In conversation with the five men to have played 400 games at Henty Football Club

Very few players will ever reach 400 games in their careers, yet here are five men who have all achieved the milestone at one club.

Graham Scholz, Brian Klemke and Kerry Boyle have long since retired, although Matt Kilo and Dave Weston are still playing in their forties and the quintet's tapestry of tales illustrates the evolution of a club - and a sport - as well as their shared passion for the Swampies which began with early mornings in junior football.

"We lived about 10km out of town and Dad told me I had to wait until I could drive," Scholz recalled. "The juniors had just started and Henty had two teams.

"I played my first game in the seconds at centre half-forward, up at the Robertson Sports Ground at Wagga, so that was my introduction.

"I played a couple of first-grade games that year and after that, I stayed in A-grade. I got to 295 games there and played the rest in the seconds. I played until I was 40.

"I had a cartilage injury in 1981, which was the first time I'd ever done pre-season training. I think I might have hurt it a bit the year before when we first went into the Hume league from the Farrer league and that might have been the catalyst."

Klemke won his first trophy in the midgets aged six and progressed until he was doubling up at weekends: reserves on Saturday, under-16s on Sunday. Two weeks later, he was promoted to the senior side.

"I used to go down to training on Thursday night and I thought I was pretty quick," Klemke said.

"But I still remember my first game against Temora. I played on the wing and I certainly knew my opponent's number by the end of the day. I saw a lot of the back of him.

"The pace was a fair bit quicker and, not that blokes picked on kids, I saw a few terrible incidents back in the Farrer league.

"If someone was good, there was a bit of king-hitting going on. A lot of it was one hit and they would do it behind play. There were open brawls as well, which were pretty full-on but I kept out of that in my first year. Wringing wet, I might have been 10 stone so I wasn't real big."

Henty's move to the Hume league in 1980 coincided with a golden era for the club. The Swampies reached four grand finals in five years, claiming the ultimate success in 1984 and 1986.

"We were getting a few hidings in the Farrer league," Howlong product Boyle said. "There were some pretty good sides going around then and we were getting beat by 20 goals each week.

"The club hadn't won a premiership for 37 years but we did it in '84 under Wayne Styles. He coached Osborne two years earlier and I remember playing on him out there. He was a tough opponent so I was very happy when he decided to come and coach us."

"We were scared of Stylesy," Klemke admitted. "I don't know why. I still reckon he bluffed us but the three years he was here, he got the most out of all the young players.

"Dave Palmer was our previous coach and I still remember him saying one day, when we were losing, 'I'm going to full-forward' and we thought, 'that's a waste of time because you can't kick straight' but he kicked six goals. He said 'you kick it to me and I'll get it.'

"But if Stylesy told us to do something, we followed because he'd done it himself.

"They weren't as pretty as what some blokes are but, gee whizz, they led by example. They told us 'there's only one ball out there and 36 players' but I used to say 'that ball's mine' and that was my main focus."

Klemke's determination proved his downfall at times, though.

"In 1982, we got to the grand final but got beat by Lockhart and I learnt, back then, never to play in a final injured," he said. "I got blamed for losing the grand final because I was injured.

"I'd played most of the year with a broken scaphoid and we had a draw in the preliminary final so the replay took place on the day the seconds and under-16s had their grand final.

"I mucked around a bit on the Sunday after our win and sprained my ankle pretty bad but they were never going to leave me out. Craig Lieschke won the best-and-fairest that year and I was runner-up so we were probably two of the key players for Henty - but I was hurt.

"I didn't do much good and no-one likes a loser so it didn't go down real good."

But two years later, the drought ended, with Boyle named best-on-ground in the grand final.

"It was a pretty special day," he said. "The crowd was unbelievable over there because we hadn't won it for a while.

"I won a tray with six pewter mugs on it and after the game, I gave it to an old bloke because I knew I'd end up losing it. I gave him my boots and put them around his neck.

"We were at the hotel on Monday, still celebrating, when he came down to me and said 'that tray you gave me with the mugs on it, underneath it there was an envelope and it had fifty bucks in it.'

"He said 'I thought you might need that today,' so he gave me the fifty bucks at the pub and I said 'alright, we might as well sit her on the bar and drink her out.' Back then, you could get a few beers for fifty bucks.

"We went through undefeated in 1985 but lost the grand final. That was the one that away. But in '86 we won it again so we got two out of three and of those 65 games when Stylesy was coaching, we only lost a handful."

Henty took out all four grades in 1986 with Scholz part of the victorious reserve grade.

"We came up from fourth and no-one gave us much hope," he said. "We were nearly seven goals down at half-time but finished winning by a point after the siren. They changed me from centre half-back to centre half-forward and I kicked three goals in the last half.

"I'd played in three grand finals in '71, '73 and '75 and didn't win any so to get over the line like we did was unreal."

Scholz decided to go out on a high and called time on his playing career but the Swampies weren't done with him yet.

"I spent four years as president and in 1996, one of my sons was playing and I was the selector and the runner," he said. "We were playing Brock-Burrum, had a few injuries and the coach for the seconds said 'if you pull the boots on, so will I.'

"There were 95 years between us that day - I was 50 and he was 45. I went down the backline, the coach was up forward and we finished up winning. I got a black eye, though, when I didn't duck quick enough."

Boyle played until he was 44, a knee injury finishing things in 2006, while Klemke showed similar longevity. It came at a cost, though.

"I played a hundred games more than I should, the way I feel today," he said. "I was playing under sufferance a bit, especially in my later years, when Henty was struggling.

"I've got to have an ankle fused, two knees replaced, two shoulders replaced and I've got arthritis in the wrist they want to fuse.

"If I had my time again, I wouldn't play under those injuries."

Klemke and Boyle played their 400^th games on the same day and similar parallels run between Kilo and Weston.

"We grew up together," Weston said. "School, in town and football's been a big part of that as well. We played all our juniors together and although Matt's played more senior games than I have, we've played at least three-quarters of our games together - albeit at different ends of the ground.

"It's a pretty good feeling because you don't get too many lifelong friends like that."

"Dave's played in defence his whole career and he's one of those blokes who's never beat," Kilo said. "He might say he's had some dirty days but I would think he hasn't had that many.

"He's played on some really good opponents and done really well on them. He's got a determined nature about him that he wouldn't let you beat him. I'm glad he's been in my team, put it that way. I'd hate to be playing on him.

"I was fortunate enough to play with Kerry and Brian and I played that one game with Graham when he came back at 50.

"I'm a bit embarrassed by it all. Graham's a legend of the club and Kerry and Brian have won a considerable amount of premierships but I've just been a bit of a battler. I've played lots of games but I'm no star.

"Those guys were mentors to us. Kerry coached the reserves for four or five years so I played under him. I played with Brian, I was in the ruck and he played as an on-baller so I had a fair connection with those players.

"Footy's about the community and that's why I'm still playing now, because I want to see my kids have the opportunities I've had. I think all of those players have wanted to be part of a great club.

"I haven't had the success of those other players but I've made a lot of friends. I would have played with 600 different blokes in that time.

"You look back through the books of years gone past and see the names of players that played and you go 'wow.'

"As you get older, the players that have played lots, you have a bond with them, the likes of Doug Lavis (CDHBU) and Hayden Gleeson (Osborne). There's so many throughout the league that have played 300 or 400 games and you form a bit of an affinity with those blokes because you admire what they do.

"Some blokes say 'when are you going to retire?' but all of us seem to love what we do and you just want to help out where you can.

"I don't want to hold any kids out, I just want to play if there's availability for me. I love the club and it's an honour to wear the red and white."

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Kilo, 41, and Weston, 42, are both set to pull on the boots again in 2022.

"I still enjoy getting around the younger guys and pulling on the red and white, showing a bit of pride in the jumper and I hope the younger ones take that to heart and do the same," Weston said.

"Plenty of them do, which is good to see.

"I never set out to play this many games so to be part of the group of club legends, who were unbelievable footballers and great club people, it's quite humbling to be put in the same category as those guys."

Scholz, who lost his first wife to cancer at 27, had the support of the Swampies in his toughest times and has seen that love extended to plenty of others.

"One of my best mates that I'd grown up with, played footy with and went to school with, he was a great support to me," Scholz said.

"That was Bobby Kilo, who passed away about two-and-a-half years ago from cancer.

"The match after Bobby's funeral, they were so supportive. We had a guard of honour and it was great companionship.

"It's a real community gathering, a great place where people can get together and talk about different things. It's a well-knit community and everybody gets in, volunteer-wise."

"I do miss playing," Boyle concluded. "I umpire the under-14s most Saturdays and I've got a young bloke playing under-17s so I'm still there each Saturday, still involved, just not pulling up as sore on a Sunday or Monday."

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