In the car park of the Rivulet Café, at the base of Hobart’s famous mountain backdrop Lance Spaulding points towards West Hobart on a sunny, warm September spring morning, with the excitement of finals football present in the air.

“You know, after starting out 51 years ago just over that hill there, I think I’m enjoying it as much now as I ever have,” he recalls with an equally warm and bright smile on his face.

He recently reflected on his lengthy career as both a player and coach, with the latter profession having now long surpassed his time running around on the playing surface.

From the Goulburn Street Primary School team to leading young men on their own journey, Spaulding progressed from football student to football teacher.  

Like a university academic, Spaulding has decided to stay on in the game, now five decades down the track.  To research, to soak in information and pass it on to the new generations coming through. The desire to learn and remain involved has never left him, regardless of his age or experience.

Every academic, even a football one, started their career as a ‘student’, with Spaulding no exception and he recalled where it all began, with fond memories of the trips to games.

“There’s a tiny little ground at Mount Stuart.  We used to catch the bus up and it would battle its way up Mellifont Street.  Those old buses, half the time you wouldn’t know if it was going to get up there or not,” Spaulding laughed.

Then there were the trips without the bus.

“The footy team and the netball team would all walk from Goulburn Street to Albuera Street, South Hobart or Lansdowne Crescent.  All the places we played, other than Mount Stuart, we walked en masse.”

His eyes wandered out towards the rivulet from inside the café and he reminisced.

“Looking out this window here, we used to come straight over and down that hill, through the bush, jump the creek to South Hobart School where we’d play South Hobart.  We’d walk up Forest Road, down Liverpool Crescent and straight down the bank.  It was easy for us as kids then, but the teachers used to battle their way back.  I feel sorry for them now looking at that hill out there and how bloody steep it is.”

Spaulding’s first coach was also the headmaster and he can remember well his first mentor’s struggles making his way to those games on foot.

“Mister Cole was our headmaster and also our footy coach.  I remember he used to huff and puff his way up the hill,” he joked.

Like most kids back then he also played soccer and cricket, but was drawn to football because of the lure of the unique team culture that football brought, which grabbed him stronger than the other sports he dabbled in. 

Lance Spaulding was hooked.

“I remember how much of a community thing it was.  Right from the start, you felt connected.  To the school, the community, the whole lot.  You just wanted to be in that team.  That is my first recollection of it.”

Such was the impact football had on him from such an early age, it was ironically the games he didn’t play that has burned an everlasting image into his memory.

“My most vivid recollection as a young bloke was when it rained, and it would be called off.  You couldn’t sleep the night before you played and I’m sure everyone else is the same.  You just kept waking up.  One o’clock, three o’clock.  You just couldn’t wait to get to footy and if it rained and was called off, you’d have to wait another week.  It was just torture if it was ever washed out.”

With the love for the game evident in Spaulding’s recollections and the genuine, thoughtful manner with which he recalled that introduction as a youngster, it is easy to see why he has been a fixture in Tasmanian football for such a long period.

From those much-loved school days, he moved on to his next venture in football, with his transition from junior player to life at club level, albeit with some serious hiccups along the way.

Through his residing in the Hobart Football Club zone, Spaulding was tied to the Tigers, but felt that it was never a realistic option for him.

The Spaulding family had strong family ties to sailing at Sandy Bay’s Derwent Sailing Squadron (DSS) and a memory full of days spent as a young spectator at the small, famous hedge lined Queenborough oval with million dollar views over the River Derwent.  The Sandy Bay Seagulls were already his team, and this was where Spaulding was destined to play.

 “Mum and I used to go down to Queenborough while dad was sailing and we’d watch the reserves and then the seniors.  All the yachties would come rolling in to Queenborough after they had finished.  All the DSS boys would line up along the hedge to watch the ‘Bay play.  I was sitting on the half forward flank there freezing with mum and I’d done that forever.  I guess I was an entrenched Seagull,” Spaulding said.

“Our family, through my grandfather, who played for South Easts way back in the day, and dad had always followed Sandy Bay.  The Morrisons, who were family friends, all the blokes I knew through junior sailing.  David Edwards, who was captain of Sandy Bay under 19s.  There was almost an implicit pressure to go to Sandy Bay.”

Even with the Seagulls ingrained in his DNA, it was not as simple as turning up at the club, with the zoning issue to be resolved.  The move to Sandy Bay was made possible however, through some wheeling and dealing at the Spaulding residence.

“The great Billy Butler was friends with mum and dad.  He came up and saw me when I was about 16 or 17 to talk about getting a clearance.  I didn’t even know what was going on, I was just told that it had been done.  I think Warren Cripps may have been involved in that, as he made the move to Hobart at the time.  We all know what a good player he was, so obviously the Tigers did pretty well out of that [as well].”

With the deal done and after a childhood of being that entrenched Seagull, Spaulding could now set his sights on writing the next chapter of his football career as a player.

Until the unthinkable happened.

Almost as soon as it began, it came crashing down with immediate effect, as Spaulding suffered a major injury before even lining up for his first match in the blue and white.

“The day I got cleared, in 1977, I broke my leg playing for St Virgil’s in the morning and it put me back a bit.  I missed that year.”

Spaulding is philosophical about it after all these years, but at such a young age and not that far removed from the kid who couldn’t sleep at night waiting for the next match, it must have been devastating.

To prevent such a major setback playing on his mind, Spaulding was given an opportunity to put himself to another use on Saturdays, which also allowed him to earn some money.

“Vern O’Byrne, who was an umpiring legend, had the Cornish Mount Hotel and he gave me a job working Saturdays in the bar, even though I was underage,” Spaulding laughed.

“I used to work in the bar there, pouring beers and taking orders for counter lunches.  Vern was a fantastic publican, a great bloke, a real character and very much a football person as well.  That was a good experience.”

That was 1977 for Spaulding. 

Instead of representing his beloved Seagulls at Queenborough, he was pouring beers on busy Saturday afternoons in the city, although it did help ease the pain of missing the entire year of football.

With the disappointment of missing the 1977 season behind him, Spaulding was looking forward to 1978 and finally getting his opportunity to pull on the Seagulls jumper.

Upon making his club debut in the under 19s, he was again struck down.  This time with a shoulder dislocation in the very first game of the season against New Norfolk.

Another devastating blow for the young, talented player, with a big future if only he could spend some time on the ground instead of on the injury list.

That shoulder injury cost Spaulding most of the 1978 season, with him managing to get back to play late in the season, accumulating only a handful of games in his entire first two years with the club. 

Even with the disappointment of the injuries in his under 19 days, Spaulding shared one of the lighter moments at a Glenorchy match at KGV Oval.

“As a young bloke, we wanted to play really well in the first half of the under 19’s so you’d get asked to go up and play reserves.  Kevin Pelham, former state winger, was the coach of Sandy Bay reserves.  We were out at KGV and he must have had a big night the night before because he’s given it to us at half time.  Anyway, his teeth fell out and they shot out and slid across the floor.  I’m just aghast.  Henry Pastoor was there, and they’ve landed underneath his feet.  He bent over and picked them up.  I wouldn’t have even touched them.  He’s jiggled them in his drink of orange juice in the cup as if to wash them and gave him his teeth back.  Anyway, Kevin just popped them back in again and continued on and Henry continued drinking.  I’m going, Oh no, this is what the big league is about.”

After the injury setbacks in consecutive seasons, there was to be a silver lining the following year, under club and state football legend, Graeme Mackey.

“I played my first senior game in ’79 when ‘Macka’ was coach.  It was a really ‘nervy’ place to be because all these blokes like Chris Saunders, Mackey, Kuipers, Des James.  These blokes were larger than life to me.”

With the Seagulls coming off such a successful period in the mid to late 1970s, Spaulding started his senior career during a rebuild phase under Mackey from 1979 to 1981, with Mackey being the perfect choice to mentor the young men back onto a platform for future success.

Spaulding’s uncanny skills on both sides of his body, a fierce desire to compete and a willingness to learn from those around him, had him building a reputation as a reliable and attacking defender.

Gary Linton took over as coach of Sandy Bay in 1982, just for the one season, with Spaulding relishing the culture and team spirit at the Seagulls.

By that 1982 season, he had built his game to such a level that state honours were inevitable.  He was selected in the extended Tasmanian squad to play an Escort Shield match against New South Wales and was due to play for the TANFL in an under 23 curtain raiser, in which he was named captain. 

After some injuries and suspensions to Tasmanian senior squad players in club games, Spaulding was elevated to the Tasmanian senior team for the match at North Hobart. 

He did however endure a tough start to the game and still cops a bit of stirring from his mates from time to time, although he had the last laugh in the end.

“We played against New South Wales and Ray Harwood from New Norfolk was on the other half back flank.  I’ve gone over and there’s this really big tall bloke, Dempster.  He’s standing on the bottom and I’ve run across to this medium size bloke on the top side of the ground and I’ve thought, that’s okay.  In the meeting ‘Sprouley’ (Paul Sproule) had said, ‘I don’t mind which one you pick up, but whoever gets Dempster just be aware.’  I’ve shot over and picked this other bloke up and I’m standing on him.  Their runner has come out and said, ‘We want to play the top side,’ so I’ve ended up on him (Dempster).  I remember the photo went everywhere, this Dempster bloke has jumped on me and taken the mark of the year.  That’s gone with me everywhere.  Every so often it pops up in the media, this photo.  This all happened in the first one and a half minutes of the game.  I reckon it was close to the mark of the century the way I keep hearing about it from everybody,” Spaulding laughed.

Despite the minor early setback, the boys wearing the Map were victorious by 45 points, with Spaulding playing a big part in the win, as the backline group was credited in the media as being instrumental to the victory.

State honours would become a regular gig for Spaulding, as his talent and work rate were rewarded, with him pulling on the famous state jumper on multiple occasions.

The return of a Tasmanian great saw Linton stand down as Sandy Bay coach and another phase in the burgeoning rebuild was underway.

“In 1983 ‘Sprouley’ (Paul Sproule) came back, but luckily and thankfully Gary Linton stayed on, because what a player he was and just a fantastic bloke.  He was a bloke that just got the job done but had a really good balance, train hard and play hard.”

1983 also had more interstate football action for Spaulding and he recalled a tough match against Fitzroy at North Hobart Oval.

“We had some really good experiences and a couple of really horrible ones.  We played in an Escort Cup game against Fitzroy and they beat us by bloody heaps.  I remember I started on Garry Wilson.  I had some time on Conlan and a little bit on Bernie Quinlan, and I think Matt Rendell might have come forward.  That was a tough day at the office.  I think Les Parish kicked four or five goals against us off a half back flank.”

Things at Queenborough were indeed taking shape and by 1984 the Seagulls had worked their way back into finals contention under Sproule.

“We played off in a preliminary in ’84 and got knocked out by New Norfolk, so we were half decent.  We were starting to get there.”

That very same year, Spaulding himself was more than “half decent” and took the highest prize at club level home, winning the Sandy Bay senior best and fairest award.

“I remember the vote [count], because they used to wangle it so it was tight and I got up on the last vote.  I got the three.  It was a game against North Hobart and I played on Darryl Sutton and he kicked four on me, but I had a really good game.  I remember Michael Elliot had been interviewed on the TV and he said, ‘We were really happy with Lance’s game.’  I didn’t think it at the time, but I remember when the best and fairest count was on, I thought I might be okay here because I played okay that day on a really good player.”

The best and fairest win was a proud moment for Spaulding, edging out some magnificent players to be crowned as the best player for that season.  The achievement was not something that he put a lot of thought into, however, until much later.

“You don’t worry about it too much.  It’s something that later on you think, well with the people that were playing, it was a fair effort,” Spaulding said.

With Paul Sproule characterised as a professional, intense and no-nonsense coach, who had played at the highest level, he expected the very same from his players.  What he wouldn’t have been expecting was a man by the name of Paul Heerey, as Spaulding explains.

“Paul Heerey is one of the funniest human beings that God put breath into and was a half decent player too.  He went away and played at Southport, was a premiership player there.  He came back to Tasmania and Sproule was coaching.  He (Sproule) didn’t really have a lot of time for Paul because he was a bit of a comedian.”

Heerey certainly proved that to be so, as literally the centre of attention at the home of Tasmanian football.

“There was a game at North Hobart where Paul was running through the centre of the ground and he’s had a bounce.  It was a bit muddy and the ball didn’t really bounce back up, so he tapped it up to himself and ran on and thought he’d touch it down this time.  So, he’s gone to touch the ball down and the ball fell out of his hands in the glue pot.  Anyway, every other player in the world would have ran back and picked the ball up.  But Heerey, and this is in a senior game, has continued running and done a pretend kick and then, in an aeroplane fashion sort of veered off and yelled, ‘Coming Paul,’ and zoomed off to the interchange bench.  It wasn’t just us laughing.  It was the 18 blokes on the opposition that were laughing as well.  A: Because it was just funny and B: Because it was ‘Sprouley’.  That’s just, no.”

Sproule finished up at the end of 1985 after lifting his men to the brink of another successful period, with another former VFL/AFL player ready to take them to the next step.

Come 1986 and Andy Bennett was in charge. 

Players that had started alongside Spaulding who had shown early promise as younger men now had the bodies and experience to really become a threat.

“A lot of the group that had come through the tougher times and were still there, now we were 23, 24 instead of 18, 19, 20.  So we’d played a bit of football, underpinned by the work ethic that Paul embedded in a lot of that group.  Andy came along and with his focus and intensity, just the way he went about it, he had an immediate impact,” Spaulding said.

Spaulding is in no doubt that the arrival of Bennett came at the right time for that group and was the icing on the cake for the groundwork that had already been done.

“I think we were ready.  As a group we were ready for him as coach.  We were a little unknowing of what was required, but we had the work rate that ‘Sprouley’ had put into us in ’83 and ’84.  He was exactly what we needed.”

Now a part of Tasmanian football folklore, the Seagulls of course went on to dominate the roster season and cruise straight into the Grand Final, only to face a Glenorchy team that in Spaulding’s eyes did not deserve the huge underdog status that so many had them pegged as.

“We had a good side but when you look at Dykes, Curley, Linton, Mansfield, Lovell, Collis, Grace, Ling.  So, they were good too.  We’d beaten them in the second semi and that was my 150^th game.  We had a good day that day, but whether it was they had been there and done that, or a jab in the arm from the second semi final.  We just couldn’t get things done.  Klug smashed us, Todd Spearman, so they had a good side,” he recalled.

The Seagulls eventually went down by 32 points, after being jumped at the start of the match and playing catch up football from there on.  Glenorchy held their nerve and spoiled an otherwise near perfect season for the men in blue and white.

Even after that 1986 season domination, albeit without the ultimate prize, Spaulding actually rates the 1988 team as the pinnacle of his time with the club, from a team perspective.

“1988 was the best side I played in I reckon.  Burnie knocked us out (of the finals).  We were 31 points up at three quarter time and got beat.  We ended up with a heap of injuries.  Billy Dunne, Dolliver, Bennett, Seddon, Martyn.  That was a good team.  I guess we just fell over at important times.”

Devonport went on to beat Glenorchy in the 1988 grand final, to become the first team from the North West Coast to win a State League grand final.

Former Sandy Bay teammate, Graham Hills, remembered Spaulding’s progress from the very early 1980’s, and then later that decade after Hills returned to the ‘Bay.

“In 1980 and ’81 I can remember Lance running to training all the time.  That would have been when he was a lot younger obviously and real keen to get going again (following his injuries),” Hills said.

This high work rate and level of fitness that Spaulding displayed was matched only by his willingness to compete which gave him the chance he deserved.

“There were a lot of blokes a lot older than him playing good senior footy, so it was a pretty hard side to break into in those very early stages,” Hills said.

Once he did break in however, there was no looking back.

“He was always really commanding the ball.  He was bloody hard at the ball all the time, there was no question about that, hence why he probably did his shoulder in the early part.  He did cop a few injuries from time to time, purely from going into the packs that hard.  He was a really good half back.  He would run his guts out.  He would work hard at training, was really tenacious and never shirked an issue,” Hills said.

At the conclusion of the 1988 season, Spaulding was in two minds as to where his future would lie, with other priorities starting to impact on his football commitments.

He made the tough call to leave Sandy Bay, but the desire to remain embedded in the Seagulls culture became too much.

Spaulding played the first part of the 1989 season with St. Virgil’s in the then Amateurs at the age of 28.  Even though the enjoyment was there, something was missing, and he made the decision to move back to the ‘Bay after the start of the season.

 “I was expanding the business and was under a lot of pressure to stay healthy.  I went off to play (the beginning of the 1989 season) with the Saints and they were terrific, but after six or seven games I was really missing Sandy Bay and State League footy.  So I went back, and I played the last part, including the last game of the year at Queenborough against Hobart in my 200^th game.”

Spaulding called time, for the second and final time with Sandy Bay Football Club as a player at the conclusion of the 1989 season, with Shane Williams as coach.

He had played exactly 200 games, had won a best and fairest amongst other household names in Tasmanian football, played for the state and had little left to prove, but the decision still weighed heavily on him.

“It had been for me, since I was 17, a staple, a consistent thing in my life.  18^th birthday parties, engagement parties, weddings, kids being born.  All that sort of stuff.  In hindsight I wish I’d have stayed a few more years at Sandy Bay before I left but it was more about the balance with work that started to really get tough,” Spaulding said.

A magnificent player in his own right, the status of the men that Spaulding played with was never lost on him, from that first senior game and seemingly right up to this moment.

In fact, after 200 games and the accolades that Spaulding would accumulate over the years, he still finds it difficult to put himself in the same company as them. 

“I’m 59 years old and I still worry about how they see me and what they think of me.  They were very, very important figures in my life.  People I looked up to as a young bloke.  That is the respect I have for those blokes and from the coaches later on, but that’s how I am.”

When pressed on why a player who could rightfully be placed alongside the champion team mates to which he refers would feel uncomfortable being held in similar regard, he found it difficult to express fully why, but feels finals success may be the difference that he sees.

“I’m really proud that I played 200 games and I won a best and fairest, but I didn’t play in any premierships with Sandy Bay which was really disappointing.  That to me is what sets the people that I look up to apart.  I’m not saying that you have to be a premiership player to be a fantastic club man or a really great footballer.  I guess to a degree you feel a bit like they are on another rung.  They are premiership players and they really set the standard for the club in the ‘70s.  We are talking about great players, not good players.”

The irony of it all is it could be argued that if it wasn’t for the injuries that Spaulding suffered right back at the beginning in his first two years with the Seagulls, he may have been a chance to feature at the back end of their three consecutive premierships, culminating in the 1978 flag.

Typifying his thoughts on the former champions to which he refers, one memory from his very early days at the club, still as a schoolboy, gives Spaulding great pleasure and sums him up perfectly.

“I remember clearly walking through town with my mates coming home from school.  I had my bag over my shoulder and Graeme Mackey walks past and says, Hello and you think, How good is that?”

Knowing he still had plenty to give to the game but acknowledging to himself that he could not stay at State League level, Spaulding knew where he was headed to continue his footballing path.

He would venture back to where he had started the 1989 season and became coach of St Virgil’s in 1990, in what would begin the next vocation of his football journey that spans right through to the current day.

“The work pressure was eased a bit with St Virgil’s because that was Tuesday and Thursday.  1990, ’91 and ’92 I coached.  We made the Grand Final and we got pipped on the last kick of the day basically, against University,” Spaulding said.

He recalls his time with the Saints fondly, and enjoyed the ability to still contribute, with less time required relative to his days at Sandy Bay. 

His playing days concluded with his retirement from St Virgil’s and he looked nostalgically and gratefully back at those who mentored him through his playing career, helping to lay the foundations for his future pursuits.

“I’ve been really lucky.  I’ll go through them.  My first coach was Doug Cole at Goulburn Street and it was all about get it and run.  Going into St Virgil’s school footy I was really lucky, Neville Legro coached for a year, a Hobart great.  I had Stuart Spencer for a couple of years.  Again, another legend of the game.  Outstanding character in Graeme Mackey, another great leader in Gary Linton.  Sproule was just work rate, work rate.  Tim Maxwell was interesting, a country bloke who could really play.  I don’t think we were ready for him.  Then Bennett came in and just added something to us and then Shane Williams was learning his craft.  If he had been given a bit more time and the injuries he had, he would have done really well,” Spaulding said.

With his introduction to coaching at St Virgil’s and with heavy work commitments, plus wear and tear on his body catching up with him, Spaulding knew that an off-field role was where his future in the game was going to be.

It would be the newly appointed 1994 Sandy Bay, and future AFL coach, who would lure Spaulding back to Queenborough to maintain his coaching progression. 

“In 1994 Chris Fagan rang me up and I took on the role as reserves coach and that was a fantastic time.”

With Fagan’s well documented success as a coach, now competing at the highest level, Spaulding is not surprised to see him where he is, having an insight into the man 25 years before he took the Brisbane Lions deep into September in 2019.

“I see a lot of the stuff that he is doing with Brisbane now.  I know he is miles developed from what he was then, but I see a lot of the core pillars that he is doing with Brisbane.  He’s bonding with the blokes.  How special they are to him and how he is with them.  That reflects exactly how it was at Sandy Bay when he came in and coached that group.  I see it as clear as a bell.”

Fagan clearly made an impression in 1994 and what was a loss for Sandy Bay became a win, holistically, for Tasmanian football.

“The disappointing thing was we only had the one year because he was offered the Mariners job and took them in 1995.”

The appointment of Fagan to the state position indirectly opened the door to Spaulding taking on the senior coaching role for the Seagulls, with 1995 coach Mick Hibberd resigning part way through the season.

“I took over and it was an awkward time.  It wasn’t great.  In the end Mick went and I guess I was in best position to take over, so I did ’95 and ’96,” Spaulding said.

After his second season at the helm and with some turbulence in recent years with several upheavals, Spaulding’s club first mentality told him a change in direction was needed for the ‘Bay, and he was only too willing to step up again. 

This time by stepping down.

“We were starting to battle a little bit and I remember the discussion with (Club President) Bill Sorell.  You could see the club needed regeneration, a reboot.  I think the chase for Troy Clarke was a really good one.  I stepped down as senior coach then to get ‘Swooper’ in and I coached the reserves.  He brought some AFL stuff in and rebooted things.  He was just a ripping bloke.”

The Troy Clarke move was not enough, however, to ward off a very sad chapter in Tasmanian football, although Spaulding saw it as more of an opportunity rather than a complete loss.

“I thought we could hold this off a bit.  Of course, eventually the ‘Bay moved to become the Southern Cats.  To be quite frank, I was all for that relocation because it was getting squashed in town with how many clubs there were and that whole Huon area should have been represented in there.  All the footy I played at Sandy Bay, we were always underpinned by the blokes that would come up.  The Deneheys, the Keatings and these sorts of blokes.  They were just awesome,” Spaulding said.

Even though he was in principle supportive of such a move, Spaulding foresaw the demise of the new venture before it had begun due to the model undertaken, and it was the main factor in his decision to not pursue a future with the new club.

“The reason I didn’t go down with them was because they basically took the Sandy Bay list with them to Kingston, which I thought was doomed because you’re going to struggle to get the locals to buy in on that,” Spaulding said.

There was perhaps another option that could have been explored, allowing the club hold on to maybe one day launch a bid to re-enter the State League at a later date.

 “In the whole time of these discussions and talking about moving, only one bloke and that was the great Roger Henderson who said, ‘Well, why don’t we drop back a tier and survive [just] as Hobart, the great survivors have done on a number of occasions.’  Anyway, that’s not how it went.”

Fast forward to the present day and Spaulding looks back at what could have been.

“The irony of it is, people like Mick Arnold, Ian Anderson and Steven Hay rebuilt the Sandy Bay Junior Football Club, in alliance with Hutchins School and it became a really dynamic growth area and strong junior footy club, which may have underpinned Sandy Bay had they survived through it.”

In 1998, Spaulding crossed the bridge to Clarence, through links with Grant Fagan and was impressed with Fagan’s coaching and management style.

“He set the parameters and there was a lot of coaching by the players themselves in the group and that’s why they were bloody hard to beat, because it was sort of self driven.”

After having 1999 off, Spaulding was coaxed into assisting Paul Burnell at Hutchins, along with Tiger Coulson. 

The move eventually culminated in a premiership win, which was satisfying, as there was that strong Sandy Bay connection at Hutchins. 

With Hutchins and St. Virgil’s bitter rivals, Spaulding’s presence at Hutchins added an extra bit of spice, given his own time at the Saints.

“There were a lot of Sandy Bay blokes there and that was what lured me in, I guess.  I don’t know as it went down all that well with the St Virgil’s fellas, but life moves on.  They’re all over it now,” Spaulding said.

From football at club level and with a variety of coaching roles in different environments, Spaulding was ready to make the step into the next stage of his coaching career. 

This next step would inevitably be into the state program.  

The transition to this state role would eventually take Spaulding through to the current day, other than a brief stint with Hobart Football Club alongside Graham (Brer) Fox, and another part time role with North Hobart in the mid 2000s.

 “In 2001 I started with the Mariners.  Martin King was coach, based in Launceston and I was the midfield coach.  That was an interesting time.  It was a real eye opener to just how good some of these TAC Cup kids are.  I think that year we saw Hodge, Judd, Dal Santo, Montagna, Rhodan, Ball, Ablett, Johnson.  There were seven drafted out of Geelong Falcons and they beat us by two points at York Park.  That was the ‘super draft’ and don’t worry, our kids acquitted themselves really well against some really good players.”

At the conclusion of the 2001 season, a footballing partnership grew and came to be very successful to this day, both professionally, and on a personal level as great friends.

“Mathew (Armstrong) got in my ear early in the pre-season for 2002 and I came on board with the Devils (VFL team) then.  I worked my way into the group and ended up looking after defence a lot of the time,” Spaulding said.

With the first couple of years yielding relatively few wins, the club made finals in three successive years from 2003 – 2005.  Spaulding has no doubts that Armstrong was just the man for the job and spoke about his impact.

“When Mathew came into footy here, and he’s a vastly different character now to what he was then, he grabbed a bunch of blokes, and these blokes were very good players, don’t get me wrong, but he dragged them kicking and screaming to the next level.  They didn’t want to go where he took them.  But when he got them there, if you spoke to Callinan, Blight, Walker, Atkin, Howard, they didn’t necessarily like where he was taking them, but I reckon they would all say they are bloody glad he took them there.”

Spaulding is grateful for this up close experience and continued to soak it all in, for his own use further down the track.

“I was lucky enough to be there first hand watching that and it was ferocious, but it paid off.  So, again it was another influence on me,” Spaulding said.

With the experience alongside different coaches starting to mount up, Spaulding continued to soak it in, all the while knowing he would have to tread his own path to some degree.

“In the middle of that, you’ve got to find your own way to do things.  What I’ve learnt through the trip is the green bug doesn’t last long in a brown field.  You’ve got to adapt and change.  That is a fair definition of professional, is always learning.”

Along with the learning came some laughs.

Due to his great mateship with Armstrong, Spaulding was only too willing to share an amusing story about a VFL match in country Victoria in which Armstrong was coaching, which still has him in stitches after all this time.

Leading up to the quarter time break, the Devils camp was approached by the producer of a local community radio station that was covering the match.  They wanted to do a live cross to the address given by the Tasmanian coach.

“I think we were playing North Ballarat.  He comes up to (team manager) Rob Direen and said, ‘Can you ask your coach not to swear.’  Rob didn’t know what to say, he was lost.  He said, ‘I’ll see what I can do.’  He (the producer) comes over to me and asks, ‘Are you the coach?’  I said, ‘No I’m one of the assistant coaches.’  He said, ‘We’re trying to get your coach not to swear, we’re going to be around the group, can you tell him at quarter time.’  I said, ‘We’ll see how we go,’” Spaulding joked.

Quarter time came along and the group huddled in together, with the local radio guys approaching the Tasmanian group.

“We were going ok, we were in the game.  I’m standing next to Mathew.  I’m holding the board and he’s giving it to the players.  I’ve looked at this bloke walking over with this big, long boom pole thing, like a fishing line type thing.  He’s dropping down one of those furry grey microphones.  I’m watching it come down and all the players are watching because it’s coming down over Armstrong’s back.  He can’t see it.  It’s coming lower and lower and lower and it’s just about level with his hat and he can’t see it.  At this stage he’s really going.  Anyway, this bloody microphone just bobbed down low enough right in front of his face just below the peak of his cap.  He shouted, ‘What the f… is that!’  This bloke has just whipped the thing out and it was like a yo-yo banging on a string.  Everyone, I mean everyone, just cracked up.  It must have come over live radio.”

Spaulding had a big impact himself in his time with the Devils, along with quenching his own thirst for knowledge, being around that environment. 

He was so highly regarded that when former coach Daryn Cresswell departed mid-way through the 2008, and final season Spaulding was named as coach to conclude the Tasmanian Devils VFL adventure for that time around.

Upon the demise of the Devils VFL team, Spaulding assisted both Hobart and North Hobart Football Clubs in various roles, until making his return to state level duties, back with the Mariners under 18s team as an assistant coach under Adam Sanders from 2014 – 2016.

After the period as an assistant to Sanders he took the reins himself.

“In 2017 and 2018 I coached, and 2019 I was assistant coach to Fletch (Adrian Fletcher),” Spaulding said.

Spaulding was typically modest when summarising his head coaching stint with the Mariners, most recently in the 2018 season when he led the team to magnificent performances against the other State Academy teams.  This was prior to the re-introduction of a Tasmanian team in 2019 as a full time participant in the NAB League (former TAC Cup) Under 18 competition.

In fact, in that 2018 year, Spaulding was named as All Australian assistant coach for his outstanding contribution to justifiably be given that honour.

From his post playing career of reserves coach, to senior coach, state under 18s coach, VFL senior coach and All Australian recognition speaks volumes of not only the talent he has, but of his willingness to embrace knowledge as he encounters it and actively seeks it out.

One aspect he spoke of which has been a part of his success, is that he is always keen to ‘borrow’ ideas or qualities that he identifies and, sees it as a crucial aspect of learning his craft as a coach.

“The one thing I do without having to think is, most environments I go into I’m always trying to pick things up.  I reckon one of the most valuable things I tried to instil in the last couple of years I coached the Mariners, with the assistant coaches was, if you see a good idea, pinch it and we’ll use it.  We did that.  We’d see different things the Swans academy were doing, or Lions or whatever.”

He recalled a specific instance of this from recent years.

“I remember we saw the way the Northern Territory boys warmed up and (assistant) Robbie Devine made a comment, ‘Gee we’re in trouble here,’ so we started to think, well they were ready to go at the start.  What can we do to?  So in consultation with our strength and conditioning staff we tried to implement it.  If you see good things, there’s no reason you can’t pinch them.”

 “I think that’s natural to me.  I’m not so precious as to want to think that I invented the idea, but I’m happy to pinch it.  You have interesting conversations with say, Darren Winter, because he’s a challenging type.  There’s always something in what everyone says to you and I’m like, How can I apply that?  If he’s saying it works for him, what bit of it can I apply?”

Another part of the learning that Spaulding speaks about is not confined to AFL football.  As a sports tragic, Spaulding is constantly watching and analysing other codes from all over the world.   This passion also has him looking for an opportunity to learn even the most minute detail and use it in his own teaching. 

“I think that’s what Australian football is about.  If you look at it, there’s a lot of basketball, a lot of hockey, a lot of soccer.”

The desire to continually learn from seemingly any source has always been strong in Spaulding and it is this desire that has kept his outlook and teaching fresh, even though he has been in the game for such a long period.

When questioned on whether he felt destined to become a coach, Spaulding admitted that it was not a pre-conceived idea when he was playing.  It was more so just the next logical step and what you did, rather than actively seeking it out.

It was, however, how he went about coaching that set Spaulding apart from many other players making the transition from the field to the coaches box.  With many influences on him that lead him on to coach, he highlights two in particular as having a big impact on him.

“The big influences on me was when I saw the way (Chris) Fagan operated.  I went along with ‘Fages’ and battled my way through and got mixed up with Mathew (Armstrong).  Fagan was regarded as the bloke who wrote the rule book for TAC Cup footy.” 

Spaulding has identified one common denominator with the men who made the biggest impact in his career.

“The core characteristic that was really consistent through Sproule, Bennett, Fagan and Armstrong, was they had the ability to make something that looked complex, simple.  They could express it in the simplest of terms.  It’s not necessarily the language you use.  It’s how you paint the picture.  I guess where I’m at now, I try to use why.  If you can explain to a young fellow why you are doing it.  Not because I say to, if you explain why, they will grasp it a lot easier.  Getting them to understand why, it gets you halfway there.”

One of Spaulding’s recent players at Mariners/Devils level, Lachlan Gadomski was glowing in his assessment of his former coach.

“His coaching style is very positive and he is very good at opposition analysis and how we can counteract them to beat them.  He understood each and every one of us.  One on one he always knew something you could improve on and it was always something simple, as he’s all about the fundamentals,” Gadomski said.

The learning from other sports was a common exercise for Spaulding, as Gadomski explains.

“At training and before games he’s usually got a theme and they very much so come from other sports.  There was definitely an NFL one, about zones.  He’s always trying to adapt what he wants to get across into something we understand.”

Along with the team aspect of his coaching style, Gadomski described how Spaulding’s coaching on a one on one basis evolved during his time in the state program. 

“He was backline coach as well, so I’ve had a lot to do with him.  He’s helped me quite a bit.  Originally it was about my kicking but then as it progressed it became more defensive and how I can beat my man.  He’s probably the one coach who has shaped me the most in that regard, and how to read the game as well.  He always said you’re not thinking about the next kick, you’re thinking about the one after and how you can be involved in that.  That’s something that’s always stuck with me,” Gadomski said.

Looking back, Lance Spaulding is aware of the impact that his time in the game has had on his life, and the lives of others.

“I wouldn’t have been the same person without footy.  I think, if I’ve got one thing to be proud of, I feel confident that I could walk into any footy club in Tasmania at any level, because I’m really respectful of footballers.  I don’t care what level they play at and judge them on that.  You can talk to footy players about footy and footy things regardless of the level.  When you have a beer after the game you didn’t say, I’m having a beer with him, he’s a reserves player.  You just had a beer with a club mate, because he trained the same, everything was the same.  For that 120 minutes on the Saturday he just played in a different side.  He still represented you and your values and your beliefs exactly the same and just as well.  You just hung out with club mates.  There were no cliques.  That’s why I love Sandy Bay so much,” Spaulding explained.

He summed up his 51 years (and counting) in the game and typically showed exactly why he is so respected around this state.

“Footy people are footy people.  When you walk into a football club and have a conversation, whether you are a lawyer or a bricklayer the terminology might be different, but the intent is the same.”

He tilted his head back around to face West Hobart.

“51 years, just over that hill.  I’m enjoying it now as much as then.”

“So that’s a journey,” Spaulding said.

Where will it take him next?

Thank you to The Mercury for photos and other content. Thank you also to AFL Tasmania, Sandy Bay Football Club, ‘Seagulls On The Wing’ publication and everyone I reached out to who was only too willing to contribute to this story.

Of course, a special thank you goes to Lance Spaulding for being a part of In an Under – Tasmanian Football Stories.

Australian football has evolved constantly through the years, but along with that change some aspects remain the same since the inception of the game.

The style of the game has changed dramatically, some say for the better, while others lament the perceived lack of tough men in footy.  Either way this change initiated a ‘cleaner’ brand of football but, without doubt it has brought with it a distinct lack of characters in the game.

Greg Farquhar finished his career on the cusp of that change to the game, where there were household names in every team.  If you asked someone in a Tasmanian street about the footy on the weekend, they would generally mention names associated with Tasmanian football rather than those playing AFL (VFL).

At the time it would be fair to say that Farquhar was one of those names.

Greg Farquhar lived the experiences that remain in the game today, along with some that are now rare.  Football gave him the opportunity to move throughout the country.  He made lifelong mates as a result of this.  He strived to be the best he could be and not only played for his state but also had the honour of captaining it. 

As the game moved on however, Farquhar would be one of the last true characters who the opposition players and fans would have a prickly relationship with.

Most Tasmanians, particularly those from the south of the state, would remember Farquhar from his Clarence days.  Most would not know however, that he had a lifetime of football in three states before he became one of the colourful and controversial characters in the TANFL.

Born in Launceston, Farquhar immediately gravitated to City South, firstly as a young fan and then as a player.  He played high school football with Kings Meadows and was part of a premiership team as a youngster, where City South players would play a part in developing the boys.

“We had the guys from City South, the local club, who used to come over and coach us a bit, which was pretty exciting.  I was always a fan of City,” recalled Farquhar.

While Farquhar played the majority of his adult football in a key position it wasn’t always the case.  This also made it difficult for him to be selected for higher honours.

“I was only a little fellow, so I was a rover and to be honest I used to battle away a bit.  In primary school I never made any of the possibles or probables to go away and play in the NTFA rep sides.  I didn’t even get picked for the Northern part of the state under 16 team.”

Then with a change in his body shape came a change in his fortunes.

“The last year in high school I shot up a bit, so I got a bit taller.  I was always good at high jump and long jump, so I had a bit of spring, which was an asset that I had.  I went from a rover to a ruckman.”

Upon leaving high school there was always only one destination for Farquhar from a footballing perspective.  Little did he know the competition he would be up against to make the 1973 City South under 19 team.

“I went straight to City South and the first night of training there were 60 blokes there to try out for the under 19’s.  The first few games I didn’t even get a run on the bench.  After that I snuck in a couple of games on there.  If you got on before three quarter time it would only be because someone was injured.  I got dropped again but I just loved hanging around the club though.  I loved the environment, because it was big then.”

Where many would have walked away, Farquhar persisted.  He got his chance and was well rewarded.

“Nearly three quarters of the way through the year I made the starting 18.  I stayed there, we won the NTFA flag and we came down to Hobart where we played Glenorchy and we beat them.  We then went to Cooee and we beat them, so we won the state flag, which was great.”

He recalled some of the enjoyable moments that went hand in hand with football success at the time.

“We stayed at Hadley’s.  It was probably the first time I’d had a drink and I may have been a bit sick.  You know, all that good stuff,” he chuckled.

From struggling to get into the team in 1973, Farquhar had certainly made an impression with his strong leap and determination, as he was named captain in 1974 and led the team that year to back to back state premierships.

“I actually made the NTFA under 19 rep side in 1974 and we played the North West Coast, but I broke my collarbone in that one.  I made it back for the second rep game and we won that one.  We also went on to win the state premiership again, so that was good.”

After the early battle as a youngster, Farquhar was now a prized commodity for City South and showed some serious potential.  Even with this success, as can be the case with a large number of 18 year olds he was conflicted in whether to pursue football at a higher level.

“I was only just on 18 then and all I wanted to do was play with my mates.  The under 19 coach, who also happened to be a good mate of my old man’s, wanted me to play there.  The club wanted me to go up (to play senior football) however, so in the end I did and I struggled at the start.  Even though I was pretty lean, with my leap they played me in the ruck.”

At the end of the 1974 season Farquhar also had his first opportunity to travel interstate for football, courtesy of City South winning the state senior premiership that year.

“Back in those days there used to be the Australia Cup, which was in Adelaide.  Each state premiership side from Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia would go to Adelaide and they would play each other.  You know the video of Mal Brown punching the Carlton blokes when playing for East Perth?  It was in that type of cup.  That year a few of us under 19’s went over.  I turned 18 in Adelaide and we had a great time.  It was a great carnival and my first big trip away.”

Farquhar played predominately senior football in his five seasons with the club after the under 19 years and remembered how times have changed from then to now.

“I used to go along to the under 19s and watch my mates.  I’d wait for them to have a shower, we’d all go down to the pub and I would have a counter lunch with them and an orange juice.  I would go back to the ground mid-way through the third quarter of the reserves, get changed and play the (senior) game.  Imagine doing that today.  They’d say, get a good feed in you boy.  How different it is now.”

Leading up to the 1978 finals, Farquhar was reported in an incident that he and some at the club thought at the time was a set up.  He missed two weeks for a relatively minor indiscretion.

“You might find this hard to believe but I’m a little bit cheeky sometimes.  Especially when I was young and there’s been many a time when I’ve opened my mouth at inappropriate times and had to deal with the consequences,” he said.

“If anyone challenges me, I will stand my ground.  When I started, I was skin and bones, playing against big strong country blokes.  Barry Lawrence came down and played for Longford.  I remember once there was a bit of a pack there and the ball trickled out just as the umpire blew his whistle for a ball up.  I’m running in and Barry Lawrence is running in.  What do I do?  Keep going.  So I go in, tuck the arm in, close the eyes and he elbowed me in the jaw and kneed me in the nuts and then I’m on the ground.  So I thought, Greg you’ve got to learn from this.  After that I started to stand up for myself a bit more.”

This may have been one of the turning points for Farquhar and the competitive streak that he played with.  The competitiveness and determination to not be beaten has perhaps landed him with a reputation that he feels is unjustified.

“I never, ever had a pre-determined mind set to go out and do anything to anybody.  It was always just spur of the moment stuff,” he said describing his ruthless desire to not be beaten in a contest.

During this period City South managed only fleeting finals appearances with no ultimate success, but a life changing opportunity came up thanks largely to one of Farquhar’s mates.

“One of my mates, Craig McIntyre got looked at by Geelong and back in those days it was a Form 4 (rather than being drafted as it is today).  He was a prodigious kick and played full back.  Back in those days Gary Malarkey (Geelong) was very similar to him.  They had their zones around Victoria, so they could only sign a couple of interstaters on the Form 4.  My mate got signed up and while they were watching him, they came to me and said, Would you like to come to training?  They didn’t have to ask me twice.”

Moving to Geelong in November 1978 to begin pre-season training was an experience that Farquhar relished, as they really looked after their country and interstate players.

“They had two houses side by side with a middle driveway.  141 Aberdeen Street, I still remember the address.  In one house was four bedrooms and a big TV room.  The other house was four bedrooms and a big eating room.  There was a lady that used to do the cleaning and another lady who would cook the tucker.”

He reeled off names of housemates of his during that stay.

“We’re talking Scratcher (Robert) Neal, Ray Card, John Mossop, Neville Bruns, Mark Yeates all staying there.  I loved it.”

It was during this time that lifelong friendships developed.

“Jack Hawkins played for Geelong and his brother Rob came down from the farm in Finley (NSW).  Rob and I became good mates.”

They are still good mates to this day and Farquhar catches up with his former teammates, including the Hawkins family regularly.  He recently travelled up to Finley for a weekend get together to reminisce about their younger days.

Farquhar stayed on at Geelong until Easter that year, playing in practice matches under the stewardship of coach Rod Olsson, alongside Ian Nankervis, and Sam Newman in his last year.  Even though he didn’t think his chances of staying on to be signed were good, he later discovered he was still required, albeit not in the VFL squad.

“They wanted me to stay in the house and play with Geelong West, but I’d already signed up with my old club (City South).”

Rushing in to signing back on with City South did cost Farquhar the opportunity for another move interstate, but it would only be a temporary setback.

“Because John Mossop came from a recruiting area in South Australia to Geelong, the deal was that Geelong would send players over to South Adelaide.   No sooner had I signed up (with City South) Rob Hawkins came back to me and said, they’ve asked me and I’m going to South Adelaide.  He said, Why don’t you come over?  But I’d just signed with City, otherwise I would.  He said, Righto we’ll keep in touch and maybe you can come over next year.”

When Farquhar returned to Tasmania from the pre-season with Geelong there was some media hype about him, as he had arrived in peak physical condition and expectations were high. An incident in a game for City South however ended up being the catalyst for Farquhar’s decision to make the move. 

Farquhar was involved in a collision with an opposition player and even though the field umpire deemed it not necessary for a report, he was subsequently reported by a goal umpire. 

In a major shock (compared with other suspensions at the time) he was suspended for five weeks, with the severity of the sanction enough for the club to pull out all stops for an appeal.  Farquhar and those closest to him thought the way the process was handled was a “witch hunt” and possibly retribution for an incident the previous season. 

The appeal ultimately failed, he served his five weeks and knew then it was time to leave at season’s end.

“I thought to myself, if this Adelaide thing is still on, I’m going to go.  So I kept in contact with Rob.  At the end of the footy season he goes back to the farm.  Even Jack Hawkins back in those days would go back to the farm and wouldn’t be back (at the club) until January.  Rob said to me that when he gets back to the club he would talk to them.”

Just as he thought he was settled on leaving for South Australia, a major twist threatened to derail Farquhar’s plans.  But for a very welcome reason.

“Just on Christmas they announced the state squad and I got into it, which was at the start of 1980.  When I was at school I wasn’t the type of guy who wanted to play senior footy, then play AFL, then play state footy.  I just let it flow, but as soon as I had the chance to play state footy I thought, yeah I want to do that.”

This first ever opportunity at representing his home state was cruelly cut short, however.

“We had a trial game and I broke a bone in my hand, so I didn’t play any more (in the practice matches).”

With the state opportunity now a long shot, Farquhar was still undecided as to his future when he received a phone call during the state practice match period

“I was still umming and ahhing on what to do and they (South Adelaide) said they would fly me over for a practice game, but I told them I had broken my hand.  They said they would leave it until the last game (before the season proper).”

The decision was made and Farquhar was away for the next chapter of his career.

“I flew over just before Easter and we went down to their home ground, which is Adelaide Oval thank you very much.  We played Glenelg and I went okay.  I was reasonably happy.  They said, yep if you want to come over so we talked a couple of dollars and a trip home now and again.  Then I flew back (home) and came back the next week to play the first game.”

“The first game we played was at Adelaide Oval and it was 36 degrees and I was in the twos.  I actually went really well for the first half, but the second half…  Absolutely knackered.  One thing I learned very quickly was if you dive for your marks you get carpet burn.  The biggest differences in Adelaide were, the grounds are good, they are bigger, the skill level a lot better and It’s more of an open game.  The reserves over there was predominately young guys.  Back here you’d have old ‘Bazza’ who is 29, never played a senior game and still playing reserves.  There was none of that over there.”

Farquhar was delighted to have gone to a club that had recent success, where he felt comfortable and slotted into life there with ease.

“Haydn Bunton Junior was my first coach over there.  He coached me for three years.  The year before I got there South Adelaide had played in the grand final and lost to Port so I went to a good side.  They were a terrific bunch of blokes.  There were about 8-10 blokes all about the same age, same relationship stage.  We went through the engagements and marriages together and we still catch up now.”

Farquhar recalled one exchange with his mentor where he had an opportunity against South Australian footballing royalty.

 “One time when we were playing Port Adelaide, at three quarter time Haydn Bunton said to me, Greg, I want you to go into the centre and play on Russell Ebert.  He had won three Magarey Medals.  He ended up with four and after this he probably got a few votes.  He said, Look, I want you to follow him around and learn a few things.  About ten minutes into the last quarter the runner came out and said, Greg, you’d learn a lot more if you were closer than ten metres away.  Go back to the backline.”

Even without the success of a premiership in Adelaide he remembers his time there fondly and finished his last season under the stewardship of new coach, Graham Cornes.  There was an event in that season that led to his decision to make the move back to Tasmania.

 “I got dropped to the reserves and we were getting changed before the game.  Up to that stage they hadn’t had a regular captain for the reserves and the coach said, Look guys as we are getting changed I’d just like to announce that Greg Farquhar will be captain for the rest of the season, which meant I would struggle for a senior game.  All the boys are going, well done, well done and I’m thinking, oh no.  At that point I was thinking, maybe it’s time to go home.” 

Farquhar came back to Tasmania at the end of the 1983 season after playing around three quarters of his games with the club in the senior team.  It was an experience he is extremely grateful for and proud of.  The opportunities the move to Adelaide had given him to travel, play the game at a high level and make lifelong friends was immense.

On returning home he then had the decision to make as to where his football career would continue.  After speaking with some old friends in Launceston he ruled out the north of the state as he felt that the standard had declined somewhat during the period in which he had been away.  The former teammates had told him that a lot of players were going south because it was a better competition.

With the TANFL based in the south of the state, Farquhar then had to settle on which club to go to and after some training runs at Sandy Bay and North Hobart, he made the decision to go to Clarence.

“12 months before at Christmas we were down in Hobart and I bumped into a bloke called Tom Crossin who used to be involved with South Adelaide reserves in the first couple of years I was there.  He was then helping out at Clarence.  My mum and dad’s two uncles were mad Clarence.  I remember as a kid coming down and watching Clarence play with Uncle Lawrie and Uncle Stan.  They had an AFL coach coming in Robert Shaw.”

“The other reason I decided to come down was they were picking the state side from here and I wanted to play state footy if I had the opportunity to do so again.”

Farquhar didn’t know at that stage he was to be placed under some serious pressure, courtesy of one of Tasmania’s most well known football writers.

“David Stockdale had done a bit of a write up.  So, what he has done is ring my old coach ‘Cornesy’ and what Cornesy has done is said some things that aren’t really true, like I’m really, really good.  So, Stockdale has put his bit in and I’m reading the article and I’m going Who the f… is this? and I thought Oh, shit it’s me.”

Farquhar felt the pressure and wasn’t helped in his first game for his new club.

“We played the first game against arch rivals, Glenorchy.  I was a little underdone for fitness because I had recently got married, I was trying to settle in and get a place so I was a little bit behind the eight ball.  I got kneed in the chest early and it stuffed me.  I was running around chasing the ball a bit and I didn’t play very well.  The next week we played Sandy Bay and I was playing on their big recruit Bellinger and he got the better of me.  Noel Leary tells the story that there was a lot of inuendo from his Sandy Bay mates saying, You’ve got a dud (referring to Farquhar).”

As a newcomer to the club with a big write up in the paper, a slow start to the season and a lot to prove, it took a long time for Farquhar to be truly accepted into the fold, but he had a companion.

“Brett Manion came down to play too.  Him and I became great mates because we’d get back to the club and no one would talk to us,” he joked.

Farquhar laughs now about the difficulty becoming in one of the boys at the time, with Manion finding out first hand.

“About three or four games in Shawy gave Brett a tagging role, which was pretty new then and he did a good job.  When they gave an award out to Brett, they booed him.  We laugh about it now.  They grew to like us in the end.  It took me a long time to adjust, coming from the wide open spaces in Adelaide to a congested game here.”

Farquhar unwittingly demanded respect from the group not long after with his actions on the training track.

“I don’t know if they would have dropped me, but they may have talked about it because I was taking a while to adjust.  Shawy would do this drill with two lots of three (players) and he would throw the ball out and you’d work as a team to bring it back, over and over.  You’d be stuffed and you’d be scragging and punching each other.  Caveman (Andrew Scott) was in one of the other sides along with a young bloke, Gary Curtis who captained the under 19’s the year before.  Solid bloke, used to work really hard, a real goer.  During the drill he picked the ball up, turned and I shirt fronted him.  I picked the ball up and took it back to Shawy.  Without trying to smirk too much, Shawy had a glint in his eye.  I thought at the time I was showing the coach my desire to stay in the side and he might be thinking, this bloke’s going to work into the system.  When I got back to the group huffing and puffing I said to a few of the local boys, Well boys if you want to get a game, this is what you’re up against.  They knew I was serious.  I was here to play, wasn’t playing well but I was going to turn it around.  I think that was the turning point.”

His former team mate, Andrew Scott remembers the incident well and the ferocity of the clash between Farquhar and Curtis remains fresh in his mind after all this time.

“I remember it clearly,” recalled Scott.  “After 35 years it is probably still the hardest hit I’ve ever heard on a football ground.  It knocked both of them to the ground and they (Farquhar and Curtis) are two of the hardest players I ever played with.  Every time I see Greg I say, I thought you had killed him, but to his credit Curtis got back up.”

With Farquhar’s fortunes turned around, winning the respect of the coaching staff and the local Clarence players, he was fortunate enough to be a part of Clarence’s senior team that went on to win the TANFL Premiership in 1984, his first year with the club.

Farquhar rates Robert Shaw’s coaching very highly, saying he drew the best out of players and was pivotal to that premiership win.  Even back then, Shaw was a full time coach and his professionalism was fantastic according to Farquhar.  His analysis work was ahead of his time and Farquhar said that Shaw made a lot of average players into good players and had a lot of respect both for his men, and from his men.

After that premiership win Farquhar was riding a wave and was again invited along to state training, which commenced in January of 1985, justifying his decision to move to Hobart.  He was training four nights a week and had recently purchased a milk run, so in stark contrast to the previous year he was in peak physical condition.

He was keen to play state football and by his own admission, maybe a bit too keen as he recounted a contest from a practice match involving Bob Jones as an opponent.

“Things were going along really well, and I think it was the start of the second quarter and Bob gave me the slip.  He’s gone up and taken a mark and as he’s come down I’ve come in and gone whack.  He’s fallen to the ground and I’m standing on the mark.  The umpire has come in and said, Farqs, what are you doing, it’s only a practice game?  I said, Yeah and I’m just practicing.  Bob is a hell of a nice bloke and didn’t deserve a clip in the back of the head.”

Farquhar went to the bench and he was keen to get back on the ground but was told that the coach (Garry Davidson) said he was ok.  On protesting the decision to not be put back on, he was reassured that he was ‘ok’ and Farquhar got the message that the coaching staff were satisfied with his game already.

In that same year there was a match organised between the TANFL and NWFU at West Park.  Robert Shaw was the coach of the TANFL side, which was basically the state side, as that was selected from Hobart playing against the boys from the North West Coast.  Farquhar recalled the weather conditions on the day.

“The waves (from Bass Strait) were nearly breaking over the stand.  It was shocking.  Horrific.  There was a massive crowd there because they hate us.  We weren’t going very well, there was mud and slush.”

Farquhar happened to be playing on goal kicking machine Chris Reynolds and had held him well, admitting however that it wasn’t the best conditions for full forwards.  The highly fancied TANFL team was leading by just seven points at three quarter time, with a parochial coastal crowd ready to erupt.  What happened next did not go to script for Farquhar or his fellow southerners.

“They had kicked a point and I was kicking out.  Now I’m a stay at home footballer.  You are told, Look you’ve got to chip the ball and then run off, but I wasn’t one of those.  Anyway, so I chip it to myself.  Reyno is standing in front of the goals.  Off I run.  I touch it on the ground, look up and there’s no one there (to kick to).  I thought, What am I going to do?  So I turn, slip and just try to screw the ball around.  The ball came off the side of the boot.  Reyno had not left the square.  It hit him on the chest.  He took two steps in and kicked the goal.  They went on to kick eight goals to none in the last quarter and I think I might have got the blame for getting them going.  It was the only goal he kicked for the game.”

Farquhar jokes now about the aftermath but admits it was not a happy trip back.

“The worst thing about it is, we’ve got a five hour trip back on the bus.  It’s not like a club, we’ve got players from all other sides.  Blokes who hate me and I hate them, sitting up the back saying things like, We would have won if Farquhar hadn’t kicked the ball to Reynolds.”

Despite this setback, Farquhar made the state side and played three games for Tasmania in 1985.  With his supreme fitness, thanks in part to his milk run and extra work on the training track with state duties, he went on to win the Clarence best and fairest in what he considers to be his best year of football ever.

From a club perspective, Clarence could not replicate the team success of 1984 and after winning as underdogs in that year, they lost the 1985 grand final (to Glenorchy) as favourites.

In 1986 Farquhar again started where he left off the previous season, in good form.  Clarence were winning games early, although this would not last for the entirety of the season.  Farquhar was named as one of three vice captains of the state team under captain Andy Bennett, who was at Sandy Bay.

The state carnival format for that season was to have four games, which were scheduled close together.  In the second game of that series, due to an injury to Bennett, Farquhar was informed by coach Garry Davidson that he would have the honour of captaining the team.  It was an honour that Farquhar would cherish.

The occasion itself however, was not without a minor hiccup.

“Davo talked about which way we would go if we won the toss.  Anyway, we lost the toss and we all lined up in our positions.  I had a rough idea of who I would be playing on and I’m looking around, looking around and there he is up the other end!  I’m thinking back in those days maybe they are mixing it up to confuse the opposition.  I’m thinking, you’re not fooling me, you dickhead.  Get up here where you belong and stop wasting my time.  Then I noticed their full forward was up next to our full forward and I’m thinking, you’re a dickhead too.  I then realised, shit I’ve sent the boys the wrong way.”

Farquhar had a moment of terror in front of his home crowd at North Hobart oval as he tried to figure out what to do.

“I’m thinking, shit, I’m the state captain.  I’ve got to lead the boys into battle.  My qualities are about direction and showing the boys what to do and I’ve sent them the wrong way.  The umpire signals to the other captain and he gives the thumbs up.  Of course he does, he’s going the right way.  He signals to me and I’ve shrugged.  I’m absolutely shitting myself.  I think it was umpire Smoky (Garry) Dawson, so he comes over to me and says, Farqs, what’s wrong?  So I said, look I think the other captain has made a mistake and sent his boys the wrong way.  He said, Greg, he won the toss.  I think you might have sent your boys the wrong way.”

Farquhar recalls another story about a later state match mentoring a young player who went on to play AFL football.

“There was a young bloke called Simon Atkins who was playing well up at Wynyard.  Garry Davidson was thinking of bringing him down to play.  I was full back, so he said, Greg, he’s going to play alongside you.  He’s only 17 and I would have been about 30.  He was young enough to be my son.  Well, in Tasmania he would be anyway.  Davo said, he will play alongside you in the back pocket.  You will do everything together.  You will train together, you group together, you sit together.  Like a father figure role.  I introduced him to the boys and we had this little bond going.”

Then came match day and Farquhar would have the opportunity to line up beside the young man he had been mentoring, if only for a short period and now he would have the chance to do so in the heat of a match.

“So here we are, the pre-match speech and Davo has got us really pumped up, run through a brick wall type of stuff.  We’re about to run out and Atkins is right next to me and just as we were about to run out Davo says to me, Greg, and I’ve thought this must be really important.  What’s he going to say?  Where’s that brick wall, I’m ready to go!   He says, Greg, when the opposition kick a point can you let Simon kick out.  Talk about deflation.  I’m 30 and he wants the 17 year old to kick out.  That didn’t do my ego much good,” he joked.

Along with the light hearted stories that Farquhar likes to recall, he justifiably has much pride in his time playing state football and went on to captain Tasmania around five times.

“It was a great honour and I would never take it lightly.  No matter what era of the state football cycle it is.”

The state form that year also transferred back to his club football, as he went on to win the Clarence best and fairest again in 1986.

Over the past two seasons he was in the form of his life and had become an integral part of the Clarence team.

After struggling to fit in to the team initially, by the end of his time there Farquhar was synonymous with the Clarence Football Club and the TANFL in general.  He had taken his career as far as he could, and it had taken him around the country and back home again.

Now in the twilight of his career and with the game evolving so much during his time, he recalled one last incident in a final at the spiritual home of Tasmanian football, North Hobart Oval.  It was against arch rival Glenorchy, involving the Magpies star, Shane Fell. 

“I played in the back pocket and Darren Winter played on him (Fell).  The guy I was playing on had led up to centre half forward and the ball had been kicked over our heads, so I turned and ran back.  Winter is leading Felly to the ball and as it has gone to the half volley, Winter has run past me and I’ve come in to shepherd off and got him (Fell) a little bit high.  So, he’s on the ground.”

With his parents and parents in law at the ground watching, at this stage in front of a vocal Glenorchy crowd, Farquhar remembered the next exchange.

“You know the tiered section (of North Hobart Oval), there was a massive Glenorchy contingent.  My opponent has run over towards the fence in front of there and they are absolutely giving it to me, which was probably fair enough.  Just prior to that my mother in law has decided she wants to go to the shop.  So, she’s walking between the two sections there just as I’m standing close to the boundary and also just as they are helping Shane off the ground with one part of his nose here, one part of his nose there and claret everywhere.  As he’s walking past they are giving it to me.”

On her return from the shop and witnessing the colourful language and somewhat justified advice to Farquhar from the Glenorchy crowd, Farquhar explained his mother in law’s reaction to the rest of the family on that day.

“I was walking past there and they were saying some terrible things about Greg.  You know what I felt like doing?  Going amongst them and telling them what a nice boy he really is.”

Farquhar is doubtful that the Glenorchy crowd would have taken it onboard.

After telling these types of stories, Farquhar stressed that they are not moments that he is proud of, but they are part of his football journey.

He managed to get the best out of himself, pointing to his competitiveness rather than polish when talking about his game.

“I was very clumsy,” Farquhar explains.  “When they talk about players like Gary Ablett, they use words like well balanced, poised, Rolls Royce and whatever.  When they talk about my style of football those words are never mentioned.”

Farquhar recalls the words that are used to describe his game style, by the person most qualified to do so, after he mentioned his running style.

“My wife said to me once, Greg, your running style is like an old farmer running down the paddock with gumboots on in long grass…  With a hint of elbow.”

That style served Farquhar well, however, but he did feel the end nearing late in 1989 after watching a replay of a televised match against Hobart at North Hobart Oval.

Farquhar recalled, “John Devine (who was commentating at the time) said words to the effect of, Farquhar is a close checking, stay at home, old fashioned footballer.  He doesn’t get many possessions, but neither does his opponent.  After I heard that and realised he was right, the game was changing, and it might be time to sign off.”

His journey ended with his retirement at the end of that season after a decorated career, playing the game he loves in three states.

“I started in ’73 and finished in ’89,” Farquhar said.  He grew up in Launceston, moved to Victoria, then to South Australia and then full circle, back to Tasmania where he earned the opportunity to not only represent his state, but captain it.

He played in premierships and won best and fairest awards, but still rates the people he played with and met at various clubs as one of the major highlights of his career.

Forging these types of friendships is one aspect of the game that remains from past eras.  Playing from 1973 to 1989 undoubtedly saw major changes to the game and so it has continued to evolve. 

“Back then there was a position for everybody.  There was Paul Callery (165cm/68kg) and Mick Nolan (194cm/125kg) playing.  There were other blokes whose ability was intimidation.  It is an elite game today where you have to be 6’2”, an athlete and be able to play in multiple positions,” he said.

Farquhar saw that evolution of the game first hand and if his career had started today maybe some of the stories would have been different, but the fierce competitiveness and no doubt, success, would still be there.

Yes, football has changed over the years, but it led Greg Farquhar on his life’s journey.  He gave the game all he had to give.  He became a star player right back in the state where it all began, and he wouldn’t have had it any other way.

References and photos:

Thank you to TANFL (AFL Tasmania), SANFL, AFL, Clarence Football Club, City South (South Launceston Football Club), NTFA and Andrew Scott. Thank you especially to Greg Farquhar for agreeing to be a part of ‘In and Under – Tasmanian Football Stories’.