Growden proud of ANZAC tradition

On Wednesday April 13, five Greater Western Sydney GIANTS began the trip of a lifetime and an emotional journey that they will never forget as members of the AIS AFL Academy squad.

Each year the Australian Institute of Sport offers thirty 12-month scholarships to our most promising young footballers. As part of this scholarship, Josh Growden, Jeremy Cameron, Jacob Townsend, Shaun Edwards and Nathan Wilson were all given the opportunity to develop their football skills and represent Australia on a tour of Europe.

The trip, which included a match against the Geelong reserves and a four-day training program at the AIS European Facilities in Carese, Northern Italy, culminated in a visit to Anzac Cove in Turkey for the Anzac Day service. Here, South Australian GIANT Josh Growden was asked to lay the wreath on behalf of the AFL.

Growden walked the GIANTS through the emotional Anzac Service with concentration, expressing his respect and admiration for the service men and women who are remembered each year at the Anzac service in Turkey.

“I can’t really remember what time we got there. It was really early. I think it was about one o’clock in the morning and there were already heaps of people there. Some guys tried to get some sleep but others just stayed up,” Growden.

“We were cold and tired but we all just loved the experience of going to Gallipoli and getting an idea of what our fathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers had been through.

“Once it was daylight and we could actually see where we were, you could see the coast and what the troops had tried to get up. It was amazing to look out as the sun rose and see what they were up against. It was pretty unbelievable.

“When you looked around, they had big screens that were playing old footage and they had interviews up on the screens.”

The Growdens, like many Australians, have a number of family members who have served their country during wartime and Josh attended the ANZAC service wearing his grandfather’s medals. Stories of his ancestor’s hardship and sacrifice resonate strongly with Josh, who is only slightly younger than many of them were when they fought for Australia.

“After the service we went down to one of the gravesites where Simpson’s grave was there amongst others. There was a memorial set up there and I laid the wreath down on the memorial.

“I think that I was selected because I’ve had a fair bit of family history in the wars; my great grandparents, grandparents and uncles have all been to war. My great grandfather fought in World War1, mainly in Italy and my dad’s dad was in WWII in Greece. My mum’s dad was a Rat of Tobruk. One of my uncles was in Vietnam and my other uncle was in Malaysia.

“We spoke about it a little bit as a family, when I was young I tried to find out a bit about what my relatives did. Some interesting stories came out of that which I’ve remembered and have stuck with me.

“My grandfather was a prisoner of war in one of the camps, I’m not sure which one but one day he was lucky enough to escape.

“They were being moved from one camp to another. On the walk there, my grandfather and another prisoner from the camp jumped under a bridge. I remember that my dad was telling me that they were walking down to get a drink from the river and someone saw them and said to them “are you guys Aussie?” They were frozen because they didn’t know if he was one of their enemies. It turned out that he was another Australian. They all got together and helped each other out and eventually they found their way back home. That was a pretty inspiring story.

“Mum’s dad was a Rat of Tobruk, which is another inspirational story. Those soldiers were up against so many men, it’s incredible that my grandfather survived. Apparently there were a massive amount of medals that were given out to that group of men.

“I was fortunate enough to lay the wreath and in my mind I was thinking about what all of the soldiers gave up for our country and just thinking about what they have been through.

“I saw my parents for a little while afterwards, just for a brief moment and they said that they really liked the service and that it was something that they thought they’d never be able to do. One day I’d like to go back to the dawn service and take my family.”

After a cold and emotional ANZAC service and a long transit, the AIS squad returned to Melbourne, where their trip began. Here a tired team played their final match of the tour against the Bendigo Bombers at Windy Hill. The five AIS GIANTS came to support their team while they trained at Visy Park and were greeted with enthusiastic handshakes, hugs and welcomes from their teammates who had not seen them for over three weeks.