Left: Black and white through and through: Narre Warren club legends Ted Boyle with Wendy.By Rebecca Fraser
THOUSANDS turned out to support Narre Warren Football Club’s attempt to break a 14-year premiership drought on Saturday, but nothing had more impact than the silent cheer of late club legend Wendy Boyle.
Emotions ran high when both senior and reserve teams clinched stunning premiership victories just over one year after the passing of the much-loved Magpie matriarch.
Amid the celebrations players’ minds soon turned to Wendy – a club stalwart who had embraced the Narre Warren football family as her own.
With the club since it formed in 1953, Wendy was renowned for the weekly roasts she served up each Thursday night to a hungry pack of players, and no one’s plate was piled higher than that of premiership captain Brett ‘Birdman’ Evans.
Evans said Wendy would definitely have been watching over the team and spurring them on to victory over Doveton on the weekend.
Following the final siren, an inflatable premiership cup was placed at Wendy’s grave at Berwick Cemetery as a signal of triumph.
Players returned on Tuesday morning with the real premiership cups and sang an emotional rendition of the Narre Warren club song, followed by three passionate cheers.
Wendy’s daughters, grandchildren and other relatives, many still heavily involved with the club, also came to pay their respects and savour the victory at the resting place of the club doyen.
Grandson and club vice-president Scott Slater, said Wendy would have been ‘over the moon’ with the wins and deeply honoured by the actions of her players.
Wendy’s husband, Ted Boyle, has also witnessed the highs and lows of local football and since the pair met has dedicated much of his life to the Magpies as a barman, trainer, handyman, vice-president and club person over the past 30 years.
The club awards a trophy each year in the couple’s honour, the Ted and Wendy Boyle perpetual shield, for the best club person.
Daughter Narelle Graham said her father was equally ecstatic about Saturday’s wins and was deeply moved by the players’ gesture.
Ms Graham said her mother would have been shouting out ‘Carn the Pies’ alongside another club legend Nell Fox if they had both still been alive.
Ms Fox passed away six months before Wendy.
“It (the wins) would have been one of the best moments in her life,” Ms Graham said.
“It was 14 years coming and it was all she ever wanted. Narre (Warren) meant everything to her.”
Evans, now the Magpies’ only dual premiership player after also playing in the 1992 triumph, said Wendy had avidly followed his football career and told him he would be part of another Magpie win when he returned after being delisted by Richmond in 2001.
“Just as she said we would, we did win another one. She died 13 months too early but we felt her looking over us,” Evans said.
Evans’s teammate Glenn Hamilton was among those behind the decision to visit the cemetery.
He said when he sat down in the changing rooms to reflect on Saturday’s win, Wendy was the first person to spring to his mind.
“She was like a mother figure to everyone,” he said.
