Bill Arnold Stand officially unveiled

The Irrigator

Watch Bill Arnold Stand officially unveiled - The Irrigator on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00I had an idea, probably a couple of years ago, that this should have been done and before

00:11my time started I thought I'd approach Council and went through a bit of ring morale, got

00:18approval to do it and here we are today to acknowledge a bill.

00:23I'll just say you better be able to build this history in the club.

00:27It started down as a ball boy when a young fella at six in 1967 and then was promoted

00:34to the school board attendant and we've got that up and running today, just like we did

00:39in the old days.

00:40Bill used to hang around the shed like any other young bloke, like Woody.

00:45The team was the average, so we can call ourselves Panos Rejects, named after our captain Tom

01:02Patterson.

01:0379 played in the 80s, reached the grand final and was lead by 10, 10-0 by the Warriors

01:10up, coached by Barry again.

01:1298 saw Bill play 9, 9 games in reserve game and 7 games in first grade.

01:18Late in the grand final, Matthew had scored two tries to help with the Premiership reserve

01:23game and Robbie Campbell was the coach that year.

01:26In 81, which was a great year for Fleetwood, Fleetwood football club, we went through undefeated

01:33and Bill's best year as Woody, as this side went through, as I said, undefeated, to win

01:38the grand final, 30-10.

01:41Robbie Campbell was the coach, that's a jumper, so that's the 81 jumper there.

01:46Pretty special.

01:48Missed all of 82, with a knee cartilage operation.

01:57Played first grade in seven years of play.

02:00Bill also coached first grade in 86 and 87, which I was a proud member of, and some of

02:08the, tried to pay for some of the young blokes, but it was hard work and we were an outcry

02:13back in those days.

02:15So, some great memories from those times.

02:19Went on to coach first grade in 86 and also club secretary, and he had to jump for Woody

02:25in the second role.

02:28Played reserve game grand final in 1991, so there you start it, he won a couple of reserve

02:35games and then finished in the top.

02:38Retired halfway through the 91 season.

02:44Bill joined the committee, which he was already a member of, and was president in 95, 2016,

02:5017 and 18, which again, I was vice-president to Bill, which was pretty special.

02:55He's been secretary and treasurer of the great club, and he served 70 other roles.

03:01One of the other highlights was Bill being awarded life membership in 2010.

03:08Bill and his family have been long-time sponsors of the League of Greens, and they've always

03:13been very proud to do that for all these years, and Bill is actually still a sponsor to this

03:18day, so thanks for that as well, Bill.

03:21All of the work that's going on in the background, building grandstands, which back in the day

03:25we helped do all this.

03:27Then probably one of the biggest was all the CGC nine, when Bill organised with his troops

03:33of merry men went up there and loaded semi-trailers and pulled them all out of Parramatta Stadium,

03:39and that's what we've got here today.

03:41So it's a credit to Bill.

03:47So with that, I'd like to officially recognise Bill with the name of the grandstand in his

03:53honour.

03:54Thank you, Bill.

04:03I'm very humbled, privileged.

04:05I haven't got a real lot to say, but I just want to thank all my mates for coming back

04:10today.

04:11It's been beautiful, so I'd like to acknowledge them.

04:15I thank them very much.

04:17All my family here, all my foster sisters.

04:22There's only two more, three more, so they're all here.

04:27There's many, many more to see.

04:29Thank you.

04:30Other than that, I'm just happy to be a proud supporter of the club for many years, but

04:36you do these things for your own good.

04:40It's not easy to get recognised, but I mean, you know, that's a pretty special award,

04:46so I'm grateful.

04:47So I'll take it.

04:48You've just made a lot of money from our club, to be around my mates and socialising with

04:56my family.

04:58I want to say something about my supporters.

05:00When I was playing, you didn't know the point.

05:02Thomas, those guys were supporting me when I was playing back in the 80s.

05:06So it's a shame it's all gone.

05:08But thank you all very much for that.

Category

Transcript

Recommended