09-02-09 - Blast From The Past!

Clarrie Reynolds: An astute, emotional coach

It was theatre at its best when Kalgoorlie City's famous coach of the 1950s, Clarrie Reynolds, addressed his players.
Trailing by several goals at half-time during one match in 1955, Reynolds patiently waited for his players to enter the changerooms, take a drink and a breather for a few more minutes before calling them together.
Prowling up and down a bench-line of players he pointed to a cut above the eye of Aboriginal recruit, Harold Muir, and said: "Here's a little chap who has tried his guts out today."
"Why don't you blokes do more to protect your team-mates going for the ball," he continued with great emotion.
In the process of calling for a greater
commitment from his charges in the second
half, a tear ran down the cheek of the
coach. Whether contrived or not, Kangas lifted their performance after half time to win the match.
Actually, the tears were a common occurrence during many of Reynolds' colourful bottom-of-the-heart oratories. And some of the players and club supporters used to gulp and shed a tear themselves.
Some of Reynolds' best speeches were delivered during the 1953 and 1954 season when Kangas won back-to-back premierships.
In 1953, on the morning of the grand final, Reynolds jumped on his bike and rode out to the Bureau of Meteorology, near the local airport, to ascertain wind strengths and directions for that afternoon. It paid dividends because, after Kangas won the toss they turned for home in the final quarter a few points up, kicking with a strong breeze.
Not only did the master tactician take advantage of every available piece of information, he was a great believer in his players settling down as quickly as possible in important matches. Although most of his players were in fact nervous and excited before a big game, Reynolds had a knack of settling them down and getting them totally focused to give of their best from the first bounce down.
In 1954, he master-minded the biggest upset in the history of Goldfields football. Mines Rovers had won every match for the season going into the grand final and they were red-hot favourites.
However, Reynolds was not convinced the Diorites were unbeatable. He later said: "We played them in the second semi-final and they were beating us by about 10 goals. I made a couple of moves and things started to improve. I said to the selectors: Well, that'll keep."
"We played Railways in the preliminary final and we knocked them off. I was glad we were playing the grand final on the Boulder Oval because I wanted more open spaces. Mines had some magnificent footballers (Mader, Clohessy, Billett, Colgan and Cartledge to name a few).
"The first move was to line-up Geoff White on Mines' danger man Ron Billett, a former league ruckman from East Fremantle. White was one of those chaps who never stopped talking. I wanted someone to upset Billett so I said to White: If he spits, you spit. If he scratches his head, you scratch your head, if he talks you talk back.
"At one stage I saw Billett push White away and I thought, hello, he's losing his cool. That was the move that won the game, he just kept talking.
"My other move was to keep swapping wingers Jim Reid and Max Wulff which I first tried midway through the third quarter."
Kangas won the match by seven points. Mines players and supporters were stunned by the defeat. Many Mines supporters believed that some of their players were paid to throw the game. One veteran Diorite follower went as far to claim: "Money talked that day!"
But, the truth of the matter was that there was no bribery involved. Mines just under-estimated a more fiercely determined opposition on the day.
Reynolds coached Kangas for four seasons (1953, 1954, 1955 and 1956) following a distinguished playing career with East Fremantle and Boulder City.
Reynolds was a typical 1930s import to the Goldfields. An established champion with East Fremantle, he had been a State representative, won the Lynn Medal as East Fremantle's fairest and best in 1930 and was also best-on-the-ground in the club's premiership that year.
He came to the Goldfields in 1936 to coach Boulder City.
A rover of slight build, he reputedly used to wear a Sunday Times newspaper stuffed down his jumper to give an impression that he was more solidly built than he actually was - and for insurance against a flying elbow or a fist to the ribs.
After World War II Reynolds was offered a job at the Kalgoorlie Brewery by manager, Percy Johnson, who was a staunch Kangas supporter. In return Reynolds severed his ties with Boulders and took over as coach of Kalgoorlie City's junior team. After coaching the juniors for three years he was appointed senior coach in 1953 and by year's end he had helped the club to a premiership.
After his coaching career in Kalgoorlie, Reynolds was short-listed for a vacant coaching position at East Fremantle, but narrowly missed out on the job.

 

Excerpt from Kangas - Times and Tales of the Kalgoorlie City Football Club by John Terrell

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