It was a great win. We beat Merrivale by 29 points.

We had control of the game for most of the game, but you never know in a grand final.

My good mate Josh Dwyer was the reserves coach, so it was a great result on a personal note I was lucky enough to be selected as one of the best players.

What about those marathons that you mentioned in your sporting highlights. It must have taken a lot of training to prepare to run in a marathon?

Yeah, they took a bit of training, but in 2016 I couldn't do much training because I had plantar fasciitis in my left foot.

I would have to say running onto the MCG to finish those three marathons was an incredible experience.

The plantar fasciitis problem just crept up on me. I basically struggled to walk after getting out of bed in the mornings.

The bones in my foot had collapsed. I had electric shock treatment to try and fix the problem and all sorts of other things, but believe me it was very tough to play footy and take part in a marathon in 2016.

I had my foot taped up a certain way to get me through the pain barrier.

I've been lucky that after the treatment and stretching exercises, the problem in my left foot eased.

Where did your footy career begin?

I was seven years old when my parents decided to move to the Western District from Melbourne.

We moved to Woolsthorpe, where my family started work on a dairy farm in a share-farming arrangement.

It was a sort of sea-change for my family to make the move.

I would have been 11 years old when I started playing under 16 footy for Hawkesdale. It was before they merged with MacArthur.

I worked my way through the under 16s to the reserves and then the senior side.

I ended up playing 120 senior games with Hawkesdale before leaving the club at the age of 21.

Nathan, after you finished playing with Hawkesdale which club did you play for?

I joined Old Collegians in 2004.

One of my mates, David Gilmour, was playing with Collegians and he asked if I wanted to play there.

I played in the losing grand final in 2005. Jeremy Gleeson was our coach.

We got beaten by Russells Creek. They were just too good for us. I played on the half-forward flank.

Kolora Noorat beat us in the 2006 preliminary final. I never played in 2008.

Can you tell us what you did in 2008?

I went to Vietnam. I taught English as a second subject in one of the schools for six months. I loved my time there. I did a lot of traveling through Vietnam.

I was fascinated by the culture and the food. I ended up playing footy for the Vietnam Saints. We had four games. The games were made up of ex-pats. We would train twice a week and play on Saturdays. After the game, we would all sit around and have a talk and drink a few beers.

We selected in a side for the Asian Championships in 2008. We went over to Singapore for the games. We had to pay our own way over to Singapore but it was worth the experience.

I came back home and played for Old Collegians again in 2009.

We made a couple of finals in the next couple of years.

Michael Sargent took over as coach in 2011 and I was appointed assistant coach.

We made the grand final in 2011, but unfortunately Kolora Noorat was too strong for us.

I was asssitant coach again in 2012 before taking over as the joint coach with Jim McKenzie in 2013.

How did Old Collegians perform in 2013?

We had a very young side, as most of the older players from the previous years either moved away or retired.

The 2013 year was a real changing of the guard at the club. We felt blooding the young players was the best thing.

Daryl Beecher took over as senior coach in 2014 and I was his assistant.

We made the finals in 2014 and 2015, but were not good enough to win a senior flag.

Josh Reichman took over the reigns as the senior coach in 2016.

For the next three seasons we played in grand finals but were beaten.

Nathan, it would have been tough to stomach those grand final losses. How did Old Collegians regroup?

It was very tough to lose the grand finals.

We just came up short each time. The club is lucky to have a strong supporter base of volunteers and fans plus the players were a very tight group. They are just a great club.

I was in and out of the senior side in 2019, but was lucky enough to play in the reserves premiership side as I've mentioned.

You've played more then 250 games with Collegians. What does the future hold for Nathan Forth and his footy career going forward, now the 2020 season has been abandoned because of the coronavirus pandemic.

It was very disappointing to see the 2020 season called off, but we all understand the reasons for why it was abandoned.

At this stage, I want to try and play again in 2021.

I just love playing footy with my mates and I get a thrill out of playing with the younger blokes if I can teach them a thing or two on the footy field, it's great.

I try and keep myself pretty fit and I'll continue to do that in the off-season.

Having played more than 250 senior games with Collegians, who would be the best player that you've seen play in the WDFNL?

There's been a lot of good players, but I've got to say Ed Richardson at South Rovers.

He was a dominating player.