Australian Football

The day they kicked a cricket score at ‘Katty’

Country football crowds have witnessed some bizarre events, but probably none stranger than what occurred on a north-east Victorian oval 88 years ago.

Early last century, the Dookie District Football Association near Shepparton consisted of teams from farming hamlets such as Wattville, Cosgrove, Yabba and Katamatite. It was an era of small, labour - intensive farms and it was not uncommon for three or four families to provide the backbone of local teams.

Unusual things seemed to happen at Association games. During one wartime match in 1916, both captains and twelve other players volunteered for active service at half time.

In 1931, the grand final between Yabba and Numurkah ended early when the ball was punctured by a Numurkah player acting on behalf of a supporter who stood to lose a lot of money if the team lost.

And Frank Treacy, who was born in 1920 and played for Dookie before the war, recalls a 1937 semi final where the first quarter went for 41 minutes before the players realised there was no timekeeper.

But perhaps the strangest event of all occurred the day Katamatite defeated Wattville by 478 points.

It was a period of intense rivalries between the district clubs. Attempted poaching of players was rife, which often led to reprisals and counter measures. In 1912, Wattville registered 84 players - probably as much to stop other clubs recruiting its players as to strengthen its own list.

By 1925, however, Dookie was taking poaching to new heights, with officials driving around the district signing up players from under the nose of other clubs. To their rivals, Dookie had gone beyond the pale.

Late that season, Dookie was leading the competition. Wattville was out of contention for the flag, but Katamatite officials calculated that if their club could defeat Wattville by a large enough margin, they would pass Dookie on percentage and become minor premiers.

There is little doubt that what followed was engineered by Katamatite and Wattville to ‘get square’ with Dookie.

The July 25 game between the two sides took place at Katamatite’s home ground. The crowd must have sensed something unusual was afoot when Wattville arrived with only seven or eight players (the accounts differ), including captain Fred Saunders and Frank Fegan.

From the first bounce, Katamatite’s scoring was constant and systematic. According to Saunders’ later account, Wattville’s full back Roy Beatie told Katamatite’s players to kick the ball high so that he wouldn’t be able to mark it. Gordon Ludeman - another of Wattville’s players - later recalled players scampering down to the creek to retrieve the ball after each goal so play could be quickly restarted.
Meanwhile, Katamatite had posted a spy at the day’s other game, where Dookie were playing Katandra. They passed on score updates to a contact at Katamatite, who made sure the margin in their game remained sufficient to surpass Dookie’s percentage.

When the final bell rang at Katamatite, the home side had kicked 78.19.487 to Wattville’s 1.3.9. Fred Saunders had scored Wattville’s only goal, perhaps by mistake.

The result sparked widespread talk throughout the district. Suggestions of a fix were soon aired in the local newspaper, which reported that before the match, “it was persistently rumoured in Dookie that a prominent official of the Wattville club had stated it was their intention to go to Katamatite with about eight men and allow that team to kick a hundred goals, if necessary, to give them a win on percentages over Dookie for the minor premiership.”

The paper offered both clubs the chance to publish a correction and “remove the stigma”, adding that the Wattville team were “too true to the traditions of a manly game to do anything that would bring discredit to that game or that club.”

In a letter to the paper the next week, Wattville’s president Frank Fegan (Snr) and secretary Charlie Ludeman denied that anyone from Wattville had made the alleged comment, and stated that all of their players had been asked to attend the game at Katamatite.

Dookie, however, smelled a rat. Informally, someone exacted some personal revenge on Fegan Snr when they poured chaff into his car’s petrol tank. More formally, Dookie appealed the result to the Association on the charge of 'unbecoming conduct' by both Wattville and Katamatite.

Several marathon meetings of the Association followed, at which many claims and counter claims were made by delegates.

It transpired that Katamatite had given Wattville 30 shillings on the day of the match, but both teams’ delegates argued that there was nothing sinister in this, as it was to help Wattville meet its travel and tea expenses.

Ultimately, though, the Association declared the game “null and void” and Dookie was awarded the minor premiership.

Katamatite’s last throw of the dice was to appeal to the Victorian Football League. The evidence and sworn testimonies were forwarded to the League, which dismissed Katamatite’s appeal and upheld the Association’s decision.

Dookie were officially minor premiers. That should have been the end of it, but finals matches had already begun and there was now protracted debate about whether these would need to be replayed. Court action was threatened as old arguments resurfaced and delegates became further polarised.

By October, the situation had descended into farce. Resolution appeared impossible and an extraordinary Association meeting voted to abandon the remaining matches. Dookie consoled itself that it had won the moral argument, but the cost was high: no premiership was awarded and the Association decided to disband.

Naturally, there were recriminations. Dookie joined a neighbouring Shepparton competition the following year. The Wattville club folded, and Frank Fegan and Jack Saunders went on to play for Yabba. The Wattville ground, where players once changed behind hessian bags strung between trees, became a paddock once more, and the town these days is just a memory.

Dookie returned to the local competition with a vengeance in 1927. Setting out to merge and conquer, it amalgamated with Cosgrove in 1929 and Yabba in 1933. In 1977, it combined with the Dookie agricultural college team to become Dookie United. Katamatite also survived. These days, both teams play in the south-east section of the Picola and District League, which straddles the NSW / Victorian border. Each have won premierships in recent years and it seems that any lingering grudges have long since passed. Several descendents of those who played for Wattville in 1925 are heavily involved with the Dookie club. Up Dookie way, it seems that 88 years is time enough to heal old wounds.

The author gratefully acknowledges the support of Simon Huggard and the descendants of many Dookie, Wattville and Katamatite players in researching this story.

The Dookie teams of 1924 and 1919.