Shepparton News | A Nathalia football team rescued a man after his car went into a creek near their football oval on Thursday night.

Numurkah police Leading Senior Constable Joe Tomasino said the Nathalia man, 60, was driving west on Nathalia-Waaia Rd when he lost control of his ute and ended up in Broken Creek next to Nathalia Recreation Reserve, about 8thpm Thursday.

He said the quick-thinking actions of Nathalia Football Club players and coaching staff helped pull the man out of the car, potentially saving his life.

Nathalia Football Club coach Craig Whyte said the team was training on the smaller oval, but fate brought the team back to the main oval near the creek.

‘‘We always normally train on the main oval, but we had some light trouble so we were on the smaller oval,’’ Mr Whyte said.

‘‘It was lucky that someone got the lights on again and we had just moved back over.

‘‘We’d only been there 10 minutes when one of the guys standing near me said, ‘I reckon I can see car lights in the creek over there’.’’

Mr Whyte said he blew the whistle and a few football players ran over to the creek to see what was happening.

‘‘I could hear someone yelling and screaming, ‘There’s something floating in the creek’,’’ he said.

‘‘The guys all jumped in. There were about 15 footballers in the creek, they tried to get him out of the car, punched in the windows and then they were able to get him to under his driver’s side window.

‘‘But as soon as he did that, the car took on water and became submerged.

‘‘So then it was pretty frantic, some guys duck-dived, I was starting to think the worst and worried about guys getting trapped.

‘‘After about 25 seconds they pulled him out and carried him to shore on the football oval side of the creek,’’ he said.

Mr Whyte said the 60-year-old was breathing when he was pulled out of the creek and they tried to keep him warm until emergency services arrived.

He was proud of his team’s effort, but said it was quite traumatic for some players.

‘‘It was a couple of minutes of madness, it was so lucky, it was fate,’’ Mr Whyte said.

‘‘I was really proud of the guys, the way they acted, without any fear or self-preservation, it was really good.

‘‘There were some 17 and 16-year-old fellas that train with us so we’re going to have a debrief, some of the guys haven’t slept very well.''

Leading Sen Const Tomasino said paramedics took the 60-year-old man to Goulburn Valley Base Hospital, with hypothermia.

A Goulburn Valley Health spokeswoman said the Nathalia man was in a stable condition at the hospital yesterday.
Police are investigating the cause of the creek crash.

By Emily Woods

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