When the Australian intermediate team begins its campaign in South Africa this week, there will be someone watching from home with more interest than most.
Frazer and Marg Henry are no strangers to the excitement of international polocrosse, having watched their children Annette and Troy on the big stage in numerous test series.
But now, it’s their grandchildren in the spotlight with cousins Toby Radford, Kasey and Jim Henry in the Australian intermediate team to take on South Africa, hosted by Ngwenya Polocrosse Club, Johannesburg from Friday.
Toby Radford
Kasey Henry
Jim Henry
Photos supplied by The Wife Creative
For Toby, Kasey and Jim, international polocrosse is something they have worked hard towards, but was no doubt helped along with some strong natural polocrosse DNA from parents Annette and Hugh (Radford), and Troy and Rebecca Henry – all four being past Australian representatives, multiple times.
The Henry name has long been associated with polocrosse in the Northern Territory with Frazer first saddling up 50 years ago after Cyclone Tracy hit Darwin.
He was 37-years-old and is the first to say the late start in life meant he was never as good as his children.
With the family moving from their Darwin home to their Noonamah farm after the cyclone, the four Henry children – Kevin, Annette, Troy and Rick – wasted no time learning to ride.
They all learned to ride on Shetlands and there were plenty of weekends spent at Freds Pass riding and playing polocrosse for Noonamah club.
“They all grew up with a Shetland pony, if you can ride a Shetland, you can ride anything,” Frazer said.
But as their playing skills improved, so did their need to have better horses.
“I used to call on Salty (Alan Saltmarsh) to find good horses for the kids to play on. We didn’t have a lot of good horses in the Territory so we had to look south,” he said.
The four Henry children represented the Northern Territory at national level and as some moved away, went on to represent their new home states in Victoria and New South Wales.
Frazer admits they all did “pretty well for themselves” – modest in his pride of Annette, Troy and Rick who all played for Australia.
Annette has represented Australia seven times between 1991 and 2002, touring to Zimbabwe, South Africa and New Zealand.
Troy, has eight green and gold representations to his name between 2001 and 2015, including two winning World Cup teams in 2003 and 2007; international tests and tours to New Zealand, Ireland and the UK; and, World Cup Australian coach in 2015.
It is no surprise to Frazer the strong polocrosse genes have carried into a third generation.
He has already watched with pride granddaughter Taylor Radford representing Australia three times in intermediate and women’s teams; and Jim in a junior team.
But he just enjoys watching his grandchildren play when he can – with that most often being grandson Blake Radford saddling up for Litchfield in the NT competition.
And he still likes to give a bit of advice when they will listen.
His advice to Toby, Kasey and Jim – “sharpen up.”
“They are all playing top grade polocrosse, they just have to play tough…and watch that overarm throw.”
Keep watching Polocrosse Australia’s social channels as we build up to the first match on Friday evening.
Words by Yvette Templeton.