Footy career of a BF poster

Macpotata

Norm Smith Medallist
Mar 22, 2017
9,595
10,877
AFL Club
Geelong
I'll give you a real footy career of a BF Poster


Game Day

Wake up - Post on Big Footy+Coffee and or Cigarette. Eat Breakfast

Pre-Game - Exercise and or choirs. See the missus ( and in some cases kids. Or just the kids )

Lunch - Fox Footy non stop until Saturday Night. Post in between games, or during the games. Depends how bad your BF addiction is.

Night time - Refer Pre game, just not the exercise or choirs part


Rinse, repeat for Sundays.


On the Thursday, Friday's and any other day/night footy is on, it won't be much different except you go to work. That's if you haven't called in sick or you really do work ( excluding Collingwood supporters ) you'd probably be at the pub, gym too.
 

Luv_our_club

Norm Smith Medallist
Feb 14, 2017
6,883
12,955
AFL Club
Hawthorn
Highlights of my career:

- winning a BNF in which a 3-2-1 vote count was read out round by round like the Brownlow, and the club had a Hawks premiership player there to present the trophy on the night.

- being invited to the league BNF night, not usual.

- playing for the Box Hill Mustangs U/16s.

Never had team success. Retired after u/16s, because i was not big enough, but still kick the footy every week 20 years later.
 
May 13, 2007
2,512
3,465
<---------
AFL Club
West Coast
Other Teams
Seahawks, Huskies, Newcastle Utd.
Came from a pretty good footy family, grandad won a Sandover, uncle played in a flag for Perth and my old man played for Swans.

Started playing footy as a 5 year old in U10's and played my first game of league in Kalgoorlie as a 16 year-old.

Got elbowed in the head first 5 seconds of game 1 the following year and had to give up footy due to getting concussed each game I played.

Made a comeback 9 years later, played for 2 years and won two flags.

Retired after that.
 

big_e

Existential crisis management consultant
Apr 28, 2008
12,558
38,503
Back Pocket
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Other Teams
Wycombe Wanderers
Absolutely terrible. Skinny, short, slow, you name it, but loved it. After u13s I gave up and focussed on music, which turned out to be a very, very good decision.
 

Inferno

Norm Smith Medallist
Mar 7, 2006
5,708
3,104
Tramland
AFL Club
Geelong
Other Teams
Charlotte Hornets
Just as a side note, was talking with a couple of ex prof basketball players
There’s a real shift in developments for grass roots basketball and how it goes about building, Montmerency high school (greensborough) had one basketball court in the 90’s has received dough thru the council and now expanding to a 5 court indoor stadium.
Just for context...Brisbane does not have a five crt stadium.
Basketballs huge...just nobody has tapped into it or made it work and with the girls startin to look to play afl it’s startin to get competitive for attracting future consumers.

I played little league for Fitzroy at VFL park.
Kicked the entire score... 1.1
Cut the plaster of my leg after fracturing my ankle playing kick to kick at school goin for a grab to play in the u16 east burwood rams winning granny.
Kicked a snap from a tapdown in the fwd pocket
Then retired

Eh I'd say it's just a continuation of the growth in basketball, from when I finished up (2012) most clubs seem to have grown ~30-50% in size and in the decade or so I played it was a similar amount of growth. Most of the big clubs/associations in Melbourne have had 5+ court facilities for a long time and Eltham (who will use Monty) are probably the largest club who don't.

The biggest problem in grassroots basketball is finding appropriate venues for trainings in evenings, where they're competing for court usage against the senior competitions which are also growing. Usually finding adequate facilities for weekend competitions is fine.
 

Great8

Brownlow Medallist
Apr 19, 2015
16,613
14,162
AFL Club
Essendon
Other Teams
Manchester United, Juventus,
Played underage footy at a half decent level but knew my ceiling was probably SANFL reserves and had an option to live and work OS so it was a pretty easy option
 

John Who

Norm Smith Medallist
Apr 16, 2017
8,722
7,093
AFL Club
Adelaide
I was a skinny kid back in high school and didn’t like the contact sports, involving myself more in cricket, tennis and badminton. Even though back then I was a footy fan as a spectator. Some period during Uni, I decided to toughen up, do some gym and asked to join an amateur footy club. I only could do training but not play games due to study commitments. It was hella fun!

My footy ‘career’ highlights:
- trained myself to kick on both legs nearly of equal around 30m distance
- took a great leading mark against the captain in one of the drills.
- got concussed by some small (but tough) kid in one of the drills. Luckily it was only a short few seconds and was able to train on that evening
- appreciating footy players more of the hardships they go through, including injuries and concussions!
 
Feb 5, 2018
13,936
33,319
AFL Club
Hawthorn
Other Teams
Chicago Blackhawks Melb Renegades
Too much time invested into my junior club trying to be a one club player. They never returned the love. Wasted a lot of good years in my early 20's playing really good reserves football for no return.
Finally changed clubs in my mid 20's and played in 3 grand finals since (for 3 losses).
Spent a year studying and missed another good chance of a full year of senior footy, but finally back on track now. Sit at around 40 games of senior footy and want to get to 100 before ever calling it a day. 29 years old currently.
Essentially a poor man's Jake Lloyd but the same size as Rory Laird. Stopped growing at aged 15 so despite being smaller now I played as a key position back from aged 6. Can get away with giving away a few cm's and kg's.
Never going to win a best and fairest (in a senior grade at least), but essentially just get by being a tight defender, a good ball user and a reliable team player.

2 years of sinking beers and not playing when I turned 18 is the main regret of my footy career. They were important development years that I missed out on.
 

Silent Alarm

sack Lyon
10k Posts
Jul 9, 2010
24,163
26,535
AFL Club
Fremantle
No surprise to see so many heroes on here are losers who only started playing at 23 or are club pests who have never played a single seniors game but 350 C grade matches and still hang around the club more than their family.

Won't get started on the umpires.

Explains the complete numptiness on a lot of topics here.
 
Sep 18, 2011
17,050
28,336
Melbourne
AFL Club
St Kilda
Other Teams
Leeds United
Still a reserves hero. Only started playing at age 21 after major foot surgery. Umpires more than 100 country games before that and some underage SANFL games.

Would be approaching 100 career games across five clubs in SA and Vic (have moved for work and study a decent bit). Of those only two of those are senior games at my previous club and I was statless in one (actually a lie. One free against and a 50m penalty conceded). That was in a year the side won the flag and despite carrying me won by 100 both games I played.

Getting close to 30 and now content playing ressies in the major league in my area. Spent last year in the back pocket while we got pumped week after week. Hope for better fortune this year
Nearly 30? Could've sworn you would be pushing 60
 

Parker400

Senior List
Mar 19, 2019
178
182
AFL Club
St Kilda
Played rep footy with a future pick 1 for the bush rangers till I did my back at 17.

a lot like the boy we drafted this year.
 

OneEyedHawk

Norm Smith Medallist
Dec 13, 2004
6,938
938
Ringwood East
AFL Club
Hawthorn
No surprise to see so many heroes on here are losers who only started playing at 23 or are club pests who have never played a single seniors game but 350 C grade matches and still hang around the club more than their family.

Won't get started on the umpires.

Explains the complete numptiness on a lot of topics here.

Thank **** for legends like yourself to redress that imbalance.

I was decent as a junior but never AFL material as was a) an early developer and thus bigger and stronger than most of my cohorts; and b) too much of a nutcase/ immature to progress much further.

Played Eastern Rangers (in its 1st year), for Essendon in the now defunct U/15's schoolboys carnival, and in the VFA Vic team.
Biggest claim to fame was probably kicking 45.6 goals in first 3 weeks of U/18's for Vermont in the EDFL.


On iPad using BigFooty.com mobile app
 
No surprise to see so many heroes on here are losers who only started playing at 23 or are club pests who have never played a single seniors game but 350 C grade matches and still hang around the club more than their family.

Won't get started on the umpires.

Explains the complete numptiness on a lot of topics here.

Tell us how good you were. Or how you were too cool for organised sport
 
I played from Under 8 to Under... 15 I think. Played 104 or 105 games in total, and have my name up on the honor board in the clubhouse.

Only reason I stopped was because I was last in line for puberty in my footy team and seemingly the rest of the competition, and I got sick of being slung about and clotheslined constantly. I played a few seasons of school footy too, captained a few games here and there, but that wasn't much different in terms of the tackling quality - most of the other players back then were primarily rugby players.
 

janty

All Australian
Jan 5, 2019
989
1,511
AFL Club
Brisbane Lions
Nearly every other kid in my team went to the same school. So I was always an outsider.

My favourite year looking back was under 11s. We won the first 6 games and then didn't win a game for the rest of the year. Last game of the season we lost 103 - 7 and one of my teammates' father got arrested for trying to fight the goal umpire over a bad decision. Apparently losing 103 - 7 instead of 98-7 triggered him in to doing it :huh:
 

MC Bad Genius

No, not THAT MC Bad Genius. The other one.
Apr 15, 2008
16,604
28,431
Sydney
AFL Club
Sydney
Nearly every other kid in my team went to the same school. So I was always an outsider.

My favourite year looking back was under 11s. We won the first 6 games and then didn't win a game for the rest of the year. Last game of the season we lost 103 - 7 and one of my teammates' father got arrested for trying to fight the goal umpire over a bad decision. Apparently losing 103 - 7 instead of 98-7 triggered him in to doing it :huh:
Would be an interesting thread to read if BF posters copped to their career as a football parent. Would undoubtedly be some stories to tell.
 
Jun 11, 2007
21,094
20,210
Melbourne
AFL Club
Geelong
I won a VicKick (predating AusKick) McDonalds Encouragement Award certificate consisting of a cheeseburger, small chips and a small coke (predating the Happy Meal) at some point in the 1980's and my career peaked. I couldn't get enough red cordial afterwards. My team mates said I changed, said it used to be about the game but the red stuff just took over.

Coulda. Woulda. Shoulda.
 

Breustiful

Club Legend
Oct 7, 2014
2,112
5,437
Melbourne
AFL Club
Hawthorn
Other Teams
Preston Makedonia, West Brom
My highlight was getting absolutely towelled up by Jesse Hogan in a carnival against other schools - he was younger than me too.

Looking back at his antics over the years, I'm more embarrassed now.
 

RAPPA

Brownlow Medallist
Feb 20, 2008
15,745
31,748
Victoria
AFL Club
Carlton
Loved footy but was too fat for it. Career highlight was kicking 1.3 in a game in Grade 6 against our rival primary school. Career lowlight was wearing a guernsey that was one size too small and had the fat rolls on show.
 
May 8, 2007
10,578
14,813
vic
AFL Club
Richmond
Always wanted to play serious footy from a very young age. I was officially rated 4S - small, slow, scared and sh!thouse.

Played a game of Hockey when I was 12 and loved it - that became my sport. It kept me fit for years and I managed to play a couple of social games of footy where I wasn't the all-time worst. Last game at age 37 - I was having a nice run-around until a mate passed me the ball (by that I mean he gave me a chip-kick about 30 feet in the air that was going to land on my head). I give the guy behind me credit - he saw his one-and-only-lifetime chance for a specky and went for it. He didn't get that high, but he did manage to put his boot right into my coccyx (ie - about 2 and a 1/2 feet off the ground). I could hardly walk for about 3 weeks (I think specky-man may actually have been worse - he landed very hard, even from 2-and-a-half feet up).

Moral of the story - don't play contact sports after 35.
 

Geelong_Bisons_#36

Premiership Player
Jun 17, 2007
3,702
4,738
AFL Club
Collingwood
Other Teams
Inverleigh Hawks
Didn't play any junior footy, only school stuff and was very ordinary at that. Could only kick about 20m (even in yr 12) and had no idea on how to play.
Then took a year off b4 going to uni and I'm not sure what happened in that time as I was in the UK but when I started playing for the Residential College at uni, I was suddenly an ok player. Had doubled my kicking distance and could mark and read the play like never before.
Footy season was quite brief but had 3 years of fun and was one of the better players in the 2s and played in the 1s in the last year.
Then had about 5 years off (playing golf instead) and then decided to go back to it at a local club with a couple of mates.
We were a terrible side in the 2s and I think we won 3 or 4 games in 2 and half years that I was there but I was one of the better players coming runner up in the B&F for both the 2 full seasons I played. Got robbed in the last year cause missed the last 3 games due to injury and was leading the count before that.
Decided to give it away because of the injuries, kept bending my thumbs back and the last time I tore ligaments and I couldn't play golf for 2 months so that was about it.
Played mostly midfield or HFF, short but fast and was pretty fit at that time. Could run all day.
Career highlight was probably a 50m torp goal on the run after a beautiful front & square rove. Have never struck a kick like that b4 or since. Ball was still going up after 40m and gunbarrel straight.
Toyed with the thought of going back to Masters footy after turned 35 but honestly couldn't be bothered. Miss the fun of being around the club and having a kick with mates but do not miss the pain I was in nearly every week.
 
Back