11 Feb 2021
On Tuesday, Wauchope High School was visited by NSW State of Origin Coach Brad “Freddy” Fittler, along with 10 other riders, including former Wauchope High student Ian Schubert, as a part of a charity ride known as Hogs for Homeless.
The reason for our selection as a part of the tour was so that Fittler could do a live cross to another former Wauchope High student, Allison “Ally” Langdon, who recently took up a position as host presenter on the Today Show, alongside Karl Stefanovic. Unfortunately, Ally sustained quite a serious knee injury a few days earlier in an accident during filming for the show, and was not able to be on the show for the cross.
A number of our senior students, including the leadership team and various sporting representatives, showed their support for both the charity and Ally, as a former Wauchope girl who is a great role model and inspiration to our students.
Moments before the cross, Fittler, who is a noted joker, lined Stella up with a line to “have a go” at Karl Stefanovic. With no time to rehearse, Stella managed to deliver the line to perfection, giving both Fittler and Stefanovic a good laugh. It basically suggested that Ally should be paid very well to have work with, and “put up with” Karl.
When the cross finished, all of our students received a football from the NSW NRL Development Team, many of which Fittler personally signed. He then had photos taken with a number of students from the Support Unit.
Ian Schubert took the opportunity to see his name on one of the school’s Honour Boards, where he won Sportsman of the Year in 1974. He was selected in the Australian Schoolboys Rugby League team whilst a student at Wauchope, before moving to Sydney where he played what we now can the NRL for the Roosters, Western Suburbs and Manly. Schubert was Man of the Match in the 1975 Grand Final win by the Roosters and also played 4 Tests for Australia. In later years, he became an auditor for the NRL Salary Cap authority, famously finding breaches at the Melbourne Storm which lead to them being stripped of two premierships.