The 1976 grand final was the last one when there was only one central umpire in charge. Games were played with two central umpires in 1977.

Both grand finals were played in century degree heat. Players thought nothing of playing in such conditions.

I'll never forget they got big crowds to the games.

Darwin won the flags in 1968 and 1976. I was promoted in my job as a claims officer with Commercial Union Insurance to Darwin in 1966. I had been umpiring down in the Geelong league before I moved up north.

Where did your footy career begin?

My family moved to Geelong when I was nine years old.

I started my career playing for YMCA juniors in Geelong. I played there for a few years before being asked to umpire.

I went back and played for Portland in 1970 after I had umpired in the Northern Territory.

I moved to Camperdown in 1971 and that's when my association with Noorat began. I ended up playing more than 100 games with Noorat under coaches Ian Blackburn, Geoff Parsons and Colin McLeod.

I played in two losing grand final sides for Noorat.

My footy career came to an end when I injured my knee. I was pretty disappointed because I loved playing footy.

The injury I suffered back then would be able to be fixed by the medical people of today but back in that era they couldn't fix it. I was on the committee at Noorat for more than 20 years.

Eric, were you on the committee when Noorat and Ecklin decided to merge in late 2002 for the 2003 season?

Yes, I was on the committee at Noorat. I voted for the merger of both the clubs.

There were some people on the committee who were not in favour of the merger, but I voted for it.

The merger has been a big win, not only because the club has had a lot of success on the footy field and the netball courts, but it's been wonderful for the local community.

The club normally has more then 250 people turn up for tea on a Thursday night during the footy season.

It's always a great night, as people want to hear who's got a game of footy but they also want to have a chat about every day things that are going on in their lives.

I've worked the bar for more than 20 years at the club on Thursday and Saturday nights during the footy season.

Did you play cricket in your younger days?

Yes, I played for Herne Hill Methodists down in Geelong as a young bloke.

They played in the Geelong Church Cricket Association.

I then had a stint playing for Waratahs up in Darwin before I came back and played for St James Presbytery Cricket Club in Geelong.

I played cricket for The Sisters and was lucky enough to play in two premiership sides. Then I went and coached Ecklin's under 16 side to two premierships and I had a year playing with the Terang Cricket Club.

What was your highest score in your cricket career?

I made 142 not out for the old Hopkins-Nullaware Cricket Association in a Ballarat Country Week game in 1986.

I was lucky that I made six centuries during my career after I finished my playing career I took up cricket umpiring.

I umpired in the old Mount Emu Creek and Hopkins Nullaware Cricket Association for 15 years and was fortunate to have umpired in five grand finals in that time.

I then umpired in the Mount Emu Creek-South West Cricket Association for a few years before I joined the Warrnambool and District Cricket Association umpires in 2015. I never umpired any senior grand finals in the WDCA, but I umpired in Division 2 and three grand finals.

The WDCA was a pretty high standard of local cricket.

I found each club had some excellent players whether they be batsmen or bowlers.

One of the highlights of my cricket umpiring career has to be umpiring a premier league game of cricket between Casey-South Melbourne and Geelong at Terang in 2007.

It was really big for a town the size of Terang to host a district game of cricket.

I umpired with Bill Sheehan who was a well respected Melbourne based cricket umpire.

Bill had umpired for years but he said the game at Terang was the first time he saw a sight-screen made of bales of hay and covered by black poly sheeting.

I've also played a fair bit of golf. I played golf at Terang for 30 years before going over to play at East Framlingham golf club for the last five years.

I've been the secretary-treasurer of the Corangamite Veterans Golf Association for the last 16 years.

What is your handicap?

It's 13 now. It was down to nine at one stage.

What's the toughest hole at East Framlingham golf course?

I've got to rate the sixth hole as very tough.

It's a little par three over 120 metres.

It's difficult to keep the ball on the green.

The green slopes away which makes it very difficult for players.

There's only a handful of players in the last few weeks that have been able to keep the ball on the green.

Eric, what's the toughest one at Terang?

It's probably the 15th hole. It's a par five and is about 500 metres.

It's got a dog leg in and that makes it tricky for golfers.