A WILD POLO TUSSLE

It's an event reminiscent of a Banjo Paterson poem. For 35 years, in the High Country 200km east of Melbourne, city polo players have gathered annually at Cobungra, Victoria's largest cattle station, to vie with a rural team for the Dinner Plain Polo Cup.

- DAVID OLSSON

GEEBUNG, THE COUNTRY polo club, and the Cuff 'n' Collars, from the city, battle annually for glory, watched by as many as 3000 spectators, more people than attend the opening of the local ski season. The country team ride their own stockhorses, used for mustering and brumby running. To give the country team a leg-up, the city players are given their horses only an hour before the match. They're all pretty wild rides, including some that are barely broken brumbies.

Ken Connelly and Phil Maguire started it all, while bush poet David Olsson, who played in the very first polo match, has been documenting the characters and action of the annual Dinner Plain Polo match in verse since 1989. Here, we present a selection of his poetic perspectives from the past three decades.

2005

There is a game of Polo,

Played every Easter Sunday morn,

It was way back in the eighties,

That the idea was first born.

The country versed the city,

'pon the snowgrass lawn,

The players displayed their finest skills,

And the ladies' hearts were torn.

The Cuff 'n' Collar boys

Were tough and keen and mean,

There was Jim Castricum, Jeremy Bayard,

And Jim Nolan on the scene,

With Rob and Greg as captains,

The boys played as a team,

Adding Craig, Geoff and Bryce,

It just added to the cream.

It just added to the cream.

The Geebung boys were cunning,

But upon the field did flow,

They matched their rivals with bushman’s tricks,

And gave the crowd a show.

With Mad Jack and Hat and Catty,

And Rusty, Scoof and Joe,

Jock, Dean, Craig and Backman,

Even Olsson had a go.