True Tiger: Richmond legend Des Rowe in full flight for the Tigers in the 1950s. Rowe, 81, died at the weekend after a lengthy battle with cancer.Tiger mourns seven decades of mateship
17 May 2007 Herald-Sun
Ron Reed
ENDURING friendships forged on the footy field -- or any other sporting battleground, for that matter -- are not uncommon, Ron Reed writes.
But the one between two old Tigers, Des Rowe and Max Oppy, was remarkable. It lasted 65 years, on and off the field and in every aspect of their lives.
It ended when Rowe died at 81 at the weekend after a lengthy battle with cancer and a deterioration in his ability to relate to the people and the world around him.
He will be farewelled tomorrow at Trinity Anglican Church in East Melbourne, not far from Richmond's Punt Rd headquarters, and at what is certain to be a well-attended wake at the MCG afterwards.
Oppy, 82, will be one of the first there, of course -- but only just. He had a brush with the reaper himself on the operating table recently but has come back strongly, which wouldn't surprise Richmond fans familiar with his formidable reputation.
In his hard-hitting hey-day, Oppy was regarded as the toughest Tiger of all, with the possible exception of teammate Jack Dyer.
"Captain Blood" once said of him: "Oppy was a player who could not be hurt."
Both were good enough to play for Victoria, with Oppy among the best in the 1943 premiership team.
Rowe -- the son of Percy Rowe, a very tough 95-gamer with Collingwood who also coached Carlton and Fitzroy -- boasts a record so solid it is remarkable his death has attracted so little acknowledgment this week.
As a strong half-back he played 175 games between 1946-57 and seven for Victoria, won two best-and-fairests, captained the Tigers for six years and coached them for three. He also skippered the Big V.
Although Richmond was never much of a flag threat during his time -- indeed, it failed to kick a goal in a match under his coaching one year -- it's still a powerful contribution.
At one stage Rowe was Oppy's captain. Later, he was still captain but Oppy was coach for a year.
"We were 17 and 16 when we met, both naive kids -- and I mean naive," Oppy said yesterday.
"At first he didn't make the list and went back to play under his father at Coburg, but when he returned to Punt Rd, I took him under my wing.
"We hit it off immediately but from then on I got blamed for all the mischief.
"A lot of little things used to happen on the field in those days but Des was basically a ball player. He never knocked anyone out.
"But if you went down you'd always hear this voice say, 'Get up, you weak little bastard'. And I'd have to get up."
The pair operated pubs together, and although that partnership was relatively short-lived, Rowe, with his ability to cultivate friends easily, made an extremely successful career of it.
Together, they were instrumental in the formation of one of Melbourne's best-known sporting social institutions, the Vingt Cinq Club, which for 45 years has been populated by many big names from football and other sports.
Rowe's participation in this and other aspects of his once-busy network, including the football club, was seriously curtailed about five years ago.
But his old teammate made sure he always had a lift to wherever he wanted to go and home again, and someone to make sure he enjoyed the outing.
It was time-on in the last quarter but almost seven decades of teamwork was still going strong.
"Well, we were mates and that's what you do," Oppy said. "That says it all, really."
It sure does.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/common/story_page/0,8033,21745060%255E19742,00.html
