Notice: Undefined variable: ub in /home/dh_ingvwb/ozfooty.net/templates/hot_cars/js/browser.php on line 53

Notice: Undefined variable: ub in /home/dh_ingvwb/ozfooty.net/templates/hot_cars/js/browser.php on line 65

Deprecated: strripos(): Non-string needles will be interpreted as strings in the future. Use an explicit chr() call to preserve the current behavior in /home/dh_ingvwb/ozfooty.net/templates/hot_cars/js/browser.php on line 65

Notice: Undefined offset: 1 in /home/dh_ingvwb/ozfooty.net/templates/hot_cars/js/browser.php on line 69

{xtypo_dropcap}B{/xtypo_dropcap}rian Ciccotosto has always been a dyed in the wool South Fremantle supporter, and his veins definitely are the containers of red and white blood. One of the personalities of the Western Australian football scene, he was a dynamic, highly efficient, and well respected Chief Executive Officer of South Fremantle Football Club.

Ciccotosto was an explosive rover for the Bulldogs during the late sixties and early seventies.

After an initial appearance with South fourths in 1965 as a seventeen year old, he attended Claremont Teachers College, where he played in four matches against interstate Colleges. In 1967 he was back at Fremantle Oval, where coach Todd selected him in a Derby after just one colts and two reserves games. “I started on the bench and got onto the ground at three quarter time,” he recalled.  

Back to the reserves the following week, Ciccotosto responded in the best possible manner, booting seven goals, and was selected for the game against undefeated East Perth. “I got four goals when in the pocket, where I was picked up by “Dobbie” Graham,” he recalled. “I can't recall much about my next meeting with “Dobbie”, I spent most of the game on the bench with concussion.”     

South Fremantle had Norm Cox, Charlie Osmetti and Don Gardiner as rovers in 1967, but a bout of glandular fever which caused Osmetti to move to Esperance opened up a spot for Ciccotosto. Despite injury problems, Brian played eighteen games that season, including the preliminary final against East Perth, which South Fremantle lost.

It was in 1968 that Ciccotosto cemented his place in the side, but it was on the wing that he was used by coach Todd.

The appointment of  Hassa Mann as coach in 1969 saw the revitalisation of Brian Ciccotosto.

“I went to Hassa and asked if I could go back to roving,” he said. “I'm a rover, not a wingman,” I told him.”

Mann agreed, and was rewarded with a fine season from the little man, who emerged as a leading rover in the league that year in an era of top rovers, and was runner up for the Walker Medal.

A nuggety five foot six, Ciccotosto was the classical rover fans loved to watch.

A quick in and under player, with lightning ball handling skills, he was damaging with his pace away from packs, the ability to deliver the ball accurately on either foot making him a favourite with fans.

1970 saw Ciccotosto at his best. South won the premiership over favourites Perth, and Brian kicked  four goals on a wet day, collecting the Simpson Medal as best afield. 

Brian recalled some of the aftermath of the Seventy grand final.

“Graeme Reilly and myself attended a function at the Parmelia,” he reminisced. “We had our South Fremantle blazers on, which were a distinctive maroon in those days, with SFFC embroidered all over them, and looked the part, but after a fine meal and all the trimmings, we discovered to our horror that neither of us had any money or credit cards on us to pay the bill. It was a predicament, and it wasn't helped by our solution to the problem.”

“Making a run for it, we got back to Fremantle Oval, where a welcoming committee was waiting, the hotel having been in touch with the club president. The meal ended up costing us a couple of hundred dollars, including a fine from the club.”    

Selected for Western Australia in the 1972 carnival in Perth, Brian played in all three games and was named in the All Australian side. He also topped the South Fremantle goalkicking list.

In 1974 he partnered Graeme Melrose, David Hollins and Bill Valli in Adelaide when Western Australia played South Australia, and was part of a three way pace brigade with Melrose and Rob Wiley for the Victoria match at Subiaco. He captained South Fremantle in the 1975 season, making the grand final, but the side suffered a record loss to West Perth. 

Ciccotosto retired at the end of 1977, having played two hundred and ten games in the red and white. “I felt I had a couple of years left at the age of  twenty nine, but harboured a desire to get into coaching. I had accomplished all I set out to do. Brownie, newly appointed for the 1978 season, offered me an assistant coaches job, but I decided to do my grounding as a coach in my own right, and accepted the position at Kwinana.”

It wasn't quite the end of Ciccotosto's league career, though.

At the end of the 1978 season, Mal Brown enticed Brian back to South Fremantle for one last hurrah in the final game of the season.

His coaching career kicked off nicely, with Kwinana playing in the finals in each of  four years at the helm, then a two year stint at Armadale. Brian returned to Fremantle Oval in 1984, as colts coach. “Coaching players like Worsfold, Watters, Collard, Irving, Sumich, Jakovich, and others was a highlight of my career,” he said. “They all became great players, and to be involved with them was memorable.” Under Brian's coaching, the colts won two premierships in a row.

Ciccotosto seemed set for a coaching career, and it came as no surprise when he applied for the vacant South Fremantle coaching position in 1986. But in a development that the man himself confesses he didn't see coming, the club approached Brian with a proposition to move into the administration area of the club. And so it was that Don Haddow got the coaching job and Ciccotosto became Football Manager, a position he held for three years, before the resignation of Harold Harper saw him offered the role of Chief Executive Officer.

Brian Ciccotosto is a keen participant in bowls, having been a first division player during a thirteen year stint at Spearwood , and is now at Fremantle Bowling Club, a couple of Gerovich torpedos from Fremantle Oval. Happily married to Marge, he is looking forward to some long service leave to take her away on a well earned holiday. The Ciccotostos have two girls and two grandchildren.   

Brian was reluctant to separate so many good players he'd played against and with.

“On a wing, Greg Brehaut was brilliant, but as for rovers, there were so many, weren't there?” he said. “As for team mates, pound for pound Stephen Michael would be hard to top, but I believe that eras bring different champions, and Gerovich and Todd were both stars of their time.”  

Brian Ciccotosto has become a legend at South Fremantle, a term made official twenty years after his retirement. Named in the Fremantle Hall of Legends, he joined a galaxy of South Fremantle and East Fremantle footballers as legends of the game.  As big a contributor to the club off field as he was on it, Brian Ciccotosto is certainly one of South Fremantle's favourite sons.  

Search

Keyword

Who's Online?

We have 339 guests and 4 members online

  • Whitey
  • Time For a Flag
  • Whinnen

Newest Footy Recruits

  • MiltonRutty
  • BhoblhRhync
  • MRanker - Fiverr
  • whatoma
  • RobertPes