Monday, April 2, 2012

FOND MEMORIES FOR DEV DINES


Former premiership winning Western Suburbs centre Dev Dines has told weststigers.com.au about how he was picked up off the street to play in the 1952 Grand Final.
As part of the build up to the Wests Tigers versus Souths Heritage Round match at Allianz Stadium on Sunday, April 1, weststigers.com.au caught up with the former Magpie to hear his version of one of the most amazing Grand Final stories.
Dines played for the Magpies in 1950 and 51 before moving to North Queensland Club Mareeba as Captain-Coach. With the country competitions finishing earlier than the Sydney competition, Dev and his wife, Beverly, returned to their previous residence in Liverpool Road,
Ashfield.
“We were walking in Ashfield when a car pulled up and it was (former Wests secretary) Lew Moses who told me I had qualify to play in the Grand Final,’’ Dines said.
“I thought it was that weekend but Lew said it was the following one, so I travelled to Maitland with the Magpies to play a trial match before the Grand Final as it was 3 weeks between games. Souths beat Wests in the semi-final but because they were minor premiers, they moved into the grand final as was the rules at the time.
“I played five-eighth for the Magpies in the trial at Maitland. Alot of people made it out to be an evil deed but it was a constant thing that had been in use for years as 90 per cent of the blokes lived outside the areas of the teams they played for. I wasn’t a stranger as I had played two full seasons with Wests.
“I had to go to NSWRL in Phillip Street to present my case and Souths agreed to let me play. The Grand Final was played at a torrid pace with plenty of biff and knuckle.
“We were down 12-10 with 10 minutes to go and we scored four converted tries to win 22-12. Our full-back George Bain kicked 2 goals from 10 shots that day and he was the leading points scorer for the year.
“I knew we had a pretty good chance of winning when about 10 minutes to go, some of the Souths boys said to their captain/coach Jack Rayner that ‘we can’t let these bastards put it over us’. Jack turned around and said he was stuffed. When he said that, I knew we would win.”
Dines will be one of more than 200 former Western Suburbs players attending the annual Magpies reunion on Sunday.
Western Suburbs 22 (Tries: Schofield 2, Fitzgerald, Dines, Bain, McLean. Goals: Bain 2.) d South Sydney 12 (Tries: Smailes, Macreadie. Goals: Graves 3.)
Western Suburbs:
George Bain, Bill Callinan, Col Ratcliff, Gerry Lowe, Jack Fitzgerald, Dev Dines, Leo Trevena, Kevin Hansen, Hec Farrell, Wiliam Horder, Don Schofield, Ron Watson, Peter McLean (c), Coach: Tom McMahon
South Sydney:
Don Murdoch, John Graves, Malcolm Spencer, Frank Threlfo, Cec Smailes Norm Spillane, Ken Brogan, Denis Donoghue, Ernie Hammerton, Bryan Orrock, Ken Macreadie, Jack Rayner (captain/coach), Ray Neilson.

30/03/2012 10:15:42 AM

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