The KINK hit

[CoastPie]

[By Dennis Wall; Tom Hafey’s opposition analyst from 77–82]
It was 1977, Pre - game before the first, drawn Grand Final.
In games at the G, I always sat in the MCC members near the coaches’ box, to pass on relevant info to the match committee, as required. When walking from the rooms onto the ground, I walked along the boundary line, being the shy type, I hated looking into the crowd.
In the rooms before a game, I always kept a distance from Tommy Hafey, he was so pumped, as he individually chatted and gave final instruction to the players, but he came up to me early on, and said " when you get to the bench on the boundary, wait there until I'm in the box, I need to check the phone works, last week he said, " the f***king thing was stuffed, I had no contact with the bench for 15 minutes “!
I said ok, if Tommy asked me once, he asked 25 times, to pick up the phone on the boundary so I positioned myself behind the pack of players as they prepared to leave the rooms, and run down the race, to quickly be at the bench, for the task Tommy had given me.
In the rooms at the door at the top of the race, the players had paired off, and were bumping, pushing and yelling encouragement at each other, the Pies were fierce, aggressive and ready to rumble, before noticing on my left, RENE KINK moving from the bathroom toward the group zipping his shorts, as he walked. I looked back at the players, then, totally unexpected, SMASH, Kink, had no teammate to bump with, he suddenly sent me like a rag doll, crashing into the white besser brick wall, with his ' first successful ' hip & shoulder bump of the grand final !
The players ran onto the ground as I picked myself up from the floor, grabbed my clip board, and papers, then quickly headed off down the race, feeling totally dishevelled, and in severe pain, especially my right shoulder, I felt ' grand FINALY stuffed ' before the game had started, but the worst part, I had those tears you seem to have, when suddenly hit or hurt!
I walked onto the G, the atmosphere was electric, totally surreal to be honest, massive crowd noise, balloons everywhere and a helicopter hovering above the ground!
Tom Hafey was being interviewed by Ch7, I walked past, then almost immediately on my right, I felt a tug on my jacket, it was Tommy, about to remind me AGAIN to get the phone. We looked at each other, I still had tears, Tommy kind of cocked his head to the right, and looked at me with a frown and asked "are you OK" I just said yeah! He must have thought, "this poor bloke is overcome with emotion”, given it’s the first time the Pies have been in a grand final for years.
I eventually arrived at the bench, I could see Tommy, now in the box, the phone buzzed, I said hello, and Tommy bellowed " f**king sensational, its working, thanks " … before he again asked, are you ok, I just said yeah, I'm good, adding " I was ' Kink HIT ' in the rooms, with a hip n shoulder before the players ran out " That seemed to totally confuse Tommy, obviously with the team, and grand final on his mind, sounding puzzled, he just said, great ?
The next week in my day job as a rep, on a country trip from Melbourne to Ballarat, through to Mt Gambier, every client I called on asked, "what did Tommy Hafey say to you as you walked along boundary together, obviously our chat was shown on Ch7?
A few weeks later, when the dual grand final dust, and disappointment had settled somewhat, I met Tommy at the social club, he laughed hard, and said you looked totally buggered that day mate, I said I was, and it’s not that funny! ...lol.
On TV over the years, (club corner world of sport) Tommy always seemed reserved, quiet and dour, but when having gained his trust, and confidence, he was always bubbly, bloody funny, and great company, except for the times, he laughed at ME. Lol!
RENE KINK never apologized for smashing me in the rooms, but we have always been good friends, he was my hair consultant at his Kinky hair salon opposite the Vic Market, before my hair eventually disappeared ...must have been the stress …lol...

[RudeBoy]

Great read.

Tommy was a great coach, but lost us the replay granny by over training the players. In truth, as much as I loved him as a player, I don't think Kink ever got really fit enough, which is why he tended to fade out of the game in last quarters when we needed him the most. Still, they were great days, playing in 5 Grand Finals from 1977 to 1981.

[HAL]

Thanks for your support. What kind of books do you like?

[BazBoy]

The finals leading to GF were torrid and energy sapping and many thought a light week to freshen them up —that is all except Tom
He trained them hard so whe we tackled Tigers in the Grand Final we at best had a quater and a half in us which is just about how the game went