The Peter Ramus Cup was first played in 2008 and put together in order to honour an outstanding player, coach, club person and friend; Peter Ramus.

Read more about Peter Ramus and why the Peter Ramus Cup is such a special weekend of football to both SUANFC and Inner West Magpies below in the article penned by Paul Mulvey, long time SUANFC club member.

It’s nice to get the chance to play footy for a trophy. Even better when it’s named after one of our club’s great people.

Peter Ramus was certainly that – as a player, coach, committeeman, innovator, supporter, life member.

This week we play for the Peter Ramus Cup against Inner West Magpis, a club which also owes Pete a great debt. 

No-one playing this weekend would have met Branch, but the great thing about places like footy clubs is that we remember those who made enormous contributions to the club and we can introduce you to people who helped make it what it is today.

The highly successful, thoroughly professional club of 11 teams we have today had to start somewhere and evolve – without blokes like Peter Ramus 50, 40, and 30 years ago, we wouldn’t be what we are now.

He came to the club in 1972 via studies at ANU and a few years at the old Newtown club, and left it upon his death 38 years later.

As a footballer, he wasn’t blessed with great natural skill. His greatest gifts were his heart and his brain. And he used them both to great effect on and off the field.

On the field he was tough and uncompromising and always stuck up for his mates – despite his thick rimmed glasses kept in place by a band of elastic.

He’d outsmart the opposition, umpires and even some of his own players when he was coaching the reserves from 1973 to 1976.

He was a visionary and a believer – and a doer.

In the late 1970s as more and more students were coming to play footy, he saw the need for the club to expand from its two grades. So he, Glen Stotter and the great Laurie Kirwan were instrumental in creating a third grade – the student-filled under 20s.

By 1986, the under 20s – aka the Nippers – won our first under age premiership with a team made up of Sydney Uni students.

In 1991, when we were in our early days back in first division, then known as the SFL, now called Premier Division – we had too many numbers for our three grades. So Branch was again instrumental in our expansion and we fielded two grades in second division, giving us five grades.

But we struggled to field two full teams, so, well into his 40s, he pulled on the thick rimmed glasses again and played two games of footy each week – coaching, recruiting, cajoling blokes out of retirement and leading what became known as Dad’s Army to regular floggings, but he kept the teams afloat.

In the ‘70s he believed we could have three grades and did something about it. In the 80’s he believed we could have five and did something about it.

Now we have 11 grades – it all started somewhere.

He was tireless off the field, using his intelligence on the committee to help build the team which won the 1992 first division premiership – our first flag in the top flite. Now we enter every season with expectations of a top flite premiership. It all started somewhere.

He was also extremely generous with his wit. At the 1976 Inter Varsity, Wollongong Uni turned up without a song. You can’t go to an Inter Varstiy without a song, so he wrote one for them – “‘W.O.L.L.L I’ll be fxxxed, I can’t spell Wollongong.”

Among the many great things he did for this footy club, one of his best was bringing his old Newtown mate Harvey Gordon to the club in 1991.

While he was still on our committee, his sons Damian and Daniel were playing juniors for Wests, which at the time was a club on its knees. It needed people of the calibre of Peter and Jan Ramus to save the juniors and the two of them pretty much did that themselves.

He was the perfect fit for SUANFC, his attributes as a person are those of the club – humour, humility, heart, service and intellect.

It’s wonderful that 50 years after he first came to the club and 13 years after we lost him, we’re still talking about him. And there’ll be many of his mates from 50 years ago, 40 years ago, 30 years ago at No.1 this weekend to remember him.

And that’s what Pete loved most about footy and this club especially – the camaraderie and lifelong friends it forges.

Join us at Oval No.1 this Saturday 20^th May at 2.45pm for what will be a thrilling and not to be missed match!