Luke Brown is the last of a dying breed. A bloke who can say that he played Group 9 for Harden and is still playing George Tooke Shield for Harden now. Not that he would tell you himself. It took a tip off last week that Luke would be lining up for his 150th George Tooke Shield match last weekend, against the Boorowa Rovers.

Luke as a very young Hawk.

He started his football career in the U7s with mates including Josh Leitner and Josh Glover, Matt Stewart, Will Johnson, Robert Alcorn and Jarrod Pirie. Luke played each successive year the whole way through his junior football and started having to fill in as a 14 year old turning 15 in the U16s, before doing the same in the U18s as a 15 year old turning 16 and so on.

By the time Luke was an adult he already had plenty of football under his belt. He went on to play over 100 games of both Rugby Union and Group 9 Rugby League in 2004, 2005 and 2006 alone. He played a lot of his football with Abed Atallah in his early adult years and enjoyed playing all weekend. Luke was playing a mixture of Reserve and First Grade Rugby on Saturdays and Reserve and First Grade League on Sundays.

Young and fit, the turn around time for his body was pretty quick, even after throwing in some time at the local sponsor on the Saturday night. Luke played with lots of well known local players including the likes of Mark Hardy, Danny Carter, Mick, John and Sam Quinn, Chris Beal, Matt Stewart, James Wyatt, Jamie Canellis, Robbie Clarke, Peter Pobjie, Graham Murray and Brendan Ford amongst many others.

Luke made his First Grade debut when both James Wyatt and Peter Pobjie were injured against Tumut. He said, “Mum told me to tell Mark Hardy (who was coaching at the time) I was hurt and I couldn’t play, but it was fine. I played my first game of Reserve Grade that day and my First game of First Grade on the same day.” Luke remembers making U21s for Group 9 and Riverina before the Hawks folded at the end of 2006 and were pushed out of Group 9, as they couldn’t field 4 sides. The Hawks went into recess for a year in 2007. Luke played one year with Binalong the same year before heading overseas in 2008. It’s the only year he hasn’t played footy since U7s between 1992 and 2018, some 26 years.

 

Luke warming up on Saturday.

In 2009 Harden went on to defeat the Bungendore Tigers to claim the premiership. Between the end of the season and the football presentation night, Luke suffered an electric shock which put him in hospital for 2 weeks where he was in a coma. Thanks to his fitness and a great deal of luck, he pulled through and was back ready to go for the 2010 season. Luke remembers being ahead 12 nil against Binalong and told of a wager two people were involved in. One playing for Binalong and the other an avid Harden supporter.

The Camera was on Luke during his stretching routine with the Hawks.

At half time the chap from Harden was boasting only to find that he was paying up at the end of the game when Binalong turned the tables with a great comeback. Luke played in the halves in Group 9 and at Hooker in the rep sides. He said “Wardy took my spot when he made a comeback at Binalong and I played a lot of Lock after that.” There is no shame in being pushed out of position by Chris Ward. Luke said, “I’ve been in 6 or 7 Grand Finals and only won 2 Premierships, but I love my footy.”

Luke charging through the defence on Saturday.

As the years went by Luke fielded offers from other clubs including Group 9 clubs, but Harden has always been home and with 4 children now its an even easier decision to play locally. Turning 33 this year Luke has noticed it takes a little longer to recover. He said George Tooke is getting stronger each year. Group 9 was very physical, but the footy is good.” Luke said, “You have got to train a bit harder as you get older.” When asked what the best part about playing for Harden is, Luke’s wife Kristy chimed in with ‘the social side’ before Luke said “Getting to play for Harden, my home team and meeting new people.” He isn’t thinking about next year, he said, “We will see how we go at the end, I’m still going alright.” He has been lucky with injuries and has never been off the paddock for longer than 5 or six weeks.

Luke doing his Captain’s duty making sure that the Referee awards the try, before celebrating with try scorer Chris Salway to seal the match.

The Hawks have lost one match this season to the North Canberra Bears. He said, “We probably played the worst half of football ever, but we have a good side across the paddock, the bench come on and pick up when the starting players head off.” What happens on tour is meant to stay on tour but Luke told a ‘clean’ story from yesteryear where the Hawks were heading to a back-packers hostel in Sydney. “We handed our beers over to a local bloke but one player wouldn’t give his beer up and left it in his bag. When we all threw our bags down later on a concrete path waiting to get in to the accommodation the same bloke had a 6 pack in his, and it smashed and went all through his bag.

He couldn’t go out that night until his clothes dried.” Luke said, “Kristy has been a great support with my footy over the years. Glen Howe has been keeping me together since my junior days and still helps out now. I cant thank them enough” During his time in Group 9 he came across blokes like Steve Reardon and Mark Stimpson at Temora and a number of other

ex-NRL players who made the competition very tough. Luke has probably played 250 matches of Rugby League with the veteran of 14 seasons set to continue.

Congratulations Luke’s on your contribution to Football, and most importantly, Rugby League in the Twin Towns.