The Warren ‘Pops’ Quintrell Shield
The Warren ‘Pops’ Quintrell Shield is awarded to the winning Premier Division team in the annual ‘Back to Baulko’ day run by the Sydney Hills Eagles (formally the East Coast Eagles).
Warren is a Life Member of both Clubs, Pennant Hills and East Coast Eagles by virtue of its previously known name of Baulkham Hills.
Warren moved on to start up another new Junior Club in Kellyville and continues to provided a tower of assistance to football administrators in the Hills area.
Warren has also been awarded the prestigious AFL Merit award for his contribution to Sydney AFL over many years.
Warren ‘Pops’ Quintrell is known as the father figure of Australian Rules football in the Hills area, and many in the club say he was instrumental in setting up clubs in Pennant Hills, Baulkham Hills and Kellyville.
Pops was on the sidelines unsure of which team to be supporting, but with many of the senior players running onto the field being his ex-charges, he was a proud man watching their progress.
The Pennant Hills and Baulkham Hills rivalry developed as a result of many players playing football against each other since they were in junior competitions.
The centrepiece of the ‘Back to Baulko Day’ is the Warren ‘Pops’ Quintrell Trophy, which is awarded to the winning captain and coach.
Moving from South Australia in 1996, Quintrell was one of the original Australian football fanatics in Sydney.
“In some ways I brought it up here, because I used to do school clinics and I finished up doing Auskick for a few years,” he says.
“A lot of them out there are players from Auskick, and I believe that my last lot of Auskick players are now under 14s.
“I’d like to still be doing it, but my knees don’t let me do it anymore.”
Pops remembers all too well the challenges he faced bringing Australian Rules to a state caught up in rugby league and union.
“I found that a lot of the kids loved the game, but it was a matter of convincing their parents,” he says. “Their dads had played league or soccer all their lives.”
Sitting on the sidelines is hard for the man who has spent almost 40 years teaching North-Western Sydney schoolkids about his beloved sport.
“I miss it,” he says of the teaching. “It keeps you young if you’re playing with young kids.”
People involved with both clubs change directions to talk to Pops, say g’day and ask him how he is going. It’s obvious he’s a well-respected man.
The Kellyville/Rouse Hill Junior Football Club (the Magpies) was founded in early 2002 by a group of parents who wanted their kids to play the ‘Greatest Game of All’, in their local area.
The instigator of this movement was local junior Australian Football League legend, Warren ‘Pops’ Quintrell.
With the blessing of the Northside Association and the Baulkham Hills Falcons, Pops recruited several ex-Parramatta Goanna’s who lived in the Kellyville/Rouse Hill area to start up the first committee.
After several lengthy meetings at the then Mean Fiddler Inn at Rouse Hill, the club was up and running. Some of the original families involved included:
- Former SFL Geelong Tigersnakes star, Peter ‘Bear’ Rickett
- Former garlic salesman and Goanna committeeman, Steve ‘Digger’ Graves
- Ex-Baulkham Hills Junior and Goanna premiership winner, Paul Eastman
- Former South Australian umpire of the year, George ‘The Blower’ Acland, and
- Steve ‘The Butcher’ Terry.
The health of our competition in the North West can be greatly attributable to the early work, and passion, of Warren. Rest in Peace. |