Bill Lawry
Lawry was born in the Melbourne suburb of Thornbury. He was given the names William Morris after the early Prime Minister of Australia, William Morris Hughes. His father Alfred played amateur cricket until the age of 51. Bill never saw his father play, who was aged 47 when Bill was born. Aged nine, he played competitive cricket for the first time with the Thornbury Presbyterian Church team. He spent three years there, as well as playing for Preston Technical School. When he was twelve, he entered Melbourne's district competition playing for Northcote's fourth team, working his way up to the First XI by the age of sixteen. At the time, he was apprenticed as a plumber and attending Preston Technical College. Lawry was selected for Victoria's Second XI at the age of seventeen. He made a duck against the South Australians and did not see any further action for the Seconds for the rest of the summer of 1954–55. The following season, Lawry was recalled to the Seconds and scored 183 against South Australia.
Neil Harvey
Harvey played his first game aged nine as a wicket-keeper in the North Fitzroy Central School team, the average age of which was 14. In a school final, he once made 112 of the total of 140. Aged twelve, he joined the local Fitzroy club and rose to the first grade team when he was fourteen. By this stage he had transferred to Collingwood Technical School. On the advice of the Victorian coach, Arthur Liddicut, Harvey stopped wicket-keeping to focus on his batting. Joe Plant another Fitzroy veteran also gave advice on batting. Both Liddicut and Plant identified Harvey's potential as a batsman." What they liked about him was his modesty, his eagerness to pick up every point in the game, and his willingness to listen to the old hands." Briefly playing for Fitzroy Football Club, Harvey gave up the sport and played baseball during winter. After leaving school, Harvey worked as an apprentice fitter and turner for the Melbourne City Council. The apprenticeship was supposed to take three years, but it eventually took six years because Harvey's cricket career caused frequent absences.