Radley Pays Tribute To 'Macca'

Written by: Michael Radley 16/09/09
It was great to see Hunter Valley race caller John McDermott honoured with the running of ‘The Macca’ at last Friday night’s Black Top meeting.

The NCA have made a special effort to pay tribute to the people that have spent a life time devoted to the promotion of greyhound racing, having also run the ‘The Collerson’ honouring Jeff Collerson, and ‘The Ambrosoli’ after the great Paul Ambrosoli.

It was also fitting that another legend of the Hunter, Ken Cheetham won the first running of the event, which gave both men a big thrill.

For the better part of four decades John has been synonymous with racing in the Hunter Valley, and it was a fitting gesture to call the consolation of the Group Two Black Top after a man who has poured so much into the industry in the area.

Not only as a race caller, but along with his wife Susan, the pair are accomplished greyhound trainers, with a number of top quality chasers passing through their kennels over the years.

The last five years have been extremely testing for the close knit McDermott family, after their eldest daughter Leanne passed away after a long battle with cancer in 2004.

John and Susan are devoted grandparents to their daughter Kylie’s children, which no doubt have helped them through the tough times.

The McDermott’s standing in the industry was best shown when a special memorial day was held for Leanne at Singleton, with callers coming from far and wide to pay tribute and the day even got a couple out of retirement.

The day also attracted a bumper crowd and raised a lot of money for the Cancer Council and NSW Melanoma foundation, with the main raffle item, a well bred pup, donated by Ken Katon and Reg Kay because of the regard in which the McDermott family are held.

John and his family have been mainstays of the greyhound industry despite the hard times and no doubt have taken strength from the support of the greyhound people.

Macca has been a close friend of my family long before I was born and has been a mentor to the Radley boys, especially my elder brother Greg. More recently, Macca has helped guide the early part of Tim Newbold’s career, a race caller and the producer of the Raceday program on Sky Sports Radio.

My earliest memories of racing include being unhappy about being too young, as Greg was picked up by John a couple of times a week to attend race meetings of all three codes.

The only thing lacking from Macca’s CV is a Group One, and hopefully when the National Derby and Futurity roll around next year at The Gardens it will be complete.

A true gentleman and a worthy of such an honour, I hope ‘The Macca’ will continue for a long time to come.

Great to see that some people still have a big :heart: