As I parked the car and was ready to walk into Logan Brothers, I wasn’t too sure what to expect.
One of my boys Jess touched me on the shoulder and said, "Hails I won’t be able to play, I've left my boots at home."
Instantly I switched back into control mode, broke out in a laugh and replied ‘all-good let’s go see if our mates from Logan can help us out."
So I set the boys up at a table, asked them to wait for my return and we would go suit up in the visitors shed. I walked into a clubhouse that told a million stories, the walls were covered with photos of past and present representatives from Stingers all the way to Australian representatives from both genders.
This left me in awe, this Hall of Fame was amazing. I walked over to a gentleman and introduced myself and explained our predicament. This gentleman's name was John Greenfield, the current coach of the Logan Brothers Under 12s Premier team, who previously coached the 2013 Division 1 Chairmans, Minor Premiers and Grand Final Winners with only one loss for the season.
He offered to take a trip back to his house which happened to be five minutes away and grab Jess a pair of boots. I was taken back at his kind gesture, amazed that this gentleman would take the time to help us out. I thanked him and told him me and my boys would never forget this.
He humbly answered: "Anything for the kids dear, we need to keep our big boys in the game.” His words warmed my heart ... 10 minutes later there was John with a pair of boots, he apologised and pointed out they were a size 8, as I had requested Jess needed an 11.
I reassured him we appreciated his help immensely and that Jess would just have to squeeze his foot in. As my boys warmed up we realised we would be taking the field with only 12, and my mate with the size 8 boot would not last too long on the field with boots that small. So we went looking for another pair, this time I approached a young man by the name of Vaingaru Ross, a front rower from our opposition Under 16s Logan Brothers.
I asked Vai if he had any mates who had a size 11 and were not playing or had a game afterwards, he was not sure and suggested we speak with his coach Graig Walsh and team manager Tanya Erb-Walsh. We headed to the Logan Brothers shed Vai introduced us, I thanked him for his assistance and explained our situation to Tanya and Graig.
Tanya quickly responded saying she had a size 10 boot in her car and Jess could use them if he wanted to. So Jess and I accompanied Tanya to her car, along the way chatting about manager's stuff, and I explained to her how we had been welcomed to Logan Brothers and the "stigmatism" her club and Southside clubs had been given, the whole BIG BAD ROUGH persona simply had not greeted us.
This club and these people, had really gone out of their way to help us out. After having these thoughts go over in my mind I suddenly felt at "home". That situation was fine, I went to fill in the Match Report and was greeted by Christine Blackwell who I had remembered from the Girls Competition meeting at GBJRL.
She was so supportive in letting us wait pretty much till the last minute to put our boys names on the report, again stating that "it’s all about the kid's". The final game score was not important, the boys from both sides won because they had walked away gaining new friends, big smiles on their faces, they had fun and the boys from the North-side of the Gateway Bridge had just experienced playing at one of the greatest family clubs in Brisbane.
I left Logan Brothers with some interesting facts to add to my collection files of Junior Rugby League Clubs, St Pauls Brothers was founded in 1976 by Sister Francis (sister Kath Carroll) of St Pauls Catholic College, Woodridge.
At the first board meeting it was passed "That all persons who wish to play for St Pauls Junior RLFC be accepted amd that there would be no restrictions placed on players". The park itself was formally known as Bilger Park and has since been changed to Civic Park. Thank You Logan Brothers for looking after us. I only hope the next visit you have to our club will be just as full-filling.
