Noel Kelly's Kids - VALE Bill Keato Bill at the Sydney Sports Ground One of the many tributes written about Bill.Roy Masters remembers Bill KeatoFriday, 12 October 2012 05:37Bill Keato, the diminutive Western Suburbs fullback who has died aged 93, won more matches for the Magpies than any other player. A prodigious goalkicker, Keato booted what were called ''flag waggers'' from the sideline and halfway, often in the mud and against the wind, in the 1938-to-1950 era, when goals, rather than tries, decided games.In 1947, in Manly's debut game at Brookvale, the Sea Eagles scored three tries to Wests' one, but Keato kicked six goals and the Magpies won by a point.''Bill started it and we've been causing them trouble ever since,'' former Wests secretary Ray Bernasconi said in reference to the Fibro-Silvertail feud.Advertisement Keato died on Monday, the last member of Wests' 1948 premiership team that beat Balmain, today's NRL joint venture partner.A resident of Liverpool, then part of Wests territory, Keato was selected for Wests after playing only one junior game. He soon attracted attention when he sidelined rugby league's best player, Easts' Dave Brown, for two months with a scything tackle that broke the centre's collarbone.He was nicknamed ''Amos'' because, when joined with Keato, it formed ''a mosquito''. He aptly buzzed about the backfield, refusing to tackle high like the other ''flying headlock specialists'', felling the big men as if they had been struck with malaria.His surname was also invented in the same phonetic manner.Bill's grandfather, Samuel, was a Chinese orphan who arrived in Australia aged 14 from Shanghai.When the Customs officer asked Samuel his surname, he responded in Cantonese, ''Yes, that's right'', which, according to family folklore, came out sounding like ''Keato''.So he became Samuel Keato, although other spellings have him as Keto, Cato, Ketas and Keating.Sam married twice, to Englishwomen both named Smith, with Bill related to Clara Keating, the vaudeville actress of the Al Jolson era.Bill certainly shared some of the entertainment genes, being one of the original three who founded Western Suburbs Leagues Club at Ashfield.Oblivious to his own oriental background and devoid of political correctness, Bill often remarked how surprised he was at ''the number of Chinese coming into the club''.Perhaps they were attracted to the club's ''Keato's'' restaurant, which featured a cardboard cut out of him at its entrance.It disappeared last year, only to surface via Facebook, on the Machu Picchu trail in Peru, at the Eva Peron mausoleum in Buenos Aires, with Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro and at a Che Guevara mural in Cuba. Rick Yabsley, a passionate Wests fan, admits to taking it on a tour of South America and will return it today.Bill's father was an ambulanceman and insisted his son wear light, soft-toed football boots lest he ''strip pieces of skin off the other boys' shins,'' according to one newspaper account.But all goalkickers in those days were toe pokers and Bill knew he needed a hard, right toe.So each Monday he would stuff the toe of his right boot with wet paper and every night spent an hour with a tile layer's trowel modelling a perfect clay toe to the boot.On Friday nights, he baked the toe of the boot in the casing.He always carried two pairs of boots to games and regularly changed his right boot at half-time.The right boot he called his ''tradesman'' boot and his left, the ''labourer's boot'', always digging his divot with the left boot.Generous of spirit, he handed his precious boots to his replacement, Mick Thornton, when he missed the 1947 semi-final with injury, saying, ''You can have my boots for the game, too''.Keato was also a skilled all-rounder at cricket, playing first grade with Cumberland.His 120 first-grade games for the Magpies and 25 in reserves, for 869 points, is a Wests record and could have been more, except for two years spent on war service.He played for City and would have represented Queensland, where he was stationed, had his unit not been transferred.His brother, Alan, a Magpie forward, was killed at Finschhafen.Bill was Wests' inaugural treasurer from 1951 to 1973 and his charitable works were well known, especially for Legacy. And who could blame him for his political incorrectness in an era when institutions had names like the Ryde Home for Incurables, an organisation that received one third of a Lidcombe gate?Bill, whose funeral was held this week, is survived by daughter Judy Brading, sons Billy, Geoff and Kelvin and nine grandchildren.Well said Roy Bill with the 1947 side off to Queensland Bill kicking a very wet leather ball at his beloved Pratten Park Bill at the SCG in the late 1940's The order of service from Bills funeral. Below is the Eulogy given by Rick Wayde. Rick covers Bills Life and Times at Wests brilliantly. Cheers Rick for letting me use it. BILL KEATO Eulogy Wednesday, October 10th 2012 BILL KEATO… UNTIL EARLY MONDAY MORNING… WESTERN SUBURBS’ OLDEST LIVING FIRST GRADER, REMARKABLY WENT STRAIGHT INTO GRADE AT THE MAGPIES IN 1938 AFTER ONLY ONE JUNIOR GAME, WHICH WAS BASICALLY A ‘FRIENDLY’ FOR HIS ‘HOME TOWN’ OF LIVERPOOL AGAINST THE REDFERN ALL BLACKS. BILL PLAYED 120 OF 138 CLUB GAMES IN FIRST GRADE.AFTER BRIEF STINTS AT 5/8 AND CENTRE, HE MADE THE FULLBACK SPOT HIS OWN. HE REPLACED JIMMY SHARMAN AS THE MAGPIES’ CUSTODIAN. JIM ALSO HAD PASSED ON THE ‘MAGPIES OLDEST FIRST GRADE PLAYER’ TAG TO BILL. IN 2003, JIM SHARMAN WAS OFFICIALLY ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE STATE OF NSW AS A ‘LEGEND’. A TITLE THAT WOULD SIT EQUALLY WELL WITH BILL KEATO. ON BILL’S ARRIVAL AT WESTS IN 1938, HE CONTRIBUTED TO A THRID GRADE PREMIERSHIP VICTORY OVER EASTS…AND HE MADE HIS FIRST GRADE DEBUT ON July 16th., 1938… ROUND 10 …AT LEICHHARDT OVAL v BALMAIN…THE GROUND RAN EAST/WEST THEN…THE FULLBACK’S JOB MADE MORE DIFFICULT LOOKING INTO THE AFTERNOON SUN. HIS PLAYING ‘STATS’ ARE FORMIDABLE, GIVEN HE STARTED PLAYING IN AN 8 TEAM COMPETITION, THAT ONLY ‘EXPANDED’ TO 10 WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF PARRAMATTA AND MANLY IN 1947…PLUS THE INTERRUPTIONS CAUSED BY WORLD WAR 2…WITH ‘SARGEANT BILL KEATO’ PLAYING JUST 4 GAMES FOR WESTS, FROM 1943 TO ‘45. UNDERSTANDABLY, THEY WERE VERY DIFFICULT YEARS FOR BILL AND HIS FAMILY, LOSING YOUNGER BROTHER ALAN, WHO WAS ALSO A MAGPIE PLAYER. IT’S INTERESTING TO NOTE THAT WHEN BILL WAS STATIONED IN BRISBANE IN 1945…HE CHOSE TO PLAY WITH… ‘WESTS’ [Brisbane]. WHEN BILL KEATO STARTED AT PRATTEN PARK, IN ’38, CANTERBURY-BANKSTOWN CLUB WAS ONLY 3 YEARS OLD, AND MANAGED TO COLLECT THEIR FIRST PREMIERSHIP AFTER WESTS HAD PROVIDED THEM TERRITORY, PLAYERS AND JIM CRAIG, THE COACH. AT THE OTHER END OF BILL’s CAREER, PARRA’S INTRO, IN ’47, WAS JUST ANOTHER ‘OBSTACLE’ FOR THE EVER INNOVATIVE WESTERN SUBURBS CLUB, WITH THE EELS TAKING A HUGE SLICE OF TERRITORY WEST OF GRANVILLE…PLUS PLAYERS AND OFFICIALS. THEY ALSO DID THEIR BEST TO ‘PINCH’ BILL, WITH THE DISPUTE RESOLVED, BY THE NSW RL, THANKFULLY, IN WESTS’ FAVOUR. THIS DIDN’T STOP THE MAGPIES, … WITH BILL KEATO’s CONSISTENT CONTRIBUTIONS ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS FOR WESTS’ CONTINUING GROWTH. WESTERN SUBURBS PLAYED GRAND FINALS, IN BILL’s TIME, IN 1948 [BEATING BALMAIN] AND 1950 [LOSING TO SOUTHS].THE 1950 GRAND FINAL WAS BILL’S LAST GAME. WESTS LOST, NARROWLY, 21-15, WITH A HEAVILY CONCUSSED BILL KEATO KICKING 6 GOALS. IN BILL’S ERA THERE WAS NO THOUGHT OF BEING REPLACED.THERE WAS A ‘NO REPLACEMENT’ RULE, IN FACT,…THE GAME WAS A ‘WAR OF ATTRITION’…CERTAINLY NO ‘BLOOD BINS’…NO PROLIFERATION OF ‘TRAINERS’, AS IN THE MODERN GAME…JUST A SIDELINE ‘ZAMBUCK’, IF YOU WERE “LUCKY”…OR “UNLUCKY”,ACCORDING TO MANY.[SOME OF THE ZAMBUCKS WERE THERE FOR A DAY AT THE FOOTBALL, RATHER THAN ANY PARTICULAR MEDICAL SKILLS]. BILL KEATO WAS INVALUABLE TO HIS TEAM…IN FACT, WESTS’ LEADING POINTSCORER IN SEVEN SEPARATE SEASONS. BILL TOPPED THE COMPETITION’S POINTSCORING TWICE: 1949 AND 1950.HE KICKED 10 GOALS ON ONE OCCASION, DURING AN SCG ‘MATCH OF THE DAY’. OVERALL, BILL SCORED 6 TRIES AND KICKED 379 GOALS FOR 776 POINTS…STILL THE MAGPIES’ CLUB RECORD. BILL’s POINTSCORING PROWESS PROVIDED THE FOUNDATION FOR WESTS’ FIRST CLUB-CHAMPIONSHIP…THE MAGPIES’ FIRST- GRADE NEEDED TO WIN THEIR LAST ROUND GAME v NEWTOWN AT PRATTEN PARK IN 1948…TO CLAIM THE ‘FLOWERS MEMORIAL PENNANT’.TRAILING THE BLUEBAGS BY ONE POINT [15-14],… IN THE WET …WITH TIME RUNNING- OUT,… CAPTAIN DUCK WALSH CALLED-UP BILL FOR A LONG RANGE PENALTY SHOT.AS HE LINED IT UP….AND REMEMBER. KICKERS OF BILL’S ERA HAD TO MAKE THEIR OWN DIVOTS or BUILD THEIR OWN MOUND..THERE WERE NO ‘TEEs’…or EVEN ‘SAND BOYS…PLUS, HE HAD TO TAKE THE KICK BACK THE BEST PART OF ANOTHER TEN YARDS, TO CLEAR 3 MARKERS STANDING ON THE SPOT… A ‘WAG’ CALLED OUT, “WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, JIM SULLIVAN?”.BILL KEATO CALMLY POTTED THE GOAL. NOT TO BE OUTDONE, ERIC BENNETT SCAMPERED OVER FOR A LAST MINUTE TRY TO ‘MAKE A BIRD’ OF THE ’48 CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP,PERHAPS TAKING SOME OF THE GLOSS OFF BILL’s OUTSTANDING KICK. BEING A LIVERPOOL KID, MADE BILL A WESTS JUNIOR IN 1938.IRONICALLY, IT’S ONLY 6 WEEKS AGO THAT WESTS MAGPIES AND WESTS TIGERS CELEBRATED ’25 YEARS’ AS THE OFFICIAL TEAM IN THE CAMPBELLTOWN/LIVERPOOL AREA, FOLLOWING THE MAGPIES’ FORMAL MOVE THERE IN 1987. BILLY MOVED SEAMLESSLY FROM PLAYER TO CLUB OFFICIAL, BECOMING WESTS’ TREASURER FROM 1951 TO 1973.HE WAS THE RIGHT MAN FOR THE JOB…BEING VERY CAREFUL WITH A QUID…BASED ON HIS INDELIBLE RECOLLECTION OF 1938 PRICES: HE COULD ALWAYS RECALL THAT…HIS FIRST-SEASON BONUS WAS ’13 POUNDS’, WITH 2/6 DEDUCTED AS THE CLUB JOINING-FEE. BILL’s WEEKLY WAGE WAS 7/6. A PAIR OF BOOTS; DALLY M’s, MADE TO MEASURE…COST 3 QUID.AND BILL GOT FULL VALUE…HE WAS STILL WEARING HIS 1938 BOOTS WHEN HE RETIRED IN 1950…HAND-MADE OF LIGHT KANGAROO HIDE, WITH A SOFT TOE…WHICH BILL ADJUSTED FOR GOAL KICKING,BY SOAKING BROWN PAPER IN WATER AND PUSHING INTO THE TOE OF THE BOOT. BILL HAD ONE YEAR AS WESTS ‘SECRETARY’, IN 1974…THE CLUB FINISHED THIRD, ELIMINATED IN THE FINAL BY JACK GIBSON’s PREMIERSHIP WINNING EASTS. BILL KEATO REPRESENTED CITY SECONDS v COUNTRY IN 1947, WEIGHING IN WITH 5 GOALS. WHILE HE WASN’T FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO MAKE INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL IN HIS PLAYING DAYS…IN FACT, TESTS WERE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN, POST WAR…ONLY 4 WERE PLAYED, BEFORE CLIVE CHURCHILL GRABBED THE SPOT IN 1948…HOWEVER, BILLY’S ‘IMAGE’ HAS RECENTLY CIRCLED THE GLOBE, JET-SETTING DUE TO SOME STAUNCH MAGPIE SUPPORTERS AND THEIR RESPECT AND AFFECTION FOR BILL’S PLACE IN MAGPIE HISTORY…AND, BY UTILISINGTHE SOCIAL MEDIA SUCH AS FACEBOOK. WHEN BILL’S LIFE-SIZE CUT-OUT DISPLAY DISAPPEARED FROM ‘KEATO’s’ RESTAURANT AT WESTS ASHFIELD…IT MYSTERIOUSLY RE-APPEARED AMONG THE CROWDS AT INTERNATIONAL LANDMARKS….FROM HAVANA, Cuba TO RIO in Brazil. A LIFE MEMBER OF THE MAGPIES, BILL KEATO WAS FORMALLY INDUCTED INTO THE WESTERN SUBURBS ‘HALL OF FAME’ IN 2010…HIS CONTRIBUTIONS…BOTH ON AND OFF THE FIELD…REMAIN AMONG THE MOST IMPORTANT IN THE 105 YEAR HISTORY OF THE CLUB…AND SO IT WILL ALWAYS BE. MORE IMPORTANTLY, ANY WESTS SUPPORTER WHO WATCHED HIM RUN ONTO THE SCG,…LINE-UP A KICK ON PRATTEN PARK…OR SAW HIS SMILING FACE…OR HAD THE PLEASURE OF CHATTING WITH BILL…OR PERHAPS THE BENEFIT OF HIS ADVICE…WILL CONTINUE TO CARRY THAT INDELIBLE MEMORY OF BILL KEATO. GOD SPEED, BILL !! Bill and West great Jim Cody SCG 2012

Noel Kelly's Kids
Tony Lewis
Web Master / Researcher
Steve Lothian, Web Design & Editorial Assistant
tonyandlee@aunix.com.au

VALE Bill Keato

Bill at the Sydney Sports Ground

One of the many tributes written about Bill.

Roy Masters remembers Bill Keato

Friday, 12 October 2012 05:37

Bill Keato, the diminutive Western Suburbs fullback who has died aged 93, won more matches for the Magpies than any other player. A prodigious goalkicker, Keato booted what were called ''flag waggers'' from the sideline and halfway, often in the mud and against the wind, in the 1938-to-1950 era, when goals, rather than tries, decided games.

In 1947, in Manly's debut game at Brookvale, the Sea Eagles scored three tries to Wests' one, but Keato kicked six goals and the Magpies won by a point.

''Bill started it and we've been causing them trouble ever since,'' former Wests secretary Ray Bernasconi said in reference to the Fibro-Silvertail feud.

Advertisement Keato died on Monday, the last member of Wests' 1948 premiership team that beat Balmain, today's NRL joint venture partner.

A resident of Liverpool, then part of Wests territory, Keato was selected for Wests after playing only one junior game. He soon attracted attention when he sidelined rugby league's best player, Easts' Dave Brown, for two months with a scything tackle that broke the centre's collarbone.

He was nicknamed ''Amos'' because, when joined with Keato, it formed ''a mosquito''. He aptly buzzed about the backfield, refusing to tackle high like the other ''flying headlock specialists'', felling the big men as if they had been struck with malaria.

His surname was also invented in the same phonetic manner.

Bill's grandfather, Samuel, was a Chinese orphan who arrived in Australia aged 14 from Shanghai.

When the Customs officer asked Samuel his surname, he responded in Cantonese, ''Yes, that's right'', which, according to family folklore, came out sounding like ''Keato''.

So he became Samuel Keato, although other spellings have him as Keto, Cato, Ketas and Keating.

Sam married twice, to Englishwomen both named Smith, with Bill related to Clara Keating, the vaudeville actress of the Al Jolson era.

Bill certainly shared some of the entertainment genes, being one of the original three who founded Western Suburbs Leagues Club at Ashfield.

Oblivious to his own oriental background and devoid of political correctness, Bill often remarked how surprised he was at ''the number of Chinese coming into the club''.

Perhaps they were attracted to the club's ''Keato's'' restaurant, which featured a cardboard cut out of him at its entrance.

It disappeared last year, only to surface via Facebook, on the Machu Picchu trail in Peru, at the Eva Peron mausoleum in Buenos Aires, with Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro and at a Che Guevara mural in Cuba. Rick Yabsley, a passionate Wests fan, admits to taking it on a tour of South America and will return it today.

Bill's father was an ambulanceman and insisted his son wear light, soft-toed football boots lest he ''strip pieces of skin off the other boys' shins,'' according to one newspaper account.

But all goalkickers in those days were toe pokers and Bill knew he needed a hard, right toe.

So each Monday he would stuff the toe of his right boot with wet paper and every night spent an hour with a tile layer's trowel modelling a perfect clay toe to the boot.

On Friday nights, he baked the toe of the boot in the casing.

He always carried two pairs of boots to games and regularly changed his right boot at half-time.

The right boot he called his ''tradesman'' boot and his left, the ''labourer's boot'', always digging his divot with the left boot.

Generous of spirit, he handed his precious boots to his replacement, Mick Thornton, when he missed the 1947 semi-final with injury, saying, ''You can have my boots for the game, too''.

Keato was also a skilled all-rounder at cricket, playing first grade with Cumberland.

His 120 first-grade games for the Magpies and 25 in reserves, for 869 points, is a Wests record and could have been more, except for two years spent on war service.

He played for City and would have represented Queensland, where he was stationed, had his unit not been transferred.

His brother, Alan, a Magpie forward, was killed at Finschhafen.

Bill was Wests' inaugural treasurer from 1951 to 1973 and his charitable works were well known, especially for Legacy. And who could blame him for his political incorrectness in an era when institutions had names like the Ryde Home for Incurables, an organisation that received one third of a Lidcombe gate?

Bill, whose funeral was held this week, is survived by daughter Judy Brading, sons Billy, Geoff and Kelvin and nine grandchildren.

Well said Roy

Bill with the 1947 side off to Queensland

Bill kicking a very wet leather ball at his beloved Pratten Park

Bill at the SCG in the late 1940's

The order of service from Bills funeral.

Below is the Eulogy given by Rick Wayde.

Rick covers Bills Life and Times at Wests brilliantly.

Cheers Rick for letting me use it.

BILL KEATO Eulogy

Wednesday, October 10^th 2012

BILL KEATO… UNTIL EARLY MONDAY MORNING… WESTERN SUBURBS’ OLDEST LIVING FIRST GRADER,

REMARKABLY WENT STRAIGHT INTO GRADE AT THE MAGPIES IN 1938 AFTER ONLY ONE JUNIOR GAME, WHICH WAS BASICALLY A ‘FRIENDLY’ FOR HIS ‘HOME TOWN’ OF LIVERPOOL AGAINST THE REDFERN ALL BLACKS.

BILL PLAYED 120 OF 138 CLUB GAMES IN FIRST GRADE.

AFTER BRIEF STINTS AT 5/8 AND CENTRE, HE MADE THE FULLBACK SPOT HIS OWN.

HE REPLACED JIMMY SHARMAN AS THE MAGPIES’ CUSTODIAN.

JIM ALSO HAD PASSED ON THE ‘MAGPIES OLDEST FIRST GRADE PLAYER’ TAG TO BILL.

IN 2003, JIM SHARMAN WAS OFFICIALLY ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE STATE OF NSW AS A ‘LEGEND’.

A TITLE THAT WOULD SIT EQUALLY WELL WITH BILL KEATO.

ON BILL’S ARRIVAL AT WESTS IN 1938, HE CONTRIBUTED TO A THRID GRADE PREMIERSHIP VICTORY OVER EASTS…

AND HE MADE HIS FIRST GRADE DEBUT ON July 16^th., 1938… ROUND 10 …AT LEICHHARDT OVAL v BALMAIN…

THE GROUND RAN EAST/WEST THEN…THE FULLBACK’S JOB MADE MORE DIFFICULT LOOKING INTO THE AFTERNOON SUN.

HIS PLAYING ‘STATS’ ARE FORMIDABLE, GIVEN HE STARTED PLAYING IN AN 8 TEAM COMPETITION, THAT ONLY ‘EXPANDED’ TO 10 WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF PARRAMATTA AND MANLY IN 1947…

PLUS THE INTERRUPTIONS CAUSED BY WORLD WAR 2…WITH ‘SARGEANT BILL KEATO’ PLAYING JUST 4 GAMES FOR WESTS, FROM 1943 TO ‘45.

UNDERSTANDABLY, THEY WERE VERY DIFFICULT YEARS FOR BILL AND HIS FAMILY, LOSING YOUNGER BROTHER ALAN,

WHO WAS ALSO A MAGPIE PLAYER.

IT’S INTERESTING TO NOTE THAT WHEN BILL WAS STATIONED IN BRISBANE IN 1945…HE CHOSE TO PLAY WITH… ‘WESTS’ [Brisbane].

WHEN BILL KEATO STARTED AT PRATTEN PARK, IN ’38, CANTERBURY-BANKSTOWN CLUB WAS ONLY 3 YEARS OLD, AND

MANAGED TO COLLECT THEIR FIRST PREMIERSHIP AFTER WESTS HAD PROVIDED THEM TERRITORY, PLAYERS AND JIM CRAIG, THE COACH.

AT THE OTHER END OF BILL’s CAREER, PARRA’S INTRO, IN ’47, WAS JUST ANOTHER ‘OBSTACLE’ FOR THE EVER INNOVATIVE WESTERN SUBURBS CLUB, WITH THE EELS TAKING A HUGE SLICE OF TERRITORY WEST OF GRANVILLE…PLUS PLAYERS AND OFFICIALS.

THEY ALSO DID THEIR BEST TO ‘PINCH’ BILL, WITH THE DISPUTE RESOLVED, BY THE NSW RL, THANKFULLY, IN WESTS’ FAVOUR.

THIS DIDN’T STOP THE MAGPIES, … WITH BILL KEATO’s CONSISTENT CONTRIBUTIONS ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS FOR WESTS’ CONTINUING GROWTH.

WESTERN SUBURBS PLAYED GRAND FINALS, IN BILL’s TIME,

IN 1948 [BEATING BALMAIN] AND 1950 [LOSING TO SOUTHS].

THE 1950 GRAND FINAL WAS BILL’S LAST GAME. WESTS LOST, NARROWLY, 21-15, WITH A HEAVILY CONCUSSED BILL KEATO KICKING 6 GOALS.

IN BILL’S ERA THERE WAS NO THOUGHT OF BEING REPLACED.

THERE WAS A ‘NO REPLACEMENT’ RULE, IN FACT,…

THE GAME WAS A ‘WAR OF ATTRITION’…CERTAINLY NO ‘BLOOD BINS’…NO PROLIFERATION OF ‘TRAINERS’, AS IN THE MODERN GAME…

JUST A SIDELINE ‘ZAMBUCK’, IF YOU WERE “LUCKY”…OR “UNLUCKY”,

ACCORDING TO MANY.

[SOME OF THE ZAMBUCKS WERE THERE FOR A DAY AT THE FOOTBALL, RATHER THAN ANY PARTICULAR MEDICAL SKILLS].

BILL KEATO WAS INVALUABLE TO HIS TEAM…IN FACT, WESTS’ LEADING POINTSCORER IN SEVEN SEPARATE SEASONS.

BILL TOPPED THE COMPETITION’S POINTSCORING TWICE: 1949 AND 1950.

HE KICKED 10 GOALS ON ONE OCCASION, DURING AN SCG ‘MATCH OF THE DAY’.

OVERALL, BILL SCORED 6 TRIES AND KICKED 379 GOALS FOR 776 POINTS…STILL THE MAGPIES’ CLUB RECORD.

BILL’s POINTSCORING PROWESS PROVIDED THE FOUNDATION FOR WESTS’ FIRST CLUB-CHAMPIONSHIP…THE MAGPIES’ FIRST- GRADE NEEDED TO WIN THEIR LAST ROUND GAME v NEWTOWN AT PRATTEN PARK IN 1948…TO CLAIM THE ‘FLOWERS MEMORIAL PENNANT’.

TRAILING THE BLUEBAGS BY ONE POINT [15-14],… IN THE WET …WITH TIME RUNNING- OUT,… CAPTAIN DUCK WALSH CALLED-UP BILL FOR A LONG RANGE PENALTY SHOT.

AS HE LINED IT UP….

AND REMEMBER. KICKERS OF BILL’S ERA HAD TO MAKE THEIR OWN DIVOTS or BUILD THEIR OWN MOUND..

THERE WERE NO ‘TEEs’…or EVEN ‘SAND BOYS…

PLUS, HE HAD TO TAKE THE KICK BACK THE BEST PART OF ANOTHER TEN YARDS, TO CLEAR 3 MARKERS STANDING ON THE SPOT…

A ‘WAG’ CALLED OUT, “WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, JIM SULLIVAN?”.

BILL KEATO CALMLY POTTED THE GOAL.

NOT TO BE OUTDONE, ERIC BENNETT SCAMPERED OVER FOR A LAST MINUTE TRY TO ‘MAKE A BIRD’ OF THE ’48 CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP,

PERHAPS TAKING SOME OF THE GLOSS OFF BILL’s OUTSTANDING KICK.

BEING A LIVERPOOL KID, MADE BILL A WESTS JUNIOR IN 1938.

IRONICALLY, IT’S ONLY 6 WEEKS AGO THAT WESTS MAGPIES AND WESTS TIGERS CELEBRATED ’25 YEARS’ AS THE OFFICIAL TEAM IN THE CAMPBELLTOWN/LIVERPOOL AREA, FOLLOWING THE MAGPIES’ FORMAL MOVE THERE IN 1987.

BILLY MOVED SEAMLESSLY FROM PLAYER TO CLUB OFFICIAL, BECOMING WESTS’ TREASURER FROM 1951 TO 1973.

HE WAS THE RIGHT MAN FOR THE JOB…BEING VERY CAREFUL WITH A QUID…BASED ON HIS INDELIBLE RECOLLECTION OF 1938 PRICES:

HE COULD ALWAYS RECALL THAT…

HIS FIRST-SEASON BONUS WAS ’13 POUNDS’, WITH 2/6 DEDUCTED AS THE CLUB JOINING-FEE. BILL’s WEEKLY WAGE WAS 7/6.

A PAIR OF BOOTS; DALLY M’s, MADE TO MEASURE…COST 3 QUID.

AND BILL GOT FULL VALUE…HE WAS STILL WEARING HIS 1938 BOOTS WHEN HE RETIRED IN 1950…HAND-MADE OF LIGHT KANGAROO HIDE, WITH A SOFT TOE…WHICH BILL ADJUSTED FOR GOAL KICKING,

BY SOAKING BROWN PAPER IN WATER AND PUSHING INTO THE TOE OF THE BOOT.

BILL HAD ONE YEAR AS WESTS ‘SECRETARY’, IN 1974…

THE CLUB FINISHED THIRD, ELIMINATED IN THE FINAL BY JACK GIBSON’s PREMIERSHIP WINNING EASTS.

BILL KEATO REPRESENTED CITY SECONDS v COUNTRY IN 1947, WEIGHING IN WITH 5 GOALS.

WHILE HE WASN’T FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO MAKE INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL IN HIS PLAYING DAYS…IN FACT, TESTS WERE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN, POST WAR…

ONLY 4 WERE PLAYED, BEFORE CLIVE CHURCHILL GRABBED THE SPOT IN 1948…

HOWEVER, BILLY’S ‘IMAGE’ HAS RECENTLY CIRCLED THE GLOBE, JET-SETTING DUE TO SOME STAUNCH MAGPIE SUPPORTERS AND THEIR RESPECT AND AFFECTION FOR BILL’S PLACE IN MAGPIE HISTORY…AND, BY UTILISINGTHE SOCIAL MEDIA SUCH AS FACEBOOK.

WHEN BILL’S LIFE-SIZE CUT-OUT DISPLAY DISAPPEARED FROM ‘KEATO’s’ RESTAURANT AT WESTS ASHFIELD…IT MYSTERIOUSLY RE-APPEARED AMONG THE CROWDS AT INTERNATIONAL LANDMARKS….

FROM HAVANA, Cuba TO RIO in Brazil.

A LIFE MEMBER OF THE MAGPIES, BILL KEATO WAS FORMALLY INDUCTED INTO THE WESTERN SUBURBS ‘HALL OF FAME’ IN 2010…

HIS CONTRIBUTIONS…BOTH ON AND OFF THE FIELD…REMAIN AMONG THE MOST IMPORTANT IN THE 105 YEAR HISTORY OF THE CLUB…AND SO IT WILL ALWAYS BE.

MORE IMPORTANTLY, ANY WESTS SUPPORTER WHO WATCHED HIM RUN ONTO THE SCG,…LINE-UP A KICK ON PRATTEN PARK…OR SAW HIS SMILING FACE…OR HAD THE PLEASURE OF CHATTING WITH BILL…OR PERHAPS THE BENEFIT OF HIS ADVICE…WILL CONTINUE TO CARRY THAT INDELIBLE MEMORY OF BILL KEATO.

GOD SPEED, BILL !!

Bill and West great Jim Cody SCG 2012

Noel Kellys Kids, a website by Tony Lewis, Greg Willis and Steve Lothian honouring Rugby League Legend Noel Kelly and the Western Suburbs Magpies from 1966 to 1969. Noel Kelly,Captain Coach of the Western Suburbs Rugby League Club. The site involves statistics, photos, with interviews from West greats.

Noel Kelly's Kids
Tony Lewis
Web Master / Researcher
Steve Lothian, Web Design & Editorial Assistant
tonyandlee@aunix.com.au