers and Burt, who'd started as a player as a 30 year old in 1984 before taking the coaching reins in 1987.
"Laurie was just what we needed, the right bloke at the right time.
"We beat Wodonga in both of those grand finals (1993-94), but they were real contests. They always were against Wodonga," Walker said.
Pre-finals that year, Walker had privately worried that the club might be complacent after 36 victories on the trot and was in danger of not producing when it counted most. In 1992, Rovers had been premiership favourites only to go out in straight sets.
But Burt told some home truths, reminded the playing group of how hard they'd worked since before Christmas and how everyone started equal again in finals.
"Together we can do it. But one weak link and it's all over." he said.
Rovers won the flag, its third in four years, by 10 goals.
Coming from cosmopolitan Coburg where most of the locals didn't even know where the football club was, Burt said it was an extraordinary feeling to walk down Wangaratta's main streets early on Saturday match days and be questioned about the team's chances that day.
"It was one of the secrets of our success, outside a playing list and an administration with so many rock-solid champion people involved," Burt said.
"The whole community was behind us. You couldn't help but be lifted by their passion."
By - Ken Piesse,
31st August, 2011.
- Ken Piesse's latest book, Football Legends of the Bush, is available from cricketbooks.com.au
http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2011/09/05/374741_country-footy.html
Last Modified on 06/09/2011 06:44
