Henry Playfair or ‘H’ went the round about way in earning his Hoops. Playfair played footy in Holbrook up until the age of 14 when he went to boarding school in Sydney. The school didn’t offer footy so Playfair tried rugby however after a year and a chance meeting with now-Sydney player Lewis Roberts-Thompson, he played for two years in the Sydney Football League for North Shore.

The young forward was then recruited to play for the NSW/ACT Rams in which he was talented identified and picked up by Geelong in the national draft. Playfair played a year in the Cats VFL team where he earned a premiership medal following a win over Port Melbourne.

The 20 year old got his call up to play against Richmond in round 15 2003. On the Thursday night he was called into the team meeting and told he would be playing on Saturday. His parents and a few family and friends travelled down to watch the game that was played at the MCG.

“It was pretty exciting to run through the banner, all the blokes kept telling me to take it all in and enjoy the moment… and I did,” he said.

Playfair’s first opponent was Richmond captain Wayne Campbell but due to a height mismatch, Richmond switched to Ben Holland. Playfair received his first touch of the footy when the footy “rolled out of a pack”, I picked it up and handballed to Rahilly on the 50 metre mark.

Playfair didn’t receive much ground time but said, “I did alright when I was out there”.