Mark the Magpie was one smart bird

Mark the Magpie wasn’t just the best rugby league mascot of all time – he was also one very smart bird.

He had a lot of moves as part of his routine and one of them was picking the right moment in the match to lay on his back pretending to be a dead bird.

It meant the team weren’t going that well, but what Mark the Magpie was really doing was cooling down on warm game days.

“The suit was hollow so when I stretched out on my back pretending to be a dead bird, I was actually allowing cool air to circulate through the suit,’’ says Mark Wallington, who was the man inside that feathery suit for more than 20 years.

That’s one clever magpie, indeed.

Wallington, who is now in his mid 50s but looks much younger than that, has agreed to share some of his memories of Mark the Magpie with readers of the South West Voice.

Always a keen supporter of the Western Suburbs Magpies, young Mark Wallington lived only a couple of kilometres from their home ground at Lidcombe Oval.

Eventually he volunteered to help out and was put on game day barbecue duties.

In 1979, this boisterous young fellow is turning steaks on the barbie when the president of the supporters’ club, Margaret Raudonikis, mother of the legendary halfback Tommy, taps him on the shoulder.

[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“Margaret Raudonikis, Bill Carson and Jack Ashley said they needed someone to be the mascot, the magpie,’’ recalls Wallington.[/social_quote]

“And that was probably a little bit to keep me quiet because I was a loudmouthed kid.’’

There was another Magpie mascot but the person doing it wasn’t always available –“he had another life’’ – so they asked young Mark Wallington because they knew that as a big Wests fan he would be relied upon to do it all the time.

Not that he was expected to do much other than lead the team out in those days.

The instructions he received about the role were short and sweet.

“My brief was to lead the team out and to disappear,’’ says Wallington during our chat in a Queen Street café.

But the new Mark the Magpie did the exact opposite of disappear.

“I didn’t hear the second part of that instruction,’’ he says with a little bit of a grin on his face.

“I led the team out there and stayed there.’’

As far back as he can remember, Mark Wallington was always a Western Suburbs Magpies supporter.

He says that he started going to Lidcombe Oval for home matches around 1974-75.

“I lived in Strathfield so it was only a hop, skip and a jump to Lidcombe Oval,’’ he says.

He earned a living as a stock broker, but once inside the feathery suit Mark Wallington became Mark the Magpie.

[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“I used to go from the stock market to the footy field,’’ he says.[/social_quote]

Mark the Magpie was a huge crowd favourite because he had all the moves that reflected their own emotional rollercoaster, depending on how the team was going over the 80 minutes.

He danced with the cheer girls, he covered his eyes when the opposition were about to score or convert a try and had pretend fights with other mascots.

And when things were really grim for the Magpies on the scoreboard he was a dead bird, or so we thought, but now know better.

But the thing was that smart fans noticed that Mark the Magpie was a real smooth mover on the field, especially when dancing along with the cheer squad girls.

“I did ballroom dancing at that stage – competition dancing,  and really got into it, so that gave character to the Magpie,’’ says Wallington.

So from that fateful day in 1979, Wallington was Mark the Magpie until 1999, the last year of Western Suburbs as a stand alone club.

The following year he wore a Tiger suit – with a Magpies t-shirt underneath – when the joint venture took the field for the first time as Wests Tigers, and things were never the same for Mark the Magpie.

But his career as a Tiger was short lived.

“I was wiped out in 2002 in a tackle during a game while my back was turned and I ended up in hospital with some damaged ribs and a bung shoulder. I was tackled by a drunk Newcastle supporter in a Wests Manly game,’’ he says.

Wallington called it quits but didn’t realise his career highlight was still ahead of him.

[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“The good thing about the joint venture was that when they made the grand final in 2005 they asked me to come back and I told Noycee (club CEO Steve Noyce) that I would do it on one condition: I would do it as a Magpie.[/social_quote]

“So I was able to lead the Wests Tigers out dressed as a Magpie, which was a nice way to finish up because up until that point I had done grand finals for every Magpies side except first grade.

“And that was thanks to Noycee.’’

The mighty Magpies were ordered to relocate or die in the mid 1980s and so packed their bags and headed to their new home, Orana Park, Campbelltown in time for their first season there in 1987.

Not long after, their popular mascot Mark the Magpie followed them to their new nest when he packed his bags and also came to Campbelltown – Bradbury to be exact.

Which just like his home in Strathfield, was a “hop, skip and a jump’’ from the new home of his beloved Western Suburbs Magpies.

Wallington, who still lives in Bradbury with his family says he misses being a Magpie, but most of all he misses not having football right here in Campbelltown.

“It’s a shame that such a growing area does not have football out here,’’ says Wallington.

“I support the joint venture, from the Wests side, so yes, I would attend their games if they played all their home games here at Campbelltown,’’ he says.

[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“I know Balmain are a great foundation club but if it happened and the Magpies came back I would like them to be known as the Macarthur Magpies, because that takes the region, the whole area from Liverpool and Macarthur.[/social_quote]

“It’s one of the biggest areas in Sydney, and it can be proudly sponsored by Wests at Ashfield and Campbelltown, but the two clubs need to come together for that to happen.

“I go to a few games out here, but I don’t go to Leichhardt because as good as that ground is for footy it takes you two hours to get out of the carpark.’’

A life member of the Western Suburbs Magpies, Wallington is also a member of both Wests Leagues clubs.

His finance career is finished and other than a part time position in the retail sector, Wallington is looking forward to the next stage in his life.

Charity work is something he enjoys, having walked from Martin Place to Campbelltown to raise funds for the 24 Hour Fight Against Cancer.

In the last few years that walk is from Camden to Campbelltown.

“I know I can do anything and I want to do something in the community, help people, that’s what I would like to do next,’’ he says.

That’s one smart magpie, Mark.