Sport
30 May, 2025
Life member Reiny Gunther reaches 50 years at Talbot Football Netball Club
“I don’t think anyone would argue with this statement, but Reiny is the single most important and influential individual that has ever been at the club.”
In the vast architecture of country football, volunteers are the most vital pillars that keep these valued community assets upright.
There have been countless people who have selflessly given up their time to support their local teams like the Talbot Football Netball Club (FNC).
However, in the club’s illustrious history, very few have been as valuable and respected as Reiny Gunther.
Gunther recently celebrated 50 years of service at Talbot’s Back to the Bot premiership reunion event.
During that time, Gunther has done every job imaginable, from implementing new facilities, which includes building the caravan park at Talbot Recreation Reserve, to advocating for the MCDFNL, and even strapping players before games.
With decades of dedicated service, one would expect Gunther’s love for country football to be ingrained from his early years, but his love comes from a very unlikely source.
Born in Cologne, Germany, Gunther arrived in Australia as a kid without having a single lesson in English.
After being introduced to football by Australian Football Hall of Famer Brian Dixon in high school, Gunther had a short career at Kyneton juniors before making a name for himself as a real estate agent in Croydon.
Looking for a new challenge, Gunther decided to buy Talbot’s Court House Hotel, a decision he now calls life-changing.
“I came here Queen’s Birthday weekend 1975 when I bought the pub, of course, everybody locally comes to the pub so I was invited down to the next home game,” he said.
“I had a look and saw they were not going well, they hadn’t won a game for two and a half years.
“They were four goals down against Campbells Creek at three quarter time and I said to the coach Clive Heenan ‘tell the boys I will give them a barrel if they win’, guess what happened — that was the start of me joining the football club.”
By the start of the 1976 season, Gunther was president of Talbot FNC, a position he held for 33 years between 1976-1979 and 1982-2010.
Gunther also served on the MCDFNL board between 1976-2010 in a range of roles, helping shape the league as league delegate to the now-defunct Victorian Country Football League alongside good friends Jock Sellers, Dennis Hedger, Max Martin and Norm Jenkins.
Someone who’s well aware of the impact Gunther has had on Talbot is current football manager Troy Cunningham, who joined the club as a junior back in 1993.
Having worked alongside him for two decades on Talbot FNC’s committee, Cunningham said all the club’s success wouldn’t have happened without Gunther.
“Reiny isn’t afraid of hard work and will do anything humanly possible to help improve the club and the town,” he said.
“From arriving at the club in the mid-70s, he played a crucial role in getting the club financially stable and competitive.
“As president, he oversaw the most successful period in the club’s history, when the senior team made 10 grand finals in a row between 1994-2003.
“These days he still serves on the club committee and plays a crucial role off the field managing various infrastructure at the club and assisting with fundraising.
“Country clubs would simply not survive without these types of long-serving and passionate volunteers.
“They’re the glue that holds clubs together as generations pass through and clubs experience the natural ebbs and flows of success.”
While his time at Talbot has seen some incredible highs and some devastating lows, Gunther said the club’s golden period between 1994-2003 stands out.
“That era of getting to 10 grand finals and winning five is never going to happen again, the 2001 one was exceptional,” he said.
“We won the seniors and the reserves and we didn’t lose a game in either team — you can imagine what the town was like, it was phenomenal.
“It was all our younger boys all coming through, we just had that much success and we had a lot of fun.”
Even after half a century and awarded a life membership at Talbot FNC, Gunther’s passion for country football remains as fiery as ever.
While he can’t pinpoint what makes Talbot FNC so special to him, Gunther said his thankful for all the memories the club has given him.
“I enjoy the place, we are all mates, and they still all come back for reunions, I sometimes run across them when I go to Ballarat or Melbourne, even in Sydney I’ve run across people I know,” he said.
“When I first came here, the people that played footy, their sons came here to play footy and now their kids are playing footy.
“We have had a lot of good hard-working people, that’s the hardest thing to get and a lot of clubs don’t have it.
“It the same with the committee today, we have people who do different jobs and it just keeps going for some reason, none of us get paid its all just for the love of it.”