Red and WHITE – Craig White Column Round 16

GROWING up with football has taught me a lot of different values in life, starting out in 'nippers' on a frost covered oval in Williams at 8am on a Saturday morning to the present and becoming a senior player at the proud WAFL club in South Fremantle. The journey in between has been a hell of a lot of fun, but has also shaped the way life is for me today. 

Growing up in Williams, 160km South East of Perth, was where l learnt how to kick, mark and even occasionally handball. Williams has a great small town community who are right into their sport whether it be footy, cricket, hockey, netball or golf. It has a rich history in all sports and country weeks and for such a small town the success that it has had completing against such bigger regional towns is a testament to those who are passionate and led the way for the younger generation.

Most country towns are the same and this is where you learn to become a clubman. Each country town relies on the locals to support each sporting team whether this be helping out in the canteens, umpiring and most importantly spending money over the bar for those old enough so that the teams can generate enough money to be able to provide enough support to continue sports clubs in regional areas. 

From Williams l moved away to boarding school at Aquinas College which quickly taught me to grow up and fend for myself. I may have been a bit of a smart arse when l first arrived but quickly learnt that this was going to get me nowhere quickly with massive Year 12s making me clean their room, do their dishes and even bowl to them non-stop to them in the cricket nets without getting a bat. The quicker l learnt to be respectful and toe the line, the quicker l stopped doing dishes and getting a bat in the nets.

Boarding school for me was awesome. You had 20 of your good mates in the same house and sporting grounds at your peril. The competitive games of sport in which normally involved seniors (Year 11, 12s) versus juniors (Year 8, 9 10s) was the starting point for where you learnt that you hated losing as losing normally ended in some type of punishment whether it be laundry, dishes or the dreaded bin wash. 

Aquinas also provided me with one of my favourite coaches in WAFL legend Peter Spencer. 'Spanner' demanded excellence from everybody and also hated losing and we were fortunate to have success and win the Alcock Cup in 2002. 

From school l moved by myself into my parent's town house in Como and started with the colts program at South Fremantle in 2003. This was a good and bad thing. You are 18 and living at home alone in the big city and then you meet 40 blokes at training you quickly become good mates with and enjoy a beer with, but l am the one with the house with no parents. Home quickly become a meeting point on Wednesday nights after training for a quick shower, change into your best kit and off to Steve's Hotel in Nedlands for Student night and $5 CC Dry stubbies with 15 South Fremantle colts players. I will put this down to 'team bonding' and a massive reason in which we were successful that year. 

It was also from one demanding coach to another as Roger Kerr was the head coach of the colts and if Pete Spencer hated losing, then Roger despised it. If you didn’t like the way Roger did it then you were out, not only out of the team but out of the squad full stop. With Roger came respect, if you respected him then he respected you, and if you do the right thing he will do the right thing by you. This was very evident in the success we had that year winning the grand final over Claremont by 10 goals. 

The transition from colts footy to senior footy was by far the toughest. In one hand we had John Dimmer as the senior coach who was completely different to what l had had previously. He was calm and collected and didn’t get angry too much but when he did you knew you were in the wrong. The transition to senior footy was made a lot easier by the reserves coach at the time Glen Davies who at times had the traits of Roger Kerr or a Pete Spencer (would give a good spray) but was more hands on in coaching the game of footy and teaching the aspects of footy with ball movement, defensive running and work ethic. 

Graduating to the senior team took me about three years to fully establish myself and having success during this period made the time a hell of a lot more enjoyable but when l look back at it now l may have taken it slightly for granted. It is a credit to JD that he kept a group together for so long and did not let the group get ahead of themselves, and that was the way he coached. JD was a man manager and treated everyone for who they were, or differently in simple terms. It was not one rule for everyone because he understood what WAFL was a semi-professional sport. We had a mix of uni students, labourers, office workers and fathers all coming together in search of success. He knew what certain people were capable of in terms of training and game day and it worked. Personally for me I knew if John didn’t want to speak to me then l was in his good books and that was fine with me but he would have certain personalities that he would need to be in touch with constantly and communicate with to keep them happy and that was his biggest strength. 

I look back now and l can see that that time growing up through football has moulded the way l am today. I love the South Fremantle Football Club and think it is so important to try and be a respected clubman so that the next generation can see how important it is to the club moving forward.

We need to support the volunteers and support the club in the tough time we are currently in. I am sure the boys will back me up when l say that l can be quite demanding (90 per cent of the time probably over the top) but it is not personal with anyone is it just the competitiveness in me and my hate to lose. At the end of the day l want what everyone wants and that is for the club to be successful.