Pies Eade’s first love

Legend reflects as Glenorchy prepare for Centenary

RODNEY Eade has nothing but fond memories of his time at Glenorchy, even of the infamous “Spew Hill”.

In its centenary year, the Magpies will announce a century of champions and induct current star Jaye Bowden into its Hall of Fame at the club this Friday night.

Eade, a 259-game, fourtime VFL/AFL premiership player and 377-game coach across three AFL clubs, will be one of the 100 announced at the dinner.

He came through with the likes of other Pie greats such as Danny Ling and Roland Curley and played in Glenorchy’s 1975 TANFL and state premiership under coach Peter Hudson before being swooped on by Hawthorn where he played in the 1976 VFL premiership.

Eade, 61, said players do not realise the impact they have on youngsters coming through — something he learnt from his time at Glenorchy that he took into his AFL coaching career.

“When I was a junior I was a Glenorchy supporter and all my mates were and my hero was Geoff Graham so then to get the opportunity to play with those players such as Geoff and those sort of blokes, it was a bit unreal as a kid,” Eade said.

“They were my heroes and the team that I followed so to be able to play with them I was very lucky to be able to do that.”

The 1975 premiership team was a supremely fit unit under Hudson (who played the back half of the season, kicking 76 goals), frequently taking on “Spew Hill” at Claremont and running repeat 400m at training.

But Eade said it was a case of do what I say not what I do with Hudson.

“He didn’t run Spew Hill, it was always mentioned to him,” he said.

“Our training loads didn’t drop away too much when he returned to playing and he always loved doing 400s at training and he would always be last but he’d say, ‘If I catch you, you have to do another one’.

“He was able to pace himself at the back of the pack but he never did pre-season with us.”

The Glenorchy Primary and Rosetta High School product is extremely proud of his first club and follows their success from his Melbourne base.

“Very much, I hear about players coming through and how they’ve gone on to be very good players for the club,” he said.

“They’ve obviously been pretty successful. They’ve had a great area to draw upon and a lot of talent from across that area.

“They’ve done really well to be one of the forerunners in the competition and such a strong club, they’ve been terrific.”

Tickets are still available for the event via Stan Walker (0429 811 968) or Graham Kelly (0400 212 805).