My love for football as a supporter and player started at a very young age, I played football at a local level for over 26 years. As a supporter, I first barracked for Hawthorn as a seven-year-old boy mainly because I played in a junior football team that had the Hawthorn colours and Michael Tuck had become my favourite player. I don’t know why, but he was my favourite player.

I can still remember watching Hawthorn and Geelong in the 1989 grand final, I was at the Melbourne show with my parents and brother, I remember sitting on my dad’s shoulders when the siren sounded and Hawthorn won. I remember cheering while my parents being Geelong supporters were sad.

My love for Hawthorn was short lived as I swapped to Essendon in 1990 after meeting Michael Long and changing my junior football team, which wore Essendon jumpers.

My special football moment came in 1993 at the AFL grand final between Essendon and Carlton. I was part of the AFL grand final half-time performance to celebrate the International Year of the World’s Indigenous people.

The AFL had created an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander half-time performance that involved over 200 kids across Australia. I was in a group of 20 kids that had the yellow circle that made the Aboriginal flag in the centre of the MCG. We were the first group to run onto the MCG, we were all nervous and excited. I still remember the only thought I had when we ran out, ‘who was wining’ as most of us were Essendon or Carlton supporters. However, with getting the 200 plus kids ready for the show, none of us had scene or heard anything about the game.

When we finally ran out we nearly tripped over a number of times looking for the scoreboard, seeing Essendon up by 5 goals made the experience even greater standing proudly in the middle of the G showcasing our culture to millions of people, a moment I will never forget.