Our People
14 August, 2026
They don’t come around very often
GARRY Todd brought up his 100th goal of the season as Ararat won the 1986 Wimmera Football League premiership. Four decades later, that’s not the moment he talks about first. Instead, the captain-coach talks about the young men he coached, the lessons he tried to teach and the friendships that have lasted a lifetime.
“It was one of the proudest moments of my life,” Todd said.
This weekend, many of those young men will walk back through the doors of the Ararat Football Club as the Rats mark 40 years since their famous Wimmera Football League premiership.
They’ll return to Alexandra Oval older and wiser than they were when they ran onto ANZAC Park for the 1986 grand final.
But when they get together, Todd suspects the decades will melt away in an instant.
“The group itself, we’re still very well connected,” he said.
“We don’t talk on a daily basis, but whenever we catch up, it’s just a good catch-up because you can talk about what we all shared.
“That, to me, is really good.”
What they shared was an extraordinary season.
Ararat had been good in 1985, finishing third before bowing out of the finals in straight sets, but Todd knew the side was close.
The arrival of Murray and Stuart McKinnis from Ballarat strengthened it early in 1986.
Then came Chris and Brett Dalkin.
Chris had recently played VFL football, while Brett arrived with representative honours from his time in the army.
Todd remembers the moment it all came together.
“From there, I thought, ‘I don’t think anyone’s going to be able to beat us’,” he said.
“Once Chris and Brett joined the team, we won every game by 70 points or more until the grand final.”
It was an imposing collection of footballers, but most hadn’t been assembled for a tilt at a flag. They had grown up together.
On the bus to Warracknabeal for the grand final, Todd remembers looking around and counting more than a dozen players who had come through Ararat’s junior ranks.
Many were barely into their 20s.
“The core of the club came through together,” he said.
“A lot of those blokes were only in their early 20s when we played that game.
“It speaks a lot for the underage program because you’re developing players from a young age and they’re ready-made when they get to your senior side.”
Todd was 30. Many around him, including David Jennings, were only 20.
They could play.
Managing them was another matter.
“They weren’t always good,” Todd laughed.
“They were a wild mob of boys, let me tell you.
“But we harnessed them pretty well.”
That, perhaps more than anything he achieved with a football in his hands, is what Todd now looks back on with the greatest pride.
Ararat first turned to him as coach in 1981.
He readily admits he wasn’t ready.
“I definitely wasn’t the best coach early,” he said. “I was far from it.”
Todd could play the game instinctively.
Teaching someone who couldn’t came less naturally.
A stint coaching Moyston in 1983 changed that.
“I realised that not everyone can play footy,” he said.
“I thought, ‘Perhaps I’ve got to take things back a little bit.’
“Moyston actually taught me a lot. When I came back in ’84, I was a different coach.”
By the time he returned to Ararat, Todd saw coaching differently.
“You take on a role, and you’re not just there because you’re named as coach,” he said.
“You’re there to teach them how to play footy.”
Sometimes those lessons lasted far longer than the football itself.
Darren Bahl reminded Todd of one recently.
It was during Ararat’s final training session before the grand final.
Bahl was about 20 when his captain-coach offered a few quiet words.
“Grab hold of this, mate, because they don’t come around very often,” Todd told him.
At the time, Bahl wasn’t convinced.
“Dags thought, ‘Ah, bullshit. They come around all the time’,” Todd recalled.
“I thought exactly the same thing after we won in ’75.”
Forty years later, Bahl still remembers exactly where they were standing near the old scoreboard when those words were spoken.
Todd had learned that lesson the hard way.
He was only 19 when Ararat won the 1975 premiership and assumed there would be plenty more.
There weren’t.
“I thought it must happen every year,” he said.
“I never played in another final until ’84.
“It’s a long time between drinks.”
That understanding only added to the pressure when September 1986 arrived.
Ararat had become the competition’s dominant side, but Todd knew dominant seasons did not automatically become premierships.
Competition for places was fierce.
Players who had contributed throughout the season missed out as teammates fought their way back from injury.
Even Todd’s own brother Shane was overlooked for the grand final.
“Mud Madex still talks about missing out,” Todd said.
“Every single bloke was busting his arse to get a game.
“The training just went to another level that year.
“Everyone couldn’t wait to get to training. It was bloody great.”
Then came Warracknabeal.
Ararat charged to a nine-goal lead by three-quarter-time against Horsham before surviving a frantic last-quarter fightback to prevail 23.12 (150) to 20.17 (137).
“The last quarter seemed to go for a month,” Todd said.
Somewhere amid the chaos, Todd kicked the goal that brought up his century for the season.
Yet when Todd reflects on that afternoon, it isn’t the milestone that stays with him – it’s the town.
“I couldn’t speak more highly of the amount of people that were there when we got back,” he said.
The players returned to a town waiting for them as crowds packed the town hall to welcome home their premiers.
Todd remembers lifting the cup before a sea of familiar faces.
“It was something I’d never seen before,” he said.
The celebrations rolled on into the municipal chambers, where teammate Hank Owen somehow ended up sitting in the mayor’s chair – a memory that still draws a laugh.
“It was a different time,” Todd said.
Sunday mornings belonged to the football club.
Volunteers kept the place running, rabbit stew appeared on the menu and the rooms were so full after games, Todd says, “you couldn’t move”.
Almost the entire premiership side was homegrown.
Todd still believes that mattered.
“You get the best results when you’re playing for your town,” he said.
“I think that’s when you get your best results.”
It is one reason he takes such satisfaction from watching today’s Ararat side prepare for another finals campaign.
Four decades after captaining and coaching the Rats to one of the club’s greatest triumphs, Todd still heads to training most Thursday nights and remains deeply invested in the club he has served as a player, coach, president and mentor.
He probably didn’t realise those few quiet words to Dags would still be remembered 40 years later.
Looking back, it’s hard to argue with the advice.
They don’t come around very often.
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