Tweet
Roosters show they can crow about their own
A product of Bondi United, Tom Symonds is making it in the top grade, writes Jacquelin Magnay.
The view to the south is the glorious Bondi Beach. To the west, the shimmering city skyline and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. To the east below are sheer cliffs and an occasional migratory whale. Not that third-generation Bondi United rugby league player Tom Symonds often took in the postcard views from Hugh Bamford Reserve in North Bondi. The preoccupation of Symonds and his Bondi United teammates - and the decades of teams that had gone before - was the stinky pipe of the sewage works next door and keeping down the end with clear air.
"If you defended here at this end you got the dud end," said Tom, who now gets to train on smoother facilities with the Sydney Roosters. On this brilliant glossy day though, the reserve was only occasionally marred by the whiff of rotten-egg gas.
Ah, but according to Tom grandfather, Bill "Yooka" Symonds, the smell of the reserve was much much worse in his day, certainly before the ocean outfall was established.
And Yooka, then a spray painter and panel beater, would know. He was a member of the founding Bondi United team back in 1946, formed in the years after World War II. About six of the local blokes couldn't play rugby union, which was scheduled on a Saturday, because of their work commitments at the races or at Garden Island, so another Bondi local, Jim Redpath, formed a rugby league team, which played on Sundays. The club would train every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon at Hugh Bamford Reserve - a tradition started by Yooka's team but games had to be played elsewhere because the ground was too small. Said Tom: "There were plenty of balls that ended up down the hill or over the cliff."
Much has been made of Tom's call-up to the Roosters in May this year against Penrith - his presence a bit of a novelty because he is a rare local junior. Yet Sandor Earl and Anthony Cherrington also hail from local clubs. But Tom acknowledges that tradition certainly dies hard in the Symonds family. The Roosters are the only club he is interested in, and he has committed to them until 2011.
Tom started playing as a five-year-old for Bondi United - the same club as Yooka, Tom's father, Peter, and Tom's brothers - but played against the much more fearsome seven-year-olds. Yooka, now 86, reckons he knew back then that this particular grandchild was going to make the big time.
Yooka proudly recalls - as Tom blushes and fondly tolerates - the memories: "Tom doesn't remember this but even when he was five years of age I thought he would play first grade. It was his attitude and the way he played in those days. One day the coach had tackling practice, and Tom's tackling made every of one those kids - the seven-year-olds - cry."
But for Yooka, Tom's call up is more encouragement for the local kids to see that playing first grade is a distinct possibility. So too is the green-and-white club's famous roll call of internationals: Ferris Ashton (who played alongside Yooka in the original side), Ray Beavan (the best natural footballer Yooka has ever seen), Kevin Junee, Johnny Mays, John Peard, Paul Dunn and Luke Ricketson.
Tom will play in the centres for the Roosters (after earlier being selected in the second row, but playing five-eighth for most of his junior career) up against South Sydney at ANZ Stadium on Monday night. The local derby is particularly sweet because the four Eastern Suburbs junior clubs play in the South Sydney competition, and Tom has often played against a couple of the Rabbitohs juniors. While Souths are looking to post their third win in a row, the Roosters are trying to stay off the bottom of the ladder - and perhaps impress the incoming coach, Brian Smith.
Peter prefers to give off-field advice to Tom, Yooka doesn't hold back in giving the same footballing tip each week. And that unfailing advice? "Don't run out and don't drop the ball."
A product of Bondi United, Tom Symonds is making it in the top grade, writes Jacquelin Magnay.
The view to the south is the glorious Bondi Beach. To the west, the shimmering city skyline and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. To the east below are sheer cliffs and an occasional migratory whale. Not that third-generation Bondi United rugby league player Tom Symonds often took in the postcard views from Hugh Bamford Reserve in North Bondi. The preoccupation of Symonds and his Bondi United teammates - and the decades of teams that had gone before - was the stinky pipe of the sewage works next door and keeping down the end with clear air.
"If you defended here at this end you got the dud end," said Tom, who now gets to train on smoother facilities with the Sydney Roosters. On this brilliant glossy day though, the reserve was only occasionally marred by the whiff of rotten-egg gas.
Ah, but according to Tom grandfather, Bill "Yooka" Symonds, the smell of the reserve was much much worse in his day, certainly before the ocean outfall was established.
And Yooka, then a spray painter and panel beater, would know. He was a member of the founding Bondi United team back in 1946, formed in the years after World War II. About six of the local blokes couldn't play rugby union, which was scheduled on a Saturday, because of their work commitments at the races or at Garden Island, so another Bondi local, Jim Redpath, formed a rugby league team, which played on Sundays. The club would train every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon at Hugh Bamford Reserve - a tradition started by Yooka's team but games had to be played elsewhere because the ground was too small. Said Tom: "There were plenty of balls that ended up down the hill or over the cliff."
Much has been made of Tom's call-up to the Roosters in May this year against Penrith - his presence a bit of a novelty because he is a rare local junior. Yet Sandor Earl and Anthony Cherrington also hail from local clubs. But Tom acknowledges that tradition certainly dies hard in the Symonds family. The Roosters are the only club he is interested in, and he has committed to them until 2011.
Tom started playing as a five-year-old for Bondi United - the same club as Yooka, Tom's father, Peter, and Tom's brothers - but played against the much more fearsome seven-year-olds. Yooka, now 86, reckons he knew back then that this particular grandchild was going to make the big time.
Yooka proudly recalls - as Tom blushes and fondly tolerates - the memories: "Tom doesn't remember this but even when he was five years of age I thought he would play first grade. It was his attitude and the way he played in those days. One day the coach had tackling practice, and Tom's tackling made every of one those kids - the seven-year-olds - cry."
But for Yooka, Tom's call up is more encouragement for the local kids to see that playing first grade is a distinct possibility. So too is the green-and-white club's famous roll call of internationals: Ferris Ashton (who played alongside Yooka in the original side), Ray Beavan (the best natural footballer Yooka has ever seen), Kevin Junee, Johnny Mays, John Peard, Paul Dunn and Luke Ricketson.
Tom will play in the centres for the Roosters (after earlier being selected in the second row, but playing five-eighth for most of his junior career) up against South Sydney at ANZ Stadium on Monday night. The local derby is particularly sweet because the four Eastern Suburbs junior clubs play in the South Sydney competition, and Tom has often played against a couple of the Rabbitohs juniors. While Souths are looking to post their third win in a row, the Roosters are trying to stay off the bottom of the ladder - and perhaps impress the incoming coach, Brian Smith.
Peter prefers to give off-field advice to Tom, Yooka doesn't hold back in giving the same footballing tip each week. And that unfailing advice? "Don't run out and don't drop the ball."
Comment