Peter Street doesn’t go unnoticed. At 211cm, he is the equal-tallest AFL player ever recorded, leading him to be easily identifiable while roaming the streets of Footscray as a detective since finishing his playing days in 2008. The 37-year-old chats to AFLPlayers.com.au about his AFL and Victorian Police career.

It was reported a few years ago that you joined Victoria Police, are you still there now?

Yeah, except I’m a detective now and have been for just over three years while being a police officer for around eight years. I’m based out at Footscray.

When did the passion to become a police officer begin to surface for you?

Towards the end of my career and more specifically in my last year, I was able to do some work experience at the Footscray department and I loved it so I figured I’d give it a crack when I finished up with football and here I am.

So did the thought only enter your mind in your last year or was it there perhaps as a kid?

No, not as a kid. I always wanted to play football growing up but after being in the AFL system for a bit, I realised I needed to figure out what I was going to do.

I dabbled at university with primary school teaching and hated it but policing always interested me. It wasn’t until my last two years in the AFL where I thought it might be something I consider doing as a career.

What is it about the job that you enjoy?

It’s not the same every day — it’s always different. When you go to work, you don’t know what you’re going to get. It’s not dissimilar to a footy club environment where you work with other people and in teams and I enjoy that aspect.

Does the AFL club environment become so routine that you know what you’re going to get each day?

A little bit. The aspect of training and all that stuff is routine but obviously on game day you don’t know what you’re going to get. With VicPol, you’re continually learning on the job and there’s so many courses you need to undertake within the force.

You can never quite become an expert at it all and there’s plenty of different career paths within the Victorian Police.

All jobs have their downfalls, is that the same as being a police officer?

I like being a detective more than being in uniform. With uniform, there’s a lot of rushing around and answering a lot of phone calls, whereas as a detective, you have a bit more time to investigate and the freedom to be more in-depth.

I actually enjoy dealing with victims because they rely on you to help them out — I like the responsibility. I find it satisfying to track down people and come up with results — it’s a rewarding job.

What do you enjoy more, policing or footy?

I loved playing footy, but towards the end, although it was still fun, It wasn’t as fun. It’d be a lot worse these days. When I finished in 2008, social media was in its infancy and there are a lot of pressures on footballers these days so I might’ve struggled. Towards the end, I probably didn’t enjoy it as much.

I loved playing but it’s a hard one. The career I’m in now will be the one I’m in for the next 20 or 30 years and I’d say I enjoy both footy and being a detective equally.

Let’s move onto your footy career then. Where and how did that journey to the AFL first begin for you?

I’m from Tasmania and I played footy all through the junior ranks there. I played TAC Cup with the Tassie Mariners when they were still around and was drafted to Geelong in 1998, where I still live now, I never moved away even when I went to the Bulldogs. I spent five years at the Cats and five years at the Dogs.

It was a smooth transition for me to go from footy into work in another industry.

So when you were a little tacker running around Hobart, what made you get involved in footy in the first place?

Footy was really the only thing you’d do as a kid. Tassie is a massive AFL state so there wasn’t really another choice than footy. When I started becoming quite tall, there was interest to play basketball but I never considered it — it was always footy for me.

Click here to read the remainder of AFL Player's chat with Peter Street.