Steve's Memories of Jack
By Steve Roach from "In a League of their Own"
The stories about Gary "Jimmy" Jack being tight with his money are
all true.And he wasn't just tight,he was smart too.If there was a way
to save a buck,Jimmy Jack would find it.
When Balmain was fighting its way into the Grand Final in 1988,
we had one crunch game after another and the boys were really feeling
the pinch.One night we all showed up to training at Leichardt and we
were absolutely shagged,we couldn't blow out a candle between us.
Our coach Warren Ryan took one look at us and decided we could do
with a rest more than another night of running up and down the oval,
so he called for a light run and a few drinks afterwards.
It was our first early night in almost a year and most of the boys
had a quick beer and headed home for a rest or to re-acquaint
themselves with the wife and kids.Not Jimmy.Even though he lived at
Wollongong and had a long drive home,he hung around like a shocker at
a dance.
After every beer he'd ask what the time was,then settle back into
his seat sipping the one beer Warren had bought him.Finally just about
everyone had gone home and Jimmy was still there,watching the clock
and sipping that same old beer.
Warren couldn't stand it anymore.
"Jimmy," he said,"it's almost 9 o'clock.Why don't you go home?"
"Not yet Wazza," he said."I can't go until ten.That's when this
bloke I know gets to work on the tollgate."
"So?"
"He lets me through without paying the forty cents."
From "In a League of their Own"
Jimmy Jack was usually the last one to put his hand in his pocket for a drink,so you could say we were pretty suprised to see him buying drinks for all these shielas one night in 1986.
We were in camp with the State of Origin team and we'd all gone out to dinner at the Cock 'n' Bull,this flash joint in the Eastern Suburbs.
The whole team had gone,plus the coaches and managers and a few heavies from the NSW Rugby League.
After dinner we're stading around having a bit of a drink and
someone says "Check this out."We all look over and there's Jimmy Jack over at the bar buying drinks for all these gorgeous sorts.
They're having a great old time,everyone's got a drink with a little umbrella in it and the shielas are laughing at Jimmy's jokes like he's Rodney Rude.If anyone's drink has even looked like getting empty Jimmy's just thrown another 20 bucks over the bar like it was sawdust.
If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes,I wouldn't have believed it.
Seeing that Jimmy had all the action in the joint sewn up,most of us headed back to the hotel.
The next day we're all at training bright and early when John Quayle comes up to give a final pep talk.
As boss of the NSW Rugby League, John's deadset keen for us to do well,and after his little talk he asks us if we enjoyed dinner the night before.
"Sure did," we tell him.
"That's good," says John."Did you enjoy the drinks out of that 200 bucks the League kicked in?"
"Eh?What 200 bucks is that,John?"
"You know," he says,"the 200 I gave Jimmy Jack just before I left."
From "Doing my Block"
If I was ever going to war the two men I would most like alongside me in the trenches are Wayne Pearce and Garry Jack.
In more than a decade of service alongside me in the battlezones that Balmain entered every weekend they were men you could trust with your life.
Jimmy Jack is as fearless as any player I have ever known and continues the great line of champion Australian post-war fullbacks.I know when Jack runs the ball back he deliberately picks out the biggest man in the oppostion to crash into and assert his authority.I've seen him smash into players with sickening force and thought "Oh oh.He's not going to get up from that."But he always did.
I'll never forget the superb try-saving tackles he produced at club,state and Test level.