What level of sport did you play.

[MrMeaner]

Occasionally sitting on the bench for Port District U17s.

In reality, my career peaked at U15s.

My only subsequent games of footy were for the Adelaide Uni Law School and for my firm over here in an inter-firm comp.

In the law school game, I received a tough shoulder to the mouth pushing my front teeth on a 45 degree tilt. They would have come out if it wasn't for the mouthguard. Flinders had a fair few ring-ins that day. In my last game for the firm, I again got hit right up the front, cracking my ribs (though we beat a Brendan Gale led Mallesons to the Winneke Cup).

I have stuck to running and cycling, both of which I only do recreationally, since.

 

[Cheesey Mac]

Ooh yes I love rambling about my junior footy career. WARNING: veeeery long post ahead.

Footy was the only sport I spent years in. I had wanted to play in the AFL since I was a kid and started Auskick at age 5. After 3 years of that a lot of my school friends started playing for local clubs but my mum wouldn’t let me because the only clubs she knew of were in my suburb and had a bit of a bad reputation, one of which was the club I did my Auskick at. I put footy on hold after that and a few years later I pestered my mum to let me play footy a few years later midway through under 11s.

That under 11s year I joined the club near my cousin’s house and played the last 6 games of the year, and it was apparent that the AFL dream was long gone for 10 year old me. The team had won the div 2 premiership the previous year and I was thrusted into the middle of a div 1 season with kids who had been playing at the very least for that whole season and most of them for years so I was out of my depth there. Needless to say we got relegated.

If I had to take a guess I was maybe in the bottom 5 least talented kids in that team for a while which was a real shame because I was tall and could mark really well, but I didn’t have the courage or toughness required for footy, that gene from my dad ended up with my sister. That and I couldn’t kick well, and it’s a given that if you can’t kick you can’t play. To my credit though I had a very great tactical brain for the sport.

After 3 years with that team I realised I had been playing above my age group and the club was getting league approval for me to play up an age, I was shattered because I had towered over the boys in the age below me. They had a medium sized kid kick 50 goals in a season, if i was playing there as a big full forward with that kind of supply who knows where I’d be now, maybe I’d be in the AFL (believe me, the course to the AFL is determined very very early in the junior career). After 1 more year with the older boys I moved down with not much to my name aside from a coaches award and two grand final losses. I had totalled maybe nearly 70 games so far.

Over my career I played all over the ground and through my limited forward time I snagged maybe 10 goals all up. My best work was undoubtedly at full back as I rarely ever conceded a goal from my opposing full forwards. Usually the physically gifted kids naturally end up in the forward line or midfield and as a strong tall player I could negate the best forwards in my league week in week out. The trick was simply to just stay man on man as long as possible, it seems obvious but it’s rare in junior footy so I was great if I say so myself.

Unfortunately I was perhaps so great at negating my opponent’s influence that the eyes were never on me and it truly frustrated me that I would rarely get any credit for my hard work and only get a reaction if I made a mistake. The rep teams never picked actual full backs either, the league full back was my teammate who played midfield and HBF.

In under 14s I played my third grand final the day after my grandfather passed away and I toiled away at full back all day in a tough loss. We lost by 2 goals all up with the score something like 1.12 to 3.12 or something ridiculous with one of our forwards kicking 0.5. That one still burns me up as I gave that game my all to lose to the team I hate most. Annoyingly that was in div 3 and despite not winning it we had to go up a div due the comp not having enough teams for 3 divisions.

Eventually I spent less time at full back and for some reason was splitting my time between CHF, the bench and a little bit of ruck. With my team’s system though the ball never made its way to CHF, I’d be bypassed by the midfield going to the FF in the hot spot (I’d be instructed to stay out of there) or it’d come around the flanks to enter our forward line. My talent was wasted I tell you!

Come 2019 though I’d had a relatively finals filled career. The chronology had gone:
Relegated / GF / OT loss in SF / GF // GF / missed finals
I was getting to the end of the career with the equal club record for most lost grand finals (club was formed in 2011) and needed to win desperately. Maybe the funniest moment of 2019 was when I did the Duursma bow and arrow in an away game after kicking a goal in the goal square (took a strong goal line mark tbf) and my coach benched me for doing a selfish celebration when we’re a team. I think he just didn’t like Port lol. We lost that game in the middle of butt * nowhere but it did spark some momentum. I was more annoyed that one of our forwards could do the whole “look at me” when he kicked a goal but me with my single digit goal tally couldn’t get hyped about kicking one.

That 2019 season was special though, we scraped into finals in 4th having had a draw with 5th place earlier in the year, though our % was way higher. We beat a team that tanked to Div 2 in our elimination final, beat a team that was missing players due to school footy in the semi final and got to a grand final against a team that really had the wood over us (we’d gone I think 1-9 in total against them, including a GF predating my time with the team and we’d lost badly maybe a month or so earlier). Somehow they shat the bed though and we thumped them by like 9 goals. Winning a flag from 4th was huge, we wore white shorts every week which was a symbol of being the underdogs. I remember my coach saying I could only do a bow and arrow if we were 10 goals up in the GF and I thought “right so never” but somehow we did that. I spent the vast majority of the match on our 7 man bench and wished I could have done the bow and arrow but alas I’m glad to have won.

2020 would have been under 17s which is the oldest junior age but unfortunately that was taken over by covid. I finished with 1 flag, 3 lost grand finals (still an equal club record), 97 league games and 9 league goals (I think, maybe more though). Just shy of 100 games but I’ll take that flag no worries. Quit after that as I liked playing sundays at 3pm, not the saturdays at 9am for under 19s and haven’t looked back. I cherish those junior footy days 100%, even if I sound bitter in a lot of this.

Reading this just reminded me of the only club Grand Final I ever played in.

Playing baseball in the U/14s, we scraped into 6th by a half game. We beat the 3rd placed team 3-2 in extra innings in the elimination final to advance to play the top team in the Preliminary Final. The top team had a handful of really good state players (one of the guys ended up making into the Major League farm system, played for Australia etc), we knock them over 1-0 including this amazing catch by the hearing impaired kid in centre field.

At this point in time it sort of felt like we were destined to win it, we had two kids from the country who were almost what you'd consider ringers but importantly had played more than half the season with us and had qualified for the finals. One of the kids was from Port Lincoln, he and his family drove over for the Grand Final and the day before the game the opposition put in a protest and this kid was banned from the game, he had been our relief pitcher all season long. The kid from Mount Gambier was allowed to play though, unsure what the difference was there. Anyway, a bit of back and forth and the kid was allowed to play "if there were any injuries" and wasn't allowed to pitch.

We go down to play the 2nd placed team in the Grand Final, the only club sport GF I ever played in (played in a few Social E Grade basketball ones since, which I'm not counting). We took an early lead, then tacked on to make it 2-0. In the middle innings they get one back, the Port Lincoln kid got into the game through questionable use of the injury sub, and it is 2-1 heading into the bottom of the 7th (we didn't play a full 9 as kids). Last inning, our main pitcher has run up to the end of his allowed pitch count, and the Mount Gambier kid comes on to pitch. A couple of batted balls out to right field and we conceded a run to have the game tied. We had all figured it was going to extra innings. With 2 out and runner on 3rd our pitcher gets set, pitches, and the runner on 3rd gets too far off his base and gets picked off in a run down. Everyone goes crazy, we run off to get ready to bat... But what we didn't know is that their umpire had called a balk before the pitch, meaning that the runner at 3rd got to score the winning run... A walk-off balk to lose a Grand Final 3-2... Absolutely brutal way to lose, especially considering it was their umpire who called it, I sound super bitter but we got absolutely robbed. Some very ugly parents after that final play. Anyway, we drove back from Southern Districts to the western suburbs, was a horrible car ride where we complained and swore and my mum threatened to throw us out of the car if we kept carrying on... And that was as close as I ever got to winning a premiership

 

[Kablamo]

Indoor cricket, electric light cricket (scored a hundred in 1.8 overs once), footy debut at age 30 (mate asked me one friday night what i was doing tomorrow. Nothing i said so i played footy and played for 2 seasons). Funny thing was 5 games in I was apparently playing my 50th game. Asked my mate wtf as he was the coach. Told me for the last few years everytime they had a dodgy play they played under my name. Only C grade level but Fabian Francis was club coach so that was cool. Played A grade cricket in Independent Central (tough comp), churches and now Para Districts but nearing 50 now so im slowing down.

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[manureid]

No

What position did you play?

 

[Contested Marx]

This was a fun trip down memory lane...

Cricket:
Started playing U16's cricket at age 13, i joined on the recommendation that I would be somewhat ok in the U14's. Alas, 20 days too old! Already a little undersized for a 13yo, I lasted a season playing with kids taller, faster and a lot more skilled than I.

Highlights being: catch at silly point in the first 5 minutes of the first training session, leading everyone to think i was some form of cricketing superstar. By season end, I had locked down the no. 11 spot, in the crappier teams (our club fielded 2 sides, the other one being the primary one stacked with talent). and bowling a total of 1 over 0 for 20-odd as I tried my hand at legspinning. I also locked down a wandering fine leg fielding position, I would get lost out there. Another time I had a moment of glory taken from me as a bobbed up ball was dropping in my lap at gully yet the 'keeper ran all the way across, dived in front of me and dropped it. Apparently it was my fault for not calling for it. Oh and one I.Shuttleworth of AFC fame was the Captain of the 'good' side and during a net session he once complained to me that "the ball is only supposed to bounce once" after I bowled him through the legs with a triple bouncing turner

My big toe was smashed by a Very Fast Yorker bowled by some 16 year old man-child in the pre-season the next year at U16's first training session and that was it for me and cricket until I found I wasn't a bad offspin bowler (if nothing else) in a couple of church social matches. Filled in a few limited over D-graders about 10 years ago, and found I was better at scoring than anything else. End of Cricket.

Football:
Couldn't football so didn't. Slow, short, dropped everything, couldn't kick, couldn't handball. Still wanted to be Scott Hodges reincarnate. Alas this was left to the schoolyards at lunchtime and the backyards on weekends.

Basketball
Eventually, Basketball was where I was at. Joined a church social league at 15, was easily the worst player on the team and there to fill in, but had a talent for a) not bad as an undersized small forward as my fat arse was good at bodying out for rebounds against the skinnier kids, b) a bit of well-timed verbage, c) following the coach's controversial Man on Man philosophy. He was like a Christian Ross Lyon, we would win more than we lose but never in any great scoring capacity.

I once sparked a fight after a game after calling an oppo player 'Sp@$tic' in the post-match handshake (he had called me that during the game and rightly so, as i had somehow flicked a baseline hook in both awkwardly and flukily). We made finals but were eliminated first match when our best player (he with quickest hands and the sharpest tongue) was rejected before the game for having shorts too long. The fix was in, most likely due to previous infractions by this player, ansd so we played out the game in protest, and we effectively threw the match in anger (after half our team were fouled off from phantom fouls called) by taking shots from halfway.

Still at 16 the bulk of this team moved over into men's social basketball which was by far the most fun of a sporting experience I've had. Over the years, the team evolved with a few dropping out and few adding in, including Wind Power - who not only played during our teams Golden Era, he would also give me lifts to and from the game. We were okay as a team, would beat the old guys but the other younger teams were good competition for us.

Having developed some skills (but not that much) by then i played as a SG or SF, still probably being more of a defensive / role player than anything else (read between the lines; i was an ordinary shot, and still a bit slow, but could out-rebound most people my height and a bit taller). Much enjoyment from the light-hearted banter and sledging on and off the court, only once did a real fight break out, not involving me. I do have a slight Owen Wilson shape to my nose thanks to an errant elbow.

Once, I had a buzzer-beater to win the game (against our then rivals), I was wide open, no defensive presser at the corner of the key, and I threw a brick into the triangular no-mans-land between backboard and rim which clunked out. That shot still haunts me. I never scored more than a half a dozen points in a game, but would snag the odd rebound and putback, plus an occasional (always banked - even from directly in front) 3pter. Brendan Lade made a cameo on one of the opposition teams, i think it was just a few Souths guys playing for fitness and S&G as he wasn't the only giant on that team.

We did win one championship, I think it was 'F' grade lol. Other committments came along so the team faded out and I don't see or hear from these guys aside from Wind Power

Running
Now it's running, which I've talked about before. Will be doing the city to bay in a few weeks time.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk

 

[Interstater]

Made 80 in a district cricket grand final in a 200 run partnership that won us the game.
Gary McIntosh was the opening bowler for the opposition.

 

[Loony Juice]

Made a SAPSASA squad last year of primary school, team contained 3 who went on to play SANFL, (two of whom also played AFL) for a combined 8 Premierships and a Jack Oatey Medal

Got named joint best player (obviously a misprint) at a junior colts carnival with a player who played vfl for 2 teams and was unlucky not to win a Brownlow (in my opinion)

Had to mention the SANFL and AFL connections cos it makes my meagre achievements sound slightly better

Played a bit of cricket, couple seasons of Seniors, fringe player due to a combination of shift work and apathy. Best figures of 5 for zilch off 5 overs.

Won a YoYo competition, got the Gold Medal YoYo as a prize

Won an event at a CFS (Country Fire Service) competition as a youngster. Which is more than kanye kornershop

My favourite claims to fame. Won a couple pie eating competitions. Once did 9 in a 2 minute comp. Also did 1 pie in 9 seconds. Nearly 20 years ago, I, on a number of occasions, unofficially officially drilled entire cartons of Coopers Sparkling Ale.

I always dreamt/dreamed of playing for Port and also earning a Baggy Green, but the reality is I got the horrors from drinking Port a couple times and drilled a few green baggys

 

[philthy05]

Sucked at

Div 7 football - seniors 1 season as an 18yr old

Social basketball - multiple years on and off again from around 17-35ish yrs old. Did well without ever being the star of my team, s**t level competition where refs let people who obviously don’t know sfa about basketball hold scrag and block skilled players like they’re peak Libba. Going to the basket is taking chances with fate as *heads put feet and legs out in front of you (for those that don’t know - refs shouldn’t let them do that - it’s reckless and causes injuries galore and should be called a foul) while any defensive play at the ball like simply going straight up gets whistled 99% of the time. Social basketball is the pitts and every social basketball ref alive should be placed next to pedos terrorists and politicians in hell. It’s just not a sport that any casual ref has been remotely able to come to grips with.

Local soccer for a couple seasons around the age of 12

Local club baseball - 2 seasons as a teen I guess? Sucked badly, again just a lack of confidence.

Ironically the highest quality sport I’ve ever participated in is pickup bball games on a couple of Adelaide courts. The level of basketball out on some of those courts was miles above social ball. Blitzed it at those courts, no pressure just boys having fun and I looked a million bucks. Had a few games where I went off so hard I had opponents cheering me on lol.

I’m always jealous of people that got to enjoy high level sport because I’m a textbook case of what if. I lacked confidence early as a kid surrounded by athletic kids who knew what they were doing, and by the time I worked out what I could do a spate of injuries sidelined me for years.

Played a lot of sports but my love growing up was basketball. No one in my immediate family was sporting at all so the idea of doing anything other than mucking around with friends was never on my radar for a long time.

Unfortunately for a basketball nutter I grew up a midget for most of my young years then having a insane growth spurt at 16 (went from being half the size of everyone to 6ft tall nearly overnight)

Took up football at the age of 18. Didn’t know the rules or anything. Sucked. Sucked bad, but boy could I run. I tagged the s**t out of my opponents (didn’t know what tagging was but didn’t know what else to do)

Our coach was a playing coach and barely spoke to me, I didn’t learn s**t about what I was doing. Finally got a bit of confidence in a game when i finally got my wish to be sent forward where I actually knew what I was doing (had grown up playing marks up and kicking for goal at parks) and kicked a goal and set up another after being forward for all of about 10mins.

Then my knee got wrecked. And got wrecked again. And again.

No more footy for me. Went back to playing social bball but had no confidence in my knee now. Took years for my knee to recover and for me to get better in my body, then a spate of other injuries (can barely lift one arm above my shoulder, left heel is wrecked etc)

At some stage i worked out I had some sort of engine. Growing up I just never thought about it, don’t know what other people feel etc and just assume everyone is the same as me.

Kinda worked out after a while that I would be on local courts playing for hours and watching people I know are in decent shape get ****ed. I never experienced what I saw them experience. I always ran hard (cause I knew i had to work harder than better athletes) but never experienced being ragged out of breathe etc. lactic acid build up was a bitch tho, so marathon runner wouldn’t have suited me, but sports that involved a lot of high intensity effort with short breaks in between, I was built for it, and realised too late ffs.

It never would have gotten me anywhere of note, not even remotely. being able to work harder and for longer (work hardery lol) wouldn’t have gotten me anywhere that great probably, but being pretty good at amateur level would have been fine. And that’s all I wanted, to experience playing on a successful team and contribute to a good level.

In hindsight the bball district teams I thought were stocked with star kids way better than me didn’t turn out to be that unattainable for me.
Once I figured out the rules of footy, and how I could have used my talents I know I could have made a pretty good fist of a decent amateur level career.

And I missed that opportunity. I’ll never ever not think what if, and it never sits right with me watching people with the athletic gifts I didn’t have, or access to coaching and opportunities I never had flitter it away because they’re lazy.

Though I just have to accept not everyone really wants the same things I wanted and get over it lol.

 

[philthy05]

Also had the highlight of being at the 36ers court (whatever it was called at the time) for work with a bunch of people when someone got out a bball on our lunch break. I got excited ran out, saw the 36ers coach watching us from the other side where he had just finished working out some new recruit I excitedly grabbed the ball and shot an airball. A ******* airball.

Absolutely kicking myself I dropped my jacket and the other gear I was wearing (radio etc) got the ball and sunk 5 straight threes in a row, turned back to Joey proud as punch ready for my nod of approval (or contract) and he’s got his ******* back to me and obviously didn’t see s**t. * me dead.

 

[Zakk Wylde]

Indoor cricket, electric light cricket (scored a hundred in 1.8 overs once), footy debut at age 30 (mate asked me one friday night what i was doing tomorrow. Nothing i said so i played footy and played for 2 seasons). Funny thing was 5 games in I was apparently playing my 50th game. Asked my mate wtf as he was the coach. Told me for the last few years everytime they had a dodgy play they played under my name. Only C grade level but Fabian Francis was club coach so that was cool. Played A grade cricket in Independent Central (tough comp), churches and now Para Districts but nearing 50 now so im slowing down.

Sent from my SM-J530Y using BigFooty.com mobile app

Clearly a Salisbury West man...

 

[Visenfest]

I started sailing in Holdies over 50 years ago.

They're a good introduction to sailing for a kid. Haven't sailed since I was around 12 though! I was a tiny kid, so I struggled with it being so cold out on the water at the start of sailing seasons. That ended up tainting my impression of sailing a bit at the time.

 

[Kablamo]

Clearly a Salisbury West man...

Yep among a couple clubs. Just thinking bit more deeply and considering the forum, Rohan Smith was a gun batsmen, think it was an A grade grand final against us early 2000s he scored a hundy and won the game before we had a chance. Damian Angove, for those that remember him was a very sharp bowler. Both played for Port Districts. And Mr Aeroplane himself, Troy Chaplin broke my ****ing bat one day at Wingfield. He was a decent bowler albeit not too fast.

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[dirty2]

Some people have gone into great detail!

Outside of football I had 1 season of soccer... Wasn't overly good but did get a brace to help win when we were 1-0 down and I bagged 2 quick goals to put us up 2-1... Then got benched which pissed me off! Lol

Played cricket from juniors then had 1 season of seniors but in the end... I was like why am I standing here when I could be at the beach.

Back to football I was never the star player... But always the coaches pet... Mr fix it. I would rock up Saturday look at the white board to see who I had to shut down.

One game against port Wakefield/watchman/eagles I rocked up and had to tag Justin cicolella's brother... Who was a very good player him self... I shut him down he would of been lucky to get 10 touches and played a massive roll in us winning.

Quite often played full back as well... At my height 180 I was undersized but I hate losing and the coach knew that I would give my all.

 

[davesnothere]

B Grade Eastern Pk. When 6.1 made you a ruck or centre half forward.

Baseball Central Districts junior grades.

Basketball for Giselle’s a northern district’s basketball team that I wished I focused on and had basketball had the profile it now I would have. That’s the one sport I was a early pick.

 

[dirty2]

South Gawler under 15 17 B A was at central's then got king hit on Australia day was never dedicated enough to play again as my jaw now is pretty much glass..

My south under 15 premiership team had Sam Butler ( WCE premiership player ) we also had Allan obst ( NM and Crows ) we also homes Travis Varcoe ( Geelong premiership player and Collingwood) for a month or two then he went back to Smithfield in 2001 we beat Angaston who had Shannon Hurn ( WCE premiership player ) aswell....

And also trained for MPW as a wrestler

You would be a couple years younger then me then. I remember Sam Butler Shannon Hurn and I think Brad Symes was running around back then as well? Could be wrong...
But I remember watching some of the young guys going fück some of these guys are bloody good.

 

[dirty2]

Arsene Wenger.... So how did you go back in the day?

 

[finbarr]

This is what I spend just about all my free time on these days. She is beautiful.

 

[just_kick_it]

Started Auskick at age 5, switched to soccer for a couple of years, switched back to footy age 8 or 9, played in 2 u/16 div 2 GFs for 1 premiership, retired from footy age 16 for girls, cars and beer!

A mate convinced me to make a come back playing C Grade for Bridgewater-Callington at the age of 26 put my head over the ball in the 2nd or 3rd quarter and got knocked out by some nut sack and haven't played since.

Played school basketball, cricket and mixed indoor netball as well.

 

[Loony Juice]

Some people have gone into great detail!

Outside of football I had 1 season of soccer... Wasn't overly good but did get a brace to help win when we were 1-0 down and I bagged 2 quick goals to put us up 2-1... Then got benched which pissed me off! Lol

Played cricket from juniors then had 1 season of seniors but in the end... I was like why am I standing here when I could be at the beach.

Back to football I was never the star player... But always the coaches pet... Mr fix it. I would rock up Saturday look at the white board to see who I had to shut down.

One game against port Wakefield/watchman/eagles I rocked up and had to tag Justin cicolella's brother... Who was a very good player him self... I shut him down he would of been lucky to get 10 touches and played a massive roll in us winning.

Quite often played full back as well... At my height 180 I was undersized but I hate losing and the coach knew that I would give my all.

At my height 180 I was undersized but I hate losing and the coach knew that I would give my all.

I think your being too modest/selling yourself short Dirty

They say a man is only as big as the sign he holds

 

[Sinnthesis]

My favourite claims to fame. Won a couple pie eating competitions.

Donut eating competition at Alberton next year could be on the cards

 

[Loony Juice]

This is what I spend just about all my free time on these days. She is beautiful.

View attachment 1494046

Would I be right in thinking that's the team (BMC) Cadel Evans rode for in his 2011 Tour de France victory?

 

[DaTBird187]

Donut eating competition at Alberton next year could be on the cards

I could imagine Hinkley being mainly gristle.

 

[bomberclifford]

This is what I spend just about all my free time on these days. She is beautiful.

View attachment 1494046

Hey where’d you get your bike stand?

 

[Schulzenfest]

Was the captain of South Australia's U16 futsal team in, I think 2009? Which sounds reasonably impressive until I say that we went 0-15.

 

[finbarr]

Would I be right in thinking that's the team (BMC) Cadel Evans rode for in his 2011 Tour de France victory?

The team BMC disbanded in 2020. This is a 2019 disc brake version of the SLR 01 Evans rode. I've changed out a couple of things on mine - That ENVE wheelset is an upgrade on the DT Swiss wheels that came with the bike, thanks to a rather generous tax return a couple of years ago.

But yeah, that red, black and white colourway was the classic BMC colours of that era when Evans, and later Richie Porte rode for them. BMC the bicycle company, still supplies bikes to AG2R in the pro tour., having also supplied Team Dimension Data.
Cadel still works for the company, testing bikes at it's Switzerland base.