Chapter Twenty-Four: A perceived lack of loyalty
Western Suburbs District Cricket Club Sydney | June 30, 2025
There is a pattern that repeats itself throughout the history of the Western Suburbs club, in which, first, the club builds itself up into a position of enviable strength - and then it unravels. The unravelling has seldom been as sudden or dramatic as it was in the seasons after 1987. Of the eleven players who performed so well in the frustrating semi-final of March 1987, only one was still in the Wests First Grade side at the start of 1990-91.
There were any number of reasons for the exodus of players, and some were unavoidable. Dirk Wellham, David Gilbert and Scott Hookey all elected to accept offers to play for Tasmania, Chris Killen agreed to appear for South Australia, and there was nothing the club could have done to prevent them leaving. One or two players were induced to change clubs by cash offers that Wests would not, and could not, match. A couple retired. And, undeniably, other players left because of the club’s internal disharmony.
And yet the club’s strength was so great that, at first, it remained competitive, especially in the top grade. In 1987-88, Wests finished sixth under David O’Neil’s captaincy, and the following season, now led by Brad McNamara, the side missed out on fourth place only on percentages. The attack, already strong, was boosted in 1988-89 by a little-known seamer from Middlesex - Angus Fraser. Fraser was a dynamic addition to the side, professional, disciplined and consistently successful. Brad McNamara called him “a cricketer who should play for England before long” - a prediction that was fulfilled within a few months. Fraser and Murray Radcliffe were equally adept at exploiting the vagaries of the Pratten Park pitch, and Greg Matthews and Brad McNamara usually cut down any batsmen who managed to survive the new-ball pair. McNamara’s efforts somehow, inexplicably, failed to lift him into first-class cricket: apart from his bowling, he cracked 824 runs at an average of almost 55. No-one batted better in the testing conditions at Pratten Park, although Matthews, Scott Hookey, Craig Haworth and Tony Monaghan all played well throughout the season.
With three games remaining in 1988-89, Wests seemed entrenched in the top four, but the side’s form fell away badly. Drawn against a weaker Sutherland team in the final round, Western Suburbs was well placed to cement a place in the semi-finals, but the final round of the competition was wrecked by rain. The match between Wests and Sutherland was the only game in any Grade, anywhere in Sydney, in which play was possible on the first day. Cruelly, after a late start, Western Suburbs was sent in on the wet, awkward pitch, and dismissed for only 105. On the second day, the team fought furiously to salvage points from the game; Sutherland limped past its target with six wickets down, and then Wests thrashed 5-120 in only 50 minutes. That left Wests with 16 overs in which to bowl out Sutherland and win a place in the top four, but despite Brad McNamara’s 6-45, Sutherland held on at 7-92. Wests finished equal fourth with Bankstown, only to be eliminated from the semi-finals by a few percentage points on the complex for-and-against quotient calculation.
In 1989-90, Angus Fraser was touring the West Indies with England, Craig Haworth moved to Balmain, Brad McNamara finally won selection in the New South Wales team and Scott Hookey was in Tasmania. Although he hit a rapid century for Tasmania against Queensland, Hookey never quite lived up to his obvious promise. “Where do you start with Scott Hookey?” wonders David Gilbert. “Extraordinary talent but, sadly... Scott never really came to terms with what he had. If Scott had ever come to terms with what he had, he should have been a guy who played fifty, sixty games for New South Wales. I think when Scott got a bat in his hands, it was almost about being macho, and how hard and how far can I hit it, and bowlers worked him out. It was a tragedy, but cricket’s littered with those sorts of stories.”
Perhaps the saddest departure from the First Grade side was that of Peter McLay. “Skylab”, the tall left-arm spinner, had begun to lose confidence in his bowling late in the previous season, but he was a highly respected representative cricketer and he was graded in Firsts in September 1989. When he took the ball for his first over of the season, he was struck by a terrible attack of the “yips” - the unexplained affliction that seems to affect, more than anyone else, left-arm spinners. He had completely lost his ability to control the ball, and his single over of full-tosses, wides and double-bouncers was the last he ever bowled in First Grade. For the next two seasons, he tried diligently to recover the talent that he carried into the New South Wales Second XI, but he never regained his touch. It was an unfortunate end to the career of a gifted and likeable player.
Chemist Warehouse Ashfield is a proud sponsor of Western Suburbs District Cricket Club.
Wests’ loss of batting strength was partly offset by the regular availability of Greg Dyer (who had been prematurely and unfairly dropped from the State side) and the outstanding form of Greg Douglas. After ten seasons of crunching out exhilarating, short innings, he tempered his powerful hitting with enough discipline to carry him close to 500 runs, and he cracked his maiden First Grade century, 115 against Campbelltown. Less spectacularly, Matthew Troy enjoyed his best season in Firsts, batting with newfound consistency and collecting handy wickets. But in spite of it all, Wests dropped nine places in the competition.
Throughout the grades, the club was sustained by a core of dedicated older players. Three teams reached the semi-finals, which was an excellent effort in the circumstances - but not, in one sense, a very comforting one, since the club had become over-reliant on its veterans. It was a significant achievement for Seconds to reach the semi-finals for the first time in twenty years - but the players at the heart of that success included David O’Neil, Steve Jansz, Neil Davidson and Wayne Levy, three of whom had appeared in Seconds in that season twenty years previously. When Peter McLay lost his First Grade place, he was replaced by Mark Tudehope who, for all his undeniable skill with the ball, had not played in Firsts for a decade. Similarly, Fourth Grade’s experienced captain, Chris O’Neil, had the services of able, long-serving players like Jim Cheeseman, Geoff Laing and Bob Barber.
The worrying aspect of this was that the club had not developed a fresh generation of players to revitalise its teams. On the other hand, several of the older players responded to the extra responsibility they bore by performing outstandingly well. Neil Davidson, a beautiful striker of the ball and wonderful catcher, batted with great maturity and consistency and, like Wayne Levy, appeared to have the measure of most Second Grade attacks. Chris O’Neil and Peter Jackson both emerged as dedicated, committed and astute captains in the lower grades. And Brian Jackson established himself as perhaps the club’s most versatile performer since Reg Peisley forty years before; in the course of his career, he opened the batting in First Grade, kept wicket in Seconds, bowled an assortment of variations on medium pace, and was an exceptional outfielder with one of the most powerful throwing arms in Grade cricket. He captained Thirds, Fourths and Fifths at various stages, and scored thousands of runs with elegant strokeplay, using his height to drive balls that other batsmen could only defend. He was also an indispensable worker in the club, producing a high-quality newsletter (the “Magpie Monitor”) and introducing unprecedented production values to the Annual Report.
When young players did emerge at Wests, they were good ones. Steve Nikitaras, a rawboned, left-arm paceman from the South Coast, spent the season in Fourths, an exciting talent whose potential was as obvious as it was crude. He had an unsophisticated approach to the game and bowled too many no-balls, but was capable of generating uncomfortable pace and bounce. And Peter Burkhart, a former Green Shield captain, became regularly available to the club after leaving school. His batting was effortlessly elegant and stylish, and his fielding was exceptional by any standard.
Steve Nikitaras
No fewer than eight First Graders left the club at the end of the 1989-90 season, including Greg Dyer, Brad McNamara and Greg Douglas, all of whom had represented Wests since playing Green Shield. In September 1990, Matthew Troy accepted the captaincy of this severely depleted team, for which opening bowler Bob Barber made a remarkable comeback.
Matt Troy
Barber, originally from the country, seemed a bright prospect in his early First Grade appearances in 1981–82 and 1982–83, but injuries, and a tendency to spear the ball down the leg side, reduced his effectiveness and in 1989–90 he was a regular Fourth Grader. He was graded in Seconds the next season, and bowled so well that he was returned to Firsts after an absence of eight years — and led the attack, taking 32 wickets. Young Shane Hadley bowled promisingly, and Nikitaras broke into the side late in the season, but over the season, Wests’ bowlers paid more than 30 runs for every wicket they collected. Troy maintained his optimistic spirit throughout a difficult season, and was rewarded when, in his twelfth season of First Grade, he recorded his first century — 138 not out against a University of NSW attack led by Geoff Lawson.
Mark Tudehope
Stephen Stapelfeldt hit his first hundred in his first full season in Firsts. An unlikely-looking First Grader, Stapelfeldt had been an outstanding prospect when at Trinity Grammar School, but after leaving school he chose to play Shires cricket for Briars. Eventually he tried his luck with Wests, and his promotion to Firsts was accelerated by the loss of so many of the club’s experienced players. Although he was unfashionably bulky — well over 100 kilograms — he batted with surprisingly deft touch against the slow bowlers, and helped Wests to a win over Fairfield by dominating their spinners in a skilful innings of 129.
But the outstanding player of the season was Michael Swan, an elegant, attacking batsman who, in his first full season, was so consistent that although his highest score was 77, he passed 700 runs and averaged 42. He was especially strong through the on-side, drove powerfully, and caught brilliantly at slip. His progress was a crucial element in the rebuilding of the Western Suburbs team.
Another key player was Peter Burkhart, who spent almost the entire season refining his game in Seconds. Second Grade (under club coach Wayne Levy) repeated its semi-final appearance of the previous season, and David O’Neil propelled Thirds to the semi-finals almost on his own. O’Neil hit 480 runs and took 41 wickets, an outstanding all-round effort that (along with some penetrative bowling by Mark Tudehope) earned his side the minor premiership.
Wayne Levy
In 1991–92, the drain on Wests’ playing strength was starkly reflected in the club’s results: 16th in the Club Championship, and of the five Grade sides only Fourth Grade, which came ninth, finished outside the bottom quarter of the competition. In the club’s Annual Report, President Bernie O’Neil observed that
"Objectively, Wests cannot compete on financial terms for players; a situation that makes the retention of nurtured talent particularly difficult as even $500 for a season after tax is sufficient attraction for many players. Equally, members should not underestimate the amount of time those souls on the Retention Committee expend as they try to make sense of the demands, powerplays and thinly veiled threats that are part and parcel of the competitive market for grade cricketers. Often it is not the intrinsic spirit within a club that attracts a player but rather an opportunity to bat six in first grade rather than four in second grade. In this environment it is not uncommon for decade long friendships to be fatally strained as an aging warrior blames a perceived lack of loyalty from friends rather than a steady decline in form for his position becoming untenable. Club members who serve on the Retention and Selection Committees are almost guaranteed the opportunity to see their friends in a new light..."
First Grade finished 18th, yet there were some encouraging signs that the rebuilding of the side was progressing. Just as Mal Croughton had attracted a number of talented country players to Wests in the early 1980s, so Christopher O'Neil set about rebuilding the First Grade team after the exodus at the end of that decade. Although it took several years to complete his work, it was beginning to bear fruit by 1992. The attack was carried by three young seamers, Steve Nikitaras, Shane Hadley and Daniel Horsley, who all showed plenty of promise, even though their wickets were expensively earned. And the batting was boosted by the acquisition of Anthony McQuire and the promotion of Peter Burkhart.
The 19 year old McQuire, whose talent earned him a place at the Australian Cricket Academy, batted stylishly against the new ball, and Burkhart was so impressive in his first full season that he passed 500 runs and won selection in the New South Wales Colts team (in his only innings at this level, he hit 74 against a Queensland attack led by future Test bowlers Michael Kasprowicz and Scott Muller). Here, at last, was a core of players around whom a competitive team could be assembled.
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