Australian Rules Football

Aussie Rules was a part of my life even before I was born, as pregnant Mum used to roll-up to the footy each Saturday with me inside. From my earliest memories, every Saturday afternoon (and I mean, every Saturday afternoon), we would go and watch East Perth play in the Western Australia Football League. I loved watching champion players like Barry Cable, Ross Glendinning, Phil Kelly, Mal Brown, Dean Turner and Peter Spencer.

I was East Perth mad! I collected everything I could to do with East Perth, and naturally I wanted to play for them one day. My favourite team in the VFL was North Melbourne, as a lot of the best East Perth players would also have careers at North.

For my first real birthday party when I was in Grade One, I had a chocolate birthday cake in the shape of a football. Soon after, I had begged Mum and Dad for long enough that they allowed me to join a team. I joined the Whitfords Junior Football Club at six years of age and played in their Under 10s team. The other guys were all huge, but that didn't stop me from having a go. The following year they created an Under 9s team and I won my first Fairest & Best that year as a seven-year old.

I played for many seasons at Whitfords in the Claremont zone, mostly as Captain of my team, and I won many more trophies along the way. I remember playing for Whitfords on Sorrento's opposing Captain in the final of a Lightning Carnival. I beat my man, our team won, but their red-headed captain didn't shake my hand at the end of the game - he was too busy crying. His name was Guy McKenna.

I remember jumping with my team-mate Brett Heady on his trampoline after an end-of-season BBQ at his place (he was our Vice-Captain) as we pretended to take THE biggest speccy while Up There Cazaly blared through the fly-wire on his bedroom window. It's always been a special song to me; so inspirational.

I remember staying up with Dad watching the Grand Final marathon replays as late as I could on the night before. I always dreamt of playing in a big league Grand Final, or at least going to one... ONE DAY.

School meant more football in my life. A typical week growing up would be: Tuesday club training, Wednesday school training, Thursday club training, Friday play school game, Saturday watch East Perth game, Sunday play club game, Monday recover and read about football.

I also captained my Primary School team at Wesley College and won the Fairest & Best. Whilst it was all a huge workload, I absolutely loved it. I have lots of great memories from playing over 300 games of junior football.

As I entered High School, I changed clubs to play for East Perth-Highgate Junior Football Club, part of the East Perth district zoning. I wanted to play for the Royals and this was the simplest way to get drafted.

The games certainly got tougher as the players got bigger and hairier, but I still enjoyed it and managed to win some more Fairest & Best awards along the way at the end of seasons.

When I was in Year 12, I remember playing Alcock Cup 1st XVIII football for Wesley against Christ Church. We got beaten out of the middle by a kid called Tony Evans, and I got turned inside-out by a very fast and slippery opponent in Chris Lewis.

While these guys mentioned above all went on to win Premierships with the West Coast Eagles, my last game ended up being a Grand Final Premiership with the East Perth-Highgate U17's in 1986.

As sweet as that was, I had really lost passion for playing the game, finding the transformation from kids' stuff to men's stuff just too much. I felt really burnt out from playing so much and was intent on exploring other things in life - namely rock'n'roll and the calling of the wild!

A team from the West was joining the VFL competition at this very same time, so I immediately began supporting them. The West Coast Eagles were captained by East Perth and North Melbourne star Ross Glendinning, whose number I had worn on my training jumper for many years earlier. They kicked ass.

From home, I loved watching the Eagles win their first premierships in 1992 and 1994. Perth turned into crazy town during Grand Final week, before transforming into a ghost town on that one Saturday in September.

I was very aware of the leadership attributes, dedication qualities, and teamwork lessons that I had got from playing so many footy games in my younger years. Working at a professional business level, I often found myself drawing on many of my football experiences and applying them to other life situations I found myself in.

As 2000 came around, I moved from Perth to Melbourne. The thought of being in the nation's capital of football was a great thing. I loved spending a day with Dad, when he came to visit not long after we relocated, driving to every VFL home ground with him, so we could see what Waverley, Moorabbin, Windy Hill, etc were really like after watching games together at these grounds on The Winners TV program for so many years.

Being an Eagles supporter outside of Subiaco Oval is not really a pretty thing though. They have frequently lost games away from their Subi fortress so we don't get to see the team's best performances. The crowds here are quite amazing and really give it to you (I've certainly done my best in giving it back and avoiding any brawls).

The worst day was probably when the Eagles went down to Carlton at Optus Oval by over 100 points a few years back. Sara and I sipped our Carlton beers in the freezing cold (maybe that's why I dislike beer) without saying too much that day of our second biggest defeat ever. One of the few things I do remember yelling was a plead to Carlton's assistant coach, John Worsfold, as he ran back to the box after three-quarter time to please "Do Something for the Eagles!" Thank goodness our former Premiership Captain soon returned to the nest.

The return of Woosha also seemed to spark a stronger interest in following the game again for me.

On the Monday night before the Grand Final in 2004, I was able to share a few moments with Chris Judd after his Brownlow victory, making it a night I'll never forget. It was awesome to be able to share a drink with Ron Barassi and chat with Lou Richards that night too. I told Lou it was a pleasure to meet him after all these years and he quipped, "Well, where have you been?"

So the 2005 season came around and I thought, well, here I am! I'm in the country's home of football and felt it was time to become an Eagles member. After we watched the Eagles go down in the Wizard Cup Grand Final, the team started the year off well and I thought that this year could be my best-ever chance to finally go to a Grand Final.

Everything was shaping up perfectly with the double-chance, home finals and week's rest. Naturally, I was hoping like hell that they would beat Adelaide in the Preliminary Final and they did. After the Preliminary Final win, I DJ'ed at a nightclub before walking to the MCG and joining the end of the queue of about 100 people at about 4:30am. It was about 6 degrees and drizzling rain as Sara and I sat, stood, leaned, sat, stood, leaned on the uncomfortable, cold concrete in our nightclub clothes, while others in the queue had their little tents, sleeping bags and flasks!

When tickets went on sale to members at 10:30am, the line moved slowly... very slowly. There were only two ticket windows open, fourteen open at Subiaco Oval, and who knows how many phone operators. Panic set in with us as people way behind would scream with delight after securing tickets on their mobile phones and walking off. We were about ten people away from the booth when the line seemed to really slow. The system had crashed and gone down. The system finally came up after probably twenty minutes, which felt like hours. They served one person at each window and it went down again.  We then heard there were no seats left... only some standing room. System was still down. Panic.

The system came up again and they started serving the people at those windows. They then said another ticket window is now open. If I had of moved that quick when playing on Chris Lewis years ago, he wouldn't have stood a chance. So, I soon exchanged my night's DJing pay for our two tickets. Sara and I hugged with tickets in hand and I had those goose-bumps of emotion.

All week, I kept standing in our lounge-room, as high as Cazaly, looking out at our view of the MCG, in disbelief that I was finally going to a Grand Final. Brownlow night was another celebration with our Captain Ben Cousins winning the medal. The Friday Grand Final Parade started on our street just 1km away and it was great being amongst so many Eagles supporters in the city.

The big day finally came around. Whether we won or lost, I honestly didn't care this time. I felt like a winner having achieved another life-long dream in going to a Grand Final at the MCG. I soaked up every bit of the atmosphere that day and it was AMAZING to be there. Sydney beat the Eagles by just four points in one the greatest Grand Finals.

So, 2006 was another year - another chance at the flag. After finishing the season on top of the ladder, the Eagles entered a rematch Grand Final against Sydney. We managed to get even better seats than the previous year, and without all the hassle of camping out this time. While last year was about ‘just being there’ for me, this year was definitely about victory. I wanted this win so bad - for so many reasons.

Sitting amongst the 97,413 people at the MCG during the afternoon of Saturday 30 September, I witnessed an epic encounter that my West Coast Eagles won by the most slender of margins: 1 point. As the final siren sounded, the tears flowed down my cheeks as I screamed in disbelief that I had finally seen my team win the premiership on the hallowed MCG turf.

The celebrations were long and were crowned with the opportunity for me to hold the famous premiership cup, and thank Woosha personally. To have my own hands on the holy grail on the night of my team's premiership was amazing and something I'll always remember!

"Thanks Woosha" - Saturday 30 September 2006.

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