Four Central Coast AFL identities have been inducted into the NSW AFL Hall of Fame.
Inducted at the SCG on Friday night, April 26, were Ian Granland, Maurice Goolagong, and Mark and Jarrad McVeigh.
At the age of 17 Ian Granland began his stellar football administration career as secretary of South Sydney and is still highly involved in the game as president of the NSW Australian Football Society.
A transfer in the police force in 1975 saw the Vietnam veteran move to the Central Coast where he was instrumental in the formation of the local football league.
He played a strong hand in the establishment of Killarney Vale AFC and served the club in multiple capacities.
He was also a founding member of the Black Diamond AFL (BDAFL) in 2000.
Granland served as CEO of NSW AFL from 1986-1990, during which time he reunited the disparate football bodies in NSW under a commission structure.
He was made a life member of NSW AFL in 1990 and received an AFL Merit Award in 2003.
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Maurice Goolagong is a football legend on the Central Coast, particularly at the Terrigal-Avoca Panthers.
He was the first player to kick more than 1,000 goals in the Black Diamond competition – a feat he achieved in 2011 – and was subsequently labelled the “Park footy Plugger”.
The hulking full forward’s accuracy was, perhaps, his greatest asset.
In one season, Goolagong recorded 112.13, kicking at a shade under 90 per cent accuracy.
A humble champion, Goolagong put his stunning record in front of goal down to living near to a footy oval as a kid, at Barellan in the western Riverina region.
Mark McVeigh grew up at Killarney Vale and played for the Bombers until he was 13.
Then, to get exposure to stronger opposition, he moved to Pennant Hills.
He returned to the Bombers of another kind – Essendon – taken at pick nine in the 1998 draft where he played 232 games.
Always a leader at Essendon, McVeigh’s post-playing career saw him pursue a coaching career.
First it was developmental roles with the Rams, then on to the Giants, where he spent eight seasons (2015-2022) eventually landing as caretaker senior coach in 2022.
He is now an assistant coach of the Sydney Swans.
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His brother Jarrad McVeigh played much of his junior football with Pennant Hills, although he was born and raised on the Central Coast, and is one of Sydney Swans’ most recognisable champions.
He played 324 matches for the Swans, captaining the side from 2011-16 (including the 2012 premiership).
McVeigh won two Bob Skilton Medals (20008 and 2013) and was All Australian in 2013.
He is currently an assistant coach at the Sydney Swans.
McVeigh was listed on a half-back flank in the NSW Greatest Team.