Rup Sumner was the coach of Cobden and Ray Hawthorne was the coach at Warrnambool.

The game was played up at Mortlake. I reckon Warrnambool beat us by about six goals.

Warrnambool had some wonderful players. I think it was the last game that the four Couch brothers played together before Paul went down to play with Geelong.

I had been at boarding school at Ballarat Grammar, so I only came home to play footy on weekends.

I played on Ashley Tromph in the grand final.

Cobden had won the under 18 premiership in 1983 and I was in that side. Seven of the under 18 premiership side played in the senior grand final in 1984 - so you can see we had a very young side on the ground.

Warrnambool had some big bodied blokes that just brushed us aside.

Who were some of the good players that you played with at Cobden?

There was a few of them. Blokes like Billy Askew, Peter Finch, Peter Anson and Mick Hunt to name a few.

I would say Peter Finch was probably the best of them. He was a gun footballer and with some luck would have made a top AFL player.

I'll never forget my first senior game of footy as a 16-year-old with Cobden.

We were playing against Camperdown. There was a fair bit of rivalry between the two clubs as they are in neighbouring towns. I would say the rivalry still exists today, but I was only 16.

I will always remember before the game, Mick Hunt my teammate came over before we ran onto the ground and said "don't worry, I've got your back". Mick's comments gave me a lot of confidence, because Camperdown did have some tough players in their side, but Mick was one of our toughest. I never saw him take a backward step.

Before you made your senior debut with Cobden. Which club were you playing for?

I played junior football with Timboon. It was 1982 when I played in the under 15s Hampden schoolboys side.

We went down to Melbourne to play some games.

I can still remember playing at Richmond's ground at Punt Road and Victoria Park, which was the home ground of Collingwood.

The captain of the under 15 side was Adrian Gleeson, who went on to be a premiership player with Carlton.

Where did your footy career go after the 1984 season with Cobden?

I went back and played school footy at Ballarat Grammar in 1985. I moved to Bendigo in 1986, where I went to teachers college, and played footy in the Bendigo league for one year before going back to play for East Ballarat in 1987.

I made a bad decision with my footy career in 1987 when I went and played for Waubra in the Central Highlands League.

Why was it a bad decision to play with Waubra?

I went there to play for money and to meet farmers in my job as a stock and station agent. They offered me $50 a game. I should have stayed playing with East Ballarat.

One of my greatest theories is you should play footy in the strongest competition you can to give yourself a go before going back to play in a minor league.

My brother Rohan was playing for Cressy and he got king-hit in the 1988 grand final.

So, I decided to go out and play in the same side as Rohan with Cressy in 1989.

We had moved to Hamilton with work in late 1989 and I played with Cavendish from 1990 to 1994.

We won the premiership in 1992 and 1993 before I took over as the reserves' playing coach.

My footy career finished up with Hamilton after I played there from 1995 to 1997.

Craig, you're the footy director at Hamilton. How did you get that job?

My son Jack came through the junior ranks in Hamilton, firstly through the Auskick program and then with College Magpies in the under 14s and under 16s.

I was interested in how the club so I was helping out in a couple of capacities.

Then Kevin Quinn, who had been the footy director at Hamilton, passed the baton to me in 2016.

Hamilton merged with Hamilton Imperials at the end of the 2012 season. Were you involved in any of the merger discussions?

No, I was not involved. I was coaching junior footy in Hamilton at the time I kept out of all the discussions.

Has the merger been a good thing for footy in Hamilton?

I would have to say it has been as there was a shortage of footballers in Hamilton.

It was getting pretty tough for Hamilton and Hamilton Imperials to survive.

Football is not a major priority for young people today.

They have work commitments or want to go to a music festival, so it gets pretty difficult to field teams in all grades.

I think the move by Hamilton to join the Hampden League has been really positive.

Hamilton has some very talented young footballers and netball players coming through its ranks.

We would have liked to have performed better on the footy field and on the netball courts quicker than what we have - things have taken time.

We're confident as a club we're moving in the right direction.

The Hampden League is very strong in footy and netball.

It's a lot better footy and netball than in the old Western Border, so it's just going to take a bit of time for us to have the success we are striving for in both sports.