GROWING UP IN PORT MELBOURNE Speaker at Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society, 23 August 2004.

State cricketer; VFL footballer; State football player, Port premiership player; Brownlow medallist, a Port boy through and through.

25 Heath Street was my first home then in a house near where Reece Plumbing now is in South Melbourne.

Cricket was my first love as a boy.

One day, when I was about 10, my mother gave me the money to buy a new jacket in South Melbourne colours. I went to Mr Carter's clothing shop in Bay Street near the Rose and Crown and bought a jacket in Collingwood colours. On the way home I played footy in the street and met my mother on her way home from work. Where the bloody hell did you get that jacket?, was her response to seeing me in such colours. I learned that I must support the local sport clubs.

As a boy I went to Catholic church where Father Nugent who encouraged the boys to play.

I played cricket for Port then moved on to Melbourne. I played my first district cricket match when I was sixteen.

Football was a bit of an afterthought but obviously I must have been doing something right.

In 1965 I went to Port. Port was like a big country town then. You went down the street and said hullo Mick, hullo Mary to everyone. Everyone knew everyone.

Port Footy Club had a tremendous number of supporters then.

Jack Woodruff was a tremendous friend to people around here. I gave up a teaching course at age of nineteen because I could not get enough leave for my sporting interest. I got a job at the Woodruff's dairy. Norm Goss was at Port then and I expected to get leave from Port to play League for South but the Port club did all it could to dissuade me. 13 or 14 of the team were local players and there was an expectation that you would all play for Port. Paul Sheehan and I played cricket together but we got paid very little for Shield and footy would have paid better.

I did go to South Melbourne when the coach was Alan Miller. My wife and I lived in Garden City with my parents. I was about 21 at the time. Even my wife, Brenda, supported Port in wanting to keep me at Port. Tommy Lahiff brought me a message before the game when I was sitting on the bench saying that Goss wanted to speak to me. I thought it was to put further pressure on me to stay at Port but it was actually that he, Brenda and some others wanted to wish me the best and I went out and had a good day.

Growing up in Port was good education for going into the League because it was a bit of rough and tumble and when Bobbie Skilton got knocked unconscious in that first game and I thought gosh what have I let myself into, I might have made the wrong decision. I played on David Parkin as a second rover and I managed to kick four for the game.

Roy Kemp, shopkeeper at the milk bar, was a great supporter of the thirds who were 7 years undefeated.

The old dairy, the Red Seal on the corner of Derham and Bridge streets, was Jack's place and we all went into the Milk Bar there. We used to enjoy the old milk shakes, my favourite was chocolate and strawberry together.

In those years I used to enjoy a roast lunch before I played a game. We lived at 149 Farrell Street. I had the roast then, because Dad queried if I could play on top of that meal, I used to walk up to the front room and Mum would sneak the dessert up to me. Like a cake with raspberry ripple and I'd still be in good stead for the game.

Bobbie Skilton would be near the railway gates in Graham Street on a Sunday, he was probably in his early twenties then. We would walk home from St Joey's and he and his mates would kick a footy with the kids. This must have been just before the afternoon Sunday matches. You wouldn't get near them these days.