NOT many people could get away with calling rugby league Immortal Bob Fulton a sheep dog, but former athletics star Melinda Gainsford-Taylor did just that.
Reminiscing on just where her love affair with Manly all started, Gainsford-Taylor, who grew up in Narromine, said her passion was ingrained at an early age.
"Even though I'm a country girl, my father supported Manly. So much so that we had sheep dogs named Bozo (Fulton) and Crusher (former Sea Eagle Noel Cleal),'' Gainsford-Taylor told The Sunday Telegraph.
"And when I was training as a kid, they would race alongside with me screaming, `Go Bozo, Go Crusher'. I didn't have a choice really; I love Manly, it's as simple as that.''
It's that passion which saw the former Commonwealth Games medallist appointed as a director to the Manly football club board last week. Gainsford-Taylor's appointment continues the clean-up of bloodshed at the embattled club over the past six months.
Injecting immediate respect as a former track champion, and brining commercial profile, Gainsford-Taylor is also the second female in a week to join the Manly board after co-owner Rick Penn stood down last Monday and was replaced by lawyer Kerry Chrysiliou.
Gainsford-Taylor, a mother of two (Nicholas, 6, and Gabriella, 4) and a member of the Eagles Angels since 2002, will replace Phil Dean. "Being on the football board, I'm coming from the football side of things, so that's all about the supporters,'' she said.
"We've got our wonderful players but really what makes rugby league so big is the people that support and turn up each week. It's important not to forget that.''
Manly leagues and football club chairman Bob Reilly said: "There's some really big changes for Manly at the moment, but Mel is a fantastic ambassador not for the Manly club but for sport in general.''
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/sport/nrl/story/0,26799,25700369-5016360,00.html