By David Nagel
Character was seeping through the walls of the Cranbourne Football Club on Saturday with a colourful crowd in attendance for a reunion of the club’s 1987 senior and reserves premiership wins.
Smiles and hearty laughter could be spotted all around the room as the stories flowed thick and fast, with a culture of friendship -built all those years ago – still as strong in the air as ever before.
The senior premiership was the club’s third in a row; all obtained under the leadership of legendary coach Darryl Nisbet, who reserves coach Kenny Hickey acknowledged as the one who built the platform for success.
“We were as thick as thieves here at Cranbourne, we would do anything for each other, and you were the one who brought that culture to the club,” Hickey said, pointing in Nisbet’s direction.
“We were just closer than any other club, and you were responsible for that.”
Current-day president Shane Baker spoke, as did 1987 president Paul Garrett, with Hickey and Nisbet speaking on behalf of the playing group.
Former president and hard-man of the day, Geoff Laffin, said Nisbet’s training methods were unique and would probably be frowned upon today.
“He would never ask us to do anything he wouldn’t do himself, but he would be plastered all over the front page of the papers if he trained us today like he did back then,” Laffin said laughing.
“One day he got us all in the middle of the ground and told us we had played like dogs, and if we wanted to play like dogs he would treat us that way. He made us get on all fours and crawl off the ground like dogs, over the bitumen, through crushed rock, and into the change rooms.
“Then he told us to all grab our bags and piss off. He was hard, but we all loved him and would do anything for him.”
