Will Kevin Sheedy Coach the Toscana Club? Italian AFL team of 2 Milleniums.
Photo above is of the Great 1973 Toscana Football team and thats me on far right with hair. This article was in IL GLOBO. A win by the Toscana club at the famous Bulleen Venue against the Valguarnera Club ( who?).
This was my greatest football highlight. Not the 93 Grand Final with EFC or the 2004 Finals with Geelong. Not the NAB Cup win in 2006 with GFC ( NAB Cup: The win thats not a win!). Not the VCFL win in 2006 at Southport with Leigh Colbert as coach! No it was this game. And I am an Italian “true blue” who has dual citizenship. I have fond memories of this game and recognise its true place in the history of the AFL. Peter Riccardi is, I hope a good friend but even though he looks more italian than an italian he doesnt speak a word. How can he get in the team of the century? If I asked most of those boys in “that” team of the century ( except Alessio) to name me who was the famous porn star that made it into the Italian Government would they know? ( La Cicciolina) And they call themselves Italian? I think the selection criteria should have been based on questions like the above. Maybe 10 questions that can identify if you are Italian. After all there is no soul or spirit in some errant “wog” gene that might be present in John Kennedy!
Now Steve Alessio and Rocca are real Ities Downunder. When you go and have coffee with them they order a short black, not a flat white or a skinny cappucino or a “laaarte”! And why didn’t the team of a century have a fitness adviser? This was a glaring omission from this team and I wonder why? The selection committee from the recent AFL team of the century of Ron Barassi , Brendon Gale, Kevin Bartlett, Frank Costa, Kevin Sheedy, Bob Skilton, Bill Stephen and former field umpire John Russo must take accountability for this because I am sure the ALL CROATION AFL team will be lean, fit and strong and these boys of Italian Heritage need to be pushed. Too much “La Dolce Vita” sometimes. The Croatians all stars have been bought up on war and conflict so one just winds them up and off they go. Not that they are better mind you! Just a different approach is needed. We Tuscans are thinking of our next major cultural achievement so sport is just a catharsis for the “arty-farty” brain. We have excellent decision making skills and evasive skills as can be evidenced by the number of warring nations that went up and down Italy and minimal collateral damage compared to Vladivostock.. Who is there to yell “forza ragazzi” for “that all star team”. My grandmother Nonna Tina and mum Rosa were there at the Veneto Club that day and they were amazed at my skills.
This was a tough day. As you can see we had no bench. The umpire I remember was Renato Serafini ( ex Fitzroy) . One rule change was to allow headers and if it went through it was a point. We practised our “acting and falling” for free kicks in the warmup and Serafini fell for this a number of times. And only now can I make the startling revelation that some of the boys in the Toscana team were not from Tuscan descent. My dad was Livornese so I couldn’t be more Tuscan. We had a few guys from Veneto and I think one Aussie that looked Italian and could say ciao. We taught him to say. Mi Chiamo Frederico. His name was Fred McDonaghy. We had to play the veneto dudes because then we could use the Veneto Club.
We were sponsored by Lago Smallgoods (which was owned by Rosalba Stocco, my dads other sister and also a Tuscan). and they supplied pregame salami and mortadellas. This was the 70’s remember. Beer and a smoke for recovery after a game at Moorabin. The mortadellas were really good to warm up with because they were like heavy footballs so when we kicked the sherrins they felt like tennis balls. We used the salamis like foam rollers for massage. I have learnt to use any aid I can in my quest to seek out cutting edge cost efficient Sports Science needs. After all I had about 20 Italian Lire at Geelong to run Sports Science when I got there.
Tactically we played a 1 6 4 3 3 1 formation but when the game got tough we played the 17 1 formation ( We had an all in brawl and smashed the shits out of the Valguarnerans ( Who?) !) . My cousin Rudy Villani who could play a bit got about 78 possessions.
The Angele family ( now own Brunettis) supplied carbohydrates with lots of cakes and lots of chinotto as sportsdrink. George Angele is Roman but we accepted his offer because he married my dads sister Gigliola ( a Tuscan of course!). Also they had a special mobile expresso coffee machine for half time and the breaks. We had to be careful with caffeine because 3 short blacks could get us over the limit with caffeine which was illegal then if overdosed. So I worked out using my sports science background that 1 short black, then 1 latte and 1 skinny macchiatto would have us under the limit for caffeine at the end of a game ( or 17 nescafes).
We tried to get sponsored with fruit from the market for postgame recovery and then sought out other big food chains but the rackets of the time ( 50 cents a case racket) with fruit meant that we were also hands off and there was no money left over for sponsorships . Things have changed thankfully.
At the time we made huge offers to get Mario Bortolotto and Vinny Cattogio to play. Not enough. They wanted a years supply of cappricciosa pizzas from Totos ( which was owned by a Tuscan) and we couldn’t crunch the deal. Didn’t need them anyway and they haven’t made any teams since so would not have helped it seems.
At the end in the rooms we sang the TUSCAN NATIONAL ANTHEM and had some “pasta dura” loaves and mozzarella sandwiches which did the carbs and protein thing. Lygon Street was abuzz that night. Horns honked and the chianti flowed. Shots were fired in celebration of course ( this was way before the gangland wars.) Al Grassby sent us a telegram and the celebrations could be heard on top of the leaning tower of PISA. We received an invite to go to Siena and il palio which is the famous horserace in the centre of Tuscany and race some Aussie horses there. It would have interfered with a game we had to play against the Italian Werribee Social Club in Werribee so we cancelled the trip. But still we are looking at it because I think one can fit an MCG size ground in the square in Siena.
Joe Misit, Mark Mercuri and Steve Alessio were at the game as little kiddies and they were inspired to play AFL given they saw us play at this level. They were dribbling their soccer balls and saw us and destiny beckoned. Of course they are not toscani but we accept that Italy has unified now. Steve Alessio is driving a lot of free agency issues in the AFL now and I think we will use him to develop a system to allow free agency between Italian Provinces ( Social Clubs) but there is a long way to go given since the Kingdom of Italy was formed in 1861 and the current flag only evolved in 1946 when Italy became a republic. So just like the Serbians and the Croations there are a lot of underlying tensions between provinces ( Social Clubs) which would make free agency hard to work. I know this day is what drove these boys on to great sporting feats.
And do you know that Mr and Mrs Rocca were there watching in their car on the sidelines and little Sav hadn’t even been thought of but the game was so inspiring that during the 3rd quarter their car fogged up and thats where little Sav er became the big Saveloid.
Imagine what Kevin Sheedy could do with this team. He is available and he loves wine. He also loves his sweets and I would think he is at that stage in life where he could combine sport and culture. Imagine that. The first AFL game in Siena straight after IL PALIO RACE is over in the square ( after they have swept up all the horseshit). Sheedy in Siena. A marketing coup. I reckon Silvio Berlusconi should have a word to Sheeds. Forza Sheeds.
Anyway these are the links to the “ugh” team of the century and some other obscure italian team.
http://www.italianteamofthecentury.com.au/final-team.php
http://www.italydownunder.com.au/issueone/afl.htmll
And here a link to La Cicciolina
CIAO
Bailey at Epping Football Ground
Went for a run at Epping with Bailey. This is one great way of doing agility as against change of direction. When I was running strides Bails just runs at me and I have to work out where he is going then make my move otherwise I am injured given he is almost 50kg and fast twitch. This is agility whilst running around cones is change of direction and involves extra qualities. These terms often get confused and research by Young and Shepherd clarified the terminology. He also made friends with some people that were at the wake of a young player from Epping and I think brightened their day. All that sort of stuff puts thing in perspective and my condolences to his family and friends.
How Michael Bertolacci lost 15 kilos in 4 months
Michael Bertolacci ( my son) has a new found hobby which is running with his running partner Bailey our dog. They go off at 9pm most nights for a 6 to 10km run. Michael has not done much sport and has concentrated on more cerebral pursuits but whilst in Sydney working for Google he started running at nights around Sydney University. In the space of 3 months he lost nearly 15 kilos. He started with about 2km of jog walk and by the end of his 3 month stay in Sydney had upped that to 6km. Given the abundance of food at Google he had to discipline himself and since then doesnt eat “crap” much and also keeps a mental ledger to use his words of how much he has eaten. He now has progressed to 10km runs and Bailey doesnt know where it will all end. Bailey is a fast twitch athlete/dog who is 50kgs and is more suited to intermittent pursuits such as chasing cats at high speed. So hopefully soon Michael will add Interval training and Speed Work to his sessions for Baileys sake. But back to Michael and certainly it is a good example of very simple lifestyle and exercise modifications that have worked for him. And he has worked it out all on his own which really indicates that all this stuff is not rocket science but simply a lifestyle decision and hard work.
loris bertolacci 