Meg says ‘bye for now’

When I first started my cadetship in Benalla at the beginning of 2019 I had no idea two thirds of my career to date would have offered little of the thing we need to do our jobs — sport.

I’d only had a year in the job before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and while that first hiatus in 2020 was long, it was the second, third, and fourth lockdowns that hurt the most.

After getting through last summer relatively unscathed, I moved to Echuca to start at the Riverine Herald in March, just as the return of football and netball was looming large.

My season highlight came three weeks into the season when, watching an Echuca United game at Echuca South Recreation Reserve, I received multiple phone calls telling me to get myself across to Victoria Park. The reason: it looked like Echuca was about to knock off reigning premier Kyabram.

I knew of their history only on paper, but dashing across town just ahead of the final quarter, I got goosebumps watching on as Echuca defeated Kyabram for the first time in 10 years.

Crowding into the change rooms alongside numerous Echuca supporters, I listened in on the team song, along with words from coaches Simon Maddox and Andrew Walker.

To quote Bruce McAvaney: it was “special”.

But with those highs came the lows and the common occurrence in 2021 was the snap lockdowns.

What was even worse was when they came on a Thursday afternoon, just after you’d finished two days of work for Friday’s paper, only to learn that no sport would go ahead and everything written was no longer relevant.

There was plenty of scrambling after 5pm to come up with an alternative sports section.

I’ve always prided myself on being an all-rounder who can cover any sport required.

But there have been some sports that were trickier to pick up than others, and the biggest learning curve in my time at newspapers has been horse racing.

I’m hoping that, reading my racing stories, you couldn’t tell that I’m a novice in the sport — because I’ve put a lot of effort in over time to hone the language.

Struggling through my first report some 12 months ago, I would never had thought I’d be the one writing most of, if not all of, the racing coverage for the Riv Herald these past 10 months.

But it’s something I’ve enjoyed doing, in part due to all the positive interactions I’ve had with trainers and racing industry folk in and around Echuca.

My one regret will be not being trackside for Echuca Racing Club’s New Year’s Eve meeting, the first with crowds in almost a year.

One of the earliest stories I wrote at the Riverine Herald was the story of Chautauqua, the famous racehorse who refused to race but has since returned as a show horse.

To my surprise, it netted me my first nomination at the Rural Press Club of Victoria awards this year.

But most of what we do isn’t about those accolades, however nice they are.

For me, it’s always about trying to give 100 per cent to every story I cover.

I’ve found over the years, when I go back and flick through the pages of past Benalla Ensigns or Riverine Heralds (I’ve always kept a very good record just next to my desk), almost every story I’ve written I can remember like it’s yesterday.

Some stories are good news — personally, I like to work within the good news realm — but others are not so good, and there are days you must confront a heavier story. Like just this week, speaking to a family who had just lost their house, as well as all of their belongings. Or sitting down with Gilbert Wanganeen to hear his thoughts on the Taylor Walker racism scandal earlier this year, as he opened up on an issue that needs to be addressed at all levels of the game.

But there is the good news to balance things out, and Echuca has so much good when it comes to sporting talent.

Interviewing Brodie Kemp ahead of his AFL debut, or Annabel Johnson and Cooper Hamilton after they were drafted to Geelong and GWS Giants were highlights, as was video chatting with Paige Pinson over in the United States as she embarked on her college soccer career.

There also continues to be so many stories in our very own backyard, including that of netballer Tiff Bartram juggling both a new coaching gig and newborn twins, or junior coaches such as Steve Bird, Bailey Grubb or Daryl Poole, who all won league awards for their junior coaching efforts.

Despite how much we lost this year, I was surprised by how many sports stories there were to pull from over the course of the year as week-to-week sport evaporated.

But there were days were we were pulling our hair out trying to come up with new ideas to fill the back pages of the Riverine Herald.

It was why we leaned heavily into some of the great sport stars to come out of our region.

Being an Olympic year helped, as we watched local connections Simone Pearce and Col Pearse compete at the international level, before Ollie Wines and Clayton Oliver went on to claim a Brownlow medal and premiership medal respectively and enter Echuca’s football history books.

The AFL finals also gave us a chance to speak to those who had done it before, and calling on former players such as Andy Preston and Todd Viney to recount their own experiences of the Big Dance was a thrill.

Later on, we continued the theme of history when speaking to local identities such as brothers John and Tony Jones, who recalled the iconic Winfield Football Championships of the 1980s.

But it’s not just sports stories that I apply my trade to; I’ve taken on far more general stories since my move to the Riverine Herald.

For me a highlight was meeting the late Jim Stapleton on his 108th birthday, something even more meaningful after learning he passed away some months later.

I have spoken to business owners about the incredible effects of multiple lock-downs, and wrote stories on topics ranging from entertainment to disability.

As I mentioned earlier, good news is my wheelhouse, so the story of a family of holiday-goers and their lost dog, which was later found after the community rallied together, made me smile for days. As did sitting down with Cohuna’s David and Gwen Campbell on their 60th wedding anniversary, and reviewing Echuca Moama Theatre Company’s return to the stage in Little Shop of Horrors.

All I can say to finish is that I’ve appreciated everyone who has taken my calls — some of which were frequent on a Sunday after a football or netball game.

And to everyone who has opened up to me for a story or helped with stories or contacts along the way, I hope I’ve done everyone’s stories justice and made this great masthead proud.

I look forward to reading it from afar long into the future.