Parrots to honour past West Tamar footy clubs by wearing heritage guernsey

West Tamar football greats had gathered ahead of the annual Allan Stevens Cup clash between NTFA premier division sides Bridgenorth and George Town.

Former Sidmouth, Exeter, Rosevears and Longford player Peter Turmine had brought along his scrapbook featuring photos from his playing days.

You could tell it brought him great pride to flick through the pages before then pointing out faces in the 1964 and 1969 West Tamar representative team shots.

The ruck, who retired at 41 years old, was easy to spot because as he joked, he was always the tallest player.

A new addition to this year's Cup, which has been going since 2017, is that the Parrots will wear a heritage jumper.

The blue and white guernsey, featuring the initials 'WT', is a modern take on the West Tamar representative jumper from decades ago.

Turmine, a Legana resident, said he had a role to play in the new concept, providing a photo of the guernsey for the Parrots to work off.

He said he played in numerous WT representative teams and noted the original jumper was a darker blue.

"Of course it was a different material then ... it was all long sleeves. No one wore short sleeves," he said, agreeing that it was probably because of the cold.

Bridgenorth senior coach Oli Cook said the club wanted to do something different to recognise its region.

"Being the last club that's left from the West Tamar Association ... we really want to engage people from those bygone clubs to feel like they've got a home at Bridgenorth and to feel like they can have a connection with us," he said.

"Wearing a representative guernsey hopefully does that a little bit and brings in the extended West Tamar community and hopefully gets them behind the Parrots."

Cook said there were historic West Tamar connections throughout the senior side, including that recruits Jake and Jayden Hinds hail from Beauty Point.

Vice-captain Solomon Scott said he was a fan of the jumper.

"I've always liked the idea of trying out new guernseys and it's pretty exciting," he said.

"A few of the boys will be really excited by the prospect of having a slick new guernsey to try out.

"I really like the look of it and there's a lot of pride in it with the 'WT' on the front representing the West Tamar."

The Parrots host George Town at Bridgenorth Recreation Ground on Saturday at 2pm.