I was raised on a dairy farm in Killarney. We used to help, milking the cows and growing spuds.

I reckon I had a wonderful childhood.

My footy career started at Koroit in the Auskick program for the kids before going on to play Under 10s and Under 12s with Koroit.

My memories from that era centre around the late and great Koroit legend Jack Keane.

I can remember to this day Jack would drive his old ute very slowly into Koroit's Victoria Park and all the young kids like me would jump onto the back of the ute and be trying to get the footballs out of the hessian bags.

They are incredible memories of where my footy journey started.

My first junior coach was Tuddy Bowman.

We were runners-up to South Warrnambool for flags in the Under 13s and then the Under 15s.

South Warrnambool had a lot of good young players back in that era.

I had Paul Frusher and Peter McElgunn coaching me in the junior grades before I started playing in the seniors.

Before you played in Koroit's premiership win in 2003, they lost the grand final against Warrnambool in 2001. Did you play in that losing grand final side?

No. I had played in all the home and away games but I was dropped for the preliminary final and I couldn't force my way back into the side for the grand final.

Obviously, I was disappointed not to play in the grand final but things turned around for me when I played in the 2003 premiership side.

Koroit's premiership win in 2003 goes down in the record books as one of the great flag wins. What are your memories of that memorable game?

I can remember there was a huge crowd up at the Reid Oval.

Camperdown was 49 points up at half-time.

The story goes a lot of fans left the ground at half-time; they gave us no hope of winning.

I must admit I had a doubt in the back of my mind that we could come back and win when we came off the ground for the long break.

It was pretty quiet in the rooms but then our coach Jason Mifsud gave us a motivational speech.

Jason just told us we were not out of the contest and to never give up.

We got a bit of a run-on in the third quarter and Camperdown steadied a bit early in the last quarter.

Brad Cassidy kicked a goal for us from the boundary, which was crucial.

It ended up we got up to win by seven points, with Jason kicking eight goals in a remarkable performance, while Simon "Tocka" O'Keefe had 30 disposals.

I thought Andrew Paton was one of our best players. He was a very talented footballer.

Can you remember much about the celebrations after the 2003 grand final?

They're a bit hazy.

The win broke a 31-year premiership drought for Koroit.

Any premiership is special but to play in one when you break such a long drought is amazing.

I can still remember seeing the tears rolling down the faces of old Koroit fans.

We left the ground in the bus and called out to see Jack Keane at his home at Southern Cross.

It was really special to call in and see Jack because I had known how much he had done for the club and for the young players in particular.

The bus also called in at the old Killarney pub before going to the Koroit footy ground.

The stadium was jam-packed with supporters.

It was a huge night.

Can you remember where you went for Koroit's end-of-season trip?

I'm not really sure because I never went on the trip.

Koroit's Ben Evans and Mark Paton had been working in Ireland.

They came home to watch the grand final before going back to Ireland and I went over there with them.

I worked in Ireland for 12 months and then came home to play footy again.

I ventured back to Ireland with my future wife Megan in 2006.

We toured all around Europe and had a great time before coming back home and, once again, I played footy for the Saints.

Andrew Foster coached Koroit in 2007 when we defeated Cobden to win the flag.

Joe McLaren took over as the senior coach in 2008 and we made the preliminary final before we went on to win the premiership in 2009.

We defeated Warrnambool to win the flag in 2009. I'll never forget that game. Ben Goodall just dominated for the Saints. Ben has been an unassuming player who has had an amazing career.

Was that the end of your footy career after Koroit's 2009 premiership success?

I was going to retire when the 2009 season ended but I ended up playing for Old Collegians in 2010 and 2011.

My brother Jeremy was the coach. We lost the grand final in 2010 by eight points after being 10 goals down.

My body was buggered at the end of 2011, so I hung up my boots.

Away from the footy, did you play any other sports?

I played a bit of cricket down at Killarney.

I was lucky to have played in a B Grade premiership with good mates, including Damien Brooks, David Gilmour and Steve Brooks.

I have always had a love for the sea since growing up at Killarney and have been fortunate to have been surfing in lots of places around the world.

We were living in Koroit while building a house in Port Fairy last year.

We decided to move to Port Fairy on Boxing Day last year for a month but have decided to stay. We just love the Port Fairy lifestyle.

Our children just love surfing at East Beach.