In October 1962, when Fraser became the first woman to swim 100 metres in less than a minute she was rewarded with jellybeans.

Peter Tonkin knows this because he was in the same Burwood swimming squad in Melbourne and is happily using the same tactics since taking over as coach of Launceston Aquatic Club.

“Coaching age-group swimmers is much better than coaching elite swimmers who can be very precious,” Tonkin said.

“Age-group swimmers just want to have fun and try and do a PB (personal best) every time they hit the water.

“If they do a PB they get a coloured jellybean. If they do a state time they get a black jellybean.

“When Dawn Fraser became the first swimmer to go under a minute for the 100m freestyle, she got two black jellybeans.

“The same method is working here using jellybeans. Somehow I don’t think AFL players would settle for that.”

When Andrew Goetz told LAC he was returning to Victoria after nearly two years as head coach, club contacts wasted little time approaching Tonkin.

The 69-year-old father-of-seven and grandfather-of-nine, whose distinguished swimming career included a bronze medal at the 1964 Olympics, was living near Rosevears.

“A couple of people I coached at Mowbray about 30 years ago approached me,” he said.

“I said I’d help them find a coach but did not expect to find one in the mirror.”

Tonkin was born in Melbourne but his mother’s family hailed from Campbell Town including his grandfather Will “Snib” Davidson and cousin Max Davidson who played in the VFL for Footscray and Collingwood respectively.

Originally swimming for the Camberwell club, Tonkin said he did not exactly take to the sport like a duck to water.

“The first race I swam in I did backstroke instead of breaststroke and got lapped, so there is hope for everybody, and that’s probably why I don’t like backstroke.”

He soon improved and formed the belief that breaststrokers are more intelligent than freestylers.

He won the 1964 national junior 100m title, added New Zealand titles over 100 and 200m and claimed the 1968 national 100m crown.

Coming third as a teenager in the national 100 and 200m earned a call-up to the 1964 Olympic Games.

Heading to Tokyo as a 16-year-old, Tonkin was looked after by a couple of Australian swimming legends, Fraser and John Konrads, both already Olympic champions.

“John was the Ian Thorpe of his day and he and his sister, Ilsa, held a heap of world records between them. He kept an eye out for me and was terrific. We have our birthday on the same day and we’re still good friends.

“Dawn was in the same squad training at Burwood. She also looked out for me and was a great role model and mentor to me.”

Tonkin swam a PB in the 200m breaststroke but did not make the final which was won by Aussie training partner Ian O’Brien.

The pair would team up in the 100m medley relay.

Tonkin swam the breaststroke leg in the heats, combining with Peter Reynolds, Kevin Berry and David Dickson to qualify for the final where O’Brien would take his place and help secure a bronze medal.

“I was not nervous,” Tonkin recalled. “I had adrenaline but I was more scared of our coach, Don Talbot, than the race. You just think about your race and it’s only afterwards that it all catches up with you.”

Four years later Tonkin beat O’Brien in Olympic trials but by the time the Games began in Mexico he had received a national service call-up, quipping: “So I got a uniform, but not the one I wanted.”

Tonkin also won Victorian titles, finished second behind O’Brien in 100 and 200m at nationals in Hobart and, as a 31-year-old, broke the Tasmanian 100m breaststroke record when the 1989 national short-course champs were held at the Mowbray pool.

The trained accountant moved to Launceston in 1978, teaming up with fellow 1964 Olympian David Gerrard (a New Zealander who became registrar at Launceston General Hospital) to help start Northern Suburbs Swimming Club and Launceston Masters Club.

In 2000 he went to Sydney to manage an aquatic centre, became Swimming Northern Territory’s indigenous coordinator for two years, managed a recreation centre in Halls Creek for three years before becoming Swimming Australia’s national indigenous coordinator from 2011 until 2016 when he retired and returned to Launceston where four of his grandchildren are.

LAC president Kevin French said the club was delighted to have Tonkin coaching.

“He’s just a ripper and a wonderful calming influence on the kids,” he said.

“He has a wealth of knowledge, is happy to share it and we’ve got fingers crossed that he stays involved.”

Tonkin is relishing the opportunity and seeking to establish a coaching set-up involving Emma Zadow and Torben Partridge-Madsen, of UTas, that could operate without him.

“They are good kids, there’s some good swimmers among them and the club is healthy and well run,” he said. “I’m enjoying it and will keep going because if you start something you want to see it through.

“Andrew was a good coach. It’s a career for him. He got offered a really good position in Melbourne, it was too good an opportunity to miss and the club was very understanding and wished him all the best.

“But I’ve got grandkids here and I’m not going anywhere. I’d like to see the club grow. Swimming’s been good to me so being able to put something back into the sport is rewarding.

“Every kid should have the opportunity to swim as well as they possibly can and if I can help them with that then great.”