1955: Eight year old Franz Tomka arrives in Fremantle from Germany  not speaking a word of English and wearing a pair of leather pants to school on South Terrace.Fast forward nine years and the same lad at seventeen is lining up in the centre in the second game of the 1964 league football season in front of eleven thousand spectators a couple of Gero punts away at Fremantle Oval, in a side containing two class centremen in Ray Sorrell and John Todd, opposed to another one in Mel Whinnen.From the boy who borrowed a pair of footy boots for his first game to playing in the middle of Fremantle Oval was an achievement in itself, but at the end of the day’s action to find himself in the best for his side was mind blowing.  That his side South Fremantle went down to the Cardinals by five points was a disappointment, but it was to be that sort of year for the Bulldogs. Tomka had an auspicious beginning to his league career in an earlier match, in which he started on the bench. “I was nervous as buggery, couldn’t sleep or eat, and at three quarter time no one looked like coming off the ground,” he  recalled. “I borrowed enough for a hot dog from trainer Tom Bottrell.  It was at that precise moment that Sorrell sent me on.”Initially against the idea of their son playing against grown men, Franz’s parents became immediate fans of the game after watching him do well in that first full game. His mother was a waitress at Roma Restaurant for thirty years, and if any customers said something nice about her son’s football prowess they would be rewarded with a special meal deal.     The seventeen year old made his league debut and got married in the same year.Franz became a regular for the Bulldogs, playing either in the centre, as a half forward, or ruck roving, but it was Todd who masterminded the move to a back pocket, where his marking ability, judgment, pace, and ball handling made him a natural for the position. A strong season in 1967 saw Tomka under consideration for a State spot, but the incumbent, “Dobbie” Graham of East Perth, was firmly entrenched.   The Hassa Mann-led premiership of 1970 saw Tomka as part of a resolute and tightly knit South Fremantle defence, but his luck was about to turn. A snapped Achilles in 1971 put him on the sidelines, and the injury led to new coach Mal Atwell looking for other options the following year.Franz spent the 1972 season coaching Darkan, in which his side finished runners up to Colin Beard’s Cuballing combination, and, out of favour with Atwell, trained at East Fremantle and applied for a clearance to the cross town rivals, but the application was refused. The advent of Beard as coach in 1974 saw Tomka back with the Bulldogs, but to no avail. “I was on one leg,” Franz said. “Every Friday night I had to get the knee cortisoned and drained.”A year with Spearwood as coach was to be the football swan song for Franz Tomka.   These days Franz is suffering from his playing days, with a crook shoulder, bad arm, and the dodgy knee, and doesn’t venture too far from the garden, except for the regular gatherings with old footy mates at South.  He and Gail are proud grandparents of four girls and a boy. A wharfie for fifteen years, he became a car salesman in later years, and is now happily retired. “Cable, Walker, and Doncon” were his nominations as hardest opposition, while the usual suspects, Todd and Gerovich, along with Len Clark, headed his list of team mates. Tomka had a few brushes with the Protests and Disputes Board, including a suspension for smacking East Perth’s Mal Brown. “I never touched the bugger,” claimed Franz. Despite umpire Ray Montgomery admitting he didn’t see it, the verdict was guilty. Franz also told of the time John Gerovich abused umpire Clive Hills. “Hills went down the other end, came back, and said to John: “You’re reported.”“After the game ended, we said to Gero: “Go and apologise, you might get off.” Next thing we see Gero being dragged out of the umpire’s room by the arms.  “The bugger said fine, but you’re still in the book,” was John’s comment. “I saw red and was going to clock him.”A great admirer of the skills of Gerovich, Tomka is adamant that the mark the high flyer  took over West Perth full back John Towner was far superior to the much heralded one on Ray French. “There was a photographer there, right on the boundary,” he recalled. “Asked why he missed the shot, the bloke said: “I was trying to follow him in the air, but I fell over.” Gero must have risen fourteen feet, after being initially in front of Towner, then moving behind him.”Franz told of a game in Kalgoorlie, when the locals led South Fremantle by fifteen goals at half time. “We’d all had too much of a good time,” he laughed. “I was in the centre, and the crowd thought I was Sorrell. We recovered in the second half to win.”The young Franz Tomka bucked the odds and rose to the challenges of a new environment to become a hundred and nineteen game league footballer. A favourite with South supporters, he was part of a memorable premiership, which more than compensated for the loss of a hot dog in game one.