Sandy, I find your sporting highlight an interesting one. I would have thought some of your football achievements would have rated highly. What’s the main reason for selecting the junior cricket premiership as your highlight?
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I must admit, when I was young I loved playing cricket.
Football never really interested me. I was passionate about cricket.
I played colts with Grassmere and ended up playing senior cricket with Purnim. I used to love bowling.
I got six wickets for 22 runs of 20 overs in an A grade game with Purnim, and my best effort with the bat was 92 runs.
What are your memories of attending Grassmere Primary School?
Great memories. I reckon there was possibly 100 children at the school.
I thought it was all about having fun. I had a wonderful childhood; the family farm is north of Purnim.
Farm life was always in my blood.
My dad Bill encouraged his children to go off and pursue other interests, but I always knew I would come back to the farm.
It’s a great lifestyle living on a farm.
Most of the time you spend outdoors in the fresh air, looking after animals. I’ve got no complaints with my lifestyle.
I was 18 years old when I moved away to be a jackaroo at the Carlton Hill Station in the Kimberleys in Western Australia.
The property was roughly 1.5 million acres and you worked from 4.30am in the morning to late in the evening.
I then went and worked at Nockatunga in far west Queensland.
Working in the outback was hard work, but it taught you discipline and a strong work ethic.
The work helped me grow as a person.
They never paid you much; they gave you accommodation and fed you, but I found it was all about the experience.
I’ll never forget working at Nockatunga, it’s that big of a property it took nearly three weeks to muster the cattle from one of the paddocks.
We live in a big country and sometimes people get caught up in a small bubble.
I had two years away before going down to study agribusiness at Marcus Oldman in Geelong.
When you moved to Geelong is that when you started playing footy?
Yes. it was in 2010. As I said previously, I was not really interested in footy before then.
One of my mates George Verco was playing at Newtown and he encouraged me to go to training.
I went to training and they picked me in the reserves.
I played a couple of games in the reserves and was gong to pull the pin because I was not really interested.
Then, out of the blue, they had a few injuries and they selected me to play in the seniors.
I ended up having four years at Newtown over two stints.
I played footy with Port Fairy in 2013 after I had got a job in the agribusiness at the National Bank in Warrnambool.
I was very lucky because I worked with Peter Lafferty.
Peter gave me a wonderful insight into how to deal with people.
He was always looking after the best interests of his clients.
I found Peter had a great understanding of people and was compassionate to them.
Sandy, how did Port Fairy perform in 2013 when you played there?
We had a terrible season. I think we only won two games and had a draw in another game.
We were continually smashed by the other sides.
The person who I really admired from Port Fairy in 2013 was the playing coach, Sam Rudolph.
I thought he was amazing. I’ll never forget we suffered some very heavy defeats, but Sam continued to put out a positive spin to the players, officials and fans of the club.
I used to think after some of those humbling defeats, how is this bloke coping with all this stress?
Sam is just a decent bloke, he did cope with the stress and I would say he’s probably the key reason that I came back to play with Port Fairy in 2017.
I was not going to play anywhere else, because Sam was so passionate about the club and wanted to see it succeed and I wanted to be part of the success with him.
Sandy, you also played with Geelong and Port Melbourne in the VFL competition. What was it like playing at the level just under the AFL?
It was a great experience. I had the one year at Port Melbourne under Gary Ayres.
He’s got an incredible record as a player and coach and has the utmost respect of his players.
I was disappointed that I only had the one year at Port Melbourne because of work commitments.
I would say they are the best club that I have played for because they have an outstanding culture.
The history and pride to play for Port Melbourne is amazing. I had two years with Geelong.
We had a lot of good players but could only manage middle of the road performances.
Port Fairy defeated Portland last Saturday after defeats at the hands of Koroit and Camperdown. This Saturday, the Seagulls travel to Cobden. How do you think the club is performing?
It was great to get another win on the board over Portland. It’s no secret that Koroit is the side to beat.
I must admit I’m envious of Koroit’s record of winning the last four consecutive flags, and going on this season they are the side to beat again.
For a small country club to achieve the success that Koroit has done is remarkable.
Full credit to their players, officials and fans, but I would love to think we could beat them in this year’s Grand Final.
Sandy, away from the footy … your mum Di is a very good golfer. Has any of her golfing ability rubbed off on you?
I’ve got to be honest and say no. I would have to describe myself as an ordinary golfer, unlike my mum.