Originally Published April 12 2022
FORMER Melbourne and North Melbourne footballer Ernie O'Rourke turned 96 last Friday and is the Kangaroos' oldest living player.
To mark the occasion the club organised a special gift to the Leitchville local and last week he was presented a North Melbourne jumper signed by some of the current Kangaroos players including Jason Horne-Francis, Luke Davies-Uniacke and Tarryn Thomas.
Presenting the guernsey was 1975 premiership player Gary Farrant, Bertie Johnson and Cliff Dwyer, all Cohuna locals. Mr O'Rourke played 48 games in a five-year career that started with Melbourne in 1945 and ended with North Melbourne in 1949, the highlight being the 1946 grand final, in which Melbourne went down to Essendon at the MCG.
Mr O'Rourke was shocked to hear that he was the oldest living player but thankful for the honour.
"I was very surprised when the chap rang and told me," he said. "It was very pleasing."
During his career Mr O'Rourke played with and against some of the legends of the game, including Jack Dyer, Dick Reynolds, Norm Smith and Fred Fanning, as a small forward.
Mr O'Rourke said the game had changed a lot since his playing days.
"I played mainly up forward and half-forward, with a bit of roving," he said.
"I could never understand how I would have gone these days.
"It was man-on-man in my day, now it is pack-on-pack."
While some things have changed, others have remained constant, such as the art of crumbing as a small forward.
"I had the big men like Fanning and Jack Mueller who would get the ball down to me," he said. "Norm Smith was the man who got me mobile in football and he looked after me."
After finishing with North Melbourne in 1946, Mr O'Rourke coached at Rainbow and Wycheproof before ending up in Leitchville.
Following two years coaching at Leitchville, he then took on the role of president for 10 years.
When Mr O'Rourke first came to Leitchville, there was nowhere for him to stay, in his time as president he wanted to change that.
"My first priority was to get a house, so the football club had a house," he said. "We bought a block of land, and we built a house.
"That was something that I set out to achieve as president."
