Wodonga's 1997 recruit Michael McGregor kicked 109 goals

Wodonga's Tasmanian recruit kicked 109 goals in 1997 and won the best and fairest.

He got plenty and gave just as much to opposition players and fans, earning one trip to the tribunal.

He represented the O and M in its Victoria Country Championship win at Geelong, but after a whirlwind season, was gone.

However, Wodonga was just two hours from keeping him.

"I'd only had casual work and I kept saying to the club, 'you need to get me a job'," he said from Hobart this week.

"I was 28 and starting to contemplate where I was going in life. The job didn't have to be anything great, it just had to have some future in it.

"I wanted to play at the club, but the work situation had to get sorted."

The strongly-built forward had returned home to have his wisdom teeth removed and Southern Districts offered him a job at Mitre 10, the club's major sponsor.

He had 48 hours to decide, so rang Wodonga immediately.

"Unfortunately for me and I still regret it, Southern Districts rang me first on the Friday and said, 'we need a decision', and I went, 'alright, I'll take it' and, sure enough, Wodonga rang me two hours later and offered me a job at Moore Paragon (printing firm)," he said.

Known as "Jock", McGregor's O and M stint was over after averaging almost six goals per game.

"I had made some really good friends, I loved the club, I loved the footy environment," he said.

"I was pretty disappointed about it actually, I would loved to have had another couple of years up there and who knows what would happen."

When you're the high-profile forward recruit, the whole league is watching.

"There had been a couple of boys come up from 'Tassie' and hadn't really set the world on fire," he explained.

"I hadn't done much in the 'praccie' games and wasn't great in either round one or two."

"In round four, we were playing Wangaratta Rovers and they were a pretty good side and we beat them and I kicked nine goals and it was probably a turning point for me because they realised that I could actually play."

He kicked eight in rounds six and eight against Yarrawonga and Corowa-Rutherglen respectively and landed a career-high 17 against Wangaratta (he actually kicked 17.11, 'Snowy' Osborne holds the league record with 23 for Albury in 1928).

He was predominantly a lead and mark forward, but at 187cms and 98kgs, was also strong enough to pack mark.

And McGregor was not only having an impact with his footy, he was also making his mark on opponents.

"Like all good backmen if they clipped me, I'd tell them, 'that's fine, I might let you get to the next one first' and give them one back, it's probably not as raw as that these days," he said.

"I've always said this through coaching to good players, if you're getting targeted it's because you're a good player. Don't take it as a negative and make sure the person who's targeting you knows that. 'Your coach has obviously told you to have a crack at me because I'm better than you and you can't beat me to the ball, so you've got to beat me with the crap and that's not going to work either'.

"The physical side was part of the enjoyment of the game, it was the crunch or the hit, it was nothing dirty mind you."

And it was certainly physical when McGregor played his first match against the Bulldogs' fierce cross-town rivals, Wodonga Raiders.

"I remember in that game I just got pummeled pillar to post, every time I went for the ball I got thumped, but that's fun, I really enjoyed it to be honest," he offered.

McGregor also had fun in the social stakes, which only added to his reputation as an entertainer and a player the fans used to either love or hate.

"A lot of the reasons I played footy was for the social side of it, we probably pushed the curfew on a Tuesday night," he laughed.

Wodonga fell to North Albury in the elimination final, although McGregor returned to the Riverina in 2000 when he captained Tasmania at the Australian Country Championships in Wagga.

Interestingly, his stint at Southern Districts flopped, so the then 30-year-old went out coaching.

"I was probably a bit of a loose character (spoken like a true flashy full-forward in those days), it didn't seem like the perfect fit," he said.

Twenty-one years later, he's still at it, coaching a handful of premierships at a host of clubs and playing a stack of finals, even taking on former Carlton mentor Brendon Bolton at one stage.

And not only that, he was still playing senior footy until 42 and kicking around 85 goals per season.

Interestingly, McGregor is fitter now than at Wodonga.

"I probably wasn't as fit as I could have been, but was fitter than I had been at Sandy Bay (former club)," he said.

"I've been down around 88kgs for the last five or six years."

In that time, McGregor represented Australia, playing for the Super Rules (over 35s) team against England and Ireland.

McGregor now works with ex-Collingwood player Craig Kelly's company TLA Worldwide, selling merchandise and apparel to footy clubs.

His wife Barbara is the deputy chief of staff to Premier Peter Gutwein and the couple has two children, Alice, 12, and James, 11.

"I couldn't stress it enough, if I had my time again and that decision (to leave Wodonga for Tasmania) was in front of me, I would have made it the other way," he said.

"I still think 'Denno' (then Wodonga coach Darren Denneman) is one of the best coaches I've ever had.

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"I still keep an eye on how the club is going every week and regret the fact that I've never got back up there."

It might be 23 years, but Wodonga's strong supporter base will never forget "Jock" McGregor's stunning season.