If walls could talk there would be one at Dasher Milgate's home at Dunmunkle which would never shut up.
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Dasher's 'wall of honor' is crowded with the faces and names behind almost 20 Minyip and Minyip-Murtoa premiership teams in Wimmera Football League and you can almost hear the yarns spilling from the crowded frames.
Together they speak of times ranging from fun to fiery and they represent a lifetime of commitment in the great game, because Dasher's mug is there in 1952 and it's still there in 1998.
From the days of the legends Ken Roberts and Laurie Icke to the era of the mastermind Ronnie Wearmouth, he's been on the scene working as a player, coach and committeeman, and ready all the while with that infectious, madcap giggle.
Dasher, now a fit 73, played in Minyip premierships in 1952 and 1954, was on the scene again in 1984, was president for three flags in the early 1990's and cheered the loudest when Minyip-Murtoa won three on end later the same decade.
The spread of the years and the frequency of the flags makes it hard for him to pin down his greatest moments, but he's fairly sure they would involve the genius with the wild hair, the former Collingwood star Wearmouth.
"I can't think of any real highlights, not for myself," Dasher said.
"But looking at my whole career from day one to now it would have to have been when Ronnie was here.
"It's an era you'd never forget, hell he was a funny man."
Wearmouth was the VFL hero who spent a few years living in the Wimmera and Dasher was one of the Minyip blokes who kept knocking on his door until he finally relented and agreed to coach.
The Royal Blues had collected the wooden spoon the season before but Wearmouth, in a written statement to Dasher and his cronies, was unfazed.
"I intend to field a side that will never be beaten due to lack of fitness, desperation or poor attitude," he said.
"If we are beaten it should only be by a side with far more ability.
"I am certain that if we all contribute more than we ever have before from the president down to the orange boy then we can cause a major surprise for football followers in the Wimmera."
"It's hard to believe it could happen," Dasher reflected from a fgarm marchinery shed on the plain beyond Minyip. "We had wondered whether we would fold up and we'd had talks with Murtoa.
"We had a committee meeting and decided to see if we coud get a high-profile coach and then see how we'd go. "Well, what did we do? That's history."
Surprise? Ronnie and the Blues absolutely floored 'em by winning the wooden spoon one year and the premiership the next.
Wearmouth was nothing if not a colorful character and Dasher reckons he could tell tales of the era all day, but one in particular sticks in his mind.
The president, the coach and committeeman the late John Pidgeon had to head off one day to interview a prospective player and they picked up Ronnie from where he was slashing stubble.
Quail had been going everywhere and Ronnie had gathered them up in various states of dismemberment figuring he could make a feast.
He stored them in an esky and dropped them off in the fridge at home on the way past.
The boys did the talking, signed the player, stopped in at the Dooen pub on the way home and then thought they'd better all launch a working bee plucking the quail.
John said we'd better give Ronnie a hand so we're there plucking a there's bits of legs and back end and front ends and guts going everywhere
"Then all of a sudden there was a couple of chirps and a bit of a flap at the bottom of the esky, this bird popped up and flew away into the sunset.
"They'd been in the fridge all day! Hell it was funny."
Dasher was just that as a young buck on the field for Minyip in 1944 in the Burrereo League and he found a niche on the half back flank and wing.
He ended up playing 160 senior games with the Blues in Wimmera League, figuring in premierships in 1952 and 1954 and in many other grand final sides alongside the greats including the formidable Drum brothers, Reg Evans and Bill Coates.
He was later playing coach of Minyip's reserves in the old Southern Wimmera League for four years and though they made some grand finals they never won one.
"I suppose you could say they were rugged conditions," he reflected.
We had no showers, no blokes running drinks out and we only trained Thursday nights.
"We'd start in the afternoon and as soon as it came dark that was the end of the story - there were no lights."
Dasher remembers 'a little bloke from Jeparit' as one of the toughest opponents to match.
"He used to run like hell and then he'd drop down on one knee and pop to one side, you'd lose him and he'd slip off again.
"But probably the hardest bloke was Jack Antonio from Ararat, he was so slippery and could get around you, and Alby Heinrich from Jeparit was one of the toughest.
"He wouldn't go crook but he'd always get you back."
Dasher was also a top cricketer in his day and a foundation member of the Dunmunkle club which played on a paddock not far from his home.
The outfit won five flags before disbanding and Dasher kicked on in Boolite and Warracknabeal comps batting and wicket-keeping until he was 60.
He clipped a top score of 100.
Dasher loved his cricket but the footy really fired his passion and the Minyip presidency taught him about hard work off the field.
"When I was president Sunday nights and every second night would be the only nights I'd be home," he said.
"When I finished I was physically and mentally stuffed.
"But now? I'm as fit as a Mallee bull and twice as dangerous!"
