I was honoured to be nominated for the GOTAFE GVFL Board in November 2014 and am very happy to put some time into helping maintain and improve one of the best country football leagues in Australia.
As I am not considered a local to the GOTAFE GVFL (only been in Shepparton 16 years!) I have been asked to provide a background of myself which is as follows:
I was raised in Albury and my first involvement in football was with the Albury Football Club (Ovens and Murray League) where I was the mascot from 1967 to 1971 when my much elder brother Peter played in the Albury seniors.
I was very fortunate with my junior football playing in 5 premierships over 6 years with the St Patricks Football Club which is affiliated with the Albury Wodonga Junior Football League.
My senior football started with the Albury under 18’s in 1979 while working at the Commonwealth Bank.
I played my first senior game with Albury in 1980 against Benalla who were then in the O & M.
We had a good day winning by 25 goals.
I was transferred with my employment in early 1981 to Finley where I joined the Finley Football Club where I was involved in 2 premierships over a period of 3 years.
Finley during this period went 2 and a half seasons without dropping a game.
Some of the players I was lucky to play with during this period were Glen and Darren Jackson, Craig Alderdice, Jim Jewel, Mike Hawkins, Mick Taylor and Warren Lang.
I also played a lot of cricket with Finley and had the good fortune of opening the bowling with now Tatura identity Mick Hooper for a couple of seasons.
Upon marrying my wife Debbie I moved with the bank to Canberra and played 2 injury disrupted seasons with Manuka – Weston in the ACTFL and the found the free flowing football, small crowds and poor atmosphere very different to country footy.
From Canberra we moved to Albury Wodonga where I took up a position with new bank now defunct being the NMRB which was later taken over by the ANZ bank.
Back in Albury I decided to play with Brocklesby Football Club in the Hume League after a couple of ex-Albury team mates Terry Cross and Peter Gibbons were coaching out there.
Although no premiership success was had my young family had a great time and we made many lifelong friends out of the football and netball club.
I retired from playing football in 1993 and moved with my employment to Corowa.
It was in Corowa I got involved with junior coaching and this continued when moving to Shepparton in mid 1998 with the Bank.
I coached junior football and cricket with Notre Dame including the Shepparton Junior Football representative teams.
I was on the board of the Shepparton and District Junior cricket for a number of years and the committee of Notre Dame Football Club.
My son Matthew played Thirds and Seniors with Shepparton United from 2007 to 2011 thus my involvement with the GOTAFE GVFL.
In my banking position I get to visit all the towns in the region that make up the GOTAFE GVFL and I hear from a lot of the supporters with their ideas of how to make our great league better.
Please do not hesitate to make contact with me if you have any ideas that you would like me to bring to the attention of the Board in future.
Last Modified on 27/09/2016 17:52