PLUS: IAN COVER COLUMN
PAUL Sarah is another of those local lads who dreamt of playing for Geelong and made it a reality.
A product of Geelong High, he played junior footy at East Geelong and was invited to Kardinia Park to have a run with the under-19s in 1970.
After a few games he returned to East in time to play in a senior premiership as a 16year-old under the captaincy of his brother, Phil. He returned to Geelong in 1971 before again going back to East.
In 1972 he was off to the Cattery for a third go — and this time he stayed. The Cats must have been confident he was in for the long haul as he was installed as captain of the under-19s.
However, that lasted just one week before he was promoted to the reserves. Just 18, Sarah’s rapid rise continued and he was selected in a forward pocket for his senior debut at home in Round 10 against St Kilda.
Sarah was allocated the No. 13 jumper, which had been worn just twice the year before by Ray Haynes, who crossed from Footscray, and before that back in 1967 by Daryl Herrod.
But I digress. Sarah thought he would get a number in the 40s or 50s but found out it was 13 courtesy of popular trainer Ron ‘Pud’ Richards.
“Pud came into the bank where I was working on the Friday before the game and said they’ve given you No.13,” Sarah recalled this week. “I said that’ll do me.”
He played the remaining 13 games of the season, kicking 17 goals and picking up five Brownlow votes. He thinks he also polled votes in the Gardiner Medal (reserves) and the Morrish Medal for the one game he played in the under-19s making him the answer to a quirky trivia question if it can be confirmed.
At 177cm and 70kg (5’8” and 11 stone in real footy speak), there wasn’t much of the nippy forward pocket/rover but the fans found plenty to like and he quickly became a favourite. They delighted in his twin loves of taking a “speccy” and snapping an impossible goal.
When Sarah wasn’t kicking goals himself, crowds enjoyed how he was looking for his great mate, Larry Donohue, on a lead.
His popularity was rounded out by bearing the schoolyard nickname ‘Ferret’ as everyone felt an easy familiarity about saying “G’day Ferret”.
His love of jumping wasn’t confined to marking the footy as he won the Geelong allschools high jump with a leap of “five-feet, 11-and-a-half inches”.
Coincidentally, the athletics carnival was held at Kardinia Park.
“Little blokes were supposed to stay down but I used to love going for a fly. It didn’t go down well with the coaches,” Sarah said.
“Polly (Farmer) tried to ban me from jumping but it went in one ear and out the other.”
His defiance of the coach landed him trouble one memorable day when he took a couple of grabs and goaled before the runner came out to tell him to come off the ground.
“There was no interchange so you were finished for the day if you were dragged,” Sarah said. “Kevin Sheehan was running up and down the boundary waiting to come on when I managed to grab another mark.
“I held up the ball and showed it to the coaches’ box which was a bit silly but I couldn’t help myself.”
He went back and slotted the goal then turned to run off the ground as directed.
“The social club erupted and poor, old ‘ Shifter’ (Sheehan) panicked and called out to me to stay on, so I did.”
He feared being dropped for the next game but somehow stayed in the team and avoided any form of punishment, not even a tongue lashing from Polly.
Sarah did get dropped a few times during 128 games over nine seasons and played enough games in the reserves in 1975 to qualify for the finals, including the Grand Final, which Geelong won.
At a recent reunion of that premiership team, he asked me who I thought was best on ground and I nominated Jeff ‘Butch’ Cassidy who racked up a heap of possessions and kicked 3.8.
“Have you forgotten someone?” Sarah asked cheekily. He pulled out a crumpled clipping from the Geelong Advertiser bearing the match details and listing the best players. The first named was P. Sarah.
“Just call me ‘ Norm’,” he quipped a la Steve Johnson in 2007. If anyone did, it would be the only time in his life he was called anything other than Ferret.