the macorna bell

Some of our new and old members may be wondering why the Macorna Football Ground has a bell instead of a siren. The much loved bell is a familiar sound at Macorna and unique to football grounds across the country, after asking a couple of our life members, a couple of stories have come to life.
In the old days, Macorna revolved around the railway line, the leagues that Macorna played against since 1888 were mostly along the railway network. Leagues changed, opponents changed through the years but in the early days, the team caught the train to football and played teams such as Raywood, Dingee, Mitiamo, Pyramid, Mincha, Tragowel, Kerang, Swan Hill, Lake Boga, Tyntynder etc. A prominent member of the club in the 1920’s worked for the railways at Macorna and it was him who obtained a train conductors bell, to be used as a siren. This is the very bell which is proudly displayed near the bar in the club rooms. This bell was used until the early 1990’s when Noel Harrison obtained the current electric operated bell. This bell was removed from an old fire engine in Melbourne and is still going strong today.
Another story is that in the dying seconds of a grand final, many years ago, a car horn blew and the Macorna players stopped playing and the opponents of the day kicked a final goal to snatch a win. Since then, Macorna has vowed never to use an electric siren.
Either way, it is an important part of the Club and adds to our significant home ground advantage that we have over many teams