I WON’T lie. I have always wanted to break Yarrawonga’s goalkicking record since I joined the club but doing it was even more special than I thought it would be.
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It’s not the biggest bag of goals I’ve ever kicked but it’s definitely close to the most memorable.
To have a club legend like Frank Seymour there watching and his wife come up to me after the game was pretty special.
Frank’s record lasted more than 50 years, so for his wife to come up with a tear in her eye after the game and give me a hug reminded me how much things like that mean.
Frank isn’t one for the limelight but he came down to say congratulations at training this week which meant a lot.
I don’t think I’d be so happy if someone beats one of my records.
Apparently Beau Seymour was telling all the boys down in the backline he was going to come up and play on me as well on Saturday when I was getting close to breaking his grandad’s record.
Sorry, Beau.
Petts was pretty quick to tell everyone after the game he had kicked seven as well but nobody really cared.
It was just an awesome way for us to finish off our last game at home for the year.
Now we’re just keen for the finals to start.
Lavi is going to be even tougher to beat than last time but us Pigeons love this time of year.
I can’t wait.
XAVIER Leslie got me to do a couple of things over the past week that none of my coaches in the AFL ever could.
I had an ice-bath on Tuesday and passed the ball in the goal square on Saturday.
The ice bath wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be but giving away a goal definitely hurt.
If it was anyone other than Xave, I don’t think I would have.
Xave was one of the first guys I met when I decided to play at Yarra three years ago and it didn’t take me long to work out he is a top-line bloke.
He was pretty quick to tell me he came down to Carlton for a run during a pre-season once and I was like “yeah, sure mate” but it turns out he actually did.
I thought he was just pumping his own tyres up.
Having spent three years with the Pigeons now, it’s not hard to see why.
He’s nearly got me killed a couple of times with his kicks inside 50 but I love playing in the same team as him.
There’s nothing of him — his forehead is bigger than his body — but Xave is always at the bottom of the packs and doing the stuff teammates love.
He’s our skipper now Drewy is out injured and it’s hard to think of many guys in our side who lead better by example.
After Craig Ednie, Xave is probably the most favourite son we’ve got at the club and tomorrow he joins Craig’s dad, Russ, in the 200 club which I’m sure they’ll give Craig plenty of stick about.
He is just one of four guys to play 200 games at Yarra, which is a pretty amazing effort.
Can he win a fourth flag?
I sure hope so.