Prior to the weekend’s naming of Damian Brennan as the newest life member of the Tongala Tennis Club only 14 other people had been recognised with the honour in the club’s 86-year history.
“Dangars”, as he is more widely known, is the brother of netball superstar Alicia and decorated sportsmen Liam, Julian and Kieran.
The family is as well known for its contributions in the community volunteer space and the dairy farming industry as it is in the sporting arena and a proud matriarch, Alana Brennan, was on hand to witness Damian’s recognition on Saturday.
Together with his wife Sharyn and a large gathering of members and junior players in the recently renovated clubrooms, the current club president was recognised as the latest inductee to the impressive list of individuals.
His name now sits alongside well known Tongala surnames like Hastie, Gemmill, Tennant, Humphreys, Denham and, more recently, Nexhip and McConnell, as members of the elite group.
With council backing Damian Brennan and the current committee have overseen a quarter-of-a-million-dollar upgrade of the clubrooms, which had gone pretty much untouched for the entire 40 years that he has been playing tennis on the perfectly groomed Henderson Rd grass courts.
The roof of its historic clubrooms was replaced, a new verandah added, it was re-painted and should now stand well and truly long enough to see another generation of Brennans come through its doors.
It is unlikely though, at least at this stage, that any other members of the Brennan family will be using the facility. None of Damian and Sharyn’s children are currently playing, or any of the children of his siblings.
Damian is the only sibling playing tennis and, apart from a brief stint by sister Alicia, none of his siblings tackled the sport in any serious way.
Apart from a couple of seasons off through injury, Damian Brennan has been a constant at the club that started in the 1939-40 season.
He said the club was in great shape at the moment, but would really like to build on its junior playing stocks.
“When I was a junior we had 10 teams, probably 50-odd kids, now we have two teams,” he said.
“Our Hot Shots program is still pretty strong and we maintain two teams, but we are always striving for more juniors.”
Tongala has been aligned with all three of the region’s tennis competitions, Goulburn Murray, Kyabram and Campaspe. The juniors now play in the Campaspe competition and the seniors in the Shepparton-based Goulburn Murray fixtures.
The club has two weeks of the home and away season remaining, but the newest life member will not be adding to an impressive list of premierships (including last season) as the team will not play finals this season.
You can be assured, however, that he will be there at the first pre-season hit up at the end of the football season later this year.
