Back at Bomberland: Fred Wooller (third from right) and wife Pat with former player from the “Wooller era” Peter Nelson and club secretary John Neale. The Woollers lived in Kyabram for a decade.
The balcony of the Wilf Cox Community Centre was a long way from the Melbourne Cricket Ground of 60 years ago where Geelong football legend Fred Wooller made his mark on the Victorian Football League.
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Wooller was no less interested in the goings on below him, however, as he made his first trip back to Kyabram in almost half a century to watch his grandson Toby play with the team he coached for three seasons at the end of the 1960s.
He and wife Pat were amid a hive of activity as their arrival to watch the athletic mid-fielder coincided with three Kyabram premiership reunions.
Wooller has had a busy time in recent weeks, having recently attended a premiership reunion of his own.
A dozen of the team from that sixth Geelong grand final win gathered two weeks ago for a 60-year reunion, Wooller a celebrated figure as not only captain, but also for his three-goal contribution to the 49-point win.
Toby Wooller was recruited in the off-season by Kyabram, the club successfully attracting the former Brisbane Lions draftee on the back of a chance conversation with former Kyabram club secretary John Neale.
Neale got to know Wooller well when the Bombers enticed him to coach the club in 1969, after Wooller had coached Penguin in Tasmania after playing the last of his 225 games for Geelong in 1964.
But it was his Geelong days that made him a household name with long-time Cats supporters.
In early June, 1963 the Cats were in a form slump, drawing with top-team Hawthorn, before losing matches to third-ranked Melbourne and bottom-team Fitzroy.
Wooller and the Cats won six of their last seven games to finish the home-and-away season second, defeating Hawthorn twice in the finals — including in front of 101,209 people in the grand final.
Woller was the 1960 Carji Greeves Medallist (Geelong best and fairest) and won three goalkicking titles.
His grandson didn’t disappoint, collecting 19 disposals in the team’s eighth win of the nine-week-old season.
Prize recruit: In 1969 Geelong's 1963 grand final captain, Fred Wooller, became coach of Kyabram Football Club. Here he is with the VFL premiership cup and he recently returned to Kyabram to watch his grandson, Toby Woller, play with Kyabram.
Wooller, who now lives in Melbourne, said he was likely to return if the Bombers were to make it deep into the finals.
“I haven’t seen a game here in a long time. Kyabram holds some good memories,” he said.
Wooller admitted to not even knowing his grandson was playing with Kyabram until a phone call from long-time friend, and former Free Press chief Ian Purdey.
He spent three seasons at Kyabram and took the season to the 1970 Goulburn Valley League grand final, which they lost.
He played his last game of football at Kyabram and also started work with the Readymix Concrete company where he rose quickly through the ranks and eventually became a company director.
“When I first arrived I worked with Lindsay Dillon selling electrical equipment,” he said.
“We have great memories of Kyabram. It was a good place to bring up kids,” he said, the couple parents to five children — Greg, John, michael, Lynne and David.
The Woollers were en-route to Echuca where they were celebrating with a Kyabram friend, Glenys Crow (who was turning 80).
Sixty years ago: Bob Davis (front) and centre sits alongside Fred Wooller (to his right).
Reunion: More than a dozen of Geelong’s 1963 premiership team were involved in a reunion of the team earlier this month. Photo: Courtesy Geelong Football Club
