Intensity: A word synonymous with one of Strathmore’s all time greats.
Many battling paddock footballers like nothing better than to crunch a more talented opponent. A few times in most games Scar gets crunched by a pack of lesser mortals, simply because he was trying to get the ball and ran out of space. Great players at the highest level are likely to slip one or two in under the cover to deter the transgressors, but Strathmore’s legendary No. 5 just hauls himself up from the bottom of another pack, shrugs distinctively and gets on with what the game is all about–getting the footy and putting it to constructive use.
On the rare occasion that a slight fumble allows a turnover, you can guarantee that Craig will win the next contest he can get to–be it deep in defence or at the next centre bounce. In the course of 1996 he has worked out a relationship with a young full forward, new to the club, who now leads with confidence to Scar’s measured kicks and converts an increasing percentage into majors, in what at the end of a very frustrating “A” Grade season has become almost our only channel to goal.
Idolised by Gary Edwards at a level otherwise reserved for Carlton superstars, Craig only gets on the field each week thanks to expensive medical treatment which keeps his blood flowing to counter what two years ago was a life threatening condition. Yet ten parts of medicine and ninety parts of the man himself have enabled Craig to be one of only four players to get through 18 “A” Grade games in 1996 as unbackable favourite for what would surprisingly only be his second Alf Pearce Medal.
Eleven months ago publicly anointed by the then retiring senior coach as heir apparent, Scar goes instead into his second consecutive final series as coach of an “A” Reserves team which is again highly favoured to take out a premiership–a coaching role which he manages alongside his total on-field commitment to the seniors. And despite having been overlooked, not for the first time, for the senior job which he and others have seen as his eventual destiny, the increasingly prominent Hille’s Home Improvements continues to be Strathmore Football Club’s major financial sponsor.
Craig came to the Mores in 1978 at the then relatively advanced age of ten, introduced by his life long friend Spudda who already had a couple of seasons footy behind him. In his first few seasons, Scar was a very good player in teams that enjoyed an extraordinary run of success, but it wasn’t really until 1983 that he clearly emerged as a little bit ahead of the rest. The way he conducts himself in life, work and football exemplifies what in the ‘nineties can only be called “traditional values”–setting a standard which from time to time adds an element of frustration to his relationship with a few of his more casual footy mates.
In the late 1970s, Strathmore was reaping some of the competitive and social rewards that flowed from a decade of providing football and a happy atmosphere for many young families. However it took until 1978 for two very keen and long serving coaches to finally join the list of premiership coaches. John Redfern had launched Under 9s in 1971 before becoming a fixture in Under 15s, while Geoff Bell had become similarly settled in Under 11s. It was in Dinger’s 1978 team that Craig Hille entered the Strathmore story, many of his first teammates having already tasted success in one or both of the Under 9 A flags of the previous two seasons.
The Bells, Buggs and Master Hille represented the then recent southern spread of Strathmore’s recruiting territory into the heart of Essendon. At our club they formed long lasting friendships with a strong Strathmore Heights contingent which included the Bouckleys and the Cuthbertsons, as well as a continuing trickle of players from “across the creek” such as the Leathers and the Selvaggis. In what was to be the only Under 11 A flag ever won by Strathmore, Joe Selvaggi was captain–we were more willing to give youngsters some real responsibility in that era–and Craig Hille was centre half forward.
Craig has what some regard as a “bad birthday” for football and the next season found himself on a half back flank in the Under 13s, where he played two seasons under Bruce Cuthbertson in which they won every match. Bruce went on to win two more flags on the trot, while Craig moved up to play under Ken Pridham in the second of Ken’s run of five flags in the next age group. It is hardly surprising that Craig has very positive memories of Cuppo and Priddo–feelings that are shared by many who were touched by them in that extraordinary era.
1982 saw local football change from odd to even age groups, giving Scar two seasons on the trot as a very young player alongside the likes of Peter Berkers, Jeff Chandler, Michael Morgan and Glenn Pridham. In fact Craig’s birthday made it much easier for him in junior cricket, with Strathmore Cricket Club stalwart Fred Youl rating him the best Under 16 player that he had been involved with. (As Fred is on the selection committee for the best junior team of the first 25 years of the Cricket Club, you might want to store that away for the tipping competition in November.)
In 1983, Craig could have been an Under 16 superstar, but chose to jump straight into senior ranks where he played his first game against West Coburg at Lebanon Reserve, the footballers having returned after a winter’s exile at Cross Keys while the turf wicket was established. Still picking his coaches with care this move put him under the charge of Peter Owen. Scar has vivid memories of George “because he was so intense” and clearly the great man assisted the youngster’s journey down the path to football passion.
In the year of Big Brother, Craig was invited to play for Essendon Under 19s under Ken Fletcher and was selected in a Victorian Teal Cup side which included Stephen Silvagni, Mark Bayes, Garry Lyon and Ron McKeown. While being runner up in the best and fairest for the Under 19s, Geoff Griffiths’s administrative magic enabled Craig to return to the Mores Under 18s for the grand final on that greatest of all Strathmore weekends on which we took out the big four premierships.
For the next couple of seasons, Craig continued with Essendon Under 19s and Reserves. His greatest memory of an otherwise forgettable 1985 was playing a senior practice match opposed to Jim Krakouer who “had a picnic basket with him and brought a rug for me to sit on!” He was appointed captain of the Under 19s for his final season at that level–the kind of appointment which is almost always suggestive that you are not expected to get much further. That season was interrupted by the death of his elder sister and finally taught Craig that his personal supply of heroic coaches would not go on forever as he endured the ugliness of Ray “Slug” Jordan’s very different approach to the development of young footballers.
Craig then decided for the first of three times in his career that there might be greener pastures elsewhere and commenced the season in the Reserves at Victoria Park where his eight games did not exceed his previous tally at that level at Windy Hill. Before that season was too far gone, he became convinced at 19 that VFL senior football was already out of his reach and returned to Strathmore for 11 games which were enough to win him the Essendon District Football League’s “A” Grade Best & Fairest, although he could only manage to be runner up in our club award to Peter Bye.
The next two seasons found Craig at centre stage in the only era in which Strathmore seniors produced the kind of returns which many expect to flow automatically from the high standards we set in junior football. Again playing under a coach who gained more than just respect, Graham Leydin, we went through 1988 as favourites but Craig got pinged for retaliating against Keilor in the second semi and missed the grand final, which he and many others believe may have been the final straw that cost us the premiership.During that season he represented the EDFL at inter-league level and was third in our club award, despite the focus of opponents who had already tagged him as the player to stop at Strathmore.
His importance to the club was well recognised in 1989 when he was appointed as by far our youngest captain of the modern era. The side that took out our third premiership of the ‘eighties made its own piece of history by being 100{b9fa80ae06379db6b94076d408f6aebb0af83203bf6b8fcafbb73476e620819d} composed of players who had played for the Mores in under age ranks. Scar still regards that season as the highlight of his career, achieved at the tender age of 21 in a year in which he also joined his father’s home renovation and construction business.
The first two years of the 1990s were widely seen as anticlimactic following an exodus of players and even the coach to opportunities which opened up for them at higher levels and promises of greater rewards. With the wisdom of hindsight, the efforts of those who stayed on under Jock Delalande were highly commendable reaching the finals in 1991 with a side that boasted a lot less talent that our current line up. In 1990, Craig was again captain and again runner up in our voting, this time to Adrian Harders who had missed out on his spot in the ’89 premiership team through injury. And in 1991 Scar was proud to finally collect his first Alf Pearce medal.
In 1992 the Mores really hit the doldrums, Craig doing an intense preseason with Box Hill and getting a solitary game in VFA seniors before work and travel made it impractical for him to maintain a full commitment and he again returned home mid-year. A few others did not return at all that season and quality replacements were thin on the ground as we had dropped back from having good junior sides every season to having them every third season. With the appointment of a demotivating coach who shared none of the traditions of Strathmore, we only narrowly avoided relegation.
The next season, Strathmore received a well researched coaching application from a couple of giants of the Riddell District Football League which was to change the face of our senior team and eventually produce a level of success. At the same time, Scar came to the view that if he was to ever get the senior coaching job at Strathmore to which he aspired, he was going to have to prove himself somewhere else. And so he took the opposite journey up Lancefield Road to become assistant coach at Sunbury, being again runner up in a club best and fairest as well as representing their league.
In 1994 Craig returned to his beloved Mores as a player only. According to Nic Jones who kindly researched this story, he was given a “tickertape parade down Mascoma Street!” After what had appeared to be no more than a run of the mill injury, Craig found himself in hospital with life threatening blood clots resulting from a condition which was eventually diagnosed as “deep vein thrombosis”. While he definitely should have rested out the season, the mid-season revival which took us into the grand final proved too much and Scar was back in the thick of things at the business end of the year which he remembers as “a great effort by everyone involved.” Despite missing quite a few games, he was again third in our best and fairest.
While he would have liked to take over the senior coaching position then and there, Craig was persuaded to become assistant to Brendan Hickman and take over the Reserves for 1995, a decision that was made a bit easier due to the medical uncertainties with regard to his playing future. The season went well at both levels as Scar again represented the EDFL in a curtain raiser to the AFL night series grand final that was to make our local league Victorian champions, and he was runner up to Mick Duggan in the club best and fairest. However the wheels fell of in the finals and left the Reserves going into a grand final with many players unexpectedly ineligible. The difficulty of rebalancing the side and the motivation two earlier thrashings had given to Keilor produced a “bitterly disappointing” one point defeat.
At our presentation night the senior coach announced his retirement and endorsed both Craig as his successor and the club’s advertise, interview and select process which Hick had successfully endured through the three previous seasons. As it turned out, that process produced what appeared on paper to be an outstanding field of applicants and Craig was asked to continue to cool his heels looking after the twos. During the summer, some rather expensive treatments had been found to get his blood clotting under complete control, enabling him to take out many of his frustrations on the opposition and produce eighteen games of the highest standard, on top of the work he put into keeping a less talented Reserves side at the top of the ladder and the often disappointing efforts of his senior teammates.
After the economic difficulties which hit the building industry in the early ’90s, Craig has taken on a much more up front role in establishing Hille’s Home Improvements as the most prominent in its field in the local area and has made a major sponsorship of the Strathmore Football Club an integral part of the company’s promotional efforts. Although potentially competing with a couple of other club stalwarts for this kind of business from our members and supporters, there is certainly no doubt that those who have seen the standards of commitment and loyalty set by Craig on the footy field would have every reason for confidence should they give him some renovation work.
The next few weeks will give our Reserves players a chance to give Scar a deserved moment of coaching glory; are likely to see him formally recognised as the equal of any who have worn the gold and navy jersey; and will see the club’s decision makers decide both on the method of selecting senior coaches and on Craig’s current aspirations in that area. No matter how that all turns out, there will be positions of leadership at Strathmore for him to fill for as long as he wants, and we all hope that that will be a long time indeed.
Grant (Mantis) Edmondson