FAREWELL TO A LOCAL FOOTY LEGEND
KEVIN Higgins has been remembered as one of the most influential figures in Newtown & Chilwell history as the football community mourns his passing.
Ambitious and talented with a ruthless competitive drive, Higgins was headhunted to join the Eagles in late 1980 after playing 153 games for Geelong and Fitzroy during the 1970s.
He turned the Eagles into a powerhouse, coaching the club to its only three GFL premierships — 1982, 1985 and 1986 — amid a glorious period that delivered five grand final appearances and a legacy that is still richly celebrated today.
“He came to Newtown at a time when we needed someone of his strength, personality and skills,” teammate, friend and club great Mark Hall remembered after Higgins lost his battle with illness, aged 68.
“I think he was just the complete package when he left Fitzroy and the committee got him to Newtown and it was a really exciting time.
“He was a competitive beast and he brought a whole new culture to Newtown and that’s why he was so successful.
“You just loved him because he stuck up for you and he backed you in. You just loved the guy and he loved you back and he led from the front.
“He was a really good communicator, he knew his footy and knew how to get the best out of everybody.
“A good coach has different personalities to deal with and he definitely had them at Newtown. We had a few extroverted guys and a few introverted guys and he just mixed them all together and made it all work.
“He drove the bus and everyone followed.
“He was an integral part of the club at a time when we needed someone and it really is a credit to him for the success we had back in that era. He was a good bloke, he really was. He loved Newtown”
Higgins made his debut for Geelong in Round 1, 1970, against Hawthorn at Glenferrie Oval. It was the first of 128 for the Cats before he finished his career at Fitzroy with 25 games between 1979-1980.
The story goes he one day stood alongside an adrenalinecharged Robbie Muir at Moorabbin when most others would have preferred not, but he relished the challenge.
Across his decade of league footy, Higgins forged a reputation as a reliable defender across halfback who could also win plenty of the ball.
At Newtown, he played full forward and kicked the century in back-to-back seasons in the early 1980s, aided by a game plan that encouraged long and direct forward entries.
“I was playing in the centre,” Hall said. “And he would just tell you before the game, ‘Right, when you get the ball, kick it to the right hand side of the bloke and I’ll be on that side of him’. I’d put it there and he would mark it every time.”
Hall also recalled with a laugh some other instructions: “And he would say, ‘ Bugger (Newtown centre-half forward) Gary Kelly, kick it over his head and kick it to me. I said that to Kell the other week and he said, ‘No wonder I got a sunburnt neck’.”
Higgins finished up as coach at Elderslie Reserve in 1988, having notched 106 wins from 155 games in charge.
He had ambitions to coach at a higher level, as high as the AFL.
He was in the mix for a coaching role with Geelong’s reserves in the late 1980s before trying his luck over a Sturt in the SANFL. That lasted only a year.
“He coached interleague one year and the league decided to fly us to Mildura,” Hall said.
“We got fogged in at Tullamarine and didn’t get to Mildura until about 1.30pm and we had to just jump on the bus, go to the ground and play the game.
“We got done by about 10 points and we got fogged in that night, so we were just sitting around — there were about five Newtown players in the team, Basil Flynn, Gary Kelly, Paul Kelly, Russell Webber and myself.
“Higgo was the coach and we were just having a beer and he looked at us all and he said, ‘Thanks a lot, you bastards, you’ve buggered up my coaching career’ (laughing), so he had a sense of humour too.”
Outside of football, Higgins was a highly regarded teacher and was elevated to principal at a young age before leaving teaching to chase his coaching dreams.
He had a brief foray into hospitality when he took over a city pub, before returning to teaching.
In more recent times, he worked in the charitable arm of Cotton On, helping with overseas projects in disadvantaged communities.