Roy Poy
Roy Poy played as a rover for Albury and was also a publican, bookmaker and proudly served for Australia in the Vietnam War.
Roy Poy was born in Albury in 1947 and picked up Australian rules football in Albury High school, where he captained and starred for his school.
An image taken in 1959 shows a young Roy, captain of the Under 14’s, sporting a beaming smile and meeting North Albury captain coach Don Ross, a former VFL Footscray Premiership winner and Best and Fairest who was on a school visit.
Roy Poy went on to play 50 senior games for Albury, famed throughout the league as a rover who could get his hands on the football for his teammates.
His football career passed the pub test according to author and writer John Harms in a story in The Age in 2008: “At my local pub the boys told me of Roy Poy. A character of Albury, he wasn’t hard to find. Roy played under Murray Weiderman at Albury and was, by all reports, a fine rover.”
Roy was a classic country town character, who in addition to playing football was a clerk with Murray River Electricity, a publican, taxi owner, cricketer, golfer, bookmaker and served his country in the Vietnam War.
At his funeral in 2008, Roy’s friends reminisced about his qualities with Roy’s best man David Dynan commenting: “Roy was a loyal true friend, passionate and determined in everything he did.”
Roy’s grandfather Willie Ah Poy was born in 1875 in Canton and moved to Australia in his teens. He had a rocky start to his Australian experience when at the age of 21, he was captured by police crossing the Murray River into NSW.
He went to gaol and faced the magistrate at Corowa Court accused of avoiding the compulsory poll tax levied on Chinese community members.
The only image of Willie Ah Poy depicts a picture of successful integration – standing on the veranda in front of his Chiltern store with four of his children, all dressed in western clothing with Willie wearing a hat, pants with braces and smoking a pipe.
Roy’s father Lindsay served in World War II in Borneo and was a famous bookmaker in Albury, a tradition he passed down to his son Roy.
Roy married his wife Colleen in 1971 and had four children, who according to nephew Lindsay Poy have continued the tradition of ‘fine upstanding citizens in the Poy family’.
A number of Poy family members have kept the football tradition alive including Roy’s cousins Graham and Lindsay, who both had solid country football careers.
Graham Poy feels the family’s cultural history is a big driver in the Poy success on and off the field: ‘All the way back to our grandfather Willie, the Poys have been very tenacious, especially Roy and I think his Chinese heritage had a lot to do with that,’
‘I think that's the way we played the game and approached life.’
Russell Jack
There was a time in Russell Goldfield Jack’s life when Richmond’s President Maurie Fleming was a regular visitor to his house in Bendigo.
There was a time in Russell Goldfield Jack’s life when Richmond’s President Maurie Fleming was a regular visitor to his house in Bendigo.
The teenager’s Chinese-Australian mother Gladys would serve tea to Maurie on each visit but according to Russell she could not fully understand what Maurie was offering and why he was so persistent in asking her son to join the Richmond Football Club.
Russell had won the trophy for the Best and Fairest player in the 1949 Victoria Schoolboy Carnival in Melbourne and was on the radar of the powerhouse VFL Club.
Eventually Fleming gave up on his quest to sign Russell and left the Jack house empty handed. Russell could not make the move to Melbourne because he had to help his sick mother take care of their big family of 9 children.
Russell Goldfield Jack was born in Bendigo in 1935, the son of herbalist Harry Louey and Daisy Gladys Ah Dore who was the daughter of Samuel Ah Dore, Bendigo’s much-loved market gardener.
Harry Louey Jack arrived on a steamship from Hong Kong in 1899 as a 17-year-old, and worked as a storekeeper on Little Bourke Street in Melbourne before moving to Bendigo to work as a herbalist and greengrocer.
From the moment Russell started at Long Gully public school, he began kicking a football in the playground and his skills were further developed playing kick-to-kick in a vacant block of land across from his school.
Russell captained the Long Gully School football sides including many wins against their fierce rivals California Gully and recalls: ‘We had no choice but to play football in winter and cricket in summer, so why not give it a good go.’
He has fond memories of catching the tram as an eleven-year-old to watch Eaglehawk playing in the Bendigo League and one player stood out: ‘I remember Ian Chinn playing for Eaglehawk who had all the skills and a big kick,’
‘We knew he had Chinese background which was exciting.’
Russell continued playing football at Bendigo Tech and in 1949 he was selected to play for the Bendigo regional school’s team, travelling to Melbourne to play in the Victorian Schoolboys Carnival.
His high-flying marks attracted attention and he won the trophy for the Best and Fairest player in the carnival, ahead of future legends Collingwood’s Thorold Merrett and Carlton’s John James.
At the age of 17, he was promoted directly into the Eaglehawk senior men’s team, playing on the same ground that his grandfather Samuel Ah Dore had graced in the 1896 Eaglehawk v Bendigo charity game.
Instead of finishing his final years of high school, Russell joined the Railways as a boilermaker, ending his short lived Eaglehawk senior men’s footy career after a single season, retiring at the age of 18 explaining: ‘When I look back, I think I would have made it in footy but as a boy in a Chinese family I had obligations that went beyond sport.’
Thomas Chin Chee
In 1895 Thomas Chin Chee made his debut for Inglewood and in the same year became the first Chinese-Australian to play in a winning Premiership team.
The Inglewood Football Club started in 1876 with a blaze of glory and a year later, the club was included as a foundation member of the Victorian Football Association (VFA), fielding teams against Melbourne and Carlton in the late 1880’s.
In ‘The Blues’ - Inglewood Football Club’s 125th anniversary publication, one player stands out from the rest, an Asian face peering out from the Anglo-Celtic players in the 1895 Premiership team photo.
His name was Thomas Chin Chee and he was the first Chinese-Australian to play in a club Premiership team.
Thomas Chin Chee’s father James Chin Chee, was born in Canton in 1831 and migrated to Australia, settling in Smythesdale close to Ballarat and marrying Grace Vincent, a South Australian of Cornish descent.
In 1875 they had a son Thomas Henry Wah Chin Chee, and moved to Inglewood for the gold rush where James set up as the herbalist/doctor for the Chinese camp
Thomas Henry Chee spent his youth in Inglewood, playing football at school, and at the age of 20, he was selected to make his debut for the Inglewood senior team.
The Inglewood Advertiser reports that he played his first game for the ‘Blues’ on August 3, 1895.
Several of the Inglewood regulars, “good and true men”, were injured and Thomas stepped up against arch-rivals Dunolly on a rainy day at Inglewood Park.
He performed well in front of a crowd of 600, making himself “conspicuous by good play”.
Thomas held his spot in the team for the rest of the season, forming part of the victorious ‘Duggan Trophy’ winning team.
After the Inglewood Chinese camp went into decline, Thomas moved to Korumburra in the Gippsland region where he worked in the coal mines and married Irish Austalian Harriet Matilda Kells, fathering eleven children.
When Thomas retired from coal mining, he and his family moved to Vere Street in Collingwood where he shortened his name to Thomas Chee and ran a market garden growing fruit, vegetables, and flowers.
From the black and white heartland he was able to indulge his lifelong passion – the Collingwood Magpies Football Club.
According to his granddaughter Faye Pollock, he was famous in the family as a ‘diehard Pies' fanatic who had a great understanding of football and would go out to as many games as possible.
Faye recalls that Thomas would often drop in and talk for hours to the owners of the Chinese ‘cook shop’ in Hoddle Street in Collingwood.
In advance of big Collingwood games on the tv or radio, according to Faye, Thomas and his wife Harriet would: ‘go down to the restaurant and return with saucepans full of dim sims and chow mein for a footy feed fit for a king.’
Thomas lived to the age of 91, passing away in a nursing home in Carlton in 1966.