Wood freely admits at the time, he wasn’t knowledgeable about the league.

But with two former Deakin University Sharks – a club Wood dedicated a portion of his life towards – plying their trade with Portland-based club Westerns, he took a punt and ventured west.

“I knew very little about it, but I knew there would be people I could speak with out there,” Wood told The Standard.

“I was asked to deliver a talk at half time, and I did that, and after that one of the guys from Tyrendarra came up to me and said ‘you’re the first AFL person of any note that I’ve seen come to our games’.

“I went back to our then general manager Lachy (Patterson) and I said ‘I think we have a problem’.”

From that, Wood made a commitment that he would travel to watch as many different teams from the western region’s four leagues as possible.

Wood is now confident he’s covered every club in the region.

While he always intended to have a five-year tenure, he initially planned to stay on the commission to ease the transition for the new chairperson.

However, minor ongoing health issues have encouraged the Warrnambool resident to resign fully.

Wood – who oversaw sweeping change during his tenure as chairman – cites building football and netball’s social inclusiveness as one of his proudest achievements.

“Daniel Meade came up with Dairy Day, because the farmers were hurting. We had the game between Cobden and Koroit, which was a resounding success,” he said.

“We’ve been involved in alcohol and drug awareness for young men and women, and we were the first commission to get all of our senior leagues to recognise White Ribbon Day.

“You look through and you think a lot of these things are really important to the community. Football and netball is the lifeblood of our community.”

He also highlighted his pride in the Deakin University Female Football League and the growth in all abilities football.

Wood said his stint in the role taught him about the impact football and netball had in regional communities.

“Football isn’t just about winning on the scoreboard. It’s about the community winning, and individuals winning,” Wood said.

“That happens in different ways. Sometimes, we perhaps focus too much on that. Hopefully we’re starting to change that mentality, particularly in junior football.

“Winning is great, and we all love that, but it's about getting everybody to win together.”