Shepparton Park recruit Frank Gumbleton, pictured with his premiership-winning 1977 North Melbourne jersey, is looking to make his mark on the competition this season.
Photo by
Liam Nash
Frank Gumbleton has a funny knack for winning flags everywhere he goes.
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His list reads multiple VFL/AFL premierships at North Melbourne during the 1970s, several before then as a young tacker in southern NSW and, later, even a QAFL deliverance as a playing coach in 1981 for Windsor-Zillmere.
But he may have found his toughest test yet: Shepparton’s lawn bowls scene.
Gumbleton joined Shepparton Park Bowls Club’s division two weekend pennant side and has had an uncharacteristically tricky start to life on the greens.
Park currently lands in sixth with a 1-3 record and, for this decorated winner, the unfamiliar taste of struggle on the greens adds a fresh layer to his story.
That’s not to say he doesn’t know what pressure feels like.
Gumbleton played in one of only three drawn VFL/AFL grand finals when his Kangaroos levelled out against Collingwood in 1977, only to return and triumph in the replay.
So how did he end up at Shepparton Park of all places?
“I got into lawn bowls after my brother passed away and I took his bowls, which was just on five years ago,” Gumbleton said.
Years after his footy career ended, Gumbleton and his wife Margaret moved from Melbourne to Echuca, the town they’d stay in for two decades.
It was here where he’d first dip his toe into the wild world of lawn bowls.
A move to Lifestyle Shepparton village followed more recently, where he’d eventually link up with ex-North Melbourne teammate Brian Hall, who just so happened to play for Park.
The club is yet to feel Gumbleton’s winning magic.
Yet given his success-kissed track record, it would be foolish to count him out.
Frank Gumbleton has enjoyed the mateship and friendly competition since joining Shepparton Park Bowls Club.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
His spark for sport was kindled young, as a boy in Ganmain, NSW, and after losing his father at 11, the family moved to Griffith, where his uncle — a sportsman himself — introduced him to basketball and football.
“We lived with Mum’s brother for a couple of years and my uncle was involved in basketball and football, so he got me into playing those,” he said.
“I was playing under-14s footy in Griffith and they were short, so they put me in the under-16s.
“Then I moved back to Ganmain and a similar thing happened.”
Gumbleton jumped the queue and not only played under-18s at 14, but won a premiership with Ganmain that year.
The following season, he captained the under-16s while playing reserve-grade football and won another flag, kicking eight goals in the grand final.
To no surprise, Ganmain’s seniors soon wanted a piece of the tough young prospect after that.
“I was coached by Tommy Carroll, who played for Carlton — he was a local boy from Ganmain — so he and Mum had a few words,” he said.
“Tommy wanted to play me in the seniors, but Mum said ‘No, he’s too young to play’.
“Tommy said ‘No, he's playing’. So Tommy won and I played my first game at 16 in the Ganmain seniors.”
Gumbleton proved the adage that if you’re good enough, you’re old enough, kicking 19 goals in three games, and soon South Melbourne came calling.
He said no.
The offer of playing in the VFL was hardly attractive at the time and he knocked back the club — now known as Sydney Swans — because he wouldn’t be permitted back to Ganmain in time to play bush footy on the Sunday.
However, South’s loss soon became North’s gain.
“The following week, North Melbourne came to see me on Thursday and I said I’d go to Melbourne as long as I could get back to Narrandera for the football on Sunday,” he said.
“I’d kicked 19 goals in the first three weeks and that’s probably where they got interested in me.
“But I couldn't play straight away because I broke my wrist on the Sunday.”
Once healed and healthy, Gumbleton embarked on a decade-long career at North Melbourne that bore senior premierships in 1975 and 1977.
The bafflement of the second flag was balanced by the elation of the first and, to this day, it still goes down as one of Gumbleton’s finest hours.
Frank Gumbleton brings genuine premiership pedigree to Shepparton Park, hoping to recreate his remarkable football record in the Goulburn Valley bowls scene.
Photo by
Liam Nash
“Seventy-five was incredible, that first premiership — just going back to the clubrooms after the game on Saturday night, it was just packed,” he said.
“Older people came up and said, ‘I can die now because I'm happy, I've seen a premiership’.
“They put us up on top of a semi-trailer back at Arden St and we couldn’t move; just looking out, it was incredible.”
After two senior flags and many years spent under the late, great Ron Barassi, Gumbleton “went out with a bang” at North by securing a reserve grade premiership double — the second arriving in his final game for the Kangaroos.
He then left North to go north, joining Brisbane outfit Windsor-Zillmere for three years and, yet again, saluted in the grand final of the 1981 campaign.
He was also called up to the Queensland state side, where he captain-coached the Maroons in an exhibition match against Canberra at the Gabba during the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane.
So, with a swag of VFL grails and state honours gilding his glittering career, it may come as a surprise that Gumbleton’s best moment arrived in the little old town of Ganmain.
“Premierships are great to win; (my favourite was) probably playing my first one with Ganmain in the seniors,” he said.
“But the reserve grade one is probably the one that stands out the most because I was only 15 and I kicked eight goals in the grand final.”
Beyond football and bowls, Gumbleton’s passion has been the Special Olympics, where he and Margaret have supported their daughter Erin for 30 years.
But as the Gumbletons prepare to turn the page on that part of their life, is Shepparton the last chapter of a life rich with sport, success and the rare joy of premierships?
“I definitely think so,” he said.
“I don’t think we’re moving far from here — this will be it I think.”
