Fly in fly out

by PAUL DAFFEY

IN the 1990 June draft, Sydney selected Dale Lewis from North Ballarat at two and Tim Symes from Benalla at 29. Lewis went on to play 182 games with the Swans, ranking him among the best mid-season pick-ups in the history of the draft. Symes, however, lasted one or two training nights before returning to Benalla.

While their paths diverged after 1990, their fates are entwined again this season. Both players have been flying into Melbourne on weekends to play in country Victoria. Their clubs' premiership hopes are boosted greatly by their journeys.

Lewis flies from Sydney to Melbourne, where he picks up a hire car and drives four hours to Swan Hill. Symes flies from Adelaide to Melbourne, where he picks up a hire car and drives more than two hours to Benalla.

Every Sunday, they fly back to their adopted cities and the working week. While tiredness and aching bones might prompt reflections on their journeys, the next Friday they back up with another trip to Victoria.

They do it because they want to be around family and they want to put something back into country football. All parties certainly reap benefits.

Wes and Dale Lewis, born 11 months apart to farming parents in northern Victoria, spent their childhood locked in backyard combat. In their daily football matches, Wes, a North Melbourne fan, declared himself to be Malcolm Blight while Dale, a Hawthorn supporter, was Peter Knights. The young Roo and the young Hawk scurried after the ball until the sun went down.

"We had some huge barneys," said Dale.

On Saturdays, the boys would be bundled into the back of the car for the trip to the footy. The family had to be at the ground in time for older brother Brett to play in the Ultima thirds. Their sister Leonie would play in an early netball match before their mother Alison played in the A-grade game.

At 2pm, their father Owen, known to all as Tuppy, would run on to the field with the Ultima senior team. Wes and Dale would continue booting their footy until bouncing into the sheds just before half-time to prepare to play in the minis.

At 10 o'clock, the two boys might be found asleep under a table in the social rooms. After 12 hours spent scampering after a footy, the effort would have taken its toll.

Dale Lewis can only smile when supporters around Woorinen, the club he is to represent in the Central Murray league today, ask whether he is familiar with country footy. Years of watching Lewis on television have conned the supporters into thinking that the talented half-forward was born in a guernsey bearing a motif of the harbour bridge.

Lewis was steeped in country footy while growing up in the Mallee. The family moved into pubs in Ballarat, where he and Wes, who is older, starred for North Ballarat before playing in a premiership with Torquay. In 1990 they returned to North Ballarat and Dale was drafted.

He was 21 when the Swans took a punt on the laconic left-footer. Country footy had long since left an impression that would last a lifetime.

His return to his roots began when Wes Lewis and Chris Wall were appointed co-coaches of Woorinen after last season. Wes, who at 178 centimetres is 10 centimetres shorter than Dale, told potential recruits that his brother would be joining them. He then gained Dale's signature as the retired Swan prepared to leave after the family Christmas in Swan Hill.

"He shoved a registration form in front of me before I left for Sydney," Dale said.

Weekend commitments with Channel 7 prevented Dale playing early in the season. He saw the first opportunity on the long weekend in June. The Monday fixture against Tyntynder, the club with which Wes played in several premierships before taking the Woorinen coaching job, enabled Dale to finish his television commitments and play.

His appearance, if not his dubious fitness, lifted Woorinen to an uncommon victory over Tyntynder. Then, in the after-match function in the Commercial Hotel, the Swan Hill pub owned by the Lewis family, he impressed supporters when he took the microphone and acknowledged he was returning to play with his brother, before adding he wanted to play in a successful team with his brother. He pledged to qualify for the finals.

He achieved his aim in the final round when, against better judgment, he lined up for his fourth game of the season. In previous matches, he had scooted up to Swan Hill and scooted back to Melbourne the next morning for his flight to Sydney.

For this match, he would be forced to drive to Balranald, an hour past Swan Hill, on the Murrumbidgee River, before driving another four or five hours to Albury, where he was to go to a benefit night for the family of local sportswriter Danny Fox. He warned that he would be unable to remain in Balranald for too long before setting off on the Albury leg of his arduous schedule.

Balranald was horrified. The promise of watching Lewis had doubled gate takings at his previous three matches. Balranald wanted to gain from increased attendance, without disappointing supporters with the early departure of the star attraction.

In an unprecedented, yet practical, solution, the home club shifted the game forward by 30 minutes to accommodate Lewis. He played more than three quarters, kicking six goals before jogging off and setting sail for Albury.

His form was less convincing in the qualifying final against Swan Hill last week. He played in the centre the entire match. "There's no rest when your brother's the coach," he said.

He kicked 1.4 before lining up for a goal in the last quarter that would bring Woorinen within a goal of its opponent. His left foot scraped the ground while he was trying to kick, leaving the ball to wobble harmlessly towards a defender in the goalsquare, and leaving spectators in hysterics.

"Did the horns go off, and did the crowd go off? You betcha," he said.

Supporters screamed at Lewis while he allowed himself a chuckle. His error was made at a crucial stage in the match but he couldn't deny the funny side.

President Gary Beasy said the incident summed up the match for Woorinen. "That's what the whole day was like."

Beasy added that the way Lewis interacted with the crowd reflected his performances in the rooms after games, when he chats to one supporter after another. Lewis, for his part, said it is just his way.

As an AFL player, he never turned away a supporter who wanted to talk. Even drunks and lunatics were given five minutes. He said chatting to Woorinen supporters was one way of putting back into country footy. The more active way is contributing on the field.

The 33-year-old pulled up last week without the aches he experienced after previous matches. "I reckon I might have turned the corner," he said.

He went running early in the week and played squash on Wednesday. Tyntynder, the opponent in today's first semi-final at Cohuna, might be warned of an opponent no longer relying entirely on the fitness base gained through 11 years of AFL football.

Lewis said he was relishing life after the AFL. "There's no fanfare, no fancy gear, no backslappers - it's absolutely brilliant to be playing again," he said.

Tim Symes left Benalla after 1992, when he accepted an invitation to join West Adelaide. At the start of this season, he was within sight of his 200th senior game for the SANFL club.

The versatile big man, who is 193 centimetres and 104 kilograms, must have been confident of achieving the milestone after finishing second in the best-and-fairest count in 2001. His performances at centre half-back in the second half of the season brought him within two votes of winning the club award.

The selectors, however, were difficult to impress. Symes, 33, was left to languish in the reserves while the senior team lost the opening five matches this season. He decided there was no point hanging around.

He cooled his heels for six weeks before deciding to return to football. He could have reaped big money in a South Australian league, such as the strong Barossa Valley competition, but the call was stronger to fulfil his ambition of playing a season in the Goulburn Valley with Benalla, where his parents live.

His uncle, Brian Symes, a member of Benalla's team of the century, organised a supporters' group that chipped in with donations towards plane fares and hire cars. Symes played his first game mid-season, alongside Ricky and Peter Symes, Brian's sons, and has played ever since.

His form has been solid rather than spectacular, but coach Brenton Cooper said Symes was worth six goals a week. "It's just his presence," Cooper said. "And he's such a team-oriented player."

Symes showed the extent of his capabilities in the club's biggest game in its recent history. With top spot at stake in a match against fellow premiership aspirant Shepparton Swans, Symes tore the game apart to kick 10 goals from centre half-forward.

"It was just a really important game," he said. "I really wanted to play well."

The key forward has eased back in recent weeks, enabling his body to regenerate before September. But he was planning to step up for yesterday's final against Rochester, which finished in second spot behind Benalla.

Symes forms the central cog in an imposing attack. Ricky Symes, a Western Bulldogs draftee in 1998, and Ben Horne play on the flanks and Cooper provides a proven target at full-forward after kicking several centuries with Shepparton United and Wodonga before becoming Benalla coach last year.

Cooper, who had kicked 90 goals this season before yesterday's match, took on a job at a club that has been without a premiership since 1973. Benalla left the Ovens and Murray league in 1997 after members decided that success was beyond the club because it was unable to keep up with the match payments of its rivals.

Since joining the Goulburn Valley league, the Saints have concentrated on nurturing those who played in under-18 premiership teams in 1996 and '97. Special effort was made to find jobs in Benalla, a town of 10,000, to enable the teenagers to remain in their home town.

Those young stars have now matured into senior players with 60 to 80 games behind them. The inclusion of Glenelg recruit Alistair Burke, a friend of Cooper, alongside midfield partner Brendan Stevens, the brother of Kangaroos captain Anthony, has added a touch of class.

The mid-season recruitment of Tim Symes topped off a team that was slowly beginning to believe in itself. The Saints are thankful that the City of Church's loss might just be the gain that takes them towards an elusive premiership.

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