A FORMER Nyah West resident who went on to have a successful VFL career with Collingwood Football Club was among the recipients in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honours List this week.
Kevin Rose was awarded an Order of Australia Medal on Monday for his service to the community and Australian Rules Football.
He played 159 games for Collingwood at the top level – in what was then known as the Victorian Football League, later renamed the Australian Football League – and went on to head the club as its president between 1996 and 1998.
He was succeeded by media personality and current president Eddie McGuire.
But it was in Nyah West where Rose began his career as a young boy playing for the Nyah West Football Club, as it was known back then.
Rose said he can still remember running out on to the old Nyah West oval as a 14-year-old in the reserves.
“I came to Melbourne at 15 because I just wanted to play AFL football, my brothers were already in Melbourne, Bob and Bill were players [with Collingwood] too… so I wanted to come here and try to make my way too,” he said.
“It was pretty exciting going from Nyah West to Melbourne, a big city, and particularly going to Collingwood who were the most famous football club and still are in Australia.”
He was schooled at Nyah West Primary School before heading to Swan Hill for high school and he fondly remembers his role as a paper boy delivering the Herald Sun and The Age.
He began his career with Collingwood in 1958, playing until 1967.
He went on to have a successful career in coaching with football clubs in Fitzroy and Prahran, later awarded life memberships with the Collingwood and Prahran football clubs and the AFL.
But he has also made his mark outside of football at the Robert Rose Foundation.
It was established in memory of Kevin’s nephew Robert, a talented sportsman who, at just 22 years old, became a quadriplegic following a tragic car accident in 1974, later passing away in 1999.
The foundation assists people with spinal cord injuries and their families who are in necessitous circumstances to live with their disability and support them financially.
Rose is currently the foundations director, but has been involved since its inception.
For more on the Queen’s Birthday Honours, buy Wednesday’s edition of the Guardian (June 10).
