Like old man Avon River, the 52-year-old Gloucester rugby union prop, Don Hamilton, just keeps rolling along.
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Though disappointment was intense at losing the Lower Mid North Coast rugby grand final to the Forster Tuncurry Dolphins (17-6), the grey-haired, 118kg stump of a front rower has not tossed his boots in the bin and decided to watch rugby games on Gloucester Oval from the adjoining bowling club next winter.
And he is not contemplating disappearing into the ranges for some trout fishing or becoming a curator at the thriving Tasmanian Devils colony in the Barrington Tops. Not yet.
“It all depends on how we go for players next season. It’s always hard getting front rowers. There aren’t too many volunteers willing to put their heads in the oven 20 times a game,” he said.
“There’s a big possibility I will play again.”
In Gloucester’s first grand final of the eight seasons of the Lower Mid North Coast competition, it was only the Dolphins’ resolute defence which kept the Cockies at bay, capitalising on a misplaced kick and a brilliant 50-metre burst by wing speedster Jack Nicholson against an near-exhausted defence which yielded Forster’s two tries.
Optimistically, the Cockies’ captain Chris Marchant, the former Old Bar club match-winner, will lead the team again. He is still a threat to any side in the competition with his powerful charges off the back of the scrum.
Less certain to be wearing the Cockies’ colours is Don Hamilton’s 18-year-old son Ethan, a splendid, young lineout jumper and hard-toiling lock, contemplating undertaking a sports science and physiotherapy course at the University of Armidale.
First-season coach Steve Parkin is considering his options without rushing into a decision after his team’s splendid winter of 11 wins and four close-run defeats.
Don began his rugby in a schools match for Gloucester High against a New Zealand touring side in 1981, playing in a pair of joggers and experiencing for the first time hard-rucking youths playing in sprigs. He bought some boots.
Don went to Jindabyne and worked in snow-making operations, appearing for the Cockies on and off for the next three decades. Life took him to Newcastle and, like the dedicated man he is, he drives back and forth to Gloucester for games, putting hundreds of kilometres behind him each winter.
Regrettably, the club’s records have been mislaid, but certainly he has played well over 100 games.
If he wants to achieve a club record, Don will have to play on far longer. Club mate Dennis Wamsley, another die-hard now in his mid-40s, has kept his own personal tally and calculates he has appeared in 350 games while former Mid North Coast Axemen’s hooker, Dave Cox, 42, has played 27 seasons for six grand finals – and lost them all.