I found an old leather football on our lawn the other day, "Denzil Don" brand, with some signatures on it. I asked our elderly neighbour Judy if it was hers - her grandkids live down the hill, and I thought they might have had a kick in her back yard. It was Judy's, and she had put it out for the garbage Someone must have thought it belonged to our boys, and lobbed it over.
I gave it back to her and she was on her way back to the garbage pile with it when I felt sorry for it, and asked if I could keep it. God knows we have too much of this sort of stuff already, but its just not right to throw out an old footy that meant something to someone once.
It turns out the footy is from King Island, home of Australia's only three-team football comp [Currie, Grassy and Norths]. One part of the inscription that is legible says "presented to Brian Mather, Currie Captain". Maybe it was a grand final ball.
What makes this all more interesting is that the same week I found the ball, my company Roar Film got the green light to make a TV series about country football. Filming starts this week. One of the five clubs/leagues featured is King Island. My footy is going to be a prop, and the crew might take it over with them when they are shooting, to see if any of the signatories are still on the scene.
On King Island footy is only for the very hardy - it's probably the windiest place in Australia. Apparently one character called Beany generally plays in his jeans and swaps jumpers each quarter, so that he doesn’t have to change ends.
I have found there is a Denzil Don kindergarten in West Brunswick, Vic. Investigations still pending on the full D.D. story.
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