Almanac (Local) Footy: Thirds in their words

 

 

I set out to write this with a clear vision and what could only be called expectations. Along the way those expectations have largely been tempered (although pleasingly at times, bolstered) by the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that we were all dealt in 2021.

 

Originally, this was to be a series of sorts, discrete diary compilations where players, my mates, Roy Boys of the mighty VAFA Thirds Division 1 would share their experiences of a sliver of life lived on a variety of ovals (the ultimate free space) after the darkest days of 2020 were lived inside our houses, flats, essential workplaces and, ultimately, in the confines of our own heads.

 

For important weeks and months, we had the chance to live that freer life. We made Ramsden Oval a home again after living the semi-nomad life in Fairfield (ironically like a smaller scale Fitzroy of old…), ran bootless laps in the baking summer sun and perfected exit from defence drills while steam billowed off our heads into the chill of winter. We belted sides, got belted back by others. There were triumphant debuts, marvellous milestone games and heartbreaking injuries. We sang the famous song; bloody hell, was that cathartic!

 

So many stories – journeys, even – that would have added a welcome and ‘normal’ coda to the harshest year most of us had ever endured.

 

Yet, of course, it wasn’t like that. Life doesn’t come tied up in a package with a maroon and blue ribbon attached. After the expectations had shown themselves to be the impostors we had always feared they would in the face of a pandemic, the 2021 season for our finals-bound side ended not with a bang but the wimpiest of whimpers.

 

It’s still tough to think about.

 

But, ultimately, this is not a hopeless tale of misery and missed chances. I came to the club’s Board and our coach Trent with my idea before we’d even confirmed that a season would go ahead. This is not a story of a virus, nor is it a statistical snapshot of the games we played. This is about the people who saw through the fear, the monotony, the sheer unknown of a health crisis without end and with little more than a love of footy in their hearts, took a leap to join our proud football club…some for the first time, others for the first time in a long time.

 

This is the thirds, in their words…

 

***

 

 Jeremy Tour

 

It was the 2020 preseason when I rocked up.

 

I had been playing professional tennis full-time for seven years, finished up at the start of 2019 and took a year off playing sport just to relax and chill out. I’d always loved playing footy, but I had to stop when I was 15 for tennis. I was living in Clifton Hill, I’d been walking around and I saw the Fitzroy team down at Ramsden Street.

 

I was an obsessed, diehard Essendon supporter as a kid. When I was ‘young’ young it was all I ever thought about: ‘I’m going to be an AFL player’. So I was maybe 8 or 9 years old, discovered tennis and my vision kind of shifted…You know I really struggled with the training sessions? I enjoyed playing the games, but I didn’t get a lot of game time and that contributed to me shifting over to tennis.

 

It was a little daunting, that first [Fitzroy] session at Vic Park; I didn’t realise there were the Firsts, Ressies, Thirds and U19s all training together. There were 70-odd people there when I rocked up!

 

I’d done the majority of the preseason from the very first January session through to mid-March before Covid-19 hit and everything got put on hold. Nobody knew what was going to happen at that point, we weren’t ready…I was sort of sitting there thinking “Oh yeah, wait another week, wait another week.”

 

Playing tennis is a very isolating sport. Obviously you travel and train with people, but it’s very much an ‘everyone for themselves’ sort of atmosphere. After having done that for seven years, it was nice to come into a situation where it’s that ‘team’ environment, everyone is really welcoming, happy to help and you don’t feel like you ever have to do anything by yourself…I really enjoy that camaraderie with the players.

 

And you just talk to people and find out you have similar interests, ages, jobs etc. You’re in an environment where a lot of people have similar mindsets and even though they might do some completely different things in their lives, everyone’s come down for that one thing: to play footy.

 

I don’t think I’ve missed a session – aside from injuries – from the December preseason until now. Even when injured, I was still there. It’s been that real hunger just to be out and around a football atmosphere has definitely been enhanced, thanks to Covid-19.

 

The first game against AJAX, being on BSO, getting ready, down in the goal square and everyone huddled…Timmy was in there and gave that real pre-game speech with two minutes to go before the siren. It was like “This is it. We’re ready.” That was the main moment for me, that was what I came here for.

 

I love the whole Saturday morning before a game – that little bit of tension, it’s more excitement than nerves…

 

This is the difference [to tennis] that I like. Even if I was playing a match that wasn’t professional or that important, there was always angst before. It was hard because you’d speak to others and if they didn’t play they wouldn’t understand – when you’re out there, you’re out there by yourself. Whereas footy, you can get out there and you’re obviously ‘thinking’ but you’re mainly thinking ‘just play footy’. If you fall off a bit, there’s always someone there to observe and point out a better way to do things. It’s nice to have that sort of support after doing a full pre-season, playing praccy games and a couple of real games, it was much easier to see where I wanted to play and how I wanted to play. I got tried in a couple of positions – half-back flank, on the wing – after that I much prefer to play on the wing. It was a really good position for me. I liked being sort of one kick or one handball away from the contest – not that I have a problem going in and under to get the ball, but for me, I pride myself on making the right decision and having clean skills. That’s the wing for me.

 

I think it’s been great to have so many people down at the club. Obviously it makes it hard for selection because there are so many people who want to play. In saying that, it’s been great to see the ones who rock up, who have lives outside of Thirds football, partners, work, everything. Seeing those who are injured or not named come down…I think that we’re building towards something very good.

 

Even if I move suburbs, I still plan to keep coming back to Fitzroy. I’ve been here for a year and a half and it’s been bloody great.

 

 

Vaughan Gale

 

I’m my own worst enemy when it comes to injuries. I don’t necessarily get injured, but I don’t stretch as much as I should. And then I just get tighter and tighter and tighter.  I really like being fit, but I hate doing exercise. But I actually love it when it’s fun. Footy is just an unreal experience. There’s no sort of fitness that’s quite like that. The gut running, the start, the stop…getting up after getting tackled and having to sprint, as fast as you can…

 

I didn’t necessarily notice the social at first – even though that was something that I wanted, and I realised early on that everyone was a good person – I was just so deep into the fitness I didn’t have mental space for the other stuff!

 

I thought it would be a great social thing…and it is. Everyone I’ve met on the team is just an unreal bloke.

 

In one sense, it is the Thirds, we’re the bottom of the rung, but at the same time we’re Div 1 of the Thirds. We have the potential to be really good and we are good quite often…it’s like where do you put things between the intensity and the expectation…

 

[Initially] I thought ‘ciggies at half time’ [vibe]! Get there and the canteen’s not even open!

 

I remember in the U13s I’d always be really hesitant about going in and getting the ball. Now being grown up and having that memory I just thought ‘F#&k it’…I was just really spurred on to go in, head down…just go for it. That’s made the Thirds even more enjoyable – I felt like I was doing better at footy than back then.

 

‘Silv’ [U19s coach Silvano Inserra] said something to me early that resonated the most – ‘just use your voice, get it out of your head. Say something. All the time…it really stops you from spiralling and over-analysing’.

 

It really carries through to other parts of life…just get out of your own head.

 

At the time I was living in an apartment in Brunswick and then we got hit with the harsher lockdown and that was a killer…I couldn’t get out of that little box besides for work. So I ended up moving house to a place with a big yard with two of my really good friends. That changed everything. It was unbelievable…I bought a chicken coop, we got chickens, a dog and cat…it was such a breath of fresh air in a really warm environment.

 

 

Ollie Peejay

 

On The Local Footy Show on Friday nights, they talk about community. Their main message is “we’re together.” They’ll have blokes that do the timekeeping every week, they’ve been the timekeeper for this local club for 20 years…everyone knows them. They’re doing the Riverina area, more so than in the city and suburban areas. They’ll interview people in the country leagues, talk about togetherness.

 

In the middle of lockdown, really that’s all you want…

 

I’m sitting there, thinking, I’m 26, I love…I thought I loved footy…but I’m starting to hate the AFL. It was super-congested, really shit to watch for like four or five years and you just find yourself actually bored.

 

Watching The Local Footy Show, they’re playing all these clips from suburban leagues in 2019…and I’m like ‘F#&k me, I want that’.

 

In a few years’ time, I probably won’t be able to do it, with my body. I’m nearly 30, your body breaks down in a footy sense around 30, or so they say. And I was a smoker – I smoked since I was 14-15. So, at that point, during lockdown, it had been 10-11 years. Constantly. Every day.

 

I think it was mid-March, as soon as lockdown really hit. It only took me two or three weeks, to be like, “Nah, I want to f#&king do this.”

 

So I told my girlfriend, my olds and my nan. They were like, “Oh he’s going to be the number one forward!” Taking the piss out of it at the start, it was just a running joke in the family: “Ollie thinks he’s going to play footy again!”

 

I did the whole Rocky Balboa thing, get up at 6am, you’re ready…I’ve always thought ‘I’m fit’, you know? I know I’m a heavy smoker, but I think I’m fit. I went to try one lap around the local oval and collapsed. Genuinely I just made it to the full lap point and just lay on my back, 6am darkness, middle of winter, soaked from the grass, puffing, steam coming off of me.

 

You don’t just wake up and play footy.

 

That morning I quit smoking. I tried one lap, realised I couldn’t do it – I quit in that moment, laying down feeling like shit.

 

I haven’t had a ciggie since.

 

Into preseason, during the first few training sessions. I remember the first kick – because up to that point, I’d only been kicking with my mum at Vic Park. I’m happy just to do the training – I just want to have a competitive back-and-forth, which I haven’t had since I was 13-14!

 

I remember being overawed. What I imagine an 18-year-old draftee feeling, when they get to their club and they’re like ‘This is it! This is a footy club!’ After each milestone, as the preseason progressed, I’d come home with the biggest grin on my face. This club is actually what I set out to join. That community. Trent is the nicest bloke you’ve ever met. When I first got there and I’m looking around all nervous, like ‘is this the right spot?’, he looked at me, snapped his fingers and said “Ollie, yeah? You emailed us? Welcome down, get around him.”

 

It’s there where you meet everyone, you start to remember names, then you realise people are asking you “What’s his name?” Now I’m the guy that they’re thinking has been here a while. It just peps you up – like ‘I do belong’.

 

Hughsie came down, it was his first session – he said the same thing as you, “How many years have you been here?”

 

“Mate, I haven’t even played a game!”

 

Half this club is new. Half of them have done my exact journey of lockdown, wanted to play footy and didn’t get the chance to.

 

I said to my partner and my nan, ‘I’m not the most talented at this club, by any means.’ I’m slim, not a lot of muscle, my fitness base is lacking; but what I do do at training is I’m the loudest voice. Woody does it too. Woody’s also a much better kick and better fitness than me – but Woody’s voice is what the coach always asks for.

 

If I sounded assured, that is me literally so wanting this community, so wanting to be a part of this.

 

I just kept telling myself if you do the smallest things…the smallest things to 100% – you will get there, and it may not be this year. I think that’s something I’m learning, along with putting your ego to the side.

 

You know my family always told me that – it may not be this year. It’s your first year. Just have a bit of perspective.

 

If you put in those metres over years, you get to the level of Adzy, of Timmy De, competitiveness, fitness, leadership…You park your ego, you stay the course and you celebrate with your teammates when you get there.

 

From the hard winter, in the doldrums of a bloody lockdown with no end in sight. You’re praying on a Dan Andrews interview coming at midday…being alone in a room doing dumbbell curls thinking “I’m going to play footy!”

 

Then to get to Brunswick Street Oval, in front of family and friends, the whole family down…

 

Now being at a club that embraces you with open arms – all of you guys just embraced me. I am genuinely filled with so much excitement to see X, Y, Z people when walking up to training  – and not just our team, half of the 19s! We did the whole preseason with them. I mean I know some of them probably don’t know me from a bar of soap, because they’re 19, why would they give a shit! But I’ll see them and say, “Oh, I heard you did well on the weekend, blah blah blah.” Your brain obviously has different receptors firing when you see a stranger’s face, an acquaintance and then a friend…a mate’s face. I was surprised at how quickly that happened during preseason, but now it’s solidified into something genuine.

 

 

Jarrod Landells

 

My first session at Olney Oval kind of brought me back to when I was in first year uni years ago – I used to play junior soccer, then I didn’t play for a while. At uni there was a good sort of like, that level or two below professional sport being played.

 

I arrived on the first night of training; we were doing through balls, and that was fine. One touch turns…everything was good.

 

Then we had to do three laps – there were these dudes around me who were like 190cm Scandinavian Adonises and they were just off the mark like they were running in the Olympics. I was just huffing and puffing trying to keep up with them – halfway I had this realisation that I was that far off the pace and we were supposed to be playing our first competitive game in like three weeks – I got through the second lap and ran straight to the change rooms – I was like this is where I’m at, I’m not in it. No matter how hard I try or how much I get out of myself, I’m just not going to catch up.

 

I had a bit of a fade back to that moment when I was doing like my first full ground drill with Fitzroy – I was pulling in the deep ones, hunched over, my face would have been the colour of a beetroot. I told myself repeatedly: “You’ve got to where you are now, because of what happened in lockdown, all these events; you owe it to yourself after those months to just keep trying”. I had a chat to Trent afterwards and I said, “Mate, this is a bit harder than I thought it would be at this stage.” And he said, “You’re not alone – this guy’s blowing, that guy’s said the same thing to me…it will come.”

 

And that was the final push I needed – I haven’t looked back since. Every chance I get to train and prepare for gameday with this group I relish it.

 

Fast forward to mid-winter in Clifton Hill. We ran out for our last training session before the end of the regular season on Wednesday July 28^th. The mood was high and I’d timed my run to perfection for a call up.

 

You can never get too far ahead of yourself; little did I know that a dual blow, for me and for the team, was lurking.

 

Less than half an hour into training we were kicking across the ground inside the 50 in an unremarkable drill. I had my eyes on the inbound yellow Sherrin tumbling down from the opposite flank to me deep in the pocket…that was until I didn’t because the pill was lost in the light tower’s beam of illumination. Confident I had the path clocked, I raised my hands just above my face to greet the ball.

 

A swift and heavy impact shuddered from the second knuckle of my left pinky and I knew I’d dislocated it (at the least) when I landed.

 

Less than 48 hours after I left St Vincent’s, the call had been made to call off the last game of the season.

 

In time, finals would also be cancelled.

 

Fitzroy Thirds: stranded in third place for the rest of 2021…

 

Of course it doesn’t end here. It can’t…

 

November 22^nd, 2021.

 

 

Olney Oval ringed with freshly cut grass: clear eyes, full hearts, 2km time trial…can’t lose.

 

 

 

To return to our Footy Almanac home page click HERE.

 

To read more by Jarrod click HERE

 

 

Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.

 

 

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