Great Read by Crash.

[1910]

[h=1]Unsung club hero Matty Middleton gets Brisbane Broncos in gear [/h]

• by: ROBERT CRADDOCK
• From: The Courier-Mail
• March 16, 2014 11:00PM

IN a 20-year career with the Broncos, Matty Middleton has never once been sent to the bin — but he’s jumped out of one. Such is the endearing gear steward’s affection for his club a big victory will often ignite the boisterous side of his character. He might surprise the team by bursting out of a gear bag or even, as was the case after one victory in Townsville, a wheelie bin in the middle of a team song. The Broncos call Middleton the keeper of their flame.
He received life membership of the club at this season’s club launch for his two decades of service in a touching speech by club chairman Dennis Watt.
Watt said the spirit of the club’s recruiting legend Cyril Connell and founder co-owner Paul Morgan lives on through Middleton who buzzes around the Broncos’ home base at Red Hill like a man with an hour to save the world.
It was Connell who took on Middleton for work experience and, spotting his relentless enthusiasm, invited him back for a full-time job which involves presenting players with their cherished first jerseys and washing those jerseys in a working day that stretches past midnight.
Months before his death, Connell called Middleton his best recruit which, given he signed 15 of the Broncos’ last premiership squad, was quite a wrap and immediately made Middleton the most vaunted gear steward in the business.
As keeper of the flame, it is probably appropriate he sets sparks flying in dressingroom celebrations.
His dressingroom zeal is such that it put Kevin Rudd’s two bodyguards on red alert after the then prime minister entered the Broncos room after a win.
“I thought I was going to get tasered,’’ he said.
“Kevin was smiling but there were two guys with vests and side-arms and you should have seen the way they looked at me when I started banging on the bin and jumping on it.’’
Like the players, he has his own good and bad nights like the time he followed instructions on how to iron on numbers on new jerseys, only to have them fall off in the middle of a game.
“Petero Civoniceva came in to go to the bathroom and his number 10 was hanging off and I went ‘oh my god ...’,’’ Middleton said.
“I was shattered. I remember walking along the sideline and ‘Sammy’ Thaiday looked at me and said ‘nice work ‘Middo’ … (you had) one job mate’. He was smiling – I think.’’
Middleton is comforted by the thought that players have their own dressingroom bloopers.
“One player came up to me once 40 minutes before a game and said “I have only one boot’. I said ‘why tell me now?’ and he said ‘I just didn’t know what to say’.
“I had to catch a cab from Suncorp (Stadium) back here to Red Hill, grab a boot and get back 20 minutes before kick-off. The player was desperate for the coach not to find out what happened but he found out anyway.’’
Once when he was hiding in a gear bag to surprise the players when they returned to the rooms after a win, an overjoyed player kicked the bag in celebration when he entered the room and was taken aback to hear “OWWWWW ... that’s my back.’’
Middleton happily lets his emotions loose after a win but tries to hide the sorrow he feels after a loss because he says it is the last thing the players need.
He describes Allan Langer as the funniest player he has worked with and Darren Lockyer the most relaxed and the affection flows both ways, with Lockyer presenting him with a specially minted jersey with his name on it and saying “his generous, humble nature is an example of the values the club stands for.’’
No Cookies | The Courier-Mail

 

[Harry Sack]

Haha, the moment I read popping out of a gear bag, I knew exactly who this guys was.

 

[Big Pete]

Was wondering who the guy was leading the celebrations the other night.

Sounds like an awesome bloke, would love to hear some more of his stories.

 

[Sproj]

You mean the guy in the Broncos mascot? That was funny stuff!!

 

[Porthoz]

Awesome read 1910, thanks!

Would definitely enjoy hearing a few of his stories around a camp fire...

 

[Morkel]

Awesome read 1910, thanks!

Would definitely enjoy hearing a few of his stories around a camp fire...

If they're anything like the One Boot story...

 

[Jeba]

I actually spent a week at the Broncos in 2001 as part of work experience for school. Spent most of the week with Matty. He was such a good bloke and would not stop all day. Getting thousands of jerseys signed for raffles etc. Great to see him getting recognition for his work.

 

[1910]

Fantastic effort and a life member is fitting, he was clubman of the year in 2008 as well.

That's pretty much the Grand Slam double for non players.

 

[1910]

If they're anything like the One Boot story...

He's got a 1000000.

 

[1910]

WHEN the Brisbane Broncos stampeded their way into Brisbane 26 years ago, it was ­assumed every football entity beneath them would be trampled to dust.
But it never quite happened.
Yesterday, along with about 1000 or so other spectators, I watched Redcliffe beat Easts 24-12 and left with the vibe that the Intrust Super Cup, while not to be compared with the pre-Broncos era, should feel proud of its existence as the home of stars on the way up, others on the way down and countless journeymen in between.
Far away from the comfortable but colourless modern sports stadiums, I write this story under the shade of a giant fig tree on the top of the western hill at Dolphin Oval, with the sun on my back and a cool breeze floatcoming in off Moreton Bay.
It’s so high up here that when I turn my head I can see the Glasshouse Mountains through the haze in the distance. If there’s a more soothing place to watch football in Queensland, I cannot recall it.
So much has changed in the local competition – which now includes teams from both coasts, Rockhampton, Cairns, Mackay and Papua New Guinea – from the pre-Bronco era.
Yet in a way it hasn’t changed at all because it’s still packed with people who put a lot more into the game than they take out like Redcliffe coach Troy “Cowboy” Lindsay.
For the past 20 years – firstly as a player who contested a staggering 270 first grade games and now as first grade coach – Lindsay travelled the 38km from Dolphin Oval to the front gate of his Brahman stud at Wamuran, west of Caboolture, four times a week for eight months a year, mostly alone.
That’s a 194,560km journey – equal to four laps of the world or halfway to the moon – and includes at least 5000 trips past the Burpengary Tavern without once calling in.
And he’s done it without a petrol allowance.
“But football has never been about money to me,’’ he said.
“I’m 40 and I would still play if I could. I still get that feeling you had when you were a kid that you were involved because you loved it.’’
The Cup’s payment structures are a step back in time to those colourful days when sport was a significant part of a player’s life but not all of it.
Players can earn about $15,000 to $30,000 a year, with deals at some top clubs including payments of $700 a win, $200 a loss plus bonuses for playing 10 first-grade games.
These figures won’t make any player rich but it is a nice little earner if you have a full-time job, which is where the tap-dancing starts for many players whose fanciest footwork is done organising their weekly schedules, never mind playing.
Nothing much happens at Redcliffe training without their skilful halfback Adrian Davis being in the middle of it yet when Davis, the locksmith once got a call mid-training to go and open a building at Margate after a client locked themselves out, he was allowed to instantly disappear into the night.
The Easts-Redcliffe game saw cellarmen, nurses, removalists, boilermakers, plumbers, business students, personal trainers, tree loppers, draftsmen, economics students and outreach workers pitted again each other and most will limp off to work today, just as Easts chief executive Des Morris used to when he captain-coached the Tigers in the 1960s and drove a brewery truck from Monday to Friday.
One of the joys of the competition spreading its wings is that it has seen the revival of that endearing beast thought to be on the brink of extinction, the small town footy hero.
Rugby league will never again see the romantic days when ancient champions like Bobby Banks were chosen for Australia from Cunnamulla or Rohan Hancock would venture from his family meatworks on the Darling Downs to Brisbane for Origin football.
But players in teams in Cairns, Rockhampton and Mackay have become well known in their home regions.
The Northern Pride gets back-page exposure in The Cairns Post two or three times a week. We keep hearing hear the local lasses of Cairns reckon the Pride boys are good sorts which is surprising because a quick review of their website reveals one rough head after another.
After yesterday’s clash, the Redcliffe boys moved over to applauded the hill to applaud fans on the hill, had a dressingroom beer and headed back to the leagues club to mingle more, maintaining a tradition stretching back to the days when a game was just a game.
No Cookies | The Courier-Mail

 

[Coxy]

I remember I did a week of work experience with Cyril at the Broncos in 1993 (the week leading up to the preliminary final against Canterbury). Matty was everywhere! Boundless energy. Really nice guy. He deserves all the wraps he gets.