Ask Brad Hardie about his time with the Brisbane Bears and the first word he says is ‘pride’.
He is and will be forever proud of his role in the formation of the club at Carrara on the Gold Coast and the ‘tough yards’ they put in to give AFL football a start in Queensland.
“As Leigh (Matthews) said to me after the first premiership, if you guys didn’t do what you did back then we wouldn’t be here today. And I’m really proud of that,” Hardie said.
“Compared to the concessions the expansion teams since then have been given it’s chalk and cheese. They called us the Bad News Bears but we won 6-7-8 games in our first three years. When you compare that to the Suns and the Giants, which are the only really valid comparisons, it’s pretty good.”
Indeed it is. Despite massive recruiting concessions and huge financial support Gold Coast started with 3-3-8 wins and GWS began 2-1-6.
Hardie, Brisbane’s first 100-game player and the club’s leading goal-kicker in 1989-90, is one of 17 players to have played for the club and this week’s opponent, the Western Bulldogs.
Having won the Brownlow Medal in his first season in the AFL in 1985, Hardie split with the Dogs, then known as Footscray, after a 1986 blow-up with coach Mick Malthouse and chose the Bears over the West Coast Eagles.
Originally from Perth, he’d played 140 games with East Fremantle prior to joining the ‘big league’ and was a long-time WA State representative. But he said he ‘didn’t trust myself’ going home to Perth so instead followed Dogs football manager Shane O’Sullivan to Queensland.
Now 60, still working in football and racing on Perth radio despite living in Melbourne for 20 years and sharing his football loyalties between both clubs, Hardie still keeps in regular contact with his Bears teammates, most notably Geoff Raines, Rodney Eade and Mark Roberts.
He had a special word, too, for the Bears’ first head trainer Norm Covich, a Morningside stalwart and long-time Queensland team head trainer who died last week on the Gold Coast after a long illness, and other support staff members.
“They were gold … the heart and soul of the place. Normy, Smarty (property manager Graeme Smart), Marmite (Bob Pearce), Leo (doorman Leo Coyne) and big Brian Cleary (Melbourne doorman).”
Hardie and ex-Dogs captain Jim Edmond were members of the very first Bears side, pioneering a distinguished group of shared players that reached 17 with the 2023 signing of Josh Dunkley.
In chronological order, others have been Rod Macpherson, Andrew Taylor, Michael McLean, Trent Bartlett, Shannon Corcoran, Jason Akermanis, Mick Martin, Jed Adcock, Justin Sherman, Travis Baird, Ben Hudson, Stefan Martin, Josh Schache and Marcus Adams, currently on the inactive list.
A memorial celebration for Norm Covich will be held at Currumbin Surf Club at 1pm on Thursday (30 March).
