“THE CATS & I” – by Des Kelly
“I came to Australia in 1962, from Ceylon, my ‘Lovely Island Home’, together with my wife and two very young sons, for one plain & simple reason. This migration on our part was to ‘escape’ the ‘Sinhala-only’ policy brought in by the S.W.R.D. B.Government of the day.
However, we walked in, because of one ‘Policy’, straight into another, called ‘The White-Australia Policy’.
Speak about these Policies anyway you like, but it ends in a single term
called ‘Racism’, which was openly, & unfortunately, rife, in our World of that era.
Racism,to me, is a far worse bloody epithet, than any four-letter word that one could even imagine. To me, the sum total of nine plus billion people on this Planet, are ALL the same,(Men, Women and Children)born, to struggle through life, to then pass on into what is hopefully a better place for each one of us. The colour of our skin, or how much wealth we may accrue, matters even less, because DUST we are, and to DUST we then shall return.
OK, OK, Des, cut the sermon and get down to what you wish to write about.
Well, when I arrived in Melbourne in 1962, I got my first job with the
P.M.G. in Melbourne, just about a week after arrival in our Step-Motherland, as a ‘Mail-sorter’. The sorting of mail, coming to the C.B.D. from the City of Dandenong and then returning home by train
(or Red-Rattlers, as they were called), took up far too much time to worry about sport in general.
Then, I gave up my sorting job and got one closer to home in Dandy.
This job, as a Storeman, in The South Australian Rubber Mills, saw me getting interested in Aussie Sports, after meeting, any talking with Sir Donald Bradman, who was a Director of S.A.R.M., in addition to being the GREATEST Cricketer in the World without any doubt whatsoever. R.I.P. Sir Donald.
Cricketing aside, I then got interested in this game called “Aussie-Rules” Football. THE GAME that is undoubtedly the very BEST to watch in the World, today. Took me about a month to follow all the rules of this superb game (& there are many), I chose to barrack for
The Cats, my two favourite Champions of the game being Polly Farmer, Aboriginal 90 centimetre “Ruckman” who was famously impossible to knock off his feet, would stand there like a rock, hand passing the oval ball, sometimes as far as others could kick it, bowing to the accolades that came into print, such as ‘the power of Polly’, and Gary Ablett Senior, who my readers can now enjoy watching in a special video I add to this article. The man that the Cats called “God”, because, when you watch this video, you will know why.
As I have always said and written, ANY SPORT IS A GAME TO BE WON
OR LOST & MAY THE BEST SIDE WIN. However, my main reason for cheering on, or barracking for, the Cats is simply because GEELONG
RHYMES WITH CEYLON & I still love the Country that was proud of her NAME.
Desmond Kelly.
(Editor-in-Chief) e’Lanka.
