Nicknames are nothing new in football clubs, in fact, they are common. But occasionally a nickname will carry a little bit more weight and is all that’s needed to recognise an individual — that’s exactly the case with Rochester’s Ron ‘Yacka’ Haring.
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Haring played almost 200 games for Rochester and won two club best and fairests, but his work in representative football was renowned at both Victorian Country Football League and Goulburn Valley Football League level.
In the Goulburn Valley there were a few other standout nicknames from the 1970s and 1980s: ‘Panther’ was all you needed to mention to recognise Tongala and Shepp United great Des Campbell; nothing more than ‘Doc’ was required for Echuca ruck legend Bryan Kennaugh; and then there was ‘Trouter’, the mantle of Tongala roving Morrison Medallist Phil Harrison.
In the AFL there was the Dominator (Wayne Johnson), the Flying Doormat (Bruce Doull), Captain Blood (Jack Dyer), The Ghost (Jim Jess), Hungry (Kevin Bartlett), Plugger (Tony Lockett), Buddha (Garry Hocking), Boomer (Brent Harvey) and The Flea (Dale Weightman).
Ron Haring now lives in the northern suburbs of Perth, five minutes from the beach in a suburb called Mullaloo.
He has been there for 30 years and is enjoying his best run of sporting finals.
“We never played in many finals at Rochy. In fact, the GVL and VCFL games were always my big games,” he said.
Haring plays Premier League bowls with Doubleview Bowling Club, which could this year secure a three-peat of pennant wins.
He never played football again after leaving Rochester, signing back on with Yackandandah (incidentally where his nickname came from), but opting to spend more time working on the family farm than anything else.
“When I left the Goulburn Valley that was it. I haven’t had anything to do football since I got to Perth,” he said.
Haring has two daughters, Eleanor lives in Bendigo and inherited her father’s height. She played basketball with the Bendigo Braves.
“My other daughter, Verity, is in Melbourne with my (Ron and wife of the past 35 years Sherree’s) only grandchild, 11-month-old boy Gryphon,” he said.
“I haven’t met him yet.”
Haring was renowned for his ability to lift a notch in representative football, in fact, he was a member of the inaugural VCFL team in 1980.
In the centre for that team was Jeff Gieschen, famously a previous umpire’s boss and Richmond coach.
It also included Bendigo league goalkicking legend Ron Best and Ross Weightman, the father of Richmond star Dale.
“There was some good players around in those days. The first one was a bit of an excursion, to Canberra,” Haring said.
“I remember we saw (Kevin) ‘Cowboy’ Neale wander out on the ground and he looked like he was overweight and out of condition.
“Ten goals later and I learned never to judge a book. He kicked 10 of their 21 goals.”
He played in those VCFL games alongside Tony Jones, who he rates as the best centre half forward in the country he has ever seen.
“I ended up with three of the Big V jumpers, I framed one and gave the kids the other ones,” Haring said.
Haring would have played in the 1981 game, but he broke his ankle in a car accident and missed the season.
He played again with the VCFL in 1982 and 1983.
Haring said it was a great honour to be in those representative teams, particularly the 1984 VCFL Winfield Championships-winning GVL team.
His wild blonde hair and big beard stand out in the team photo, which has a strong Campaspe influence with Andy Preston, Tony and John Jones, Mick Keenan, Mick Lovison, Jeff Berry, Stephen Wells and Stuart McKenzie.
Haring arrived at Rochester as a 20-year-old, 44 years ago, travelling for several years between Melbourne and the town for football.
“I was working at Essendon airport, as an aircraft sheet-metal worker,” he said.
“A friend of mine knew Alec Howell, from Rochester, and he got me a job with Jim Gray, a builder in Rochester at the time.
“I worked with him, carpentry is not rocket science, and I’ve done that most of my life, apart from seven years back on the farm at Yackandandah.”
Haring was favourite for the Morrison Medal in one of his 10 seasons at Rochester, but failed to poll many votes.
He was famous for his clenched fist technique of directing the ball to his rovers and remembers his bouts with the likes of Seymour’s Alistair ‘Nugget’ Greenshields, United’s Ross Edwards, ‘Bluey’ Jagoe from Euroa and ‘Doc’ Kennaugh from Echuca.
But for all his seasons in the yellow sash, it is the purple and yellow jumper of the GVL which holds the most vivid memories of big games.
“It was a real good time to play football,” Haring said.
“It had a golden era feel about it. The best part about the interleague side was playing with those blokes.
“We never played in any premierships at Rochy. They were the only real games that you played in where the pressure was high.
“And they were all good blokes.”
MORE ON THE 1978 AND 1984 COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS
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