Tongala has lost one of its best ever all-round sportsman with the recent passing of Geoff Allan Vick.
In the days when footy, cricket, tennis and lawn bowls were the major participator sports Geoff left an indelible mark as a footballer and cricketer.
His loyalty to the Tongala Football Club and the Tongala Cricket Club was legendary and he never played with any other club, apart from a one-year coaching stint at Girgarre Football Club after his Tongala days.
As a footballer he was a speedy, clever winger in the 1950s and ’60s when Tongala was holding its own in the Goulburn Valley League.
He was a member of Tongala’s 1961 premiership side coached by Alan Murphy, which beat Shepparton, coached by the legendary Tom Hafey. This was only the second flag the Blues had won in the league before Des Campell’s boys went back-to-back in the early ’80s.
Geoff is the first link in the 1961 Tongala premiership centreline of Vick, Stewart Florence and Barry Campbell to pass, leaving only the half-back line of Adrian Cahill, Alf Harrison and Bob Rawson as the only surviving line of the 1961 flag winning side still intact.
A teammate in that side Ron (Spud) Florence remembers Geoff best for his immaculate kicking.
‘‘He rarely missed a target with his stab kicks and he was a very clever, neat player,’’ Spud said.
One of Geoff’s sons Steve recalls his father always rated dual Kyabram Morrison Medallist Geoff Cooper as his hardest opponent and the best player he had seen in the GVL.
A life member of the club, Geoff also played between 185 and 200 senior games with the Blues.
Geoff was also one of the premier batsmen in the former Kyabram and District Cricket Association in his prime.
He started his cricket career with the Tongala East Cricket Club before switching to Tongala where he enjoyed premiership success in 1952 as a 15-year-old. He went on to savour another three flag wins with the club at the top level of competition.
Geoff even had the distinction of facing the controversial Australian speed bowler Ian Meckiff while representing a Victorian country 11 against the Victorian state side.
He had no doubts that Meckiff, whose international career was short lived after being a classified as ‘‘a thrower,’’ was the quickest bowler he had ever faced.
After his football playing days he officiated as a goal umpire for 25 years and when he retired from cricket he took up bowls, won a B-grade club championship and represented Tongala’s division one side for many years.
Family orientated and sports mad, he always preached to his children and grandchildren to ‘‘play it hard but play it fair.’’
And you could add ‘‘as well as you can’’ to those beliefs because that’s what Geoff always tried to do.
And usually succeeded in doing it.