TWO Moree legends of rugby league were remembered mid-season, with special days at Boughton Oval remembering Bernie Briggs and Paul ‘Poey’ Raveneau.
Moree Boars in July thumped Narrabri Blues 78-22 at a sponsors’ day round, honouring the late Bernie Briggs, a sporting icon and treasured member of the Moree community.
Briggs died in 2017, age 58, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.
Sponsors’ day, featuring the Bernie Briggs Shield, came two weeks after Moree Boars celebrated Old Boys’ Day in honour of Poey Raveneau, another icon taken by cancer three years ago.
Moree Boars Rugby League Club president Todd Mitchell said Bernie and Poey were great men of local rugby league.
“They were terrific clubmen and were what being part of Moree Boars is all about – Poey and Bernie typified the club,” Mitchell said.
“My best memory of Bernie is of him walking past my work every day, wearing his towelling hat. He’d nearly always pull up for a yarn.
“Bernie was just a great bloke. He’s one of the nicest blokes I’ve met, and everyone liked Bernie. He didn’t have an enemy in the world,” he said.
Briggs played in seven rugby league grand-finals for Moree, in juniors as well as seniors, and helped win six titles.
He played in 142 A-grade matches, was a long-standing life member of the club and collected the coveted A-Grade Best and Fairest Award in 1980 and 1984.
In 1973, Briggs converted a John Brooks try to bring the coveted University Shield home to Moree.
Pancreatic cancer also claimed Poey Raveneau, the 27th life member of the club.
Raveneau played more than 350 games for the Boars, 221 of them at first-grade level.
He captain-coached first-grade to the 2004 Group 4 grand-final, won by Wee Waa Panthers, and coached different Moree sides at different times.
Raveneau moved to Ballina in 2017 with wife Stacey and sons, Bryce, Layne and Peyton.
He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2020 and died in March, 2021, two days after his 47th birthday.
“I often call Poey ‘the glue’ – he was the glue that held the club together for a long time,” Mitchell said.
“He kept the core group of players together as a team during times when the club was doing it pretty tough; he kept the club going.”
“There are three blokes I think of when I think of the Moree Boars – Alf Scott, Bernie Briggs and Poey Raveneau,” Mitchell said.
Scott passed away in 2019, aged 94. Incredibly, for 71 of those years he was directly involved at local and regional group level.
Scott was afforded life membership in 1973, and in 2016 Moree Boars unveiled the Alf Scott Medal, an annual award recognising individuals responsible for the growth, prosperity and success of the club.
“Alf was a great bloke and stuck with the Boars through thick and thin,” Mitchell said.
“He stuck solid. We had some pretty tough years for a while, and we were on the end of some pretty big floggings at different times, but Alf always remained upbeat and positive.”
Words and Image: Bill Poulos
