What does “Freddy Jones” mean?

“Freddy Jones” has two very different meanings in sports parlance. To most sports lovers Freddy Jones was simply the name of one of the Manly-Warringah professional Rugby League team’s toughest ever front row forwards. To members of one 1980s amateur rugby union Sydney sub-district football team “Freddy Jones” had a very different meaning. “Freddy Jones” was actually the name of the Balgowlah Boozing Browns’ one and only set piece play. Several times per game the Brown’s cantankerous, pedestrian and undersized hooker, “Rattler” Edwards, on receiving a penalty, would seize the ball, push the ref out of the way, scream “Freddy Jones”, take a tap kick, then sprint across the field (parallel to the try line) offering dummy passes to all fifteen of his team-mates who would dutifully run at angles off their lumbering diminutive rake. Opposition defenders, mesmerized by the seeming pointlessness of “Rattler’s” activity, would stand back, flat-footed and watch the play unfold. After having offered his final dummy pass “Rattler” would suddenly change direction and dart forward. “Rattler” never scored a try with his “Freddy Jones” play but he, surprisingly, rarely failed to gain a good ten to twenty yards from the set piece where nothing actually happened. No one who ever played with the Boozing Browns will be able to explain why.

TIMOTHY EDWARDS

Tim Edwards has had a completely rubbish sporting career so it is odd that he seems so obsessed with sport and adventuring. As a basketball shooting guard he had an okay jump shot but couldn't do anything else. As a rugby hooker he spent more time puking then actually playing. As a runner he won an awful lot of consolation prize chocolates for coming fourth but almost never won a ribbon. Despite his inadequacies he still loves sport and has opinions on almost any sporting subject. Tim has spent large parts of his working life in publishing and writing roles and has even done his share of teaching sport management to Uni students. He has coached more sports teams than he cares to remember. Tim is an awful surfer and skier but his lack of competence does not bother him one little bit!