McNeils relive hockey club’s good old days

Aaron McNeil and his mother Sandra.

IF you had ever played at the Logan Hockey Club during the club’s 30 year existence, then there’s a good chance at one point you were lining up alongside a McNeil.

Seven McNeils over three generations have proudly worn the blue, yellow and white stripes, including internationally renowned supermodel, Catherine McNeil.

However the title for the club’s longest serving McNeils goes to Catherine’s grandmother, Sandra McNeil and Sandra’s son, Aaron.

For the good part of 30 years, the pair had been involved in the club.

Aaron was a founding player at the club in 1979 when it was known as Logan Bulimba Hockey Club.

He began playing when he was 10 years old and continued to represent the club nearly every year right up until 2007.

Sandra of Cornubia had an active role at the club spending every available minute she wasn’t playing, helping with managing, coaching, umpiring and chairing the club’s women’s and girl’s faction.

Sandra and Aaron, along with more than a hundred former Logan Hockey players and supporters, will be attending the club’s 30th year anniversary dinner in Loganholme this Saturday.

Many memories from the past three decades are sure to be shared, but for Sandra, the year 1995, which was her last season as a player, was the standout.

“Aaron and I both got chosen for Brisbane and I went on to be chosen for Queensland,” Sandra said.

“I was in fact one of the first people from Logan Hockey Club to get chosen for a Queensland rep team, but the club had lots of reps afterwards.

“The Queensland team won the Australian championship and that year was also when I was honoured a life member of the club.”

Despite the personal achievements, Sandra said the best thing about 1995 for her was seeing her children and grandchildren playing for the club.

“That year we had three generations playing,” she said.

“I had a son (Aaron) and two daughters playing (Emily-Kate and Melissa) – one was also coaching – and three grandchildren playing (Catherine, Ben and Alecia Scott).”

When Aaron first played at Logan Bulimba Hockey Club, the club had just five junior boys teams.

Initially the club, which would go on its own and be known as Logan Hockey Club from 1980, struggled to find a home.

It used any park they could find to train and play on, before finally finding a permanent home at Meakin Park, Slacks Creek, during the early 1980s.

During the peak of the club’s success, Logan Hockey was fielding more than a dozen sides in junior, senior men’s and women’s Brisbane hockey competitions and had won numerous premierships.

But one title had eluded the club for many years – the senior men’s trophy – until 2006 when the side finally captured it with Aaron and his nephew Ben playing in the grand final.

“The holy grail,” Aaron called it.

“For sure ‘06 was great, the best.

“The team backed up again the next year and made the grand final.

“My great shame is I didn’t even make the field because I went away to New Zealand, not thinking we would make it (grand final) again. We lost so many players from the previous year.”

Aaron regrets not being a part of the losing grand final, which was also the club’s senior men’s team’s final ever game.

And the Shailer Park father of two expected to hear about it “again” from his former team-mates at Saturday’s anniversary dinner.

“I didn’t give them enough credit. I’m sure to hear about it again,” Aaron, who met his wife Kim through the Logan Hockey Club, said.

“But the memories I had with the blokes were awesome. We were like a family.”

The success from the club’s humbled beginnings to its golden era during the late 1980s to early 90s had been built on strong mateship and a dedicated team of volunteers.

Unfortunately these days the club is a small shadow of that time, with only two women’s sides expected to fly the club’s flag in the 2010 Brisbane Hockey competition season.

But Sandra and Aaron hoped this Saturday’s 30th year anniversary dinner would spark back the interest of hockey from past members.

“The club just needs to get some people back again,” Sandra said.

“The young ones that were juniors here are now parents and a lot of them are coming back (to the anniversary dinner) to meet up with their old team members.

“It would be good to get that enthusiasm regenerated because Logan needs a strong hockey club.”

Aaron said hockey was a great game that could be enjoyed by all ages and: “who knows, you could end up becoming a supermodel,” he finished with.