Grenville Dietrich

TB – Thanks for your time Grenville, I hear you are right into playing lawn bowls these days?
 
GD- Yes, I play for Rosewater, it’s a great game, pretty casual.  I love my bowls and it’s a good social atmosphere down here.
 
TB- Your 16 year old son Sam also plays and is pretty handy from all reports?
 
GD- Yes he plays Premier 1 grade for West Lakes and shows a bit of ability.
 
TB- How did you come to play for North?
 
GD- Ex North player David Cearns saw me play; he was in Mildura watching his brother-in-law (ex West Torrens player Neville Caldow) who was assistant coach at Mildura.  I had just come back from Richmond and Cearnsy gave my name to North when he got back to Adelaide.  One or two years later I was playing footy in the bush and had a visit from John Condon, Billy Thomas and Jack Titus; they convinced me to sign up for North and I ended up coming down to play in 1982.
 
TB- Did you know much about the SANFL before coming down?
 
GD- Not much, living in Mildura it was mainly the VFL.  Ex Sturt player Geoff Lauder lived around the corner and my sister went to school with ex West Adelaide player Greg Hollick so we had a small interest in how some of the local blokes were going in Adelaide.
 
TB- Did you barrack for Richmond as a kid?
 
GD- No, Essendon actually, they were the same colours as Mildura, Mum and I followed the Bombers and Dad barracked for Geelong.  I have been a Richmond supporter since I went to Melbourne and tried out for them.
 
TB- Did you enjoy your time with Richmond?
 
GD- Yeah, it was good, I only played 1 league trial game against North Melbourne, I lived with Kevin Sheedy before he got married and he is still a good mate of mine.  It was a big learning experience although it would have been nice to play a bit more footy for them.
 
TB- Do you see many of your old team mates much these days?
 
GD- Mainly at the footy, I might bump in to Harty at a TAB sometimes, but a lot of them live interstate so it’s mainly at North games that we catch up.
 
TB- Do you get to many North games?
 
GD- Yes when I can, I have been tied up with a few amateur league clubs in recent years but when I can I try get to get to as many games as I can.  My wife takes my two sons to most North games; the boys are both one-eyed North supporters.
 
TB- I heard you did a bit of work with West Adelaide in 2007?
 
GD- Yes, I was guest speaker at the Westies luncheon before the North v West game at Richmond last year and after the game Wayne Weidemann asked me if I would do a bit of work with Damian Cupido which I enjoyed.  They gave me a one year membership for their Westonian’s Social club which entitled me to free grog at home games which was pretty good although I didn’t get to that many games.
 
TB- Do you remember your first league game for North?
 
GD- Yes it was in 1982 about round 4 or 5 against South at Prospect, I stood a bloke called Greg Farquhar.  I did my ankle before half time and sat on the bench with Mick Redden who also did his ankle for the rest of the game. That was the last time I played centre half forward!
 
TB- So Grenville, most people have heard the alleged story that when North were playing Centrals one year, they had a plan to wine and dine you on the Friday before the game in a bid to curb your influence the following day, is this fact or fiction?
 
GD- Well yeah, it definitely did happen, Rick Vidovich a selector from Centrals picked me up at about 11.30 on the Friday morning, we went to Cobbs restaurant for lunch, and then to Regines night club.  Rick dropped me home at about 4 in the morning.  I remember I walked in the North change rooms the next day to get ready and all the boys moved away from me, I was obviously still smelling like a brewery.  The game started, I took a one hander early next to the point post, lined up to have a shot at goal, kicked the ground and the ball at the same time, the ball dribbled under Stephen Boehm’s arm and limped through for a goal.  I’ve seen the replay of the game and the camera showed Mick Nunan sitting, shaking his head but things turned out ok, I kicked 12 out of 18 goals and we won the game.
 
TB- Well that was a pretty expensive few days for Centrals and a plan that back fired in a big way!
 
GD- Yeah, I’d like to think so, things turned out pretty well as far as I was concerned! 

TB- It’s hard to believe that you were actually living with Daryl Hicks who was the Centrals coach at that time, I would have thought that you and him were a bit like chalk and cheese to say the least!
 
GD- Yes, I trained with Centrals in 1979, so I was living in a caravan out the back of Daryl’s house and sometimes would go inside with him and his family for a meal, he knew I liked a drink and probably thought it was a good idea at the time.
 
TB- You had an amazing start in 1986, 48 goals in the first 6 games including hauls of 11, 11, 6 and 11 and then played 2 games for South Australia.  Things didn’t go as planned in the last half of the year though.
 
GD- Yeah, it was a good start I was averaging 8 goals a game and then I tweaked my knee in a Fosters Cup game and probably missed the last half of the year.  I still reckon John Condon put the mozz on me that year, Channel 7 had a special bottle of Para Port worth about $1500 for the leading goalkicker.  He said to me you are a certainty to win that so the club will buy it off you otherwise you will just drink it, anyway the next week I did my knee missed most of the last half of the year and Stephen Nicholls from Woodville ended up winning the Ken Farmer medal.
 
TB- Playing for South Australia and kicking 4 goals against Victoria must have been a huge thrill?
 
GD-  Oh yeah, sensational that’s the best feeling you can ever have running out and there are 50,000 people barracking for you.  Grand Finals of course are huge but there you have more of a 50/50 crowd.  I know you play for premierships but having not played in one it’s the best feeling I ever had playing footy.
 
TB- You ended up coming back late in the year and played the finals in 1986, we all know the end result wasn’t what we had hoped for.
 
GD- Yes I had an arthroscope and had the knee cleaned out and played the last minor round game and then the finals.  Mick rushed me back, I probably shouldn’t have played, he dragged me at half time of the Grand Final and I didn’t come back on.
 
TB- As it panned out that happened to be the last game you ever played for North.
 
GD- Yes it was, at the end of 1986 we sat down and talked things over, Mick and I weren’t getting on and David Cearns who had just become Football Director at West Torrens, approached me.  Torrens made North an offer for me and they ended up swapping Sean Tasker, Steven Sims and John Roberts for me.  I think North came out in front on that deal!
 
TB- Did you want to leave North?
 
GD- No way in the world, I really loved the place, still do, it definitely wasn’t my preferred option.
 
TB- Despite everything, Mick Nunan was a huge influence on you then?
 
GD- Oh yes, he was sensational.  One of the best compliments I ever heard about Mick’s coaching style and footy knowledge was after we beat Collingwood in the Fosters Cup in 1986 and Leigh Matthews was asked what he thought of the North Adelaide team.  He replied that he had never seen a team of young kids with an average height of 6’2’ move the ball like rovers and with so much skill despite the atrocious wet conditions. That was testament to Mick’s coaching ability and emphasis on footy skills.
 
TB- That also must have been a huge buzz knocking Collingwood off in Melbourne.
 
GD- It was a huge win, they had sacked Bob Rose as coach and Leigh Matthews had them firing having won their last 7 games in a row, they were the form side in Melbourne at the time.  I think there were 17 goals kicked by 17 different goal kickers that night.

TB- On a sadder note, one of the lowest points in your career was the day your Dad died watching you play.
 
GD- Yes, August the 1st 1982, North v Centrals at Adelaide Oval, we had to win to get 5th spot and ended up losing the game by about 8 points I think.  Mum and Dad would come to Adelaide from Mildura fairly often to watch me play.  I left them both before the game and said see you after the game.  When we went in at half time Mick Nunan came over to me to say Dad had had a heart attack and had been taken to hospital.  Anyway just as we were about to run back out Mick came over to me again and said “I’ve got bad news, your father passed away”.  Mick then said he would understand if I wanted to finish the game there and then but after a minute or two I decided to play on - that’s what Dad would have wanted me to do.  Mick copped a bit of stick for telling me about Dad during the game instead of waiting till after we finished but I was grateful he did tell me when he did.  His philosophy was that any man deserved to be told the truth of the death of a close family member straight away and I couldn’t agree more.
 
TB- Regardless, I think that was a courageous thing for you to play on in the circumstances.
 
GD- It was a real pity we couldn’t win the game for Dad and play finals.
 
TB- Things picked up in 1983, North made the finals and we won our first final since 1973 against South.
 
GD- Yep, the youngest team ever to make the finals, the average age was 20 years and 7 months I think.  We kicked 11 goals in the 3rd quarter.  We were a bit stiff the next week, Sturt came out and kicked something like 21.5 but it was the start of great things to come for the club, 1984 was a bit of a let-down but we had a lot of injuries and after that we played 3 Grand Finals in a row and should have won more than the one we did win.
 
TB- You were a bit of a cult hero at North, who were your sporting heroes as a kid?
 
GD- Mainly Victorian footballers like Leigh Matthews, Royce Hart, Neville Fields and Peter McKenna.
    
TB- Have you kept any memorabilia from your footy days?
 
GD- Not really, I donated most of it to North when they had the Fabulous Forwards Exhibition.  Any of the scrapbooks that were kept the kids got to and tore them to shreds!  One thing I have kept is my State jumper from 1986.
 
TB- Do you have any affinity with the Crows or Port in the AFL?
 
GD- Nah, still barracking for poor old Richmond!
 
TB- Do you ever get to AAMI Stadium to watch any AFL games?
 
GD- I’ve been to 2, once when I was guest speaker at a Crows luncheon and the other was in a corporate box with my old coach from Mildura when Port played Carlton.  His wife works for a wine company who had the box so I had a free day at the footy.  I don’t like the traffic and the no-smoking rule, I would rather watch it on TV.
 
TB- What’s your opinion of the way the AFL is played nowadays?
 
GD- I would rather watch the local footy any day of the week, you can still have a bit of banter with the crowd, enjoy a beer and a smoke if you want to plus it’s a better style of footy to watch.
 
TB- How do you think North will go in 2008?
 
GD- From what I’ve seen they have recruited pretty well, Archard, Ward and Clarke should be handy, I’m really looking forward to watching them play, no reason why we can’t go one better this year.
 
TB- Once again thanks for your time Grenville, it was great to catch up.
 
GD- No problem Tony, anytime.