“I think growing up in a small town you have to travel far for most things. There are only around 1000 people who live in Mallacoota so if you want anything besides the basics, you need to go out of town to get it, which wasn’t unusual” Dempster explained to saints.com.au.
Sean’s father Graham, who played 64 games for South Melbourne during the 70’s, was still very active in the football community when Sean started playing for the Snowy Rovers in Orbost,
“My dad was still playing for Orbost, in his mid forties, so it was really just a matter of me jumping in the car and going with him.”
A late bloomer into AFL football, Dempster played soccer for most of his youth but changed to football when his soccer side in Mallacoota folded, due to lack of players.
“I played soccer until I was 15 and never really thought about playing football but it just happened that the soccer team couldn’t field a side anymore, as we didn’t have enough players, so I decided to follow dad to football.”
Drafted to the Sydney Swans in 2002 under the father-son rule, Dempster admits that despite his dad’s history playing with South Melbourne, he never pushed Sean to play football.
“He never pushed me to play, but he was obviously the reason I got involved in football and therefore the reason I got drafted.”
Dempster’s move to St Kilda came as a surprise to him, but he clearly made an impact on previous Sydney assistant Coach, Ross Lyon, who instigated Sean’s move to the Saints.
“I flew out to Fiji the day after the Swans Best and Fairest and was on a tiny little island, but my dad managed to track me down and got a fax through telling me to call my manager.”
“When I called him they told me there was an offer on the table (for the Saints) which I then discussed further with Ross (Lyon). He explained why he wanted me to come down and what he thought I could offer to the Club so it seemed like a logical choice.”
Becoming an important part of the Club’s defensive line-up, Sean describes his role in the team as having more of a lockdown role than players like Fisher and Gilbert, who are able to run off their players more to attack the ball.
In 2008 Dempster suffered a serious knee injury that kept him out of the game for nine months. Since returning in the 2009 season he has been working hard on getting his body in shape with the experienced conditioning staff at the Club.
“I’ve been really lucky that the conditioning staff here are really good and I am 100% confident in the work that they have done with me in the past.”
Implementing a new pre-match routine, involving a couple of laps around the internal carpark at Etihad Stadium, has been something that Sean has recently begun doing to ensure he is ready to play before every game.
When asked about this new warm-up technique Dempster explained; “Unfortunately I have had a number of injuries in my career, and these days I just need a little bit longer to get my body going. I’m only 26 but I have an old body so it takes a little bit longer to get going than everyone else.”
“I put the headphones in so at least I can’t hear people while I am running, as I am sure they think it is a bit weird” he laughed.
After spending so much time with the conditioning staff at the Club, Dempster is now pursuing a possible career in the area and is studying Exercise Science at ACU.
“I am currently doing two subjects per semester. It should give me a similar degree to what David Misson (Elite Performance Manager) and Paul Montgomery (Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach) have, so that is something I am interested in exploring after football.”
But with only 10 matches left before he is set to reach 100 AFL games, it seems the quiet boy from Mallacoota still has a healthy career ahead of him.
