Thursday, 1 August 2024

Bob Steel

Danny PEARSON (Essendon – Minister for Transport Infrastructure, Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Assistant Treasurer, Minister for WorkSafe and the TAC) (10:43): When you come to a football game at Wedderburn, you will see RA Steel, Bob, at the gate, where he will have been since the early hours of the morning selling raffle tickets, filling up drink bottles, collecting meal tickets and generally making sure all the roles of the day are ticking over, always the last to leave, making sure nobody is left behind. Over the last 50 years Bob was president from 1983 to 1985, treasurer from 1986 to 1992, secretary from 2000 to 2003 and senior coach in 1995 when the football club was at its low point. He has coached various junior teams but has also been the team manager, the gatekeeper and a general committee member. Bob has filled various league positions as well. If there was a job to be done at WFC, Bob had already done it or was doing it. His mantra was ‘You don’t just think about it, you do it.’

His first love is the Wedderburn football club. His second has to be the Wedderburn Band Cricket Club. He was president from 1991 to 1993, treasurer for another seven years and WBCC junior coach on and off for about 10 years. During all that time he played a role in maintaining the turf by regularly cutting, watering and rolling. He was always the first there on a Saturday setting up and the last to leave, making sure everything was locked away. Not only has Bob given service to both sporting clubs; he has also been a member of the Wedderburn Apex club, a Lions Club member and president in 2021–22, and he serves on the Wedderburn institute hall committee, Donaldson Park committee of management, friends of the hospital finance committee, Wedderburn trotting club and Wedderburn Community House. In every organisation he has given his time as president, treasurer and secretary. RA Steel has become an icon within the Wedderburn community, highly revered and respected. A humble man who never sought the limelight, just wanted to get the job done, he has served all his life his beloved WFC and the greater Wedderburn community.