Vale Fred Cook

[bornadog]

Fred Cook, the full forward who kicked goals galore for Port Melbourne in the old VFA and played league football for Footscray, has died peacefully at the age of 74.

RIP

[bornadog]

For those who never saw him, here is a write up about his career.

Read here

[Mofra]

Absolute VFA legend

[bornadog]

Absolute VFA legend

Kicked over 1200 goals for Port

[Eastdog]

A Port Melbourne VFA legend. Kicked a ton of goals.

[Axe Man]

Anyone know what Fred did at Charlie Sutton's house that led to his exit from Footscray?

VFA and Port Melbourne legend Fred Cook dies at age 74

AT its peak in the 1970s, the Victorian Football Association had a cluster of players who became household names, their deeds amplified by Sunday TV broadcasts that attracted large and devoted audiences.

But there was no more captivating or charismatic figure than Port Melbourne full-forward Fred Cook, who died today at a nursing home in Bendigo.

He was 74.

In football-mad Melbourne, Cook’s public profile was larger than most league players.

He had a column in the Sporting Globe, was a regular on radio, appeared on Channel 7’s World of Sport and was in demand on the speaking circuit, often accompanied by his great mate Sam Newman.

The hundreds of goals he kicked for Port Melbourne underpinned a popularity that opened many doors for him off the ground.

But he squandered whatever he made, descending into a drug habit in the 1980s and ultimately doing jail time.

Few sporting stars fell harder or deeper than the man his adoring supporters called “Fabulous Fred’’.

There was no redemptive element to his decline either; even as he faded into obscurity and his senior years he fought a battle with drugs.

He must have said it 1000 times: “I didn’t use yesterday, I haven’t used today and I probably won’t use tomorrow.’’

Cook played 33 games for Footscray from 1967-69 and had the potential to play many more. His teammates from the Dogs noted that he marked the ball as well as anyone in the game.

But Cook clashed with official Jack Collins over his attendance at a players’ gathering at the home of Bulldogs great Charlie Sutton.

Dropped to the reserves, he stewed. Hearing of his disenchantment, VFA club Yarraville came calling with a lucrative offer that he could not refuse.

Cook went to the VFA midway through the 1969 season and for the next 15 years was its most magnetic figure.

He jagged the 1970 JJ Liston Trophy at Yarraville, which, despite Cook’s dominance, was relegated.

Not wanting to play Division 2 football, he crossed to Port Melbourne.

A heart attack set him back early in his time at the Borough but when he moved to full forward nothing could stop him.

Wearing No 5, goals fairly gushed from his Puma boots and helped power Port Melbourne to a string of premierships.

Cook’s season tallies tell the tale: 67 goals in 1973, 58 in 1975, 108 in 1975, 125 in 1976, 125 in 1977, 115 in 1978, 79 in 1979 (when he shared the attack with another great spearhead in Peter McKenna), 112 in 1980, 106 in 1981, 139 in 1982 and 76 in 1983.

He played in the Norm Brown-coached 1974-76-77 flags and the Gary Brice-coached 1980-81-82 successes.

Cook finished up at Moorabbin after then-Port coach Warwick Irwin decided to move him on.

The great full forward was taken aback that the club where he played a record 253 games and booted 1236 goals no long wanted him. He got drunk that night at his Station Hotel.

Cook had taken over the Station Hotel towards the end of his career at Port Melbourne, and the bars that had been deserted suddenly filled.

The lunches he put on became legendary, attracting legal figures, bankers, businessmen, police, entertainers and sporting identities.

He also employed topless waitresses and strippers.

But the hotel also attracted a criminal element, including drug dealer Dennis Allen.

Cook always pinpointed the start of his slide to the night he complained to Allen how tired he felt.

He was down to do a sportsman’s night with the St Kilda Brownlow Medal champion Neil Roberts and English fast bowler John Snow but he was struggling with the flu.

Allen whipped out a bag of white powder and a pen knife, and tipped some amphetamines into Cook’s drink. He immediately felt a burst of energy and ready to meet his engagement.

But with a calendar crowded with commitments, he began to lean on speed and eventually his life fell apart.

He also admitted the drugs were a way of replacing the adrenaline rush football brought him, “the buzz in the belly’’.

Cook lost everything he owned and resorted to drug dealing and petty crime to get by.

Police eventually caught up with him and he went to jail, the advice of Newman ignored: “If only you would apply to your life the discipline you showed in his football career.’’

In 2016, by now living on the Mornington Peninsula, he was hit by a motorbike and was found unconscious in his home, close to death.

Taken to Frankston Hospital, his family was told to prepare for the worst.

But he recovered, his family at his side.

A year later he looked a sick man when Port Melbourne staged a tribute for him. He was in a wheelchair and some people were shocked at his appearance. One former teammate wept.

But again he came good, encouraged by his loyal wife, Sally, who was never far from his side and who in the past few days had been fretting over his declining health.

Fred Cook died this morning at Victoria Heights Aged Care in Bendigo.

[Eastdog]

Anyone know what Fred did at Charlie Sutton's house that led to his exit from Footscray?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred...er,_born_1947)

From Wiki:

After the sixth round of the 1969 season, Cook was dropped from Footscray senior side to the reserves, along with six other players, as a disciplinary action for attending a family BBQ at former coach Charlie Sutton's house, which club secretary Jack Collins had thought would be a drunken swill, and had discouraged players from attending.[4]

[Axe Man]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred...er,_born_1947)

From Wiki:

After the sixth round of the 1969 season, Cook was dropped from Footscray senior side to the reserves, along with six other players, as a disciplinary action for attending a family BBQ at former coach Charlie Sutton's house, which club secretary Jack Collins had thought would be a drunken swill, and had discouraged players from attending.[4]

I thought he must have done something terrible. Seven players dropped for attending a BBQ at Charlie's house? Crazy.

[Jeanette54]

I saw Fred recently on an old recording of A Crime Australia episode on Kath Pettingill and her family. Kath was Dennis Allen's mother. As one who remembers Fred's performances for the 'Dogs it was pretty hard to watch. And to think we lost him for such a minor infraction. Just as well Jack Collins wasn't the Collingwood club secretary, they wouldn't have had a team for the last fifty years.

RIP Fred, from the kid in the Western Oval outer, back in the 60's.

[I'm Not Bitter Anymore!]

I last saw him at Port Melbourne the day Footscray won the Prelim in 2014. He was selling copies of his book (Fabulous Fred quite a good read) out of the boot of a car. He looked rough as

[jeemak]

Such a dramatic tale. RIP.

Bogan dust in those days was serious bogan dust from all accounts, and a lot of players of the day used to get into it.

[Eastdog]

I thought he must have done something terrible. Seven players dropped for attending a BBQ at Charlie's house? Crazy.

Yeah my thoughts as well. Quite a minor thing.

[Grantysghost]

Yeah my thoughts as well. Quite a minor thing.

Am I reading he was a drug dealer?

I'm not sure how I feel about that. User, I can tolerate; dealer not sure. Generally wouldn't consider them a good bloke under any circumstance.

[Eastdog]

Am I reading he was a drug dealer?

I'm not sure how I feel about that. User, I can tolerate; dealer not sure. Generally wouldn't consider them a good bloke under any circumstance.

Yeah he did get caught up with that crowd.

[bornadog]

Am I reading he was a drug dealer?

I'm not sure how I feel about that. User, I can tolerate; dealer not sure. Generally wouldn't consider them a good bloke under any circumstance.

Not good, but small time.