A quiet beer on Johnston Street

by PAUL DAFFEY

THE Yarra Hotel in Johnston Street, Abbotsford, is one of several pubs to be linked with the history of the Collingwood Football Club. Others include the Retreat Hotel, the Yorkshire Stingo and the Friendly Societies Hotel, which is now known as the Carringbush. Only the Yarra Hotel, however, served as the Magpies' changing-rooms.

Before the club's first match, in May 1892, players changed at the back of the Yarra Hotel before jogging across Johnston Street and making their way on to the field at Victoria Park. This practice continued for a month, after which a timber grandstand at Victoria Park was completed. Players then changed in the training room beneath the grandstand.

While the drinkers in the public bar of the Yarra Hotel no doubt missed the sight of footballers jogging out the door, the pub remained a Magpies' stronghold. In the years leading up to the new century, when the football club tried to make money by leasing liquor booths around the ground, the plan failed when supporters met at the pub before the game. At half-time, they ducked back to the Yarra for a couple of stiffeners, before returning for a couple more after the siren.

For decades, the pub was a social hub for supporters and players, most of whom lived in the Collingwood area. In the 1960s, when the Mahon family owned the Yarra Hotel, the presence of John Mahon in the Collingwood line-up ensured that players drank there.

Mahon was a robust key defender, playing 60 games from 1961 to '65, while his father Jack was a robust publican. With Jack Mahon behind the jump, no one would be served without a singlet on his back and no food was allowed in the bar, not even a sandwich. Danny Slattery, the son of a local publican, who ingested the folklore surrounding Collingwood and Fitzroy pubs from an early age, said Jack Mahon's insistence on a few rules was unusual.

"Some of the pubs were pretty rough," he said, remembering occasions when he crossed the street to avoid going too close to the Retreat Hotel.

Slattery said Ray Gabelich, a former salesman and Collingwood captain, would drop into the Yarra Hotel to deliver peanuts and pickles. The players all called Jack Mahon's wife, who was also a tough publican, Mrs Mahon.

In the 1970s, the family of another Collingwood player, in this case John Dellamarta, took over the Yarra Hotel. By then, the abandonment of early closing insured against the brawls that ritually erupted when drinkers were kicked into the street at the stroke of 6 o'clock, but a fight could still be found if you wanted one.

Robin Grow, a retired public servant and a respected authority on the history of Australian football, spent more than 30 years going to Collingwood matches at Victoria Park before the Magpies left for the MCG after the 1999 season. He said it was not unknown for the fans of opposition clubs to be challenged as they walked along Johnston Street, especially if the Magpies had lost.

"To leave Victoria Park after a game could be reasonably dangerous," he said.

In the bar of the Yarra Hotel this week, while three office workers played darts as another leaned on his elbow and drank a pot, Grow explained the unity that bound Collingwood supporters and made life difficult for visitors. In the late 19th century, the area around Victoria Park was home to boot factories, breweries and tanneries, all of which were positioned to enable them to flush waste into the Yarra River. The workers in these industries tended to live locally, drink locally and follow the local football club.

"There was very much a district pride," Grow said.

The fans at Victoria Park looked after each other, as they would in any tight community. In the event of a conflagration, though, tempers were quick to arouse. Grow remembered occasions in the outer in the 1960s and '70s when a space would suddenly clear to reveal knots of men belting into each other.

The mood occasionally continued in the pubs around Victoria Park after the siren. Marion Trovato, who with her husband Con has run the Yarra Hotel since 1991, said there was always a sense of danger in the bar after Collingwood games. "You were always on edge," she said, adding that St Kilda supporters were the wildest opposition fans.

Every Friday before a Magpies home game, the Trovato family shifted tables, chairs and all football paraphernalia from the bar to a back room. On Saturdays, six staff members would serve behind the bar while two more picked up glasses. After a Magpies victory, it was almost guaranteed that a supporter would leap on to the bar and lead the pub through Good Old Collingwood Forever. On Sundays, the furniture and football paraphernalia would be put back into place and a measure of calm would resume.

Marion Trovato said the atmosphere that enveloped the streets around Victoria Park on match days dissipated as the 1990s wore on, because the Magpies were increasingly drawn to play only interstate clubs and Fitzroy at their spiritual home. She said she was slightly relieved when the club moved its home games to the MCG after receiving a drubbing from the Brisbane Lions in the final round in 1999.

Since then, Magpie fans have had no occasion to goad opposition supporters on Johnston Street or walk on bonnets of cars that stop at traffic lights. But in the event of a Collingwood victory at the MCG today, expect to see a little history revisited. The streets around Victoria Park, which was renamed McHale Stadium during the 2000 season, are sure to thrum with the passion that terrified opposition fans and fired the souls of the black and white army.

An edited version of this article appeared in The Age on 27 September 2003

Ray Gabelich. Collingwood captain & Johnston Street visitor.

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