That's right. I started off playing footy as an eight-year-old.

I played in the little league at Newtown before joining Barwon, which is now South Barwon.

I was in the under 15s and was struggling for a game when a few school mates at Geelong Technical School said they were playing for Winchelsea in the under 17s. They asked if I was interested in having a game with them. I took up the offer.

I played in the under 17s before playing in the reserves and seniors.

Winchelsea was playing in the Bellarine League when I first started playing for them.

I can still remember my senior debut game with Winchelsea. It was against Ocean Grove in 1981.

We were both fighting out for the bottom place on the ladder.

I was selected to play at full-forward and ended up kicking two goals on a very heavy ground. Ocean Grove was just too good for us.

Winchelsea then switched over to the Colac and District League and played against sides including Lorne, Apollo Bay and Birregurra.

The selectors decided to switch me from full-forward to into the ruck when I was 18 years old.

Among your sporting highlights you have mentioned the reserves premiership win with Winchelsea in 1986. What are your memories of that game?

We defeated Alvie to win the flag. It was the first flag the club had won for years.

We were always struggling for players because we were so close to Colac.

Winchelsea is just an 'in the middle' sort of town.

How much money were you paid to play at Winchelsea?

I was still living in Geelong and was on $20 a game.

I thought it was not too bad of a deal, because petrol was 40 cents a litre.

They paid me the $20 a game for a few years before I started playing for nothing.

Money was not too important to me at that stage.

I just loved playing footy with my mates.

We use to hire a bus when we played down at Apollo Bay. They were great trips away. We used to call in at the Forrest Hotel on the way home and have a few beers and a meal.

The publican plus the players used to love it when we had to play against Apollo Bay.

I think life was a lot simpler back in that era.

Things turned around for me regarding my footy career at Winchelsea in 1988.

What do you mean by that statement that things turned around in 1988?

My dad passed away in 1988. I had been playing footy with Winchelsea for years and was still playing in the reserves but when my dad passed away, I thought they may have asked the reserve players to wear black arm bands to remember my dad but they never did.

I thought trainers or officials would have had some black tape.

It was all disappointing and I was pretty upset and spoke to a few blokes I knew at Alvie.

I ended up asking for a clearance to Alvie, but I got knocked back.

I retired when I was 25 years old in 1990 because I could not get a clearance from Winchelsea to Alvie.

I stood out of footy for five years.

Who did you make a comeback with?

I went back to Winchelsea in 1995.

The club was short of players and all the old committee had left the club, so I started playing in the reserves again. I ended up playing 73 senior and 180 reserves games with the club.

Your wife Jacqui and you have a business in Warrnambool called the Clocktower Cafe in Lava Street. Do you still have time to keep in contact with your old mates at Winchelsea?

Yes. We've got the Clocktower Café. We've been there since January 2008.

I still go back for past player reunions at Winchelsea and watch how the club performs each Saturday.

During your footy career did you sustain any injuries?

Yes. I've had a few aches and pains in my ankles and knees but the worse injury has been to the middle finger on my left hand.

I ruptured the ligaments and got rods installed back in 1989. The finger is still not right and will never be.

Let's go back to the Clocktower Cafe for a moment. Would it be fair to say that your business suffered while major street works were undertaken in the central business area of Warrnambool?

Yes. I would say all the businesses in the central area of town were impacted by the works.

The works killed our Saturday morning trade.

It was just useless us opening on Saturday mornings, so we're closed but are open from Monday to Friday.

We've been very lucky because we've got such great local support from our customers.

We have a diverse range of customers who have been very loyal to our business over so many years.

Another of your sporting highlights was the win of the Western Bulldogs in the 2016 grand final. What are your memories of that famous victory?

It was just an amazing experience to be at that grand final.

The emotion of the fans was quite incredible.

Grown people were openly crying because the Bulldogs won the flag. I've never experienced anything like that before in my life.

Our daughter Melinda and I were fortunate to get grand final tickets out of the ballot, while Jacqui missed out. We all went to the game in the hope Jacqui would get a ticket. She was stopped by a bloke who gave her a ticket into the AFL members area a few hours before the game.

We just had a wonderful day watching the Bulldogs win their first flag since 1954. It's something we'll never forget.