Firstly I would like to state that its an honor and a privilege to speak about such a distinguished and revered personality.
As we all know and can see by the diverse range of people here today rolands friendships had no boundaries.
Therefore I am just 1 of many who could be up here talking today reminiscing of the life of the party, that big cheesy grin who could do no wrong in the eyes of most.
I first met rols playing against him in the Darwin u12 cricket competition.
His cheek coming to the fore straight away, heckling me on why I couldn’t play his so called hand grenades
As Justin could attest rolands off spin could be described as nothing more than pies. Thank Christ he could bat which eventually resulted in him being selected to play for Australia.
From that day on a friendship was born and that friendship was built largely on our love of sport.
As we all know rolands sporting pursuits ranged through many a sporting field.
- Cricket – Australian rep
- AFL – a Darwin buffaloes u14 grandfinal ruckman
- Swimmer
- golfer
- Volleyballer
- Rugy player
- indoor cricket/netball
- Cyclist
- triathlete – completing the noosa triathon
- mountaineering
and lastly a part time professional surfer.
His surfing can be described as goofy at best.
I would like to share a couple of classic roland stories with you about surfing
- Spit #1 – fishing line
- Spit #2 – sucked onto rocks
- spit #3 – Bait fish
Another story was when we went on a surfing trip to the Maldives. Roland and myself were just new to the sport and on this particular evening the swell had pick up considerably. Roland challenged me to a surf off. the rest of the touring party was on the deck scoring the battle. As we paddled out i was worried for both of our lives the surf was ridiculously big.
Wipe out after wipe out I was thinking beauty I will win by default, he cant take anymore poundings, over the falls ———hold down after hold down this kid just wouldn’t quit.
This day epitomized Roland as a person in my view
- his sense for adventure
- his willingness for a contest
- His obliviousness to the dangers around him
- his willingness to make fun of him self for others enjoyment
- his determination – if he set himself a goal he achieved it
- his love of mate ship – he was smiling through this whole ordeal I could
- tell he didn’t care about the conditions he was just happy to be there.
- And lastly his commitment
- Rolands commitment to everything in life had no peers
- His commitment to his studies – lawyer / doctor ###failing his first gamsat
- his commitment to sport/adventures – he once road from my house on the gold coast to ma and pops house in toowoomba
But his strongest commitmet was definitely to those who he loved his friends – he didn’t just keep to his small circle of friends his circle was for ever growing, he was always the one making sure his mates were ok.
He was always ringing for a chat, if he was in town he would make it a priority that everyone catches up.
And lastly his commitment to his family——–his love and commitment for all of his family was something that I will always look up to.