You might think both would head the queue – straight from the top paddock – but competition is hot for the team that will be announced in the coming weeks. Players in line include two Geelong premiership captains, Reg Hickey and Fred “Troubles” Flanagan, who were both wool classers, and the renowned rovers and roustabouts Jim and Phil Krakouer, who grew up in Mount Barker in Western Australia.

Jack Hawkins, Tom’s father and a fine centre half-back with Geelong in the 1970s, still runs the family property at Finley, just over the border in NSW. Jumping Jack was at the Sheepvention (short for ‘‘sheep convention’’ – no, really) in Hamilton, casting his eye over prize jumbucks during the week.

The Footy Almanac’s spiritual leader John Harms has no form at all in a shearing shed, but it is through his work that the wool team has come about. Last year, Harms was lined up to speak at a United Dairyfarmers of Victoria function when nominations opened for the team of the best players to work in the dairy industry. The response was like a milk vat runneth over.

This year’s frolics began after an invitation on the website to write about your favourite footy jumper. Most such jumpers are woollen, of course, and nominations for the best team of wool workers followed. Here are a few of the candidates, with the chute for nominations still open:

# Sam Newman used to model the big, white woollen jumpers that were fashionable in the ’70s. I’ve still got one in the drawer at home. (Dips)

# Graeme Cook, Footscray’s No.10 in the late ’60s, came from a wheat and sheep farm out of Hopetoun. He returned to Hopetoun and is the best coach the club has ever had. (Bill Malcolm)

# Fred Wooller (Kevan Carroll)

# I had a late great mate who told me he had a mate called Maxie Graham when he worked for one of the wool companies in Williamstown. Maxie played for Footscray. They had kick to kick at lunchtime, except when they went to the pub. (Dick Raymond)

# Angus Monfries is from Naracoorte and his family has sheep-grower form. His uncle, Chainsaw Monfries, bred sheep and cattle and enlisted the nephew to come home at shearing time. (Nank)

# Aaron Sandilands’ dad Gary – or ‘‘Stretch’’ as he is known – sheared sheep for years. (Sean Gorman)

# Robert Lamb. (Noel Mc)

# Justin Koschitzke comes from the hamlet of Brockelsby, near Corowa. Tom Roberts painted Shearing the Rams on Brocklesby Station in 1890. (Alistair Watson)

# Campbell Brown has recently announced he is in training to swim across the English Channel, protected only by a swimming cap, his togs, and the all-over-body-application of lanolin, which is wool fat. (Tom Martin)

# Michael Close, who plays for the Brisbane Lions, is from Kurra-Wirra Merino Stud at Pigeon Ponds. (RB)

# Billy Ryan, the former Geelong high-flyer, grew up in Swan Hill and attended the Gordon Institute wool-classing school with my dad. They attended the wool school’s milestone celebration last year. (Fitzy)

# Jed Lamb. (Tom Riordan)

# Jimmy Prentice, from Ariah Park-Mirrool, played with South Melbourne from 1970-74. Breeder of poll dorsets and white suffolk sheep. (Rocket Nguyen)

# Alistair and Stewart Lord’s family had a sheep farm at Port Campbell. (Peter Fuller)

# Clinton Wolf (ex-Freo) roused for a season at the end of ’92. (Sean Gorman)

# Robert Shepherd. (Mark Branagan)

# Anthony Daniher grew up on a wheat and sheep farm and became a wool classer when he left school. He worked in the industry when he moved to South Melbourne in the ‘80s. (Jo Daniher)

# You can’t leave out Big Jim Daniher: threw the Ajax press head around the shed like it was a frisbee; wool classer and self-confessed maestro sheep handler; has lanolin running through his veins. (Anthony Daniher)

Paul Daffey is a former editor of The Footy Almanac. He wears a woollen jumper that was knitted by his Auntie Jude.

THE WATCHMAN

1 minute to midnight for… Carlton players

Nothing ever good happens after midnight, says the coach.

LOCAL HERO

Australian rules heroes from 18 countries kick off their International Cup challenge in Melbourne this week, with 62 matches to be played over 15 days. Played every three years, the 1000 players were welcomed to Victoria on Saturday by the Premier Denis Napthine and Brownlow medallist Robert DiPierdomenico ... themselves local heroes of sorts.

WHAT THEY SHOULD DO... Corruption in cricket gets such a bad rap. What cricket really needs is to be more transparent. They should allow players to name their price. It could add an extra dimension. A bit like a trade week. Fans could get updates on player bribe fees for actions like no balls, low scores and dropped catches. It could be featured like rolling stock market figures on a web site. You could imagine that a team bowled out for 87 might be under the thumb a fat fingered fan of the opposition. And gamblers! Punters could raise or lower odds by buying a few influential players. - LUKE MORRIS, Bendigo.

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