Blue Bloods | Cocka: the mild-mannered gangster

MICHAEL Roche was known as ‘Cocka’ as a nod to Al Pacino’s character, Tony Montana, from the movie Scarface (1981). A better nickname was draped over his younger brother, Tim, who was known as ‘Cockatoo’.

“Cocka was a wonderful backrower. Tough, smart, ‘everywhere’; he was a quiet achiever, the glue sides need at the breakdown,” Geoff Didier says.

“He could be very aggressive in his moments. But as a captain, generally speaking, he was a school prefect. He was great for Royals and had a big influence. It can’t be underestimated.”

John Kelsey says Roche had “great presence on the field and was always able to get his message through.”
“He wasn’t just a smart player, but an inspiring player,” Kelsey says. “And he never compromised the team for his own purposes.”

Roche was educated at Holy Trinity, Curtin, before entering Marist Brothers in Pearce when the school was founded in 1968. He played five-eighth and backrow in the school’s first XV, and represented the ACT at U/12, U/16, U/18, U/21 and U/23 level. That he only played once for the ACT senior team, against Queensland Country in 1981, mystified Royals types.

Kim Thurbon says Royals always promoted players to representative teams while other clubs hid their better ones so their teams wouldn’t be weakened. In 1988, not satisfied with 14 players in the ACT representative squad, Thurbon recalls hounding the ACTRU as to why Roche wasn’t included in the team.

“He wasn’t fashionable at the time, selectors preferring other open-side flankers such as the undoubtedly talented Peter O’Neill from Daramalan,” Thurbon says. (Thurbon adds that he “also questioned why some of our U/21s weren’t in the ACT U/21s one year. So we picked a 21s team and played the ACT 21s and beat them two tries to nil.”)

In his early days, it was enough for Roche to get into first grade, given the selection dilemma faced by Gary Beadman and Kelsey with
backrowers the quality of Peter Norton-Knight, Graham Reed and Tongan international Supi Fotu.

When Roche played his 212th first-grade game he broke Bill Keeley’s 26-year-old top-grade games record on the same day club stalwart John ‘Pudge’ Hillier played his 200th grade game.

Michael Foster in The Canberra Times described Roche as “quiet, mannered and highly respected in ACT rugby and in a club with more than its share of eccentrics, characters and exuberance.”