SATURDAY was always the best day of the week in Waikerie.

Waikerie is a town of 4,500 people in South Australia’s Riverland. As a young kid I used to go down to the football club to be boundary umpire or do the scoreboard for a can of coke and a pie or pastie, and watch my brother play in the Colts.

We always used to go to the footy no matter where it was. Mum would be playing in the netball competition while the footy was on and it was a great day out for the family. We were always heavily involved in sport and it was a real community feel in a town like that. We couldn’t wait for Saturday to come around.

Sport was massive in Waikerie – cricket in the summer and footy in the winter. You always wanted to grow up and play A-grade footy. That was always the goal. Former Adelaide champion Tony Modra played for Renmark, one of the sides the Waikerie team played against. He was taking spectacular marks and kicking goals when I was a young lad, and I used to love watching him play, even though his team usually beat our team.

I started playing under-10s footy as a five-year-old. My dad was the coach and I used to get to pick out what guernsey I wanted to wear before we left home to go to the Waikerie Primary School oval on Saturday mornings. Back then it seemed like the oval was huge, but now I could probably kick from one end of the ground to the other.

I always said that I wanted to go back and try and play a few games for Waikerie. Times are pretty tough with the drought and water restrictions, and I decided to organise a celebration of Waikerie’s centenary during the match against Renmark. I arranged a one-day clearance for Tony Modra to come back and play for his old club, and I pulled the boots on for Waikerie. We got 3,500 people to the match – that’s not bad for a town of 4,500 people.

Unfortunately, one thing I couldn’t organise was the result, and Renmark beat us to take top spot on the ladder. But it was still a special day for the community, probably as good a day you could have in country footy.

I’ve played four games for Waikerie this year and plan on going back for finals in a couple of weeks.

Retiring from AFL football has given me the chance to revisit the Saturdays I used to know. It is fantastic to be free from the pressure of having to perform every weekend. That’s something that does get taken away from you – time with your family and friends, so you really enjoy it once you get that back. We have a hotel in Port Lincoln, so it’s great to have the freedom to get out there some weekends. My wife is a country girl and she has encouraged me to get back to Waikerie and get our kids involved in the atmosphere of country sport.

Our daughter, Sophie, is 20 months old and loves going to the footy to run around on the oval. She saw me out there during my first game for the season and thought she could just run out in the middle of the quarter!

Six weeks ago we had our little boy, and the Crows sent a basket of goodies to congratulate us. Tucked away among all the gifts was a Form 19 – which is the father-son rule form – for October, 2026. It was a little bit premature, but the Crows have never had a father-son player – who knows, maybe we’ll be the first.

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The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.