Woofer’s football career

[Eastdog]

Myself: Haven’t played local footy but been just a passionate supporter of the great game and the Mighty Bulldogs!

So what was your career for those who did play footy locally what clubs and what type of player were you?

[1eyedog]

Geelong under 19s with Terry Bright in the early 90s just before the start of TAC cup. Newtown Footy Club in the GFL for 77 games with Steve Hocking immediately after that. Then off to Newcomb in the BFL after that. Feels like a million years ago.

[SonofScray]

Played junior footy with Aberfeldie from u10s through to u16s. Lots of team mates got onto AFL lists, reckon I was the only one to not get a look in! Closest I got was a chat with Calder Cannons after I kicked 10 goals in a school footy game.

Went to Maribyrnong Park for u18s, played two seasons there. Then went to North Old Boys for a few years, played my best footy in the VAFA. I benefitted from playing in some pretty rough, feral competitions and I think I brought a harder, more physical presence to the contest that the blokes in the Ammos were used to. Moved between CHB, CHF and occasional stints in the middle as a ruck or centre. Preferred CHB & hanging onto blokes all day, making life miserable. Seemed to mark the ball better there.

Finished up at Parkside on the reserves. Started to get wonky eye sight in one eye, and gave it away. Played soccer for a few seasons and now play ice hockey. Loved the camaraderie of footy and the visceral nature of the contest, ice hockey gives me some of that back with less impact and time commitment.

Used to win coaches awards and best club man, most courageous etc. Chucked all those trophies out because I was embarrassed. On reflection I am proud of it. Best BnF finish was 4th. Played in 3 losing grand finals, 4 losing prelims and only ever won a single flag in school footy.

[Scraggers]

I played two games for Richmond ... both on the MCG.

Both in little league :p

[boydogs]

Only played school footy. Was a good athlete but hopeless as a footballer, couldn't kick, didn't know where to run, but give me the ball and I was off!

[Hotdog60]

A couple of seasons playing work social footy when I was in my very early 20's too skinny and unskilled for anything else.
Coached my kids from under 12 to 14's and that's my football career in a nut shell.

[Grantysghost]

Played about 100 senior games in Footscray and Riddell Leagues. Was your typical 90s footballer. Slow, with the tank of Allen Jakovich (dogs version).
Didn't really enjoy the club culture too much so pulled the pin pretty early.
One memory I have is playing against Braybrook late 90s and they had a massive truck parked adjacent the fence on the wing with the side curtain up, full of chairs, lounges etc with a rowdy bunch of their fans in there giving us some "friendly" advice. Some characters around in those days.

[bornadog]

Played school footy, was desperate to play for a club, but the area we moved to in the West (from age 6), there was no football club to be seen for miles. (1960s, early 70's. Finally a club was formed in the 70's, all too late)

Wasn't much good anyhow, as I was very short and skinny till I was about 15 and subsequently didn't get to play senior footy at high school.

[Twodogs]

Played at Kingsville with some guys who were alright but no-one would have heard of them, Gordon (maybe it was Graeme) Polson was one. Rohan Smith grew up around the corner, his mum was our kindergarten teacher and she left through he year in order to have Rohan so I am how ever many years a kindergarten kid is than him. The thing is we all used to play cricket and footy in the street out the front of our houses and Rohan, who lived around the corner, would ride his scooter past hoping to be asked to play. One day there was a spare spot in one of the footy teams and Rohan happened to go past. "hey kid, do you want to play with us?" "Yeah sure, thanks" but he was so good that we never ever asked him to play again, because being a few years older than him we didn't feel like being embarrassed by this kid rubbing our noses in the road tar!

The other day I picked up my mum to take her shopping and we went past a house around the corner. Mum pointed at a little old lady standing out the front of a house and said "that's that footballer's mother" and I said "Rohan Smith?" and she said "Yep. Perfect little Rohan":D I said "Geez mum, jealous much? We cant all be AFL footballers!"

I was much better at cricket and probably would have gone on with it except I had bad ankles and standing in the field for six hours became almost impossible. But when I was a kid I played against juniors teams that had Merv Hughes and Tony Dodemaide opening the bowling and Colin Miller coming on at first change. They had been telling us how good Dodemaide in particular was so when I caught him at slip early doors I ran and gave him one of the mightiest sledges of all time and I can remember he just looked at me with this weird look on this face. When I came out to bat at 1 for not many Dodemaide didn't say a word but let fly with one o0f the best spells I have ever faced. It was the luckiest duck I ever made!

[Axe Man]

I initially thought this thread was about the footy career of the club mascot.

This year is my 31st year of playing footy (I missed 1 season when overseas). I figure I've played around 500 games.

My career began at age 9 in the under 12s and this season I started playing super rules (over 35s).

I've played around 370 senior level games, almost all in the ressies. I'm too small and not skilled or tough enough for senior footy but played a few games back when we were struggling a bit. I am up to about 340 games for my current club but am retired from open age footy now (have filled in 1 game this season).

31 years, 1 flag (in 2015). It was worth the wait.

[Axe Man]

Played at Kingsville with some guys who were alright but no-one would have heard of them, Gordon (maybe it was Graeme) Polson was one. Rohan Smith grew up around the corner, his mum was our kindergarten teacher and she left through he year in order to have Rohan so I am how ever many years a kindergarten kid is than him. The thing is we all used to play cricket and footy in the street out the front of our houses and Rohan, who lived around the corner, would ride his scooter past hoping to be asked to play. One day there was a spare spot in one of the footy teams and Rohan happened to go past. "hey kid, do you want to play with us?" "Yeah sure, thanks" but he was so good that we never ever asked him to play again, because being a few years older than him we didn't feel like being embarrassed by this kid rubbing our noses in the road tar!

The other day I picked up my mum to take her shopping and we went past a house around the corner. Mum pointed at a little old lady standing out the front of a house and said "that's that footballer's mother" and I said "Rohan Smith?" and she said "Yep. Perfect little Rohan":D I said "Geez mum, jealous much? We cant all be AFL footballers!"

I was much better at cricket and probably would have gone on with it except I had bad ankles and standing in the field for six hours became almost impossible. But when I was a kid I played against juniors teams that had Merv Hughes and Tony Dodemaide opening the bowling and Colin Miller coming on at first change. They had been telling us how good Dodemaide in particular was so when I caught him at slip early doors I ran and gave him one of the mightiest sledges of all time and I can remember he just looked at me with this weird look on this face. When I came out to bat at 1 for not many Dodemaide didn't say a word but let fly with one o0f the best spells I have ever faced. It was the luckiest duck I ever made!

My aunty knew Rohan's mum and I still have some team posters from the early 90s that Rohan liberated for me from somewhere. They had obviously already been used so I am guessing they had been up on a wall at the club.

[westdog54]

My footballing career was restricted to playing RecFooty during my days while I was at Uni.

Twodogs and I enjoyed many evenings on the hallowed turf of the Whitten Oval. Twodogs has had the privelige of spilling blood on the field, a fair achievement for a game of touch football.

I alternated between being a second ruck/midfielder and a rebounding defender. I was a lot quicker than I am now (a decade will do that to a person) and my trick was to take the least fit forward every game and just run off them all night once we had the ball.

[mjp]

Played around 250 games of senior footy - just under 30 at state league level, another 50 or so in the reserves and then a couple of hundred in the ammo's. 3x knee recons, 1x recon in each shoulder, 1x complex fracture of the left ankle, 1x fractured (and dislocated) patella, 1x fractured eye-socket, 2x broken collarbones, broken (and eventually removed) scaffoid bone and the usual series of busted ribs and noses.

Most often told story? Being called "...and you, you are a F%$#^@ USELESS C&#^" at half time of a league game by Stan Magro. (To be completely fair, it was a fair and accurate description of the way I was playing. To be unfair, I was in my first season and had absolutely no idea what to do to get the ball/stop my opponent running around doing what he wanted.)

I have coached since retiring (that was the end of '03) and every day I wish I could still play.

[Daughter of the West]

Played around 250 games of senior footy - just under 30 at state league level, another 50 or so in the reserves and then a couple of hundred in the ammo's. 3x knee recons, 1x recon in each shoulder, 1x complex fracture of the left ankle, 1x fractured (and dislocated) patella, 1x fractured eye-socket, 2x broken collarbones, broken (and eventually removed) scaffoid bone and the usual series of busted ribs and noses.

Um, ouch? From someone who has only managed to chip a rib coughing (it's a thing, don't laugh) that seems phenomenal!

I only ever played kick to kick with the boys in grades 2, 3 and 4.

To hijack - I had a tennis "career" instead. Made it to top grade in the local division juniors (took out 1 team flag on the way up), played B Grade for the division (against other Victorian-wide divisions) in junior pennant and won a flag there too. Got as high as Grade 3 senior pennant, but was in my first year at uni and discovered alcohol and pubs, so my form wasn't so great hungover (and occasionally still drunk). I also wasn't interested in practising during the week, which didn't help matters. Continued to play night comp locally for another ten years or so, but got bored playing the same grade and the same people week in week out. I've only had a hit once in the seven years since that time. Can't say I miss it particularly.

[Twodogs]

I initially thought this thread was about the footy career of the club mascot.

This year is my 31st year of playing footy (I missed 1 season when overseas). I figure I've played around 500 games.

My career began at age 9 in the under 12s and this season I started playing super rules (over 35s).

I've played around 370 senior level games, almost all in the ressies. I'm too small and not skilled or tough enough for senior footy but played a few games back when we were struggling a bit. I am up to about 340 games for my current club but am retired from open age footy now (have filled in 1 game this season).

31 years, 1 flag (in 2015). It was worth the wait.

Whats super rules like to play? I'm not so worried about contact but is it very quick? I don't care about pain but I don't want to look an idiot chasing someone who is twice as quick..


My footballing career was restricted to playing RecFooty during my days while I was at Uni.

Twodogs and I enjoyed many evenings on the hallowed turf of the Whitten Oval. Twodogs has had the privelige of spilling blood on the field, a fair achievement for a game of touch football.

I remember that, the bloody ball just wouldn't sit for me and by the time it did I'd lost track of which foot I was putting in front of the other. By the time I had remembered the ground was coming at me. I've spilled blood on both sides of the fence!


I alternated between being a second ruck/midfielder and a rebounding defender. I was a lot quicker than I am now (a decade will do that to a person) and my trick was to take the least fit forward every game and just run off them all night once we had the ball.

Don't forget MJP. Usually he was the only half decent player we had. And Raw Toast and Mantis. Sorry if I have forgotten any of the teammates from back then. There were quite a few posters that came down and played-too many to mention-it would have been well into double figures.

That Rec Footy was lots of fun to play, even when it was all I could do to block an opponent's run at the ball by strategically falling over in front of them. After I did it to that guy in the navy team a couple of times he rag dolled me in a tackle (he'd warned me he would do something if I got in his way again) and got the opportunity right in front of the Whitten stand. He grabbed me by the arm and was literally swinging me above his head when he remembered it was non-contact and said "oh shit sorry mate I forgot" when that umpire who looked like Yahoo Serious called him out. It's just occurred to me that I don't know if he was talking to the umpire or me.

[GVGjr]

I have written about 80 pages of footy stories over the years from playing junior football to about 6 years of senior football

I'll see what I can share

[ledge]

Tottenham North primary school
1976 U13 crossroads
1977 U15 Sunshine
Then braybrook CYC.
Seniors were FIT ammos , Kensington and sunshine VRI in the railway Comp.
West Footscray in the FDL, retired at 27 due to marriage, mortgage, kids.
Have a lot of friends who I played with,went to school with and lived with that played at the bulldogs.
My claim to fame was wearing the big V against Sth Australia in a railways representative team, stupid me swapped jumpers at the end of the game and I’m stuck with an SA jumper to this day.

[westdog54]

Whats super rules like to play? I'm not so worried about contact but is it very quick? I don't care about pain but I don't want to look an idiot chasing someone who is twice as quick..



I remember that, the bloody ball just wouldn't sit for me and by the time it did I'd lost track of which foot I was putting in front of the other. By the time I had remembered the ground was coming at me. I've spilled blood on both sides of the fence!

.

Don't forget MJP. Usually he was the only half decent player we had. And Raw Toast and Mantis. Sorry if I have forgotten any of the teammates from back then. There were quite a few posters that came down and played-too many to mention-it would have been well into double figures.

That Rec Footy was lots of fun to play, even when it was all I could do to block an opponent's run at the ball by strategically falling over in front of them. After I did it to that guy in the navy team a couple of times he rag dolled me in a tackle (he'd warned me he would do something if I got in his way again) and got the opportunity right in front of the Whitten stand. He grabbed me by the arm and was literally swinging me above his head when he remembered it was non-contact and said "oh shit sorry mate I forgot" when that umpire who looked like Yahoo Serious called him out. It's just occurred to me that I don't know if he was talking to the umpire or me.

I don't remember the Yahoo Serious umpire.

I remember the Legionnaire Hat umpire, the Napoleon Dynamite umpire, the older umpire who was the only one who actually seemed to know all the rules and was happy to talk to players through the game, but I don't remember Yahoo Serious.

We also had a 15yo kid (who found us through BigFooty back in the day), that managed to spook Adrian Anderson into dropping a simple chest mark. He made a few of us a bit angry that night, did the then AFL Operations Manager.

[Axe Man]

Whats super rules like to play? I'm not so worried about contact but is it very quick? I don't care about pain but I don't want to look an idiot chasing someone who is twice as quick..

I'm still reasonably quick and you get guys straight from senior footy in their mid to late 30s that still have some toe, but most players don't have much zip. A team with good skills and ball movement can look quick though and make the opposition look slow.

Our club also has over 45s and over 50s, leg speed diminishes fairly quickly in those comps.

Obviously people still get hurt occasionally being a contact sport and all but most blokes are pretty sensible about not smashing each other. There are also a couple of modified rules that help (no knees up in marking and ruck contests, no slinging players in tackles).

[Twodogs]

I don't remember the Yahoo Serious umpire.

I remember the Legionnaire Hat umpire, the Napoleon Dynamite umpire, the older umpire who was the only one who actually seemed to know all the rules and was happy to talk to players through the game, but I don't remember Yahoo Serious.

We also had a 15yo kid (who found us through BigFooty back in the day), that managed to spook Adrian Anderson into dropping a simple chest mark. He made a few of us a bit angry that night, did the then AFL Operations Manager.

I'm thinking of Napoleon Dynamite. Adrian Anderson dropping that mark and the heavy sledging afterwards remains one of my favorite things to ever happen on a football field.

[chef]

I only played mid week school footy as i was a pretty decent junior golfer, then the hospitality industry stole my weekends so that was that.

[Twodogs]

I only played mid week school footy as i was a pretty decent junior golfer, then the hospitality industry stole my weekends so that was that.

I love going to the driving range and trying to land it in the cage on the back of the tractor the guy drives around.

[chef]

I love going to the driving range and trying to land it in the cage on the back of the tractor the guy drives around.

Why does that not surprise me haha

[Twodogs]

Why does that not surprise me haha

Maribyrnong driving range, right on the river and close to Highpoint. When we were younger a heap of us would go and try to land the ball in the back of the moving target!

The guy was virtually in a cage and I cant remember him complaining*.






*doesn't actually mean that he didn't complain. Just that I wasn't paying attention when he did.

[SonofScray]

Maribyrnong driving range, right on the river and close to Highpoint. When we were younger a heap of us would go and try to land the ball in the back of the moving target!

The guy was virtually in a cage and I cant remember him complaining*.






*doesn't actually mean that he didn't complain. Just that I wasn't paying attention when he did.

My entire golf career involved the exact same pursuit.