Bendigo Advertiser | IT’S being billed as a once-in-a-lifetime weekend the likes of which the tiny town of Colbinabbin has never experienced before - and it all revolves around the footy-netball club.
And that shouldn’t be a surprise considering like many regional towns, the footy-netball club is the hub of the Colbinabbin community.
It’s a club that this year turns 100, with the milestone to be celebrated over three days this weekend in which the population of the town – which at last count was 297 in the 2011 Census – will swell to around 400.
The Colbo faithful will all be there – starting Friday night with a memorabilia display at the Colbinabbin Hall – to reminisce about what is a unique club in look, name and sound.
Unique in the sense that while most country footy clubs have some connection to a VFL/AFL club in terms of their jumper, nickname or club song, it’s not the case with Colbinabbin.
Colbinabbin’s grand old green jumper with gold yolk won’t be spotted on any AFL ground.
Nor will you hear any AFL supporters yelling out “C’arn Grasshoppers” - the nickname of Colbinabbin.
Then again, you won’t hear that either at Colbinabbin or any other Heathcote District league ground for that matter on a Saturday afternoon.
Rather than cheering on their Grasshoppers, the footy club has always been plain old Colbo to the town’s folk – and the players are reminded that after every win.
For the words “Up there Colbo" form part of the club song that was penned by David Pinniger in 1974 around the piano of Fin Rathjen over a few quiet season-ending beers.
Sung to the tune of Waltzing Matilda, I reckon it’s one of country footy’s great original club songs:
Down in Waranga, nestled in amongst the trees
There is a town that is beautiful to see
And from that town there comes a team of champions
Who play the game magnificently
Up there Colbo, up there Colbo, up there Colbo you’ll do me
For we’re brave and we’re bold for the grand old green and gold
Up there Colbo you’ll do me
Out came (insert beaten club) dressed up in their (insert beaten club’s colours)
Out came Colbo 1, 2, 3
Where’s that champion you’ve got on your forward line
We’ll do him over very smartly
Up there Colbo, up there Colbo, up there Colbo you’ll do me
For we’re brave and we’re bold for the grand old green and gold
Up there Colbo you’ll do me
The line about the opposition’s champion forward and doing him over “very smartly” is classic and captures the competitive spirit of country footy.
It’s a song that has been sung by hundreds of Colbo players, many of which have family links that can be traced back to the founding years of the club, which first played in the former Elmore District competition in 1915.
Names like Morgan, Rathjen, Stewart, Hill, Ryan, McEvoy, McTaggart, Hamilton, Weppner, Tuohey and Brown have long been synonymous with the club.
Those names will be smattered throughout the club’s 12 premiership sides - 1939, '49, '50, '75, '78, '91, '98, '99, 2002, '03, '04 and '08 (pictured) – which is second in the HDFL to only Mount Pleasant’s 19 flags.
Memories of those glorious premiership years will be relived this weekend, as will many others tales of seasons gone by as that little club nestled in amongst the trees down in Waranga celebrates a milestone event 100 years in the making.
