Fred Cook book.

[BornInDroopSt'54]

Re: Fred Cook book.

Is it a cook book?

[Twodogs]

Re: Fred Cook book.

Is it a cook book?

It's a book about Cook.

[KT31]

Re: Fred Cook book.

It's a book about Cook.

Should be worth a look.

[Twodogs]

Re: Fred Cook book.

I wonder if it will come out in audiobook?

[The Underdog]

Re: Fred Cook book.

Is it a cook book?

Not sure Fred would have cooked anything besides sausages and some chemicals in the shed

[Bornadog]

Re: Fred Cook book.

Once a VFA champion goalkicker, Fabulous Fred Cook hit rock bottom, as told by Leader Sports Editor Paul Amy in his new book

• PAUL AMY
• AUGUST 08, 2014 3:51PM

Fred Cook is all smiles outside his pub, the Station Hotel, in July 1985.



The front cover of the book, Fabulous Fred: The Strife and Times of Fred Cook, by Paul Amy with Foreword by Sam Newman.


IT had been an unremarkable day in the Frankston Magistrates’ Court.
Locals, a few of them carrying the whiff of aftershave and looking uncomfortable in just-bought suits, had come to answer charges like drink-driving, burglary and theft. They filed in before 10am and they hoped their solicitors would ensure they filed out.Quick-with-a-quip prosecutor Ricky Lewis would have called it a ‘mixed bag’ of cases, as he invariably did when quizzed by the reporter covering proceedings for the Frankston Standard newspaper.Most cases were heard in court one, in a building that stood for years on Davey Street, only a couple of decent drop punts from the Frankston football ground. But around lunchtime on this day in December 1991, court staff began to murmur about a matter to be heard in the smaller second court.

A former footballer had been arrested, they said. Big name in his day, apparently.A few minutes later, uniformed police marched a handcuffed and dishevelled Fred Cook in to court. Sweat beaded on his forehead. He wore jeans that needed a wash, a similarly grubby white shirt and running shoes on their last legs.Some wouldn’t have recognised him as the man who less than a decade earlier was the most captivating and colourful player in the Victorian Football Association (VFA). Supporters called the prolific Port Melbourne goalkicker ‘Fabulous Fred’. He assumed the profile of a pop star.Police had come to know him well, too, but as Frederick William Cook, repeat offender. To them he was no football hero. He was just another sloppy crook who needed locking up. ‘Fred Cook? Can’t stay out of trouble. He’s a pain in the arse,’ an officer from the Frankston District Support Group once replied when asked about the former Port champion.A pin-up boy to an ocean of small fry, Cook kicked bags of goals in his sponsored Puma boots and was integral in six Port Melbourne premierships during the historic club’s most successful era.Its successor, the Victorian Football League (VFL), has struggled for publicity for years.

But the VFA had a large and fanatical following in the 1970s and 1980s — it was common for fans to support a league team on Saturdays and an association team on Sundays — and a cluster of great players and compelling characters. There was Dandenong spearhead Jim ‘Frosty’ Miller. Feared Preston ruckman Harold Martin. Cook’s Port Melbourne teammate and champion big man Vic ‘Stretch’ Aanensen. Bearded Coburg swashbuckler Phil Cleary. Rugged Sandringham defender Alf Beus. Geelong West sharpshooter Joe Radojevic. Long after retirement, their names still resonate with seasoned football followers.

But Cook had the largest profile of all. Wearing the No.5 jumper from full forward, he was the finisher for a team as bruising as it was brilliant. With his regular starring roles in matches televised by Channel 0, he helped haul the VFA out of the shadows and into the spotlight.


Then... Port Melbourne champions Bob Bonnett and Fred Cook after Cook passed Bonnett’s VFA goalkicking record.



...And now: The pair catch up during a function to name the goalends at North Port Oval for them. Picture: Richard Serong


Sitting in jail in a period of sobriety, he reflected on how far he’d fallen and how much he’d hurt his family. It was Christmas and he was aching to see his kids. He thought about killing himself.Cook can pinpoint the start of his slide. One night he was battling the flu ahead of a sportsman’s night alongside the St Kilda Brownlow Medal champion Neil Roberts and English fast bowler John Snow.Hardened Melbourne criminal Dennis Allen, who’d started hanging around the Station, whipped out a bag of white powder and a pen knife and tipped some amphetamines into his drink.Cook immediately felt a burst of energy, and was ready to fulfil his engagement.Up until then he’d relied on strong coffee (sweetened by five sugars) and cigarettes to stay ‘up’.But, with his every day crowded with work commitments, he began to lean on speed, and eventually his life fell apart.

He admitted the drugs were a way of replacing the adrenalin rush football brought him. Cook lost everything he owned, and resorted to drug pushing and petty crime to get by.Where once he featured in the sports pages for his deeds on football grounds, he now filled headlines in the news section for his court appearances. ‘Footy star on drug counts’. ‘Drugs bring down footy great’. ‘Cook on bond over drugs’. ‘Drugs nearly killed me — Cook’. ‘Footy hero Cook jailed’. They piled up like rubble around a wrecking ball. In May 1989, he went before the Victorian County Court for drug trafficking and deception.His legal counsel, Bruce Walmsley, told Judge Hanlon that Cook had ‘demonstrated himself to be a pathetic figure’.


Fred Cook and his then-de facto Sally Desmond, outside the County Court after facing drug charges in 1989.


The judge released him on a bond and suspended sentence, commenting: ‘In the end I have come to the view that the pathetic mess you made of your life by the use of the drug in which you trafficked is clearly a sufficient example to the community.’Flanked by his de facto wife, Sally Desmond, Cook stood outside the County Court and declared he was going clean.He’d lost his business and the respect of his family and friends, he said.‘Have I learned a lesson? Is the Pope a Catholic?’ he said to reporters.‘If anything, it’s a lesson to young people. If it isn’t a lesson, I don’t know what is. I certainly will not be dabbling in any more drugs.’He said the same in an extended interview in the Sun newspaper with his pal and television colleague Newman the following year. ‘I can’t help anyone else until I help myself, but the life I lead is now way behind me and will never happen again.’



Fred Cook and Sam Newman with US actor Jack Klugman. Newman remains one of Cook’s closest friends.


But it did, again and again. His list of convictions would eventually extend to 12 pages.Newman, and many others, pleaded with him to apply to his life the discipline he showed in his football career. Cook was unable to act on the advice. He had believed he could use drugs to his advantage, squeezing a few extra hours into his busy days, but they took a sinister hold on him. He kicked hundreds of goals, but he couldn’t kick his drug habit.In April 1990, he was sent to prison for 12 months after breaching the suspended sentence by swiping cement and timber.He was working as a handyman and needed the materials to finish a job and provide for Desmond and their two-year-old son. The man who once put $10,000 a week into his pocket as a publican was now scratching to pay for nappies and milk.After serving his time at Morwell River Prison Farm, Cook again swore he would stay out of trouble.But old drug habits die hard.

A few months later police searched his home and found amphetamines and cannabis.Then came his appearance at Frankston Magistrates’ Court.Police had performed another raid and found more amphetamines and $10,000 worth of stolen goods, a booty they called an ‘Aladdin’s Cave’.Hooking up with young crooks, Cook had been swapping drugs for stolen gear for a month, stockpiling it in a unit. He was running it like a small business, keeping a ledger of the comings and goings. It led to another stretch in prison.By that stage there was nothing fabulous about Fred. The champion spearhead who a few years earlier was surrounded by famous faces and adoring supporters had only four hard walls for company.

*Excerpt from the book Fabulous Fred, The Strife and Times of Fred Cook, by Leader Sports Editor Paul Amy, $29.95 at www.melbournebooks.com.au and all good book stores.

[bulldogtragic]

Re: Fred Cook book.

Thanks BAD. Funny how the eye can read things, I thought Fred had a Cook Book with tired eyes just now.

[Cyberdoggie]

Re: Fred Cook book.

Sam Newman was talking about Fred and the book on SEN, well worth a listen.
Look for crunch time: Sam Newman on their audio files.

Talks about his friendship with Fred and on one occasion he received a phone call at 5am from the police lockup asking if he knew Fred Cook and if he would come down to the station. Sam happened to be with a certain lady friend at the time who wasn't pleased he left to bail out his friend instead of staying with her.

[Happy Days]

Re: Fred Cook book.

Not sure Fred would have cooked anything besides sausages and some chemicals in the shed

This is the best post ever.

[Go_Dogs]

Re: Fred Cook book.

Slightly off topic, but I had the pleasure of hearing Sam Newman speak at a dinner recently, he was very interesting.

His media personality to one side, it seems he's a very generous and caring friend.

Back on topic, this book seems like one well worth picking up.

[Twodogs]

Re: Fred Cook book.

Fearless Fred is now available on e book and other apps too. I guess. . It's only $10.99. I love e book.