Goannas' New Number One Ticket Holder - Paul Vander Haar
The Tokyo Goannas AFL Football Club are delighted to announce our No. 1 Ticket Holder for season 2010 - Essendon Champion, Paul Vander Haar. “Vander” is the first ex-VFL/AFL player to take up the challenge and claim the honour. The Goannas couldn’t be more thrilled with having “The Flying Dutchman” on board and look forward to a long-lasting, mutually beneficial association. 201 VFL/AFL games, a dual Premiership player, club leading goal kicker and State Representative, Vander truly adds another dimension to The Goannas and more importantly, AFL Football in Japan. The Goannas believe that Vander Haar willingness to get involved with the club will be invaluable in the continued development of Australian Rules in Japan. Many football fans –not just Essendon fans –will associate his name with many attributes that describe The Goannas: Toughness, desire to win, love of the game, love of the contest, mateship, commradaire, high-flying, enjoying a good time and achieving your best. The Goannas believe that Vanders will provide the profile we need, and deserve, to raise awareness about what we do and further enhance what we have achieved to date.
Please check out The Paul Vander Haar story below but bear in mind there is now a new chapter, and it reads: “Goannas No. 1 Ticket Holder, 2010.” GO VANDERS!!!
Go GOANNAS, Go!!!
The Paul Vander Haar Story:
Paul Vander Haar was a brilliant high-mark, an accurate long kick, and capable of producing the unpredictable. While he was a natural on the field, he was a likeable larrikin off it. Not unlike the GOANNA spirit. "Vander" was a reluctant recruit who went to Essendon only after concerted efforts from the Club over a couple of years. He arrived at Windy Hill from Ringwood in 1977 and made an immediate impact on League Football. Vander Haar debuted in Round 5 that year, played every remaining game, and marked himself as a player of the future. By the end of his first season he was the League recruit of the year, was voted Essendon's best first year player, and was runner-up in the Club's Best and Fairest
award.
His young career was threatened in early 1978 when he injured his neck and back in a trail bike accident, but he made an unexpected return in Round 6, 1978, against Richmond,
kicked three goals and played every remaining game for the year. But a back condition plagued him throughout his career. In Round 11 that year at Windy Hill, Vander Haar lined up at centre half-forward against Hawthorn’s high-flyer, Peter Knights. What ensued was one of the most exciting demonstrations of high marking by two of the game's champions. When the game was over, Vander Haar and Knights had pulled down 16 contested marks between them in a performance still talked about by those who were there and which justified his nickname, "The Flying Dutchman".The arrival of Coach Kevin Sheedy in 1981 coincided with Vander Haar's best football. He was part of the 1981 night premiership team and the following year was runner-up for the second time in the Club's Best and Fairest award.
In 1984 he played in his second night premiership win, as well as at centre half-forward in the drought-breaking 1984 premiership win over Hawthorn. He was centre half-back in the 1985 premiership win the following year and was also the Club's second highest goal kicker that season with 46 goals. His nine goals against St Kilda in the second last game of the year was the most by an Essendon player since 1972. A broken leg in 1986 restricted Vander Haar to only five games for the year at a time when he was playing very good football in defence. Injury also restricted him to only eight games the following year and two games in 1988. But he managed to play 12 and 17 games respectively in his final two seasons. He represented Victoria in 1978, 1982 and 1985. Vander Haar retired in 1990. His last game was in the losing Grand Final to Collingwood. He was named at number 45 in the Champions of Essendon (2002).
The History of the Number One Ticket Holder
The Early Years
From the beginning the Tokyo Goannas searched for number one ticket holder. The Goannas tried for many years to hook a big name but all our efforts failed.
Mr Kerry Packer – wa
s honoured by the offer, could not accept. He did though, through his secretary at least, wished us the very best of luck.
Ozzie Ostrich- The bird Daryl Somers likes to stick it up, did not even bother to reply. Perhaps he was offended by the reference to the chook raffle.
Former President General Haj Idi Amin - declined to come out of retirement when reached at Saudi Arabia +966 2 693 3178.
Sam Newman was approached and unfortunately did not respond to our correspondence. Judge for yourself the sincerity of Gareth Jones' letter.
Tokyo Goannas - Letter to Sam Newman
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Mr. Sam Newman
C/o The Footy Show
17th August 1998
Dear Sam,
RE: Goannas seek Sam Newman as Number 1 ticketholder
I represent a football club in Tokyo called the Tokyo Goannas. We as a club have been in existence now for about ten years. For those Australians who love the Australian game we play a very important role in a rather barren environment for our great Aussie sport. We have discussed things at length amongst the club members and we have decided enthusiastically to request you to become our number one member. There are a number of reasons why you are the perfect choice and I will outline these for you after I introduce our club.
THE CLUB & JAPANESE FOOTY LEAGUE
The Goannas are mainly a team of Expat Aussies living in Tokyo. The league consists of three teams and our two opponent teams are; The Samurai (Senshu & Keio University) and Gokon (Senshu & Keio University Old Boys) We have a yearly game against the Irish expats for the Ned Kelly Cup and a yearly game Vics vs the Rest of The World. We also field a mixed Aussie / Japanese team for Japan in the bi-annual Arafura cup in Darwin. Mostly we provide the University students - a very keen bunch of young fellows - with an opponent and thereby help to keep the game alive in Japan. It is our goal to encourage a second university to take up the game but to do this we must lift our profile in the local and Australian communities. As well as games we provide information, a newsletter, and organise an AFL Grand Final replay in a Tokyo pub soon after the Grand Final. This is always a well attended event and a Great social gathering.
OUR STRUGGLE
Our biggest problem is organizing games. As you can imagine in a crowded city like Tokyo space is at a premium. Over the years we have made a number of contacts and have two or three grounds that we can obtain relatively easily. In the early days it was not always easy to get a ground. We would send a Goanna to the local city office on a Friday for a lottery. A number of competing sports clubs would draw numbers from a hat and the winner had a ground for a couple of hours on Saturday. Then faxes would be sent out all over Tokyo calling the teams together with the announcement that we have a ground and a game. Like firemen we would greet the fax Saturday morning and spring into action for the game. Although considering the age of some Goannas the words spring into action might not actually capture the early Saturday morning mood. In the early days the Goannas would invariably beat our Japanese opponents. More recently, the youth and almost ten years experience as an Aussie Rules Footy Club has made them a lot harder to beat. The Samurai won the 1996 Japanese Grand final.
WHY SAM FOR US?
Reputation It is important for us and the future expansion of the football league in Japan to have a high profile number one ticket holder at the Goannas. In fact as number one ticket holder you would be more than merely the icon of our club but a patron saint of the whole Japanese league and a god to all the young up and coming Japanese players. Unfortunately, most high profile celebrities wouldn’t risk their reputations on an unknown quantity such as the Tokyo Goannas in a foreign, far away land. We decided that you were perfect because with your reputation you couldn’t possibly fear any damage from us. Given some of your antics with women over the years your reputation could only improve via your association with us.
PERSONALITY
Your personality or at least your larger than life persona, would fit right in to our club. Some of our members have a similar fun loving approach to life as yourself and Tokyo provides the perfect outlet for such members. Tokyo is a very large city and the night life is very exciting any night of the week. This of course means that some of our members make regular, even nightly forays into the Tokyo night risking life and limb on a battlefield of a different nature. One thing that might surprise you is that here in Tokyo there doesn’t seem to be a social stigma to an older gentleman like yourself dating girls half their age. In fact it is very common here for younger girls in their early 20s to prefer men in their 50s.
We believe your association with our club would help to take football in Japan into a new era. The health of the Goannas, Samurai & Gokon over nearly 10 years has proved that we have created a small but well established foothold in Tokyo. To ensure our long term survival however, we must make the next step. Your larger than life personality, as I explained previously, makes you perfect for us.
Yours Sincerely,
Gareth A Jones
Tokyo Goannas
PS The Samurai are in the market for a number one ticket holder. They are a fit healthy bunch of young Japanese university students who train hard, study hard and party hard. The other week one of their members in his excitement over a Samurai victory against a somewhat aging Tokyo Goanna turnout set fire to his #$%&! hair and sprinted over to a pond and jumped in. Maybe you could suggest an appropriate person to become the number one member for such a boisterous bunch of young university students.
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Mick Molloy graciously accepted our offer in the late 1990's
In 1999 Mick Molloy made the move from drive home radio to network television when he launched his late night talk show "The Mick Molloy Show". As part of his sports wrap up he sent a crew to the Arafura Games in May to cover the Japanese National Team competing in the Aussie Rules Competition. I was back in Melbourne following the games and went into the studios to meet Mick and his team. At the time, i presented Mick with a Japanese jacket and asked if he would become our #1 Ticket Holder. He duly accepted and the Japanese Team featured on his program in June. We stayed in touch over the next year when i mentioned that we were having trouble with the AFL in terms of sponsorship for footy gear. I had actually ordered a new set of jumpers for each of the 3 teams competing in the 2000 Sugadaira Cup and it looked as though we would be unable to pay for them as we were relying on sponsorship that was coming from the AFL. Mick heard about the problem we had and kindly stepped in to pay for both the jumpers and shipping. It was absolutely down to the wire, but the jumpers arrived literally the day before the Cup was to be played.
Dear Mick,
On behalf of the Japan Amateur Football Association (JAFA) and all its members I would like to take this opportunity in officially welcoming you as our number one ticket holder.
The main aim of playing Australian Rules Football in Japan is to not only promote the game abroad, but also to ensure that those involved are having fun. Therefore, it is a pleasure to have someone with your character and personality involved in the game.
Your support and assistance with both uniforms and footballs is greatly appreciated, and as you can see from the attached photos, the teams involved looked sensational.
I wish you the best of luck with the show and look forward to seeing you over here in Japan in the near future.
See you at the footy
Shane Sibraa
Tokyo Goannas President
Bill Hardy
In 2003 the Tokyo Goannas were proud to have Bill Hardy of Hardy's Wines as our number one Ticket Holder. Bill Hardy impressed everyone at the Tokyo Goannas when he pulled on a Guernsey and played for us in the 2003 Narita Cup. Unfortunately we haven't heard from Bill in a long time but we would be thrilled if we heard from him.
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