Border's Holman family to be inducted into AFL Queensland Hall of Fame

The Holman family, which once had four brothers play senior football at North Albury at the same time, saved the Darling Downs Football League from extinction and created an Auskick program from 20 boys and girls on a Friday afternoon to the biggest in the state, outside Brisbane.

"We're totally stoked, my dad (Phil) was the president of the league when it was in a bit of trouble," Peter Holman suggested.

The Holman Medal is awarded each year to the best and fairest player in the Darling Downs Football League.

The family's football journey started in the tiny town of Lock on South Australias Eyre Peninsula, where Phil and Mary Holman ran a mixed farming enterprise and had seven children Mark, Peter and David, and sisters Robyn, Trenna, Allison and Donna.

Phil loved Australian Rules and, quite remarkably, was a secretary in his early teens.

He was president of the Lock Football Club and later the Great Flinders Football League and his boys shared that passion.

Oldest sibling Mark played four years at Port Adelaide in the SANFL, Peter had two seasons at Port, while David joined the army, playing under 18s at Wodonga, among a handful of clubs.

The family also had farming in its blood.

In 1980 Phil, Mary and Mark Holman began a family transition north when they bought farming land at North Star, a tiny town just east of Moree and 45km south of Goondiwindi, home to about 6,000 people and located on the Queensland-NSW border.

The Goondiwindi Hawks, originally part of a Moree-based NSW competition, joined the Darling Downs competition in 1980, wearing green and gold and based at Riddles Oval.

Mark and Peter, who followed soon after, quickly became stars with the Hawks and the Darling Downs representative side, playing together for eight years.

From 1980 to 2000 they were involved as players and/or coaches in 16 grand finals between them, winning seven flags in 1980-83-91-95-96-99-2000. Mark was playing coach from 1993-99, winning the premiership in 1995-96 and 1999, before a serious hip injured forced his premature retirement after about 150 games.

The brothers regularly represented the Darling Downs in the South Queensland Country Championships through the 1980s and completed an extraordinary quadrella when Mark won the carnival medal in 1982-85 either side of Peter doing likewise in 1983-84.

Mark won the Holman Medal in 1982 and Peter likewise in 1987-88.

Peter played about 275 games in total from 1983-2001, winning five premierships, along with the dual Holman Medal success.

In 1989 he was vice captain of the inaugural Queensland Country team that played Victoria Country at Carrara in the curtain-raiser to a Brisbane Bears AFL game.

He also coached the Goondiwindi Under-12 team in 2000-01, winning a premiership in his second season where his four boys began their football journey.

"We used to car pool kids and head to Toowoomba at 6am, just to get them there for a 9.30am game," Peter laughed.

His father Phil was a considered man, with the ability to see the bigger picture and unite people for the common good.

Fittingly, he was awarded Life Membership of the re-branded AFL Darling Downs.

Phil Holman passed away in June, 2018, while Mary, the heart and soul of the family, passed away in December, 2022.

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