DOWNLANDS VS BARNARDS CASTLE 31.07.2008 IN TOOWOOMBA

ADDED SATURDAY 02/08/2008

Photos here.

It is amazing how a story can change,  this has become about Morrie,  and deservedly so.

Had a look at Downlands playing a touring school yesterday,  31/07/2008,  Barnards Castle (pronounced) Carstle with that long a sound,  pointed out to me by an observer that in Australia we would call it Bernie's Castle,  with the short A sound like in cat.  I was told they were a feeder outfit for the Newcastle Falcons and that they also had 4 away in Argentina with the England Under18 side.  Always good to catch a bit of rugby during the week.  The Castle got the game 31 or 38 to nil,  bearing in mind of course too that all these lads were 18,  against 11 or 13 Downlands 16 year olds.

My match comments would run to just looking at the Downlands defence.  I thought they were very lethargic off the line,  particularly early at Pillar Post key,  and this allowed some dominant ball carries,  and easy continuity in possession off those dominant ball carries for Barnards Castle.  I also thought the defensive system was in some disarray,  with 12's coming in to knock over 10's leaving gaping holes.  I noted that in defence the guys were often caught stopping and sitting and changing,  or getting turned too early and allowing a direction change to beat them back on the other side.  There was also a failure to what I call "tackle the ball".  The trendy term today is "tackle assist" but have been personally speaking of and coaching tackling/stopping the ball for about 5 years after I did some work with a top level rugby league coach of the time.  Tackle assist obviously is a multi man tackle,  there are a number of players with the physical prowess and some slighter guys with the technique to hit high and stop the ball,  as well as dominate the contact.  I am big on the higher hit for those that can do it,  and of course in the right areas of the field.

In attack the guys failed to see shooters out of the line and were not looking to take advantage of the hole these shooters were leaving.

On a very positive note,  Downlands,  while not being a part of any formal school competitions,  continues to draw touring sides to Toowoomba at this late end of the season,  every year.  This is a great experience for all concerned.

Of course winding down his Downlands involvement is Captain Craig "Morrie" McVeigh.  Been a tough year for Mozza,  real tough.  I haven't spoken to the big fella for a while but noted the support he had on Thursday at this match,  in father Neil,  Grandfather Kev,  Grandmother Sheila  and brother Lachlan. Mum couldn't make it,  and older brother Matt is overseas.

Which gets you to thinking,  just how much the McVeigh family has contributed to rugby on the Downs.  I used to go and watch Craig's Uncle Paul and late Uncle Greg play for Dalby when I was at Primary school,  they were fixtures in Dalby,  Darling Downs,  South Qld and Qld country sides for years.  Word always was that Greg was the best flyhalf in the state,  and that included Mclean and co way back then,  but these guys had to work, so never got to see their full potential.

Neil was one of the strongest props in the game,  and I asked him what made him so determined one day.  He told me he went out to Goondi one day as a 16 or 17 year old and had to play prop in first grade against the legendary Moggs McColl.  Neil said he was that high in scrums he was looking down waving to the crowd,  didn't like it and went about fixing it.  He was quite a feared prop on the Downs,  in an era of the Bermingham boys,  McColl and Dillon,  just a few guys that knew their craft,  on a rugby field and in the violence stakes.

I was lucky enough to play a season with Paul,  he made a comeback in the mid 80's for some reason.  They talk about the new breed of halfback,  the bigger guy,  more like a backrower.  Paul McVeigh was just that way back in the 70's.

Morrie was always my go to man in Under 13,  14 and 15 for Downs duties.  With Morrie in the pack,  you always knew you had a nice hard edge.  He had the respect of everyone,  was very level headed and mature,  and endured some terrible pain and fatigue to play for sides.  I am sure Morrie started every game,  and I don't recall replacing so vital a cog was he,  he played prop,  lock and number 8.  He suffered a terrible back injury in Under 14,  a scrum collapsed awkwardly on him,  as a lock,  two days later and for the rest of the week he played under enormous duress.  I think he set the threshhold that year for toughness for others in the next two years.

Morrie would outwork most men,  and has been doing the work of men since he was 10 or 11,  not because he was forced to,  he loves it,  just ask him.  (Plenty of stories about Neil's naked header driving back in the days when he and Morrie's uncles ran a very successful contract harvesting business as young blokes,  these guys would work for days non stop when the going was good).  He is also far more mature and knowledgeable of things he probably should not be than all of you other young blokes.  You see Morrie attended his first McVeigh run Bucks party at about 14 years of age,  Morrie,  his father and grandfather,  all at the same function,  if you could call it a function.  Now,  all of you out there saying you know about Bucks parties,  you do not know about these,  you cannot imagine it,  you have to attend to see and believe.  Held at remote locations like "Barney's Shed" and the MCG (Macalister Cricket Ground),  these were the most bizarre of rituals you could ever see.  I was invited to,  and attended two,  one at each venue.  As a young bloke,  I was shocked beyond belief.  One of them was Craig's father's Neil's,  and of course being the orchestrator of many others around the district,  there was plenty in store for Neil at this one.  Imagine the poor guy that had his on the same day as a double act.  What went on that day is not for this page.  Trouble is the worst behaved of all was Neil's old man,  Morrie's grandfather Kev,  a tremendous performance by him.  He must have spent alot of his time perfecting and concocting stuff to do.  This is the same Kev, that with the matriarch of the family,  runs a magnificent prize winning garden in Dalby,  we all have a dark sinister side.

I am sure that the concern of mothers,  wives to be and others have seen the demise of these functions,  but they were well known and revered in the district for many years.  Look out Morrie,  stay away from your old man and grandfather upon engagement!

Morrie has been the architect of many great quips over the years,  that I have been involved with him in any case.  The most memorable involves his mother at the Under 14 State Champs at Redlands,  way back in 2004,  during the first game for us of that tournament.  Again you had to be there to hear it and believe it,  I can't repeat it here,  but I will tell you about the lead up.  Thank goodness Neil was away with a Downlands footy tour and elder brother Matt,  he would have been disappointed in his wife's rather frank and rather public assessment on that day.

We had arrived at our accommodation the previous afternoon,  and to relieve tension a little you let the boys just run amok a little bit.  Of course everyone picked on poor old Morrie and he was soon running naked through our dorms.  I was relating this story to his mother,  and a group of other mothers and father's when Morrie's mother just floored me with her comment,  it was a beauty,  and we used it all tour,  but gee,  life took on a different meaning from that day forward.

It was either this year,  2004 or the following year,  2005,  that Morrie gave me a couple of quotes,  absolute beauties.

We were playing Cairns in 2004 or 2005,  and the game was a little fiery.  I had always encouraged my guys to stay out of the fisticuffs and to use a comment like "have a look at the scoreboard", something clever.  Halftime in this particular match had seen us fight back from 8 to nil down to be 12 to 8 up,  one of their guys had received a red card for an indiscretion.  Half time gathering and just beginning the serious speech,  and vice captain Morrie interjects "I used have a look at the scoreboard out there just then,  but we were behind at the time",  you probably had to be there.

I think in 2004 we had just beaten the North coast to make the playoff for the plate final against the Gold Coast side the following day.  I thought it strange that Morrie was feeding a good natured jibe to the similarly uniformed Gold Coast side as we made our way to the buses for the night.  He informed us on the bus that he had fed it to those Sunny Coast boys.  Oh gee Morrie I said,  that was actually the Gold Coast boys mate,  tomorrow's opposition.  Again being there was probably the key.

2004 saw us lose a very tight match to the Sunshine Coast,  3 to nil.  There was plenty of emotion that day,  we carried some history against the Sunny Coast side,   except from the philosophical Morrie,  who gathered the boys around and said,  the sun will come up tomorrow and I have to go home and plant barley".  I know it has been said before, a million times,  but a quite mature and light moment form Morrie.

I think though one of my favourite memories from my Morrie era was in 2005,  we were playing our last game on Ballymore 2, for 5th and 6th, somewhere there in any case.  We,  as I am sure Townsville were had been hammered by injury and fatigue.  Warming up on Balymore 3,  and trying  to get our lineout organized,  Morrie whispered to me,  can we not do this,  I am too tired to lift.  wow I thought,  we are in some trouble here.  We canned the lineout warmup,  but Morrie went on to rise above that,  lift like a beauty,  scored a great try after 8 or 9 phases in a game that with the shackles lifted was fairly free flowing in itself,  so plenty more energy.  Again,  Morrie was awesome,  just mentally very tough.

Morrie is also a noted big eater,  a high consumer of anything,  on the Seafood diet,  See food and eat it.  We always were lucky enough to have a nutritionist of massive regard involved with these boys,  and she gave them a talk on what to eat, what to drink, before after and during games.  The next day on the way to our accommodation,  the boys talked us into stopping at a McDonalds or Hungry Jacks,  to see Morrie consume an outrageous quantity of large burgers,  Coca Cola,  chips and ice cream,  frightening.  I am sure his fees at Downlands must be higher due to the three meals he eats every meal!

Today the curtain closes on Morrie's Downlands rugby life,  but he will be ready for the fresh challenges that lie ahead.  There is no question that he is part of probably the Downs greatest rugby family dynasty,  with father Neil,  Uncle Paul,  late Uncle Greg,  Father's cousin Tom,  cousins or second cousins Andrew,  Brian,  Patrick all being regular first graders,  Paul's son Steve,  Greg's son playing in Brisbane,  Tom,  Neil,  Greg and Paul Qld Country and Qld.  Another relative George played alot of pretty tough rugby league here on the Downs for Warwick for many years,  and I am sure that is where the four brothers,  Morrie's Grandfather and great uncles  may have started playing sport,  before moving to the rich farming area of the Jimbour plains.

Morrie will be right,  he will face the next challenge in his life the same way he faces them all,  not too much fanfare,  a whole pile of committment,  traits that will see Morrie be successful in his life.

Photos here.

Return Home