Football clubs are built around characters and today a block in the foundations of the West Coast Eagles was lost with the club bidding farewell to one of its most enduring personalities.
Henry “Hank” Gloede, propertyman at the West Coast Eagles for 22 years, was abruptly taken from us after a very short battle with cancer.
Occasionally politically incorrect, sometimes crotchety, but always driven by a passion to do what was best for his football club and his boys. He was a product of a game which was more of a community and a way of life before it was a business.
A long-time servant of South Fremantle, performing the role of propertyman for 13 years at the Bulldogs before being appointed by the West Coast Eagles in late 1986, he was a cornerstone around which this club was moulded and was rewarded in 1996 for his dedicated service with the highest available honour - life membership.
There’s no doubt Hank preferred the game as it was; when a tough contest in the middle was followed by a couple of cooling beers, but he understood the changing nature of the game. A man’s man, the 70-year-old stalwart was a Vietnam veteran and in his youth was also a cyclist of some distinction.
When West Coast ultimately appointed him to a position for which he preferred the title of equipment manager - because ‘real estate agents are bloody property managers’ - he was a mobile football club himself.
For the first three years when the Eagles had no permanent home, he carried in the back of his van football jumpers and every possible training apparatus, including rub-down benches, exercise bikes and a selection of other paraphernalia to whichever venue he was required.
Initially he combined his very demanding part-time role with a full-time job as a delivery driver for Tip Top Bakeries until his task with the football club meant he could no longer continue with both pursuits.
In those early days, he often joked that if his house was broken into the club would be in all sorts of strife because he had so much gear essential to the team’s preparation stored permanently in his van as well as in every room of his home.
During his long and distinguished association with the club, Hank missed just one game when the airline strike of 1989 meant that the team had to travel with a skeleton staff and he remained in Perth while the touring party prepared for battle.
For every away journey he would be responsible for packing tonnes of equipment, carrying it off the carousel at the airport at the other end and then going through the same process for the journey home. He didn’t always do it with a smile, but that was part of Hank’s charm.
No one was ever left in any doubt as to what he thought and everyone loved him for who was. Tonight when those who knew him crack a cold beer, they will toast a man who dedicated his life to this club. They will toast a mate, a good bloke with a sharp wit and a story to tell.
Cheers Hank.
