When my under 15's coach at Pennant Hills taught me how to wind an opponent by jabbing him in the solar plexes with the palm of my hand, I thought the football club was going to take me to the AFL and a Brownlow Medal. I didn't get anywhere near winning the medal, but what the Demons have taught me about how to deal with disappointment has been more important than winning a Brownlow.
The Demons did help me make it to the AFL - when Rodney Eade called me over after a Sydney Swans pre-season training session and told me I'd been selected on the Swans list for the 1998 season, I joined fellow Demon Stefan Carey in the growing list of Pennant Hills footballers to play in the AFL. I was living the dream that year - I played a night final on the MCG, and kicked goals on the SCG, but my footballing career highlight was kicking a goal in my 100th game for the Demons at Ern Holmes Oval last year.
That goal came after 8 years of rehabilitation after having a stroke in 2005, and during my rehab phase, the Demons have been with me every step of the way. When I got out of hospital, I started going to therapy, and my primary carer was my old Pennant Hills physiotherapist, "The Phantom," Greg Castle. "Phanto" encouraged me to try and stay as active as possible, so I put the call out to the Demons and they answered every time. I did hill sprints with Richo and J-Lo, Chicken gave me a home gym, Cuz got me running messages, and later water while he was senior coach, I did tackling bag work with Booker T, climbed Kilimanjaro with Clarkey, did a pre-season session under Yardy, and I coached a Pennant Hills under 18 team with JB.
And then I got to play my 100th...
I still have to pinch myself when I think back to that day - the guard of honour that went to the middle of the ground, everbody running around in "Fat 44" shirts, Boxhead passing captaincy of the side to me for the day, Jarrod Myers (our coach) starting me in the guts for the first bounce, my first touch being an airballed kick that made spin around so quickly I almost fell over...and then kicking that goal.
When the ball fell into my hands and I took the mark 60 metres out after Tris chipped the ball to me, the first time I got nervous was when I thought "I mightn't make the distance here" - I was kicking on my right (I'm a natural left footer), I hadn't kicked a single goal in the last 5 weeks of training, and adding to the pressure was the prospect of kicking the first goal of the day in my 100th game for the Dees 8 years after nearly being killed in an alcohol fuelled bashing.
I walked back to take my kick and it was some advice a former Pennant Hills coach gave me that helped me work out how I was going to make sure I kicked this goal - Danny Ryan used to say "focus on the game plan and the result will take care of itself." So as I stepped towards the goals, I made sure I wasn't distracted by the big picture, I knew I had to keep my head over the footy, swing my leg straight, point my toe, and trust the footy would go where I wanted it to. Then as the goal umpire signaled the goal I was mobbed by my team mates, and the importance of being a Pennant Hills Footballer hit me like a Phil Hare shirtfront. When I was young and wanted to be an AFL superstar, I loved Pennant Hills because I thought it was making me a better footballer, but as events have transpired in my life, I realise I love being a Demon because it makes me a better person.
So that's what being a Pennant Hills footballer has meant to a former Demon, but what might it mean to a current Demon?
I was still in High School when I started playing senior football at Pennant Hills, I was just a boy with only a vague idea on what life was all about, and when I started, our team ethos was: "Team ahead of the individual / help your mates and share the penno spirit - the club doesn't have bucketloads of money but people play for love of the club / All Demons are equal - they are genuine, loyal people." And when I asked 2014 senior coach Chris Yard for this years ethos, they were word for word exactly the same as they were nearly 20 years ago.
What sets Penno apart from other sports teams is that what makes it successful isn't what it sets out to achieve - it's reason for existence is to win games of football and ultimately premierships, but along the way, it makes everybody who's a part of it a better person.
So whatever your goals in football or life are, whether you want to be the best at what you do or if you just want to be good at it, despite the fact that it's not deliberately trying to, the Pennant Hills Football Club is making you a better person, and the harder you work on the task in front of you, the more results will fall your way.
What sets Penno apart from other sports teams is that what makes it successful isn't what it sets out to achieve - it's reason for existence is to win games of football and ultimately premierships, but along the way, it makes everybody who's a part of it a better person.
So whatever your goals in football or life are, whether you want to be the best at what you do or if you just want to be good at it, despite the fact that it's not deliberately trying to, the Pennant Hills Football Club is making you a better person, and the harder you work on the task in front of you, the more results will fall your way.
