Last Sunday afternoon, Newtown Jets icon Barry Vining lay on his loungeroom floor surrounded by his family with his hand on his heart and said his final words: “My chest hurts.”
“And then he was gone,” recalled his daughter, Jamie. “A lot of stories this week have said Newtown killed him. The Jets didn’t kill him. People can have heart attacks from joy.”
Vining was one of them. His heart may have had enough, but it was full.
Only moments earlier, the 85-year-old had watched his beloved club claim a dramatic NSW Cup grand final against North Sydney, winning 28-22.
He’d stepped down as president in 2018 after 32 years, but the Bluebags would forever be in his blood. He’d told his family earlier this year he wanted to see them win one last premiership after they won the NRL State Championship in 2019.
“We keep replaying that comment in our heads,” Jamie said. “That fact he did see them win is the silver lining. We were all wearing Newtown jerseys on Sunday. Two of his daughters were there. His grandkids were there. He stood up on full-time, he was so excited. Then he started to go towards the bathroom and lent over. I said to Mum, ‘I don’t think Dad’s OK.’ He said he was struggling to breathe.”
Former Newtown Jets president Barry Vining celebrates after his side won the 2019 NRL state championship grand final.
His widow, Vicki, said: “It was quite an intense match, and Barry gets emotional about them when they play. He definitely knew they had won. We had literally jumped up screaming and then I looked over …”
The NRL can be a cold-blooded business in which its participants take whatever they can. Officials these days are often more worried about power, protecting themselves, and keeping the right people happy.
Not Barry Vining: he was one of those selfless club officials scattered across the game but too easily forgotten.
When the Jets were turfed from the Winfield Cup in 1983, he and the great Terry Rowney held monthly meetings for a decade to keep the club going when there wasn’t a team.
Barry Vining with his family after standing down after 32 years as Newtown Jets president.
The Jets made their return through the Metro Cup, then what was known as the Premier League, and Vining was so committed to keep them afloat he would dip into his own pockets to pay players.
He recently attended a match at Newtown’s spiritual home of Henson Park, which will host his funeral on Tuesday, and stunned the gate attendant when he insisted on paying to get in.
“Everywhere we went, even Fiji or Bali, people would say, ‘Go the Jets’,” Vicki said. “He was just known as ‘Mr Newtown’. Everyone called him that. It’s been his whole life.”
I attended a match at Henson Park with Vining in 2007 as the Jets brand was enjoying a renaissance, especially with the release of Matt Nable’s The Last Winter, which featured Vining playing himself.
“It’s cool to support Newtown — it’s become a fashion item,” he said then. “We realise who we are and what we represent.”
In 2021, he received an Order of Australia Medal not just for services to rugby league but the air freight industry in which he was also an influential figure, representing Australia and the Asia-Pacific as a regional vice-president of the global freight transport representative association. One of his claims to fame was bringing glam rock legend Kiss to Australia.
The NRL will honour Vining on Sunday with a minute’s silence before the state championship grand final between Newtown and North Devils, the Queensland Rugby League premiers.
George Ndaira, a former NRL hooker who now coaches the Jets, said Vining will be in his players’ thoughts as they take the field. They also understand who the Jets are and what they represent.
“Barry was president, but you never knew it by the way he carried himself,” Ndaira said. “That was the man he was.”
Ponga not the only hot topic for former ’Roos
Former Kangaroos players are privately unhappy that the NRL has moved their annual grand final catch-up to the day after the grand final.
The function is normally on a Saturday. But, in a major shift from tradition, it will take place on Monday at the SCG to coincide with the selection of coach Mal Meninga’s squad for the upcoming Pacific Championships.
You suspect a few of the ex-Kangaroos will have some choice words for Newcastle fullback Kalyn Ponga if he’s named.
Kalyn Ponga is back in the mix for the Kangaroos.Credit: Getty
The decision from Team Ponga and the Knights to issue a statement a few minutes into the Storm-Roosters preliminary final declaring he was now available for Australia didn’t sit easily with many people.
Nevertheless, Meninga isn’t one to hold a grudge and will strongly consider Ponga should Penrith fullback Dylan Edwards’ hamstring prevent him from playing.
Swans’ latest grand final capitulation hardly must-see TV
AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon had a not-so-subtle dig at the NRL during a function in Melbourne in the lead-up to their grand final.
According to those in attendance, former Brisbane Lions captain Jonathan Brown asked Dillon in an on-stage interview if he felt like phoning counterpart Andrew Abdo after one too many drinks to explain how terrible rugby league was to watch.
The AFL grand final was a tough watch.Credit: Justin McManus
Dillon suggested you didn’t have to be under the influence to know that.
You needed to be three sheets to the wind, maybe even four, to watch the Swans last Saturday.
Their horrific 60-point loss to the Lions was yet another MCG massacre, only slightly better than their 81-point defeat to Geelong in 2022 and 63-point hammering against Hawthorn in 2014.
Throw in the GWS Giants’ 89-point loss in 2019 and it’s fair to say Sydney remains a long way off becoming the AFL stronghold various commentators believe it will be.
THE QUOTE
“It’s not Angus & Coote, it’s Ron Coote!” — Thanks for clarifying that freshly inducted Immortal Ron Coote, who designed the premiership rings to be handed out on Sunday night.
DOUBLE THUMBS UP
As Storm hooker Harry Grant did a lap of honour along the AAMI Park fence following last Friday night’s win over the Roosters, he gave a double thumbs up to a Roosters supporter. She responded with a double-bird in his face. Fabulous stuff.
THUMBS DOWN
While Broncos coach Kevin Walters was in the process of getting sacked and NSW coach Michael Maguire installed as his replacement, Reece Walsh and Ezra Mam were posting images on social media living it up in Bali. They’re young blokes enjoying their off-season but have some awareness.
It’s a big weekend for … South Sydney grand final hero Sam Burgess, who is in his first season coaching Warrington in the Super League. They meet Hull KR in the semi-finals on Saturday morning (AEST) with a potential showdown with Wigan or Leigh in the decider.
It’s an even bigger weekend for … Penrith co-captain and halfback Nathan Cleary, who carries hand and shoulder injuries into the grand final after suffering a torn hamstring earlier in the season. We celebrate the guy’s skill but what about his toughness? It’ll be difficult to improve on his heroics from the last 20 minutes of last year’s decider, but who are we to say he cannot?
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