Bus crash: Nadene and Kyah McBride in Singleton AFC video
A mum and daughter killed in Sunday’s horror Hunter Valley wedding bus crash appeared in a heartbreaking video celebrating their football team’s success months earlier.
Nadene McBride and her daughter Kyah both played for the Singleton Roosters, and were on board the coach carrying 35 guests which rolled at a roundabout near the Hunter Expressway off-ramp at Greta just after 11.30pm, leaving 10 dead and 25 injured.
Eight of the 10 passengers killed in the devastating accident — Australia’s worst road disaster in 30 years — had close links to the club, including physiotherapist Andrew Scott and his engineer wife Lynan, who leave behind two children under five.
Two months earlier, the McBride mum-and-daughter duo featured in a video by Ladbrokes highlighting the Singleton Roosterettes’ stunning turnaround since “inspirational coach” Nadene took over.
“For Singleton AFC when we first started, we were actually not very good,” Nadene said.
“One of our biggest deficits was about 263-to-nil I’m pretty sure. We only kicked two goals for that whole season, and I kicked them both and I was playing centre half-back. We’ve come a massive way since then and in 2020, miraculously and through a lot of hard work, we actually took out the premiership. We beat a team we definitely shouldn’t have beat on the day and we did.”
She revealed that her biggest coaching challenge was dealing with her daughter on the field. “Coaching my daughter can be very, very tough,” she said.
“Probably the one person who tells me straight if she doesn’t like what I’ve said. The girls have seen her and I have a few dust-ups. We haven’t actually gone to fisticuffs but we can have a few words on the field.”
Kyah described her mum as an “amazing” coach, while her mum praised her daughter’s “next level football brain”.
“We’d have nights when I was living at home where it’d be a random Tuesday night and she’s already got the board up with every single player in their positions, and I had to sit there for hours while she went through it and we had to discuss every single person and what their strengths and weaknesses are,” Kyah said.
“Honestly — I’m going to get teary about it now — I couldn’t have a better person sitting in my corner. My mum’s probably been the best thing that’s ever happened to this club.”
Kyah told The Singleton Argus in 2019 that the bond with her mum had been strengthened by their love and commitment to the club.
“Daily, hourly and I think even 10-minutely, mum is always talking about the club … she’ll go to meetings all week and check the finances and the list just goes on,” she said.
It took Nadene three years to join the club after moving to Singleton in 2012, the local newspaper reported, partly because of a pact with her husband after spending so much time in volleyball and squash clubs in the past.
Kyah had been selected to represent the Sydney Swans in the Women’s Summer Series round, while Nadene was part of the Sydney Women’s AFL Masters team, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
“Our thoughts and sympathy extend to all the friends, families and teammates of Nads and Kyah and the Singleton football community,” the club said in a tribute. “Please reach out to each other for support.”
Sydney Swans chief executive Tom Harley said, “We are deeply saddened by the horrific events over the weekend. Our hearts go out to all of those impacted by this tragedy and our club offers its deepest condolences to their family and friends.”
Singleton Roosters players and supporters met on the Rose Point Park home field on Tuesday night, huddled around a mass of bouquets flowers and tributes left in the centre of the oval — one of many vigils to spring up around the town of 25,000 coming to grips with its worst-ever tragedy.
Thirty-five guests were en route to Singleton after the wedding of local football star Mitchell Gaffney and Madeleine Edsell at the Wandin Valley Estate when tragedy struck.
Community centres have been set throughout the region — including at Singleton and the nearby town of Branxton — where Red Cross volunteers and mental health workers welcomed shell-shocked locals.
At the Singleton centre, Upper Hunter MP Dave Layzell shared how he knew several crash victims quite well. “There are people I knew and who were leaders in the community. And of course, that’s tragic when you lose people like that,” he said.
“There will be not a person in this town who doesn’t know of [the people who died], or know them directly, or have some sort of degree of separation from them. So this is really something that will hurt hard in this town. And that sort of grief is rolling through. It’s a small town, it is closely connected. And the tragedy for this is it was very closely connected to a lot of our community sporting leaders.”
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said it was a “horrendous set of circumstances” that the local community would be dealing with long after the “lights and sirens and cameras go”.
“That’s why I want to make sure the mental health support is provided within the community for as long as we need it there,” he told Seven’s Sunrise on Tuesday.
“We are here for the long haul as this community attempts to rebuild.”
Bus driver Brett Andrew Button, 58, faced Cessnock Local Court on Tuesday charged with 10 counts of dangerous driving occasioning death and one count of negligent driving.
Mr Button, who appeared in court in a black jumper and was supported by members of his family, sobbed as he was granted strict conditional bail.
Despite prosecutors “strongly opposed”, Magistrate Robyn Richardson noted the “onerous” conditions and said bail should not be denied as punishment.
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“Mr Button has sat in court head down throughout these proceedings and it is clear to the court he suffers, along with the rest of his family,” she said. “Button is deeply linked to his community and has support here today … I note the stringent proposed bail conditions.”
Mr Button will next face Newcastle Local Court on August 9.
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