Ken Piesse talks with one of country football's greatest ironmen, Gippslander Rob Ballingall who is about to start yet another September campaign

In 600 games-plus of country football, Gippsland legend Rob Ballingall has only ever played in one premiership team: in 1984 with Warragul.

This Sunday he starts yet another final's campaign at another of his home-away-from-homes Ellinbank, which takes on Neerim South at Kooweerup.

"I've just started again," says the evergreen 52-year-old who simply refuses to retire.

"I've been running in the thirds and the seconds were short so I started to fill in. I've played the last five games in a row."

His son Steven plays in Ellinbank's senior team and so was Rob, alongside his son for many of his 200 games at the club.

"I've always loved football and this time of the year," he says. "We'd love to make some inroads into the finals and still be there come mid-September. In my first five years at Warragul I reckon we went out of it five times in a row the very first week."

He says he has played "30-something finals" for that one solitary flag, when Warragul, coached by Graeme Gahan, limped into the '84 La Trobe Valley finals before steamrollering the opposition in a September dominance rarely seen in senior Gippsland footy before or since.

"We were the underdogs going into that final series. We hadn't beaten even one of the other teams in the four," he said. "But Graeme insisted our best was good enough and that we had to believe in ourselves, no matter what.

"We ended up beating Morwell in the first-semi by 60-70 points, Leongatha in the preliminary by the same margin and then Traralgon in the grannie by 70 points. It was an amazing month for us."

Ballingall was club captain and centreman who dined out on the rucking dominance of ex-Sandringham giant John "Super" McNicholas, who went on a one-man blitzkrieg, the highlight being his best afield honor in the Grand Final, at Moe.

"We were a good honest team on a bit of a roll," Ballingall said. "We were also very fit. On the Tuesday night before the Grand Final we did 20 or 30 200-metre sprints in the dark. We'd done it in the lead-up to the finals and we did more and more of them the further we advanced. We had plenty of run in our legs, put it that way!"

Logan Park was used for the Warragul dogs and trots, the players training in the centre part with floodlights the equal of the MCG. But come 7 p.m. they had to be off, so would go out the back onto a smaller oval and do their extra fitness work.

Of McNicholas' dominance, he said: "The first day big John turned up and was introduced as our new ruckman, he looked like a Mac truck," said Ballingall. "He couldn't jump or run but he could take a mark and tap the ball out to you. He was a great protector too. He dominated for us throughout that final's campaign."

Ballingall said Warragul was able to field its best team at the right time and while Grand Final opponents Traralgon included country stars like Russell Northe and Peter Hall, Warragul's brilliant start was crucial.
"In each of those three finals, we kicked seven or eight goals in the first quarter. We got on a roll allright," he said.

"Traralgon had beaten us twice during the year, so it was a turn up, but our confidence was sky-high. Graeme told us to play on at all costs. Few could instill confidence into a playing group like Graeme. He'd tell it as it was. Always his message was: ‘You blokes can do this.' I've never forgotten it."

Asked the secret of playing football into his 50s, Ballingall says he has been fortunate to be able to maintain his pace.

"I have always loved training and going for runs on my own," he said.

"Being an accountant it has been the ideal foil for sitting behind a desk all day."

By Ken Piesse

Article first appeared www.vcfl.com.au August 25th, 2010

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