1886 : NAB Oval?
	The Northern Bullants scored a major coup when we reached an agreement with the NAB for the bank to become our major sponsor over a three year period. Although evidence strongly points to the Preston Football Club being formed in 1882, there is no remaining direct evidence of their activities until late in 1885 when there was a merger with the Gowerville club.   It took another 50 years to come to light, but a small reunion during the City of Preston's Golden Jubilee celebrations in August and September of 1935 revealed that the football club and bank had crossed paths before ...

Part of the Golden Jubilee festivities was a grand reunion and traditional Smoke Night of the Preston Football Club at the Gowerville Theatre with many past players and officials in attendance. Fittingly, it was a member of the family so prominent in Preston's earliest sporting endeavours that provided a couple of precious hints :

"Tom Paterson responded on behalf of the old brigade. He received rapt attention when he told of the many battles fought in the days when Bob Smith was secretary and when the football ground was where the present National Bank now stands".

Just what does this all-too brief report tell us?

Based on the evidence, either the Preston or Gowerville club played on a paddock now in the centre of today's High street shopping precinct and where today's NAB operates, roughly opposite the Post Office.

Just after the Shire of Preston was renamed from the older Shire of Jika in September 1885, the Preston and Gowerville football clubs amalgamated to become simply the Preston Football Club.   The club first came to notice in the Collingwood Mercury, then the local newspaper for Northcote and Preston a few weeks later when it applied to the new Council for the use of Preston Park for a New Year's Day Sports Carnival.

Prior to the merged club's first season, the new secretary, Mr. J. G. Powell forwarded a letter to the Council pleading for use of the Park, suggesting "the piece of ground on which the club played was about to be sold" and "players were forced to leave their clothes in the open and on the ground, a recent robbery having occurred as a result".

Whether or not the proposed sale was to the NAB cannot be verified, but the National was Preston's first (and for many years only) bank, although the exact date of its establishment is not known.   Oddly enough for an event that was a major milestone in the village's history, there was nothing official to announce the opening in the Collingwood or Brunswick papers that served the locals at the time.

The Bank is known to have been operating in April, 1887 when the Shire Council voted to move its account from the Northcote to the South Preston branch.

The Preston Leader commenced in October, 1888 but the first inkling of the bank doesn't appear until January 15 1890, when an advertisement refers to "the lately established Receiving Office", perhaps meaning the branch's services had been expanded in the meantime.

We can however perhaps absolve the National from any immediate blame for the football club's predicament.   

The bank's location in these years was generally described as "South Preston", a name that seems to have been used for anything south of Murray Road and which could have included the current site, but more specifically directories of the time place the branch on the south-western corner of Plenty Road and Yann Street, a location which included the main shopping facilities of the time.

Again it is uncertain whether he was the first, but the manager around 1890 was George Robertson.

Robertson, educated at Scotch College, was the star of the long-lost Preston District Cricket Club and won their batting average on a couple of occasions. While other clubs usually awarded a bat or a pair of cricket boots as prizes, there was none of the practical side of life for the Preston boys and one season Robertson took home a "trophy consisting of a handsome gold star, nicely chased and adorned by a pretty floral wreath on the inner side of which the recipients monogram is engraved".

Being the only bank in town, the National numbered the Preston Shire Council amongst its customers and Robertson managed to extend his banking services in a novel way.

The Councillors of Preston and Heidelberg played a "hit-and-giggle" cricket match each year with the two Shires taking it in turns to play host. Given the cricketing days of several of the councillors were firmly in days well past, (if indeed they had ever existed), there were usually three or four employees from each of the Shires enlisted to make up the numbers.

In 1890, the Shire of Preston took on a novel approach to employee relations by including in their side, "Mr. Robertson, the Council's banker". Preston scored an easy win over their fellow legislators with "the banker" top scoring with 57 and Cr. Chas. Showers making a fine 50.

This branch, like many other banks, closed during the economic depression of the early 1890s after the collapse of many financial institutions following a land boom in the 1880s.    

Just when the current building in High Street was erected is subject to more research, but when the first aerial photograph of Preston clearly shows an impressive building as one of just three or four on the western side of the stretch between Cramer Street and Murray Road. It wasn't until the early 1920s that High Street became the main commercial strip, due in part to the popularity of the Star Theatre on the corner of High and Gower Streets, in later years known as the St. James Theatre.

The Paterson family to which Tom belonged was very much based in Gowerville and already had close connections to the cricket club of that name that challenged Preston in terms of size and prestige.

Just which of the football clubs he was referring to is uncertain, but given the family connection, it was probably Gowerville. One of the early reports for a Gowerville match suggests the game was at Preston South and notes the swamp-like conditions (the flat area bordering High Street was renowned for poor drainage with rainwater running down from the higher area to both the east and west).

The Gowerville theory is supported by other snippets around the time suggesting football was played behind the Preston Arms in the area that considered itself "Preston" rather than "Gowerville" or "South Preston".    

Paterson's mention of "Bob Smith" as secretary almost certainly places the recollection as before 1886.

All secretaries of the amalgamated Preston club from that year are known and there is no reference to "Bob Smith".  A family named Smith (although no "Bob" or "Robert") was prominent in the Gowerville Cricket Club, one S. D. Smith being secretary in the early 1880s and J. Smith noted as a leading batsman at the time.

The name "Smith" also appears a number of times in early match reports of the football club, and given many players also acted in official positions, this may even have been "Bob Smith", the secretary.

Sadly, the Preston Leader report gave little else away about the early history of the club, mentioning one of the highlights as Ted "Dew" Hall producing his 1900 premiership cap and Tom Ralph relating "many amusing incidents when the club used rooms at his father's hotel (the Junction) for many years".   Jack Ralph died in 1912 and was partially paralysed at the time of his passing after an earlier accident on Rucker's Hill in Northcote.

Tom Paterson was a member of the first ever Collingwood V.F.L. team in 1897 - some histories, including one approved by the Collingwood club, suggest one of his brothers, Robert was also a member of that team, but examination of line ups published in the newspapers of the time show only one Paterson identified on occasions as "T. Paterson".

Tom was born in 1874, first appearing in cricketing circles around 1890 and known as "Whopper", a nickname given his proclivity to try hit most balls he faced out of the ground. He managed to be a leading player in junior cricket circles for many years, at times playing with Northcote and Coburg before returning to Preston, where he was still playing as late as in 1912.

At the oldest, he would have been in his early teens when he was watched the "many battles" on the National Bank ground in the early to mid 1880s.

Tom Paterson as part of the Jubilee celebrations presented the Council with a framed photograph take in 1862 of the Watson and Paterson ham and bacon curing plant jointly established by his father William and fellow Scot William Paterson on the corner of High and Raglan Streets. The Watson and Paterson firm continued under the guidance of the Paterson family until the early 1950s when it was sold to Otto Wurth Pty. Ltd., the latter company still operating administrative offices and distribution