A History of Marrar and District, 1979. Researched and Compiled by Mr Alby Armstrong 7. Football - Marrar and District 1918 to 1978, including the Great Wheelbarrow Derby
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In this, our Centenary Year, the Marrar Football Club formed in 1918, is sixty one years old, but football was played in the district several years before this.  Winchendon Vale had a team and played in a competition based at Temora as early as 1912.  Games were played on a Saturday and travel in those years was by horse and sulky or buggy and pair.

To the visiting team it was a two-day trip.  Leaving early in the morning, the players accompanied by their families would arrive at the ground in time to stretch their legs, get changed and then get on with the game.  Somewhere along the road they had stopped to give the horses a rest and a drink, while at the same time the billy was boiled and the family enjoyed a hearty meal.

After the game, the home team would provide a hot meal and arrange a dance at the nearest hall around, to which everyone was invited.  A huge log fire would be lit outside and kept well stoked all night.  Local musicians were plentiful and the dance would continue until daylight.  Supper would be served twice or maybe three times during the night.  Come daylight, the horses, who were always the freshest, would be harnessed, and everyone headed for home, often stopping for Church Service on the way.

Marrar was quite a thriving town before the local club was formed.  The Late Bob Cupples, who worked for Jim Good on what is now Ivor Taylor's farm, organised a team and had football being played in a paddock near the old Soumara School in 1912.  Due to the lack of competition and means of travel, little progress was made.  Bob Cupples joined the A.I.F. on the outbreak of World War 1 and football was temporarily forgotten.

Early in 1918, local residents Jim Brehney and George Vincent, noting the large number of young men working on chaffcutters in the district, called a meeting in town.  The meeting was well attended and the Marrar Football Club was formed.  Popular butcher, Arthur Ray was elected President with George Vincent as Secretary Treasurer.  Jim Brehney was elected Captain and other prominent names in the Club were, Langtry, Fury, Gaynor, Moloney, Frew, Blair, Jones, Brown, O'Keefe, Cupples, Castles, Scott, Wheeler, Gunther, Turner, Gregory, Mclntyre.

Colours were navy blue guernsey with a four inch red band around the middle.  The well known and popular black with red sash 'Bomber' colours were not adopted until after World War 2.  The Club joined the South West League and met with immediate success.  For many years, special football trains ran on the South West line, up one week and down the next.

They won the premiership in 1918 and again in 1919.  They reached the grand final in 1920 but were defeated by Coolamon.

The 1920 team was not a happy one and in 1921 the team did not form up.  More than half the team went to Junee and with Bill Scott as coach were premiers again.  In 1920 came the football sensation of the decade.  Marrar were playing Narrandera in the Final and everything was going against them.

Marks and free kicks in front of the goal went to the opposing team with monotonous regularity.  Finally word went around that the umpire, who came from Sydney by train the night before, had been bought.  Evidence that came to light in later years proved this to be correct.

The climax came in the last quarter when a Narrandera player marked the ball and it went flat in his hands.  Close examination showed a clean cut in the ball as only a thin bladed knife could do.  No new ball was available and the match was abandoned.  In the replay the following week under a different umpire.  Marrar scored a resounding victory.  Coolamon, who were minor premiers that year exercised their right to challenge under the old system and defeated Marrar in the Grand Final.  In 1922 they just missed out, and in 1923 with Bill McIntyre as Captain and Eric Donald Vice Captain they collected their third South West League Premiership in five years.

During the years of the great depression the club withdrew from South West League.  The players banded together to play Challenge Cup football.  Cups they held at times were the Ardlethan Memorial Cup, the Amusement Cup and the Redgrave Cup.  These trophies are no longer heard of but no doubt they are collecting dust in the relies of some defunct club.

In 1933 a move was made to revive the club but it was 1934 before a team was playing competition football again.  In that year they were admitted to the Rannock and District League.  Here they came up against teams from Winchendon Vale, Rannock, Berry Jerry, Mimosa, Bectric and Pucawan.  They had little success in the bush league and withdrew in 1937 to join Wagga and District League.

This was a good move for the Club and four successful years of football were to follow.  The 1937 Grand Final played forty two years ago, between Marrar and Coolamon is still talked about by senior members of both clubs.

The atmosphere could only be described as electric as the last two minutes of the final ticked away.  Coolamon were in front by four points when a big Marrar kick headed dead centre for their goal posts.  Full forward Charlie Cooper was on his own in the goal square and stepped aside to let what looked like a certain goal pass through the tall timbers.  It wasn't to be Marrar's day though, the ball hit the ground on the goal line, bounced sideways and hit the back of the goal post.  The bell sounded and it was Coolamon's Grand Final by three points.

The next two years the team made the finals, then in 1940 with Bob McCrea as Captain went through the season undefeated, culminating in a big win over Wagga in the Grand Final.  Enlistments in World War 2 had by now depleted its numbers and in 1941 the Club combined with Junee before going into recess for two years.

In 1944, the Richmond Brewery Cup was made available for competition and four teams competed; Marrar, Methul, Coolamon and Ganmain.  In 1945, a league was formed with Coolamon as headquarters but by 1946 the war was over and former players who had served in the armed forces had returned.

The Wagga League was reformed but was disbanded again in 1949.  The next three years saw the Club back in South West League again but it was obvious from the start that the Club could no longer compete against their former opponents of the 1920's.

A team was entered in Albury and District second division in 1951 which they won.  The Club was now on the way up and when the Wagga and District League was reformed again for the third time they returned to be premiers in 1953.

The Wagga League folded again in 1956 and was never reformed.  At this stage, the position had arisen where there were four teams left from the Wagga League, and Central Riverina, West of Wagga had been reduced to four teams.  The eight teams combined and the 'New Look' Central Riverina League was formed.  Competing teams were, Temora, Junee, Marrar and Army from the old Wagga League and Milbrulong, Collingullie, Osborne and Boree Creek from Central Riverina.

From this period on, the Club seems to have reached its destiny and has now completed twenty two satisfying years in the League.  In the seasons 1958-59-60, the Club was runner-up but had to wait until 1965 for its first premiership, under coach Barry Walker.  They came home with a 'double' the following year when Walker got the Reserves up as well as the Seniors.

1977 saw the 'Bombers' runners-up again when they made the final four with a win in the last game of the round.  The 1978 season was the year of the reserves, under new Coach Peter Sedunory, and led by Ross Wooden, they scored a popular and convincing win in the Grand Final.

During the early years of the Club, home games were played on the old Recreation Ground near the tennis courts.  The ground was quite steep and with play became bare and hard.
Looking for a new ground to play on, the Club moved to a paddock opposite the Catholic Church.  This ground was covered with Saffron Thistles and each year before the season started a working bee was held to knock down the dry thistles.  Harrows on their backs were drawn over the ground and the job finished off with hoes and shovels.  Most of the spikes that fell off during the harrowing were picked up by the players in later games.

The paddock was private property and the Club had to eventually leave.  It was back to the old ground again but only for a short time.  The Late Phil Langtry, who was known as the father of the Club over the years, donated a paddock to the Club for use as a football ground.  The paddock had, at one time, been owned by Prescott and Co. and used as a paddock for their horse teams, but when the chaff mill closed it was sold to Phil Langtry.

It was a ground to play on and nothing more but the Club was thankful for somewhere to play.  The first gents toilet was a weatherboard wall from an old building.  This utility, known as the 'wailing wall' was propped up in the South West corner of the ground.

It didn't take a very enthusiastic Committee with Ted Connolly Snr. as President long to add a few amenities.  In the following years dressing sheds and septic toilets were built, the water and electricity were connected and for the first time in its existence, players were able to have a hot shower after the game.  A kiosk for the Ladies Auxiliary was built and a rail fence was erected all around the ground.  When former player and team captain Eric Miller died, a new scoreboard was erected and named the Eric Miller Memorial Board.

In later years, a timekeeper's box and gatekeeper's shelter were added and the ground sown to sub clover.  The old goal posts and wooden fence around the ground have been replaced with steel pipe.

In grateful recognition of the service rendered to the Club by the Langtry Family since the Club's inception in 1918, the Oval has been named Langtry Oval.  Former President Ted Connolly and Mrs. L.E. Gooley and son Bill were made Honorary Life Members for outstanding service to the Marrar Football Club.  Other Life Members are Leo Stapleton, Harold Pearce, Noel Armstrong, C.D. Hamilton.

The Great Wheelbarrow Derby
This is an unusual story with an unusual but happy ending.  The Marrar Football Club had for many years been endeavouring to have lights installed on its ground for night training.  As the ground was owned and maintained by the Club in its own right, outside finance for any improvements was in no way available.

The cost of having the lights installed was around £160/-/- but as the Club did not have that kind of money the project was shelved.  Then in March 1961 came the Leeton Irrigana Festival with its offer of prizes totalling £150/-/- for a wheelbarrow race from Wagga to Leeton, a distance of eighty miles.  The race was limited to teams representing football clubs and was to be run over two days.

The idea was a novel one, a sure fire publicity stunt that would pinpoint Leeton as the centre of the Festival, and add some gaiety to the Carnival at the same time.  It did all of these things and more.

To Marrar footballers, Ted Connolly, Noel Armstrong, Harry Thompson, Brian McKelvie, Clive Willis and Bob Hodge the Wheelbarrow race was anything but a stunt, it was a challenge.  They entered the race in two teams of three, carrying the colours of the Marrar Football Club.  Each barrow in the race carried a carton of Leetona Products with a nett weight of 50 lbs.  When the race got under way from the Wagga Memorial Gardens, the local Inspector of Police made no new friends when he held back the first and second relief runners for a lecture on road safety.  This intervention resulted in the first change being made at Cartwrights Hill, some two miles from the start.

The result of that race is now history.  Running in relays, the first team of Ted Connolly, Noel Armstrong and Harry Thompson won the race in the fantastic time of eight hours, forty six minutes and fifty five seconds of actual running time.

Close behind came the Marrar number two team of Bob Hodge, Clive Willis and Brian McKelvie to take second place.  Between them the two teams collected the £150/-/-, a great day for the 'Red and Black', sometimes known as 'Trinner' Langtry's 'Blood Stained Niggers'.

With a temperature of around ninety degrees, on the old scale, and pushing a barrow containing a 50 lb carton, the race developed into one of the most gruelling marathons ever staged.  The fact that of the thirteen teams that started only five finished was a fair indication of how tough the going was.

The last leg of the run on the first day from Ganmain to Matong, a distance of 9 miles, was covered in 50 minutes, and the first run on the second day from Matong to Grong Grong a distance of nine miles was reeled off in only 45 minutes.

The Organising Committee, having timed the race to finish in Leeton on the second day, had its calculations badly upset by the speed of the runners.  They repeatedly held up the leaders for periods of over an hour to enable the tailenders to catch up and to try to maintain some sort of timetable.  Given a free hand, there is little doubt that the two Marrar teams could have completed the run in one day.
The climax of the event was the handing over to the President of the Leeton Shire, Cr.  Maguire, a letter of good wishes from the Mayor of Wagga Wagga, Alderman Ivan J. Jack.  The letter was carried by Marrar Centre Half Back Clive Willis, probably the first wheelbarrow post ever.

Yes, the lights went on at the Football Ground and on training nights they shine out like a beacon, visible all over the town.  For as long as they shine they will tell the story of six stout hearts, strained to breaking point, over two days of mighty endeavour.