Last Thursday, the life of former Collingwood Football Club great, Bill Picken, was celebrated in Hamilton, Victoria.
Bill passed away on July 23 at the age of 66.
Bill’s achievements in football were extraordinary.
His accomplishments include playing 240 VFL games (212 with Collingwood and 28 with Sydney), twice winning Collingwood’s Best and Fairest Award, finishing third in the Brownlow Medal and being named on the half-back flank in Collingwood’s Team of the Century.
These achievements and many more are explored in detail in Bill’s football biography on the Collingwood Forever website.
In addition to being a football legend, Bill was also an outstanding cricketer.
For several summers during his VFL career, Bill played for Collingwood Cricket Club in what was then known as Melbourne’s District competition and is now known as Victorian Premier Cricket.
Bill played 31 First XI matches for Collingwood Cricket Club, made 831 runs, which included one century and three fifties, and averaged 26.8.
His highest score of 108 was made against Essendon during the fourth round of the 1977/78 season.
In 1990, Bill moved with his family to my hometown of Hamilton, Victoria, to coach and play for Hamilton Football Club.
As you can imagine, Bill’s arrival created considerable excitement in Hamilton football circles.
However, something far more meaningful for me happened later that year when Bill joined my cricket club, St Andrew’s, in the Hamilton District Association, at the start of the 1990/91 season.
For a sporty teenager, as I was at the time, it felt surreal, intimidating and ultimately very satisfying to be playing alongside a sportsman of Bill’s calibre in St Andrew’s A Grade side.
Bill dominated the HDCA’s A Grade competition during his time with St Andrew’s.
He made 1933 runs during 51 A Grade games at an average of 47.15.
Bill won four A Grade batting awards for St Andrew’s and made three A Grade hundreds.
His highest score was the 142 he made against North Hamilton in 1991.
Bill and I put on 120 for the fourth wicket in that game, which was the fourth highest partnership of Bill’s career at St Andrew’s.
I was a month off my 17th birthday when Bill and I shared that fourth wicket stand and unfortunately, I can’t remember much about it.
However, a vivid memory I have of Bill comes from an event that took place just a few months after our partnership of 120.
Bill was still playing coach of Hamilton Football Club in the Western Border League and I was an up and comer with inter town rivals, Hamilton Imperials.
My second senior game with Imperials and the second game of the 1991 Western Border season was the Imps versus Hamilton Derby at Melville Oval, Hamilton.
Bill started the game in the forward pocket of that match and for some reason I was given the job of playing on him.
Within the first minute, Bill had marked on me and kicked a goal.
Moments later, the ball was again heading our way and this time I lead Bill to it. In my desperation to stop Bill from taking possession and most likely kicking another goal, I dived towards the bouncing ball in an ungainly attempt to clear it away.
I immediately realised this was a mistake when Bill ran over the top of my head in his pursuit of the football and then advised me as I was getting off the ground to keep my feet next time.
My embarrassment intensified a few moments later, when the ball was rebounded into Hamilton’s forward line. Bill marked once more, kicked another goal and I was moved out of Imperials’ backline for the rest of the day.
I played three seasons of cricket with Bill at St Andrew’s before I took a break from cricket and left Hamilton.
We lost a semi-final to Coleraine in 1990/91, won the A Grade Premiership against City XI in 1991/1992, and then had the tables turned on us the following season, when City XI won the 1992/93 grand final by four runs.
After I left Hamilton, Bill captained St Andrew’s to another A Grade premiership in 1993/94 and was a member of the side that went back-to-back as A Grade Premiers in 1994/95.
Bill gave cricket away at the end of the 1995/96 season, before returning to St Andrew’s in 1999/2000 to play two final seasons in the club’s D Grade side with his sons, Liam and Sean.
Naturally, Bill showed his class with the bat, making a century in both of his D grade seasons.
Bill’s strengths as a batsman were his fierce powers of concentration, his ability to put the loose ball away and his rock-solid defence.
Bill was also unflappable. He didn’t care how he looked when he was batting. Although he never verbalised it to me, Bill’s actions demonstrated that what he cared about most was valuing his wicket, making big scores and helping to put St Andrew’s into a winning position every time he was at the crease.
Bill’s training methods at St Andrew’s were unique. He never discussed it with me at the time, but I look back now and can understand he went into every net or centre wicket practice session with a purpose.
Bill’s default training mode, like most cricketers, was simulating starting his innings, getting himself in and playing every ball on its merits. However, on some nights Bill would hone his defence to the exclusion of everything else by blocking every delivery he faced. Then on other nights, he would exclusively work on his attacking game by trying to hit every ball bowled to him for four or six.
You were a truly unique man, Bill Picken and I’m proud to say I played alongside you at St Andrew’s Cricket Club.
You will forever be a legend of our club and you will never be forgotten.
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