Doug was a lifelong Aussie Rules fan, barracking for West Perth in the WAFL. He played amateur footy in the Band of Hope Association at age 14, the Towns team in Coolgardie, Railway Rovers in Kalgoorlie and Towns at RAAF Geraldton. In later years Doug umpired matches, was a vice patron of the West Perth Football Club a patron of the Osborne Park Sunday League Football. #WAFL #AussieRules @WestPerthFC
Doug’s cycling life starts in his early teens with the Malvern Star championships. Doug wins the Arrow Consistency Cup and gets his photo in local papers. In Coolgardie he races the Widgiemooltha-Coolgardie (75km). In Norseman it is the longer Norseman-Higginsville (129km). In Kalgoorlie as Secretary for the Eastern Goldfields Cycling Club helps organise the Menzies to Kalgoorlie. Many tales of Hubert Opperman, a later friend and political colleague of Doug’s. In later years Doug was patron of the League of WA Wheelmen from 1959-1976.