Published by Melbourne Books
Level 9, 100 Collins Street,
Melbourne, VIC 3000
Australia
Copyright © Paul Amy 2014
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Front and back cover photos: Newspix / News Limited
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publicationentry
Author: Amy, Paul.
Title: Fabulous Fred : The Strife and Times of
Fred Cook.
ISBN: 9781922129666 (eBook)
Subjects: Cook, Frederick William.
Australian football players—Victoria—Biography.
Australian football—Victoria.
Drug abuse and crime—Victoria.
Dewey Number: 796.336092
Digital Distribution: Ebook Alchemy
Conversion by Winking Billy
Paul Amy
Dedicated to my father, Bill Amy (1941–1995),
who is thought of every day.
Fred Cook
To my parents, Fred and Shirley Cook
Foreword
It is a challenge to dislike Fred Cook. A persuasive, laconic, rambling raconteur, he is a flawed gemstone.
In his heyday he captivated sporting crowds as an icon of the country’s second-tier Australian Rules football competition of the day, the Victorian Football Association. There was no bigger name in the VFA than Fred Cook, or ‘Fabulous Fred’, as his legions of fans called him.
But he succumbed to the pressures of a pop-star, Hollywood lifestyle, and he paid dearly for the romance.
His foray into the hospitality industry as the proprietor of Port Melbourne’s Station Hotel gave his extroverted life another kick, and his constant companions were the elite movers and shakers of society. As sure as night follows day, the opportunists, those detecting a chance to exploit, and the criminal underclass gradually permeated his person.
This is the classic chronological rise-and-fall story of sex, drugs and rock-and-roll, made all the meretricious by a large dose of sport — except this ain’t no story!
Sam Newman
June 2014
1
IT had been an unremarkable day in the Frankston Magistrates’ Court.
Locals, a few of them carrying the whiff of aftershave and looking uncomfortable in just-bought suits, had come to answer charges like drink-driving, burglary and theft. They filed in before 10am and they hoped their solicitors would ensure they filed out.
Quick-with-a-quip prosecutor Ricky Lewis would have called it a ‘mixed bag’ of cases, as he invariably did when quizzed by the reporter covering proceedings for the Frankston Standard newspaper.
Most cases were heard in court one, in a building that stood for years on Davey Street, only a couple of decent drop punts from the Frankston football ground. But around lunchtime on this day in December 1991, court staff began to murmur about a matter to be heard in the smaller second court.
A former footballer had been arrested, they said. Big name in his day, apparently.
A few minutes later, uniformed police marched a handcuffed and dishevelled Fred Cook in to court. Sweat beaded on his forehead. He wore jeans that needed a wash, a similarly grubby white shirt and running shoes on their last legs.
Some wouldn’t have recognised him as the man who less than a decade earlier was the most captivating and colourful player in the Victorian Football Association (VFA). Supporters called the prolific Port Melbourne goalkicker ‘Fabulous Fred’. He assumed the profile of a pop star.
Police had come to know him well, too, but as Frederick William Cook, repeat offender. To them he was no football hero. He was just another sloppy crook who needed locking up. ‘Fred Cook? Can’t stay out of trouble. He’s a pain in the arse,’ an officer from the Frankston District Support Group once replied when asked about the former Port champion.
A pin-up boy to an ocean of small fry, Cook kicked bags of goals in his sponsored Puma boots and was integral in six Port Melbourne premierships during the historic club’s most successful era.
Its successor, the Victorian Football League (VFL), has struggled for publicity for years. But the VFA had a large and fanatical following in the 1970s and 1980s — it was common for fans to support a league team on Saturdays and an association team on Sundays — and a cluster of great players and compelling characters. There was Dandenong spearhead Jim ‘Frosty’ Miller. Feared Preston ruckman Harold Martin. Cook’s Port Melbourne teammate and champion big man Vic ‘Stretch’ Aanensen. Bearded Coburg swashbuckler Phil Cleary. Rugged Sandringham defender Alf Beus. Geelong West sharpshooter Joe Radojevic. Long after retirement, their names still resonate with seasoned football followers.
But Cook had the largest profile of all. Wearing the No. 5 jumper from full forward, he was the finisher for a team as bruising as it was brilliant. With his regular starring roles in matches televised by Channel 0, he helped haul the VFA out of the shadows and into the spotlight.
The Encyclopedia of League Footballers, recording Cook’s thirty-three games for Footscray between 1967 and 1969, described him as ‘one of the greatest stars to have played in the VFA’, formed in 1877. ‘His goalkicking feats with Port were legendary,’ it said.
Former Footscray champion Doug Hawkins said, ‘He was the king of the VFA, Freddie, the absolute king.’
And he had charisma bursting from his boots. ‘Although he appeared apologetic about the
