ONE of Group 7’s and NSW Country Rugby League’s oldest and most successful clubs the Berry-Shoalhaven Heads Magpies have added Australian media personalities Eddie McGuire and Peter Donegan to their list of supporters.
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Both McGuire (Collingwood club president) and Donegan are huge Collingwood Magpies AFL supporters and love any association with the Magpies emblem.
Former Berry resident, Michael O’Dwyer has worked closely with the pair for a number of years and when he was in Melbourne last year got talking with McGuire about ‘his beloved Magpies’ the Collingwood AFL version!
It was then that the seed was sown to present Eddie with his very Berry-Shoalhaven Heads Magpies jumper.
The presentation was made at last week’s JBWere Australian Mast-ers golf where McGuire was working for Channel 9’s Wide World of Sports and O’Dwyer was responsible for the overall host broadcast production for IMG Sports Media.
O’Dwyer’s brother Anthony better known as ‘Odiss’ who played more than 100 first grade games for Berry organised for the jumper to be passed onto Eddie.
The Collingwood club president was absolutely delighted with the gift and commented “I’d like to thank all those involved with the Berry-Shoalhaven Heads Magpies for presenting me with a great black and white Magpies footy jumper!”
“It’s long been an idea of mine to somehow link all Magpies teams, clubs and associations right around Australia together, whether they be Australian rules, rugby league, basketball or netball,” he said.
“This is a great start and from now on my Group 7 team will always be Berry-Shoalhaven Heads!”
Upon hearing that Berry-Shoalhaven Heads might be considering reverting back to their traditional style in 2011 with thicker horizontal bands McGuire cheekily added “it would be fantastic if I could get one of those framed, who knows Berry might do a Collingwood and go on and win the premiership for 2011, any chance the Berry boys would consider vertical black and white stripes?”
That would be pretty unlikely as the horizontal hoops are very much set to stay as is the Magpies emblem however it’s always great to have identities from all over Australia supporting the Berry-Shoalhaven Heads Magpies!
Amazingly when O’Dwyer worked for Capital TV (Network 10) in the late 1980s, McGuire and Donegan also worked for Network 10 based in Melbourne, now 20 odd years later they continue to work alongside each other.