ROBBIE Jager is a familiar face at Tyntynder Football Netball Club, despite his best efforts to maintain a low profile. ANDREW ROGERS spoke to him.
STARTING his schooling at Speewa in the late 1940s, Rob Jager’s prized possession was a hand-knitted Tyntynder Football Club jumper his mum made him.
“Nearly all the students there barracked for Tyntynder because we were right on the edge of the district. Except for the New South Wales kids, they barracked for Tooleybuc,” Rob said.
More than six decades later and after finishing his schooling in Melbourne and living in New Zealand, Adelaide and Bendigo, Rob’s heart still beats red, white and blue.
After returning to Swan Hill in the mid-70s, Rob soon started following Tyntynder again but managed to keep out of the limelight until about a decade ago.
“Eight years ago I was asked to volunteer on the scoreboard and things snowballed from there,” he said.
As well as helping with the scoreboard, Rob has completed a lot of painting work around the club, including seating and at the netball courts, and is always ready to help out cleaning the clubrooms.
The initial request to help with the scoreboard was made by Russell Coburn and it soon led to Rob deciding to update the facility.
“I looked at all the numbers and the styles were all different, it was all a bit slap-dash,” he said.
“So I spent the following summer doing it all up.”
For more on this story see Wednesday’s edition of The Guardian (June 5, 2013).
