POSTE, John Russell

BORN SEPTEMBER 26TH 1944 in Belleville, Ontario, Canada, the son of Leo Russell Poste and his wife Grace Edna (née Gonyou), he began skating at the age of 5 and first visited Australia in 1968 when he was 23. He stayed for a year and when he returned in 1972, it was for good.

He played for Frank Krista's Hakoah in 1969 and 1972, with such players as Kevin Harris, John Thomas, Ray Noble and Anders Wiking, then switched to the Pirates as player-coach in 1973. The Pirates won their first premiership in 1976 and the second in 1978. A third and last followed 8 years later in 1986. He played well over one hundred A-grade games in Victoria.

Russell represented his state in the 1969 Goodall Cup, and joined the core of 15 players who played most of coach Elgin Luke's five consecutive Cup triumphs between 1972 and '76. He won the coveted trophy four times straight from 1972, won the 1974 Australian Club Championship with Hakoah, and represented Australia in the National Senior Team at the 1974 IIHF World Championships in Grenoble, France. "Russell was not only a good player and coach, but a great support of the Victorian Ice Hockey Development Council," recalled Elgin Luke in 2018.

Pat Burley's Iceland Footscray opened in 1978 with Poste as manager, raising Melbourne ice sports to their all-time peak of 5 rinks. Iceland became home to the well-established Pirates club and, in less than a year, there were 100 under-14 boys involved in hockey, and 200 members in the figure skating club. A stark contrast to the very poor attendances at the Colosseum in Dandenong, and the average attendances at the Oakleigh and Ringwood rinks.

The next year, the association formed an under-14 Junior B grade, and the Pirates in their first year at Footscray controlled two teams, their own and the Westerners, a completely new side. The Pirates won the first Junior B-grade premiership and the Rangers' Andrew Kirkham won the first Junior-B MVP. Victoria had established A and B grade leagues for both Seniors and Juniors.

An active clubman and proven coach, Poste believed in limiting the number of overseas players in local competition, and he actively promoted junior players from the reserve grades. Although that is self-evident for the survival of an amateur sport, some clubs preferred to shortcut development by importing players—a panacea for their own shortcomings. But the state association under Charlie Grandy gave Poste's views serious consideration, even though some here considered his ideas controversial.

"All ice hockey people should keep in mind that our sport is for the players," wrote Grandy in 1980. "Sometimes people think that hockey is for the club, or for the team, they want to keep their club or team strong at the expense of the player. This must not be allowed to happen. We must have more grades of hockey so that the player is allowed to expand his ability in gradual increments".

Kevin Madden, who was a part-time manager at Footscray Iceland with Poste, remembers "a great bloke and lots of good memories". Russell married Chris Motteram whose father Bob was Pirates team manager and vice-president, and whose brother Mike played Pirates A-grade.