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INSIDE THE EFL | VALE

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In last week’s Eastern Footballer Inside the EFL, CEO Phil Murton reflected on the tragic recent passings of former EFL Media Team Member Shaun Kelly and East Burwood club legend Barry Wenker.  

 

 

The EFL community was shocked and in disbelief recently with the tragic news of much-loved former EFL Media Team member Shaun Kelly’s passing. At just 37 years of age, it is far too young.

Shaun was a long-serving member of the EFL Media team. In that time, he became a familiar face and voice on the various EFL radio and video programs, always with a boundless amount of energy and huge knowledge of all areas of our competition. But it’s his ‘Friday Preview’ for what Shaun will best be remembered. An often 10,000-word dossier each week looking at every game across the competition with an encyclopaedic knowledge of where players and teams were at with their preparation at the time. For all involved with the EFL it was compulsory reading.

PICTURE: Shaun Kelly (front row, centre) during the 2006 EFL season.

When long time EFL Media Manager Anthony Stanguts moved on to AFL Victoria, Shaun took on a paid part-time role as Production and Broadcast Manager, working alongside new EFL Media Manager Lauren Wood to ensure the programs kept going and improving. As well as league duties, Shaun often MC’d club functions and award nights.

He finished with us when he moved to Brisbane to take on a job in media and events with Queensland Cricket, then moved back to Victoria, and footy, where he headed up AFL Goldfields’ media and events team. More recently he ran his own media company where he still did huge amounts of content for local footy media in and around Ballarat.

The comments on social media on the news of his passing from people across the EFL community showed just how loved and respected he was for the work he did for us.

Our thoughts go to his wife Sarah, family and friends.

Another tragedy befell the EFL community over the summer months with the passing of East Burwood stalwart Barry Wenker. Barry tragically passed way after a short battle following complications from surgery. The club held a minute’s silence before Round 1 to recognise his contribution to the club.

As the club commented on his passing, football clubs are really just four walls and a patch of grass, but it is the people who make them a great place to be. Barry Wenker certainly made the East Burwood Football Club a special place.

During nearly sixty years of loyal service to East Burwood, Barry filled just about every possible role at the Rams: player, coach, administrator, sponsor and volunteer. He more than anyone was responsible for the setting up of the junior club and he had a massive influence on shaping the lives of so many young men who came through the place.

In 2011, he was awarded the Volunteer of the Year award by Whitehorse Council.

The outpouring of grief for Barry on social media upon his passing gave a true indication of the esteem in which he was held by all.

In this role you get to meet lots of great people at clubs, but Barry was special. For East Burwood home games, he was the face on the gate, rain, hail or shine, always with a big smile and a comment or two about how the League, or East Burwood, was going. Despite having moved down the Peninsula, he would drive up for home games to man the gate and for finals to park cars with the precision of a surgeon with his trusty parking stick. In 2016, I wrote an editorial on club gate keepers, and the loyal, selfless servants who carried out the role. With typical Barry class, he emailed me a thank-you note for that small recognition.

It’s people like Shaun and Barry that make local football so special. In every club, there are people we all take for granted. League sponsor Tobin Brothers ran a terrific campaign recently titled ‘Say it Now’. The premise was they often hear emotional and heartfelt stories about people at their funerals, but they are the kind of stories people should hear while they are alive, so they have a true understanding of how loved and valued they are.

Whether it’s telling someone how much you appreciate what they do, or just buying them a beer unexpectedly, the loss of Shaun this week and Barry over the summer maybe shows we should ‘Say it Now’ a bit more often.

May they both rest in peace.

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