In the 1960s, the late Alfred Geyette, Hubert McFarlane and myself laid a new foundation for whatever has become known as football in Tobago today. I did so as a member of the Tobago Football Association, secretary of the Tobago Referees’ Association, and founder of the Slammers Club in Tobago.
Having spent the last half of the 1950s in Trinidad, I had the opportunity of enjoying and studying football there, so that when the Slammers Club was founded in Tobago in the early 1960s, I was clear about modelling its football after what I saw in Trinidad, and with this, Tobago’s football.
Topping the list of available models for me were Malvern, Maple, Shamrock, Colts, and the football of South Trinidad in general with its Doyle Griffith, Noel Daniel, Jim Lowe and so forth.
I chose Maple as my model. This was based on their style of play. Sedley Joseph was the captain of Maple at the time, and he was quite instrumental in what Maple-style football was, along with what football of that period in Trinidad was and aspired to be, which incidentally paid off by 1986.
So, for those in Tobago who have recognised and acknowledged that Slammers football changed the style of played on the island, you have Sedley Joseph to thank for much of this.
Condolences to his family and associates, but Sedley Joseph lives on through his legacy, with Tobago’s football a part of this.
Mervyn O’Neil
via e-mail
SOURCE: T&T Express