Best of the best

WITH the announcement of the Group 7 Team of the Last 50 Years Lake Times Sport will be featuring a selection of the 17 players over the coming weeks. We begin this week with the back three, all of whom represented Gerringong throughout their illustrious footballing careers.

Full Back - Russell Ford

Gerringong

(50 and 60 era)

Russell moved to Gerringong from the St George area and was a member of the 1956 Gerringong Premiership team. A residential qualification dispute when Russell first played with Gerringong possibly cost him higher representative honours. Russell enjoyed further success with the Gerringong Club as Captain Coach of the 1960 Premiership winning team.

Russell was one of the first of the running fullbacks in the competition moving away from the traditional kicking full backs of that time. Russell became a Gerringong local when he married into the Quinn family and their family have played a significant part in the game over the past 50 years.

Wing - Roy Stewart

Gerringong

(60 and 70 era)

Roy began his career at La Perouse and played with South Sydney before moving back to Gerringong where he had attended school. Roy was one of the most exciting players in the history of the area. When Roy received the ball the crowd would sense something was going to happen and his knack of scoring tries from seemingly impossible positions was legendary. He played in four Gerringong premiership teams1965, 68, 70 and 72. His representative career with Southern Division spanned over twelve years and in 1977 he was presented with a blazer by the Division to mark the record achievement. He played for Southern Division in winning teams against France in 1964 and Great Britain in 1970. The same year he was named in the Australian Aboriginal team to tour England and it was a great disappointment when the tour was cancelled due to financial reasons. In 1978 he was afforded a Special Testimonial Game by the Gerringong Club the only player in their history to be bestowed the honour.

Sadly Roy Stewart passed away on the 13th March, 1997 aged 57 years.

Wing - Rod Wishart

Gerringong (80 era)

A Gerringong junior Rod topped the century of points in first grade in his initial year.

He represented Southern Division and Combined Country and played for the Division against Papua New Guinea at Nowra, the only international game ever played in the Group. Rod joined the Illawarra Steelers and running with the strength of a forward burst onto the State of Origin scene in 1990. After missing the Kangaroo tour due to injury he was first selected to play for Australia against New Zealand the following season. A long career followed at all levels of the game and he was recently named in the Steelers 25-year team.

Keep an eye on this space next week when we take a look at the top Group 7 centres of the past 50 years.