ELLINBANK AND DISTRICT FOOTBALL LEAGUE
SENIOR GRAND FINAL – THE SUPERSTITION
By RUSSELL BENNETT
PETER Wheeler has been a fixture of the Cora Lynn footy club since the early 1980s, but he chose to stay well away from the EDFL grand final on Saturday. In fact, if he has it his way, he’ll never again watch his beloved Cobras run out on to the ground on that last Saturday of the season.
And he has a valid reason – he believes he could well be a jinx.
Now 54, Wheeler was 21 when he first got involved in Cora Lynn in 1982. He’s spent well over half his life at the club, and by his own admission the club is his life.
This grand final jinx of his started back in in 1986 and has taken on a life of its own since.
Wheeler – or ‘Wheels’ as he’s known to many – was in attendance for the ’86 West Gippsland league premiership but he didn’t see much of the clash due to his game day duties.
He was then front and centre for the club’s preliminary final loss in 1987 and grand final loss in 1988.
In 1990, when Wheels was club secretary, the Cobras finished on top of the ladder before bowing out in straight sets. Then in 1991, when he was still secretary, the side got smashed by Drouin in the grand final by 20 goals.
Fast forward to 2006 and the Cobras – with Wheels as team manager – bowed out in the first final. The next year, still with him as team manager, Cora Lynn lost the elimination final. In 2008 the Cobras won a memorable premiership … but due to family circumstances Wheels couldn’t make it.
In 2009 and 2010 he headed off to watch his Cobras in the grand final – only to watch them lose both. Over the next three years Wheels was team manager under Brendan Kimber, and Cora Lynn lost three preliminary finals.
“That brings us to 2014,” he said.
“I told everyone I had a sore knee … that was partially correct. Look, I didn’t go and we won the flag. So this year I just flat out said I wasn’t going, and we won again!”
Each year the Cora Lynn faithful try and persuade Wheels to head along to watch their club in the finals, and he had a number of phone calls on Saturday urging him to come down and watch. But he politely declines each time.
The club means everything to Wheels, who played just the one senior game because the coach had a policy at the time of players getting a berth in the ones if they trained on both the Tuesday and the Thursday. By his own admission, he was a “battler” of a player, but it’s off-field where he’s truly shone in a range of roles – in particular keeping detailed statistics and records of each season since 1945.
He’s made three trips to the national library in Canberra and two to the Victorian State Library archives to make sure his records are spot on, and he still keeps statistics on every player – which have proved invaluable in recent seasons to senior coach Travis Marsham.
“I’m doing one page per player so if you rang me up and asked me about Jack Allen I could cut and paste his page and send it off to you, telling you everything Jack had done,” Wheels said.
He provides the same service for Templestowe coach, and great mate, Rick Irwin.
Wheels wouldn’t dare head to the ground at Cora Lynn on Saturday. Instead, he stayed at home in Pakenham, did a load of washing, tidied up the kitchen – and of course did some footy work on the computer.
He couldn’t get the live scores app on his phone to work, but the phone calls he received throughout the day updated him on the Cobras progress. Even in the dying minutes with Cora Lynn holding an insurmountable lead, he refused to risk anything by heading along.
If the Cobras make the finals next season, he won’t go then either. And, incredibly, he’s still never seen a replay of the 2008, 2014 and 2015 premiership wins.
But he didn’t have to be there on Saturday to feel how special the occasion was.
“We haven’t got a town here – we’ve got nothing,” he said from the stands on Sunday, with many of the senior players still recovering in the middle of the ground from a reasonably large night after their flag win.
“Even the milkbar closed, so it’s just a footy ground in the middle of nowhere as everyone knows. But it is a great ground. From the last home and away game to grand final day – it knows it has to lift. I don’t know what it is but come the end of September, she’s ready every game.”
