The Goldfields abound with tales of the sporting exploits of the Osmettis.In 1929, Jack Osmetti organised to get picked up to get to football training at Boulder,  the lift didn’t arrive, and he got a ride with another bloke who was driving to the Mines Rovers club.  So began a long association with the Diorites and Goldfields football. One of the Goldfields’ golden sportsmen, Jack Osmetti ran the Cornwall Hotel for fifty years, and excelled in several sports, a star at cricket, outstanding on the football field, and became one of the State’s best lawn bowlers, winning State championships, Bowler of the Year trophies, and represented Western Australia many times.  Jack and Cyril Osmetti were also fine players, both playing for East Fremantle, while Joe Osmetti umpired. The Osmetti name is perpetuated with the Osmetti Medal, which is awarded to the fairest and best at Mines Rovers each year, while Osmetti Drive in Kalgoorlie is also in recognition of the family’s achievements.  Jack’s son Charlie certainly inherited the genes.A very good athlete as a junior, Charlie set a long jump record that stood for twenty years until the mark was bettered by Terry Walsh, who was later to make his mark at hockey.Charlie Osmetti was always under notice as a junior, setting a record with three successive fairest and best awards with CBC in the colts, after debuting as a fifteen year old in the under eighteen competition. Intending to follow his uncles to East Fremantle, he attended Teachers College in Perth, with whom he played for a season, before South Fremantle secretary Joe Maffina came calling. He went straight into the Bulldogs league side in 1965, a season that turned out to be one of disappointment and turmoil for the club under newly appointed coach Ray Sorrell. The loss of Tom Grljusich and Jack Sumich plus injury problems for Sorrell put the side off balance early and the club never recovered, finishing last. A sharpshooter around the goals and  nippy at the packs, the eighteen year old Osmetti impressed in his first year, under pressure in a battling side, and finished sixth in voting for the Walker Medal.Charlie remembers his first league match well.“I forgot my contact lenses, and at some stage of the game Gero asked me to have a squizz at the scoreboard for a race result,” he recalled. “I couldn’t even see the board, so John wasn’t impressed with the new kid.”His lenses caused consternation on another occasion immediately after a game at Fremantle against West Perth. “ I lost them, and the whole side helped look for them. They must have had the fans wondering as they crawled around Fremantle Oval on their knees.”  Charlie also pitted himself against one of South’s alltime best rovers, Barry White, in a match at Fremantle one day. “Toddy had sent Barry, who was our runner, out to take me off. Back in those days, once you were off, you couldn’t come back on, and he had a hells own job catching me.” After another bottom finish by the club in 1966, Osmetti was joined by Norm Cox, who had a stellar season, going on to win the Walker Medal and finishing third in Sandover voting. The side improved greatly, and Charlie was among the best in a first semi final win over West Perth by forty points. He was prominent again in the preliminary final, when a twenty three point half time advantage was squandered,  Syd Jackson leading East Perth to a forty point drubbing of South.  After an injury-interrupted year in 1967, Osmetti became disenchanted with league football, and after just two appearances the following season, amid a flirtation with a transfer to East Fremantle, returned to Kalgoorlie at the age of twenty two, having played sixty three games.  Charlie coached Mines Rovers from 1972 to 1975 before moving to the seaside at Esperance in 1979. He wasted no time in becoming involved with junior football in the town, serving as coach and President of Esperance Football Club Juniors. His eldest son Peter played Teal Cup for Western Australia before representing Swan Districts, a shoulder injury ending his football days, while Tim and Chris continued the family tradition at Mines Rovers. These days you can find Charlie Osmetti calling the odds at an Esperance or Kalgoorlie race meeting, so if you find yourself at the gallops down that way he’ll be more than happy to give you a good price, espec ially if you’re a South Fremantle or Diorites supporter.  A member of the Esperance Football Association Tribunal, Osmetti has taken to the bowling green, and WAS club captain at Esperance Bowling Club. Deputy Principal at Esperance High School for thirty years, Charlie retired recently after forty three years as a teacher, and says he’s still adjusting to retirement but learning fast. He and wife Jenny enjoy travelling in Australia, and no doubt will find some more time to indulge themselves in the near future.Barry Cable and Billy Walker were tough customers to face up to on a Saturday afternoon, and they topped his list of very good rovers around at the time, while Lake Grace recruit Don Gardiner was best he played with. Charlie Osmetti was only twenty two when he left the Bulldogs, the year before they won a flag. Like many country players, including Gardiner and Cox, he quit the city for his own reasons and on his own terms, but he showed his undoubted class as a goalkicking rover in his four years at the port, and has continued his involvement with the local juniors.   Jack would have been proud.