FRED ESDAILE
Born: 19 April 1919
Died: 9 September 2014
FRED ESDAILE had three passions in life – family, local football and greyhounds.
Fred, a long-time resident of Grace Street, Springvale North, died aged 95 on 9 September.
He was born at North Melbourne on 19 April 1919 and raised in Coburg. He left school to join his father on the wharves.
In 1942 he married Edna and the couple had two children, Jeff and Gayle.
The family moved to Springvale North in 1958 when the area was undergoing a post-war population boom.
Fred and Edna purchased a partly finished house and completed the building with the help of Edna’s father, a carpenter.
Son Jeff Esdaile remembers thinking his family had moved to the country, such was the rural character of Springvale North in the 1950s.
Fred continued to work on the wharves until his retirement at which time he was delighted to finally devote himself to his beloved greyhounds.
He reared and trained greyhounds in the family’s Grace Street backyard.
Jeff remembers a maze of kennels and dog runs which were home to eight or nine racing dogs at a time.
Among Fred’s most successful dogs were Bubbles Luck, Andromeda, Nullargo and Miss Martindale.
Fred was also a talented footballer who played for Coburg in the VFA. A rover, he celebrated premiership wins in 1939 and 1940.
His love of Aussie Rules meant he was among a group of influential locals who took it upon themselves to found the Sandown Football Club.
Ten men gathered in 1961 at 44 Grace Street, North Springvale, the home of Alby Schmidt, to discuss forming a new football club.
Also present were Alec Felton, Carlie Coates, Alan Smith, Ron Currie, Alan Stevens, David Leatham, Laurie Matheson, Jack Milnes and Roger Page.
The men applied for admission to the Oakleigh Football League.
The council levelled land on Edinburgh Road for the ground and an army of volunteers set about building the clubrooms, which are still in use today.
Fred was president in the club’s inaugural season, supported by secretary Alby Schmidt and treasurer Charlie Coates.
The club fielded just the one team in its debut season, a second 18.
In 1963, the club fielded its first senior side and under-17 side.
The first decade saw the club secure its first senior premiership under coach Ross Manniche in 1967.
One of the early players was Ray Mathieson who remembers Fred as a “happy and welcoming person”.
“In my youth I never knew of Fred’s background playing football in the VFL (now AFL) to get a grip on why he was so passionate about the game, but it was very obvious to us, in his attentiveness to the game and in his guidance and encouragement with his son Jeff.
“So it was that largely through Fred’s passion for our national game, and his love for his son and local youth, that he was one of the major driving forces behind the formation of the Sandown Football Club.”
In the 1980s Fred and Edna left Springvale North and moved to Sandringham to care for Edna’s mother.
Edna died in 1994.
Fred lived out his final days in a nursing home in Endeavour Hills.
He is survived by son Jeff, six grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren.
