Lancefield Football Netball Club officially inducted two legends of the club on the weekend.
The late Noel Rainey and Arthur Lang became only the second and third legends in 151 years of the club.
They join Lancefield’s only other legend, original member Barry ‘Mocha’ Hunt in the exclusive club.
Their wives Glenice Rainey and Shirley Lang, along with their families, were on hand to receive the awards and guests heard from fellow life members Russell Pattinson and John Chisholm speak glowingly about the pair.
Rainey wore the yellow and black from 1953 to 1961, winning the rovers best and fairest award in 1954.
Teammates described him as a “hard and keen player who always gave 100 per cent”. However it was as a committee member for not only Lancefield, but also the Riddell District Football League, that he made his greatest contribution.
Joining the Lancefield committee in 1958 he was president in 1966 to 1969 and again from 1974-79 and served on the committee for 22 years.
He joined the board of the RDFL where he was vice president from 1977-79 and then president from 1980-1983.
Rainey also sat on the RDFL tribunal over the years resulting in a number of people, when they would bump into him saying, “hey, you rubbed me out!”
The player judged best a field in the under-19.5 football grand final is awarded the Noel Rainey Medal.
Rainey died aged 92 in 2022.
Lang grew up in Broadford where he played until he was invited to try out for Footscray in the Teddy Whitten era.
He played in the reserves there until his family needed him to come back home.
He continued to play football with success at Broadford but it was when he met a young Lancefield girl, Shirley Crowder, at a Kilmore dance that his long involvement with Lancefield began.
Lang played for Lancefield winning the 1966 premiership against Romsey and he would go on to win the league best and fairest for the reserves in 1969.
Lang took over from Rainey as the official ground marker.
Marking the ground in those days was a big deal taking two full days using lime.
For more than 35 years, Lang helped to keep the ship going at Lancefield.
Glenice Rainey and Shirley Lang were presented with plaques commemorating the elevation to legend status from club president Joe Schembri.
