Country football will always have a significant role to play in country life, according to Cobram's Peter Macheda.The three-time premiership player, at Yarroweyah, Wahgunyah and Tungamah, Macheda says the playing standard may vary from league to league, but the feeling of fraternity is ever strong.
"I had a season with Yarrawonga in the O & M and there's just no comparison with say the Picola & District league, which is much more of a family and less intense and competitive standard," he says.
"But it's still football and it's great."
Best known for being the last country footballer to kick 30 goals in a game, for Tungamah against Wunghnu late in the 2005 season, 38-year-old Macheda says he's happily retired, having played his last dozen matches alongside current Tungamah coach Adam Dodd in 2008.
"I still like to see the boys play and I enjoy having a kick with my boy, Benjamin, who is 4. Seeing the enjoyment in his eyes is just great."
Macheda, 187cm and 92 kg, was a real journeyman, playing at six clubs: Yarroweyah, Yarrawonga, Cobram, Katamatite (where he first coached aged 21), Wahgunyah and Tungamah.
He won five best and fairests, 13 goalkicking awards and also coached for almost a decade, Returning to Tungamah in 2005 with a new role at full-forward - he'd played most of his football at centre half-forward - he kicked 146 goals for the year, only to see his team beaten in the Grand Final.
"I was pretty lucky that year," he said. "I played 21 games including finals and got seven or eight most weeks. In addition to the 30, there was also a 15 and 12. I think my worst return that year was five.
"No-one at the club had kicked a 100 since 17-year-old "Salty" Parish, before he went to Fitzroy."
Macheda, a left-footer, started the round, the second last of the home-and-away season on 92 goals and had seven to quarter time before kicking his 100th goal early in the second quarter.
He was intending to come off close to three quarter time, having kicked 20 but was told to stay on and have a go at the League record of 26.
"The boys certainly looked for me," he said. "One guy took a mark in the 10 yard square and handballed the ball back to me. We kicked 55 goals for the game, of which I got 30.7.
"We had the club ball that night, so it was a big night for everyone."
There was 20 years between his first premiership at Yarroweyah in 1988 and his last with Tungamah in 2008. In-between was a flag at Wahgunyah in 2004.
He said it was a great thrill last year to come back and play in a premiership team. "Our seconds also won the premiership, the first time that has ever happened," he said.
"It meant a lot for everyone involved and the township as a whole."
By Ken Piesse
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