THE rugby league community banded together on Saturday evening in support of local legend, Bernie Briggs.
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Bernie thought he was attending the regular reunion held for the 1973 University Shield players, but it turned out he was to be greeted by about 300 friends, colleagues and concerned residents, all wanting to pull together to help a bloke going through a tough time.
Bernie has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and the night was a fundraiser to help him keep up with the ongoing medical and every day living costs.
An auction helped raise $9000 for Bernie. The top bid on the night was for a signed Australian football jumper which sold for $2000, and was then gifted to Bernie - as was a Country Rugby League jersey auctioned on the night.
Gary Maidens, one of the organisers, said the final tally for the night was yet to be done.
Gary said the occasion came to fruition after a discussion with an old uni shield teammate.
“Michael rang to see how his treatment was going and said it would be nice for a few of the team to get together and have a drink and a yarn. I said there were a few boys in town who would like to do the same and it escalated from there,” he said.
“It started off with about 80 and grew from there. We got a committee together and started organising it.
“People came from everywhere on the night. We had people from the Gold Coast, Brisbane, Sydney, Lismore, all over the state. Some he hadn’t seen in a very long time.
“As soon as they found out what we were doing they wanted to be a part of it, and we managed to get a few sponsors on board too.”
Gary, who has worked with Bernie at Telstra for more than 30 years, described him as a true gentleman.
“He is a great bloke, one of the nicest blokes you’ll ever meet. He loves his grandchildren and is actually taking them all away this week. They’re going to the Rabbitohs versus Broncos game in Brisbane.
“I grew up with him and we just thought it would be nice to give him a bit of a helping hand, not that he wanted any sort of charity.”
Another good mate who grew up with Bernie, former Parramatta star Stan Jurd, and former Dragon Ricky Walford were two of the many among the crowd at the weekend, showing Bernie’s respect from a broad cross-section of the community.