The enforcer by Tony Cahir

In 1971, the Blacks, coached by Kevin Easton, lost the E Grade Grand Final to St Pat’s Old Boys, whom we had beaten in the second semi.
For promotion into D Grade in 1972 the committee decided we needed an enforcer to protect all the young university footballers from the thugs lurking in the suburban Ammo sides.
Terry Loftus from Reservoir-Lakeside was appointed playing coach, our first experience of a player over 30 years-old, playing with tatts and without teeth.
We played Parkside at home. They attempted to fill their designated role of belting the long hairs, until Terry evened up with a crunching fist to the nose of their centre half forward, who was duly taken away for facial reconstruction.
At 7:30 that night, towards the end of after match drinks, John 'Fish' Condon and I were manning the bar when in marched the aforementioned centre half forward, sticking plaster all over his shattered nose.
He was a national serviceman in the army and had dressed in full uniform. He was carrying his SLR (self loading rifle) and demanded to know where 'that big fat cunt' was.
We had never been so glad that our coach never stayed around to drink with us and, after examining all the frozen 'Trober faces in the room, our opponent, and his big gun, left.

Craig adds: I recall that we ran a raffle to pay for Terry's services. He was flogging tickets himself and did a bunk with the proceeds he'd collected. Just disappeared without trace. Does anyone know what became of the big fella, or know of a similar instance when a coach vanished mid-way through a season?

Tony also forwarded a copy of a story that appeared in the dear departed National Times, sometime in the early 1980s. It's a great yarn by erstwhile Aussie author Laurie Clancy about his days at La Trobe. I shall endeavour to post it.