KEITH DONCON

October 13, 2011
Before being forced out of football by injury, Keith Doncon was one of this State's finest footballers, but it happened for him all over again when he took up bowls a decade after taking off the boots.

Colin Fleay, who would later partner him in many of his successes, persuaded Keith to join him at Wickepin Bowling Club for a rollup one day in 1978. Winning the first of his twenty four club singles trophies in his first year, Doncon soon mastered the game, taking his twenty four club singles titles in twenty eight years.

After just five years in the game, he made the first of his 104 appearances for Western Australia.

Doncon won the Country Bowler of the Year seven times, two State fours, a State pairs, a Champion of Champion singles, was runner up in the State singles, while at Country Week he is a five times singles champion, pairs winner, and three times has been winner of the fours.

Just for good measure, add ten League singles trophies, a pairs, three fours, and a Rosenthal Medal for Western Australian Bowler of the Year, plus an induction into the WA Bowls Hall Of Fame.

But it wasn't always so straight forward.

"When Colin and I made the last four in the State Pairs early on, we booked out of our hotels each day, expecting to be heading home, then finding we were into the next day's action, we had to look for new accomodation each night," Keith said.

His wife, Glenice, is also into the game, winning club and League singles events.

Chatting with Keith Doncon, one can easily forget what the bloke has achieved in two brilliant sporting careers. He is a very down to earth man, who shrugs success off his back easily, preferring to reminisce about what great people he played with than mention his own glittering career.

Like another country football star, Don Langdon, Keith Doncon enjoyed only a short seventy five game career with East Perth, but it was long enough to stamp his claims as one of the greatest rovers in the club's proud history, verified in 2006, when the Royals named him in their Team of the Century 1945 to 2005.

The 174cm(5 foot 9) and 71.5kg (eleven stone) Doncon was all class, a gutsy, hard at it, pacy rover, with a strong overhead mark, complemented by his ability to read the play, and good goal sense. A long distance runner who represented Scotch College in eight hundred metre events, his stamina was a feature of his game.

Keith Doncon played his junior football at Wickepin, lining up with the seniors at sixteen, and honed his game in top company at Scotch College, where the first eighteen included many who would become stars of Western Australian football. A recently selected Scotch College Team of the Century was dominated by AFL and State players, with Doncon named as first rover. "John Leonard and Austin Robertson were great coaches, and helped me a lot,"Keith told Footygoss.

When Doncon went back to the farm, one of his first visitors was legendary East Perth stalwart, Hec Strempel, who enticed the young rover back to the city. Making his league debut in 1963, Doncon couldn't put his heart into it, and returned to Wickepin after only a few appearances. "I had a few other distractions," he recalled. "I had married young, and preferred the bush, so I went back," he said.

Keith Doncon starred with Wickepin in 1964 and 65, winning fairest and best for Wickepin in both years, as well as being voted Leo Graham Medal winner for the Upper Great Southern League. Nearing the end of the 1965 season, he received another visitor, East Perth and State coach, Kevin Murray, who persuaded him to have a run with the Royals in their end of season charity match at Bunbury. Murray was impressed with Doncon's performance, and immediately set about bringing him back to Perth Oval for the 1966 season.

Doncon's return to the league football was inspirational. He was third in Sandover Medal voting, headed the East Perth goalkicking list, and played for Western Australia in the Hobart carnival, gaining All Australian selection. The roving trio for WA in that carnival was surely one of the best combinations ever placed on a football field anywhere: Cable, Walker, and Doncon. It was also the year that Keith played in a losing grand final, the first of two consecutive disappointing grand finals for him, and the closest he was to get to a league premiership.

In 1968, Keith went back to Wickepin as playing coach, also coaching Upper Great Southern to a Country Carnival success in Perth the same year. Enticed back to Perth Oval in 1969, he was once again a leading player for the Royals, but a knee injury received towards the end of that season cast a shadow over the career of Keith Doncon.

1970 saw him back once again with the Royals at the beginning of the season testing out his knee, but he wasn't happy with it and went back to Wickepin. Trying out again with his home side, all injury scares were cast aside as he recovered his previous form to be selected for the Upper Great Southern team that competed at the Great Southern Carnival, in which he played two games, was voted best on ground on both occasions, and was awarded the Caris Medal as best player at the Carnival Itching to get back into WAFL action, Doncon returned to Perth Oval, but broke down again at training.

He had played only seventy five games with East Perth plus six for Western Australia, and it was a huge blow to the Royals as well as disappointing for Keith. "It wasn't what I would have liked," he admitted. "I felt that my best football was in front of me, and from that aspect it wasn't great, but I have had the opportunity to play at the top level with some stars of the game, be part of a great club, plus meet some wonderful people, so I have to be grateful for that. Life is like that, you move on."

And move on he did.

A decade after his last game of football, Keith Doncon took up bowls, and became a star all over again.

Keith Doncon's son, Brett, was also a Leo Graham Medal winner.

A player who suffered from shinsplints over most of his career, which restricted his training and game preparation, Leo was a member of Wickepin's 2008 premiership side, twenty years after playing in a losing grand final in his first season

These days Keith is busy running the farm with wife Glenice, but still enjoys a regular game of bowls.

"I've been very lucky in my lifetime to have met terrific people and played with so many great players over my sporting life," he told us.

He enthused about the brilliance of Steve Srhoy, Peter Sardelic, Dennis Katunarich, Robbie Ball, and Geoff Oakley, all of whom he named as the best he'd seen, while chuckling about the humour of Marko Krajancic.


"I was actually elected Club President twice but never did the job," he laughed. "The first occasion was when I was elected president and Colin was Club captain. Colin remarked to me: "I would rather be president than captain, it's easier," so I told him I'd swap. He said "OK."
The second time, it was the bloke elected treasurer who reckoned I had the easy job, so it was another swap."

Keith Doncon is still playing pennant bowls, and enjoying the social side of the game. The tough competitor in the high pressure of the top echelon of the game is equally at home playing a mixed drawn fours game on a Tuesday afternoon.

He's that sort of bloke.

RON HEAD