Doug Thomas' Roast

[wycbloods]

I had the pleasure last night of attending this event which was being held to pay tribute to Doug's contributions to the West Adelaide Football Club and the SANFL. It was very well hosted by Russell Ebert(quite a funny man) and Barrie Robran on behalf of Novita Childrens Charity. It was fantastic to hear some of greats from past eras such as Geoff Motley, John Halbert, Bob Hank, as well as the two hosts share their experiences of playing with and against Doug and have some of the players who have played under his administration. Some very funny stories were told and some very intriguing ones particularly about his administration days.

One of these was told by Merv Agars. Merv told us this story in regards to the rumours that Doug used to tell people who to vote for at AGM's( which are obviously not true). Doug whilst the General Manager had rung him in regards to the upcoming AGM and said "i don't want to tell you who to vote for Merv but you won't vote for candidates b,c and d", Merv then said " well Doug that only leaves 4 candidates to vote for and there are 4 spots up for election" Doug replied with " it should be easy for you then Merv bye" and hung up. It was also good to hear Bruce Linder talk about what Doug had taught him in regards to contracts he said they were lessons he would never forget.

It was good to see Doug's helath has improved considerably and that he now feels comnfortable returning to the club which is a great move forward from what has been a bad two years between him and the club.