Vale Ron Joseph

[TennisPlayerAndy]

Build him a ****ing statue.

RIP Ron. We are all indebted to you for your efforts.

 

[Liam Boy]

Feels like it's really the end of an era in the club's history when we're losing these guys who built the club's 20th century success.

I bet the last few years were as frustrating for him as they've been for all of us. Hope he caught the game on the weekend. RIP legend.

 

[blackshadow]

Build him a ******* statue.

RIP Ron. We are all indebted to you for your efforts.

I think a bit more silverware would mean far more to Ron than a statue.

 

[giantroo]

 

[r_boy]

I think a bit more silverware would mean far more to Ron than a statue.

Hopefully he felt contented seeing us on the right track

 

[JAKLAUGHING]

Condolences...R.I.P.

 

[shintemaster]

I think a bit more silverware would mean far more to Ron than a statue.

Genuinely.

There are quotes out there from Ron talking about supporters being the true life of the club. Many officials at different clubs parrot these words, few deeply, truly meant them in the way Ron did.

 

[ferball]

Wow... shit.

Thanks for everything big fella. We'll never forget (or be able to pay the effort back.)

Hope you saw it all on Saturday and left knowing we're going back to the top.,

 

[shinboner magic]

Feels like it's really the end of an era in the club's history when we're losing these guys who built the club's 20th century success.

I bet the last few years were as frustrating for him as they've been for all of us. Hope he caught the game on the weekend. RIP legend.

Probably saw the game ,clarko there and said the clubs in good hands.
Time for the next guardians of the club to look after it.

Deserves some recognition- ie RJs Bar , Ron Joseph arena

 

[desie]

I’d always hoped he’d write a book, no doubt there are many stories that have gone with him to the grave.

Thanks for everything Ron.

 

[Masked Avenger]

RIP to the great man.

As has been said we can thank the 70s era and staying in Melbourne largely to him.

One of his last shots was a beauty also

Whackety whack whack goes Ron Joseph.

As you would expect from one of the gold minted shinboners.

Geez you'd want him in the trenches with you.

Sheedy would have soon learnt that Ron was no "marshmallow"- that's for sure.

Vale Ron.

 

[Davo01]

Shit news. What a wonderful and inspiring legacy he leaves behind. I’m grateful to have known him and privileged to have fought in the trenches with him.

Vale Ron

 

[berniemccarthy]

RIP Ron Joseph

Ron was passionate, angry, dedicated, outspoken, offensive, innovative and above all else a Shinboner through and through.

There were times when we had some terrible arguments but always moved on and during my time he wrote me some wonderful notes of support. I suspect he was initially very suspicious of me as a "Collingwood mongrel" but he came to accept me as a North person.

We have lost a great man and true club legend.

Euge

Perfectly put Eugene.

 

[Ry009]

RIP Ron.

Legend of the club.

 

[Tas]

Sad news.

 

[Zondor]

An absolute Giant of the North Melbourne Football Club. The epitome of Shinboner Spirit. You live on as a part of this Great Club. R.I.P. Ron Joseph.

 

[ferball]

Here's a thread on the main board. Drop in and pay your respects.

Toast - Vale Ron Joseph.

RIP Ron Joseph. An absolute legend of North Melbourne footy Club and one of the greatest administrators in the game. Always breaking new ground and shaking things up and without him our club wouldn't be here. One of the greatest Shinboners ever (some would say the greastest) and never even...

www.bigfooty.com

 

[danj]

A true character and legend of North Melbourne, my favourite moment is knowing he got the Brayshaw brothers over the line to back NMFC staying in Victoria and not relocating to the Gold Coast and then got them up on his ticket to turn the tide at Board level, Vale Ron J

 

[Groucho]

Very saddened by this . RIP Ron.
I remember going to training in the mid 80’s , there were about 20 of us watching and we were a bit toey ecause Jimmy Krakouer had gone to the tribunal. They must’ve had the hearings early in those days because it was still light when Ron drove his car right up to the old grandstand and Jimmy got out and quickly disappeared into the change rooms. Then Ron got out and simply said “Got off” , there was a spontaneous cheer and all the players on the field stopped and looked around “ Jimmy got off” we yelled, I then looked around at Ron as he walked off and he looked completely drained but had a little satisfied smile. He was just fantastic.

 

[Gasometer]

Hopefully he was well enough to see last Saturday’s game to see the glimmer of hope

Vale Legend

 

[lockheed]

Vale Ron Joseph. Condolences to your family and those who you held dear.

When I started supporting North, we were a club that seemed to be doomed to perpetual irrelevance. Ron and a handful of others transformed the club, and set us up to be a powerhouse. We won two flags but squandered that opportunity, spending another two decades mired in mediocrity.

As a player agent, Ron had a hand in our second period of success. We squandered our opportunities again, but Ron was instrumental in ensuring that we stayed in Melbourne. Whenever North Melbourne needed him, Ron gave all that he could.

As others have said, Ron was truly a colossus of our club.

 

[Orange Peanut]

Proper legend. Rest in peace. And, thanks.

 

[leighlee13]

Legendary North Melbourne powerbroker Ron Joseph dies - Updated​

@MaccaHeraldSun

March 22, 2023 - 1:38PM
News Corp Australia Sports Newsroom

Ron Joseph transformed North Melbourne into a powerhouse and helped bring Sydney back from the brink with the signing of Tony Lockett. He’s been remembered as “one of a kind”.

Ron Joseph was one of footy’s most innovative and aggressive game-changers.

Across almost half a century in the game he loved, he was a successful off-field powerbroker who helped to transform North Melbourne from perennial cellar dwellers into premiers, and in the process became one of the most influential figures in the club’s history.

He also helped to give the ailing Sydney Swans some desperately-needed relevance in footy’s toughest market during the bleak mid-1990s.

As the Kangaroos president Dr Sonja Hood said of Joseph, who died at 77 on Tuesday night after a battle with lung cancer, he was “one of a kind.”

“Ron was the architect of our success in the 1970s, one of the great defenders of our club in 2007 and unflinching in his love for North, holding successive boards and administrations to account, from within or outside of the organisation, always with a view to make the club better,” Dr Hood said.

Joseph was never afraid to upset the status quo if he thought it needed shaking, and was happy to be a disruptor if something stood between him, his footy club and an objective.

In his roles at North Melbourne and later Sydney, as well as a player manager of almost 100 players at his peak, he never liked to take no for an answer.

He fought to make things happen, which included playing a key role in the appointment of Ron Barassi as Kangaroos coach, the recruitment of some of North Melbourne’s most revered players including Keith Greig, Wayne Schimmelbusch, David Dench, Malcolm Blight, Ross Glendinning and the Krakouer brothers, and coaxing an initially reluctant Tony Lockett to Sydney.

Footy was in Joseph’s blood from the outset.

His idol as a kid was South Melbourne champion Bob Skilton. When Skilton won the Brownlow Medal in 1963 - the second of his three wins - Joseph was so thrilled that he went around to the Swans’ star’s house that night with an unusual request.

Skilton’s wife Marion answered the door and Joseph asked her if he could borrow her husband’s famed No.14 jumper so he could wear it to school.

Skilton appeared at the doorstep and handed him the jumper, which Joseph proudly wore to Trinity Grammar the next day.

It earned him a Saturday morning detention, but swore until his dying day that it was worth it.

A year later, fresh out of school, Joseph told the battling North Melbourne Football Club in 1964 he was older than he was when applying for the assistant secretary’s role.

The late Dr Allen Aylett told the Herald Sun years later: “He (Joseph) came to North Melbourne as an 18-year-old but said he was 21 - we all fell for it.”

Within 18 months, he had been promoted to secretary and alongside president Aylett and vice-president Albert Mantello set out to turn the VFL easybeats into an off-field force.

Barassi was in their sights as a coach as they looked to the 1973 season.

As Joseph recounted in his interview with Mike Sheahan on Open Mike: “Barass had gone into the media after coaching Carlton … he was ripe for the picking and Albert (Mantello) recognised it and we pounced.”

The deal was hammered out on the back of a napkin at the Old Melbourne Motor Inn.

Joseph and the Kangaroos also took advantage of the short-lived 10-year rule, an early form of free agency where players of ten years’ service could move clubs.

He famously took “brown paper bags” containing $10,000 in cash to the homes of Barry Davis, Doug Wade and John Rantall to convince them to move to the Kangaroos.

All three would go on to play key roles in the club’s historic first flag in 1975.

Joseph recruited 19 of North Melbourne’s 20 players who played in the club’s first flag in 1975. But he wasn’t there at the time to enjoy the success.

In a move that he would later term “the worst call I have made in my life”, he briefly moved to South Melbourne, partly because of the fallout from Barassi’s brutal reaction following the Kangaroos’ 1974 grand final loss to Richmond.

He then joined Collingwood - but it lasted less than 10 hours.

“Having been at North (Melbourne) where Aylett and Mantello and others would just sit down and make a decision, and then explain it two weeks later at a committee meeting, it was hard. At Collingwood, it was like parliament - you ring the bells,” he said.

“The ‘yes’ vote went to the right and the ‘no’ to the left.

“I wasn’t going to be able to survive. I took the job at night about 10.30, and I resigned at six the next morning.”

He returned to North Melbourne in 1977, the year the Kangaroos drew the grand final with the Magpies, before winning the replay.

Barassi had told him after the drawn grand final he was going to drop Blight for the replay, but swore Joseph to secrecy.

As Joseph explained on Open Mike: “Barass stormed into my office and said: ‘I am going to drop Blight … shut your mouth and don’t tell anyone.’

“Off he stormed. Lloyd Holyoak was the president. I rang Lloyd and said: ‘We’ve got a problem here…

“On Monday night, Barass stormed into my office and said: ‘That’s it, I told you something in confidence, I will never trust you again’.’

Barassi relented.

Blight was selected and went on to be one of the Kangaroos’ best contributors in their 27-point replay win over the Magpies.

Joseph was general manager of the Kangaroos through until 1986, and then again from 1988-89.

His footy nous was needed in a short stint as Sydney chief executive as Ron Barassi and co tried to save the club from extinction.

He helped to convince goal-kicking machine Tony Lockett to move north.

“I was driving back down Dandenong Rd and we didn’t have his (Lockett’s) signature. The forms had to be back at the AFL by 12,” he said.

“I was going past Springvale Crematorium and (Swans recruiter) Laurie (Dwyer) said ‘Why not turn around and have one more crack (at getting him)?”

Joseph turned the car around and headed back towards Devon Meadows, where Lockett was living, and offered him another big dollar incentive.

To his great relief, “Plugger took the pen and signed it.”

Fittingly, Joseph returned to North Melbourne when the club needed him, as he and James Brayshaw, among others, fought to stop an AFL push to send the club to the Gold Coast.

He was a director on the club’s board from 2007 to 2010, and even though he fell out with the Kangaroos’ board at the time, he retained his passion for the club until his last days.

One of his last public acts came when North Melbourne won the race late last year to secure Alastair Clarkson as coach, beating Essendon to his signature.

He couldn’t resist one last swipe at the Bombers, saying: “Essendon never frightened me … I never thought Clarko would follow the drug money to Tullamarine.”

It was typical Joseph, candid and caustic and never afraid to ruffle feathers when something stood in the way of his club.

 

[scottywiper]

RIP Ron Joseph

Ron was passionate, angry, dedicated, outspoken, offensive, innovative and above all else a Shinboner through and through.

There were times when we had some terrible arguments but always moved on and during my time he wrote me some wonderful notes of support. I suspect he was initially very suspicious of me as a "Collingwood mongrel" but he came to accept me as a North person.

We have lost a great man and true club legend.

Euge

Well said Euge. I first dealt with Ron when I worked in the media and I've never met anyone like him.
One day he was a delight to deal with, the next day he was a nightmare!!! He always kept you guessing!

 

[Friday Night Lights]

RIP, Ron and thank you for making our club what it is.