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I’ve only ever spoken to Kevin Sheedy twice but he lives inside my head. He’s been there for 12 years since the night on Fox Sports’ The Back Page when we showed a comical clip of an angry Sheedy addressing his young Greater Western Sydney side mid-match.
What made it so funny was that Sheedy emphasised random WORDS at random POINTS and not NECESSARILY the RIGHT moments to provide golden fodder for panellist and master mimic Billy Birmingham who was in his ELEMENT.
All these years later when someone mentions Sheedy’s name, I still hear Billy going off in one of the many endearing moments from the show which finishes its 29-year run with its final episode at 7.30pm on Tuesday.
Twenty nine years. Among the few shows to last longer were Play School (58 years) and Here’s Humphrey (45) and there is a theory among Back Page panellists that we accidentally put both out of business by stealing their audience.
In that 29-year period Australia has had eight Prime Ministers and nine Test cricket captains, yet the little ol’ Back Page – incredibly – has had just two main hosts, the legendary Mike Gibson and the equally talented Tony Squires.
Born in early 1997, three months before the...