SA Footy

I played for the first ever Coober Pedy Football Club, and we used to train on a gravel oval, not a blade of grass in sight, we would train on the gravel and play internal trial matches on it (it was definately a good way to promote to players to keep their feet), very interesting that most football clubs would be ringing their local Council to mow the oval, we used to ring them to bring the grader out to grade the oval.

That is how most communities played in the far north, it was the things we had to do to play the game we love.

Our home ground in the initial stages was at Woomera (450 kms away) and our matches would go as far as Port Augusta (550 kms away) and then at Roxby Downs for other matches, so each week was an approx 1000 km round trip to play footy.

Great experience though, Coober Pedy is a great community with great people and it was a great experience to play for Coober Pedy.

The ugly for me was as a 14 year old in the early 70's playing Amateur League Reserve grade for Mitcham and playing Taperoo and the moron I was on all he wanted to do was punch the daylights out of me. Even the Captain of his team told him to pull his head in, christ this fella was twice my age, even at 50 I can still remember it like it was yesterday.

Not sure which one this falls into.

I played my fourth game of "Canberra footy" in snow. We played Belconnen on a freezing winters' day. I remember guys were taking hot showers with their gear on at half time. After the game, two kids were taken to hospital with hypothermia (or at least they thought they might have hypo).

The umpires were getting run into all day. They wore white and when you looked up all you could see was white. Snow was falling into your eyes, the ground was white, you couldn't see the boundary lines. It became a mini league match with everyone chasing the ball cos it was so cold.

My mate kicked the ball into the face of this guy, and I can still remember hearing the "echhhhhhh" as it hit him. The ball weighed the equivalent of a medicine ball by the end of the quarter. The bloke just hit the ground clutching his jaw. No need for ice that day.

We found out it got up to 1.7 degrees that day. AND the A grade got called off!

Funny part to this story. Before the game we were all standing around and this old codger, would've been 70, walked past us in t-shirt and shorts! Strange people the Canberrans.

During the early 90's when Lockleys made a return to junior football in the western suburbs we played against Kilburn in u17's.

The exact score escapes me now but the 60 goal mark is about right from memory.If anyone involved with either club could find it that would be muchly appreciated.

Hectorville 1996 (Premier League Div 1). Lost 37 players to retirement and other clubs. Went from 3 strong teams to two nuff nuff teams.

Got belted regularly by 30 goals each week.

Saying that I enjoyed playing because we had NO expectation on ourselves. We were so bad, that opposition coaches used to go spare if they were only up by 10-15 goals at half time.

PART ONE. The good; played in 9 grand finals(seniors), WON 8. The bad; lost 1. The ugly; Watching thugs put juniors in hospital! PART TWO. The good; passionate club people, The bad; injuries, The ugly; winning club best and fairest, playing association same year and not polling one vote in association B&F. PART THREE. The good; coaching juniors 1982 2000 2001 and 2003 all grand final appearances winning 2(great memories). The bad; losing 2. In 2001 GF, played 15 minutes + time on each quarter, last quarter going for 27.30 minutes the only time the opposing side hit the front all day! was 15 second before final siren. The ugly; Watching the boys after the game. PART FOUR. The good; The 2003 side nearly snatch the GF, the team struggled to make the numbers up all season and then went into GF with injured players, 5 goal up Q time 4 goal up 1/2 time but wore them down. SO PROUD of these guys. The bad; copping 10 week ban for refusing to wave goal flags(reported by opposing team official)and not the central umpire. WTF. The ugly; the bitch who reported me. Still involved with footy so stay tuned for next episode.

GOOD: Winning premierships with Adelaide Uni
BAD: Being dropped for a GF
UGLY: Winning one game in two years while playing A's and B's at Kenilworth

The Good - having never played in a team that has missed finals.

The Bad - losing an U18 grand final in overtime after having a perfect season. The game had two lots of overtime where scores remained level. Windy day!!!

The Ugly - several shoulder dislocations, while running off the field in one game an opposition player decided to punch the dislocated shoulder. Several bone fragments found when shoulder was reconstructed.

GOOD: Winning premiership with Paringa against Cobdogla in 2005 after being beaten by 100+ points in 2 previous outings against the Eagles that year. Held century full forward to 1 kick for the first half.

BAD: Losing to the same team next year and getting dragged at half time.

UGLY: Losing control of my bowels when playing with gastro. Made the mad dash for the toilets - not a pretty sight!!!

The Good: Good mates I've made through playing footy. Having a beer with opponents after the game. Whilst my team mates hated playing the likes of Rosewater, Kilburn, greenacres, west Croydon - I really enjoyed having a beer, smoke and yarn after the game at those grounds. The communal shower at Rivvies was a ripper.

The Bad: Preseason's

The Ugly: Some of the opposition changerooms/showers. My left knee.

The Good: The friendships you make, winning games, kicking goals and simply just playing this great game of ours.

The Bad: Being named 1st emergency for GF after getting in best players in the prelim and playing all year.

The Ugly: Me trying to run laps at training, the feral from Wingfield Royals who king hit me behind the play for no reason at all, 16 stitches in my chin later.

Good, Bad and Ugly all in the one game .. Playing Uni's in the parklands, 5 goals up at 3/4 time, 1 point behind halfway through last, Uni's run the clock down and congest play, as the ruckman I leave my post floating loose across halfback, take a good grab, duly slot the goal for 5 point lead and get mobbed by the boys.

Ball back to centre and within the space of about 15-20 seconds Uni's chain of handpasses til it reaches the FF in the goalsquare, and the siren goes about 2 seconds after he kicks it for a 1 point loss.

Good: The boyhood dream of kicking the winning goal to keep us in our grade
Bad: Coughing up such a lead and game we'd dominated
Ugly: Losing in the last 20 seconds, a result that would ultimately consign us to relegation (although ultimately we'd amalgamate so would become irrelevant)