IT WAS as a 17-year-old that Kangaroo Flat champion Ron Wicks played his very first senior game for the Roos.

And 18 years later as the 2001 BFNL season reached the last few matches of the home-and-away rounds Ronnie ran out for his 300th.

The Roos played Gisborne at Beck Legal Oval --- then simply known as Dower Park --- in an important clash with the finals only a few weeks away.

The Graveyard Dogs had an important late withdrawal. Full-forward Steven Reaper was unable to take his place in the line-up.

They had more than an able replacement, however, as club champion Luke Saunders took Reaper's place.

Wicks was featured in a double page spread in the Friday Advertiser leading up to the match.

And he had a pretty simple secret to pass on to young players hoping to emulate his stellar achievement.

"Make sure you get enough sleep," Wicks told the Addy.
The decorated midfielder who won the Michelsen Medal in 1993, polling 24 votes, said putting the head on the pillow counted for a lot.

"I've had to go to bed at 8pm leading up to footy weekends for the last 50 games just to make it to 300," he said.

WICKS praised coach Derrick Filo for the Flat's successful period at the end of the Nineties and into the Noughties.
He added it was great to win more games than the club lost.
The 2001 season marked Wicks' eighth appearance in BFNL finals from 19 seasons.

"We got to the finals quite often, but then again we bowed out pretty quick," he recalled.

But that wasn't the case in 1996, three years after the Roo champion wingman had won the Michelsen.

It's the premiership year he remembers fondly, even though there's a special place in the memory for Michelsen night.
"Winning the medal is certainly one of the highlights of my career, but it does play second fiddle to being part of a premiership team," he recalled, casting his mind back to the grand final win over Kyneton.

"I feel happier when the team does well. More so than an individual thing.

"I was probably playing pretty good footy although we didn't have a real strong side (when I won the Michelsen)."
Then his tone changed as he remembered the golden year of '96, the win in the Big Dance made even sweeter following years of playing in losing Kangaroo Flat teams.

"It was the best year without a doubt. I put that down to a lot of years when we were down and not having a lot of success."
Another string to Wicks' bow was winning his fourth club best and fairest award in a tie with flag-winning coach Simon Jorgensen.

LET'S return to Ron's management of his body as he moved from the 250-game milestone to the magic 300th.
"Nowadays I struggle to walk (after a Saturday game) on Sundays and even on Mondays.

"I'm just starting to come good on the Tuesdays so I usually go to the pool. Derrick has been really good in letting me do what I see best for my recovery.

"If I'm up to it I'll train, so by Thursdays I like to be training 100 per cent so I know I'll be right for the Saturdays."
Wicks added the 2001 Flat match committee had prolonged his career by using the three-man interchange bench to keep him fresh.

"I've been looked after well. I spend a bit of time on the bench these days and that has definitely helped me reach this milestone.
"It's been good for team balance. A lot of people have been getting stuck into the match committee about keeping me on the bench, but I'm not whingeing about it," he smiled.
Wicks told the Addy he would wait until early 2002 to determine whether he'd keep playing.

"If I'm feeling okay and everything is hanging together I'll look to do another pre-season and have another crack."
Wicks added he'd been extremely fortunate on the injury front throughout his decorated career.

"The worst injury was when I broke my scaphoid bone (in the wrist, below the thumb) during the last game of 1993," Wicks said.

"I had that operated on and I actually missed half the next season because of it and the recovery time needed."

A NUMBER of clubs throughout the region had their eyes peeled for recruits throughout Ron's reign with the Roos.
The gun midfielder had cash thrown his way in many attempts to lure him from the Flat.

He never left the Roo pouch, but perhaps he was closer to leaving than many footy followers around the district might know.

In the 1987 pre-season Marong tried to lure Wicks with a large cash offer and he came close to becoming a Panther.
"I did actually try to leave," Wicks remembers. "It was when Phil Carman was coaching and there was a mass exodus from the Flat club.

"Everybody seemed to be leaving for one reason or another.
"I had an offer to go to Marong (in the Loddon Valley league), but I lost my clearance on appeal and stayed at the Flat.
"That was the only year I wanted to go. I suppose it was because a lot of my mates were leaving at the time.

"In 1986 we had copped floggings and in '87 I ended up staying and we still copped a flogging most weeks.
"I thought --- one day we're going to get better and it (a flag) might happen here. It did, but it took a long, long time."
Staying a Roo in 1987 had a huge impact on Ron's ultimate career. Just 21, that season marked the first of his five club best and fairest awards.

Wicks' form was also noticed by inter-league selectors who picked him for his first outing in the Blue and Gold Guernsey in 1989.

It was also the year Bendigo --- under coach Neville Strauch and on-field skipper Brendan Hartney --- won the Division 1 country championship.

WICKS recalls the huge honour he felt being selected to play for the league and the great thrill he and teammates felt when Bendigo beat Geelong at the QEO.

"That was a really special moment," he said.
Nevertheless, the Flat veteran commented the inter-league concept needed far more commitment from BFL players to survive.

"Once there was not one player who didn't want to play. Everyone was dying to get into the BFL Blue and Gold side." Wicks said.

"You need everyone committed for the concept to work. It tales only a few people not wanting to be part of it to make it harder on all the others."

And he said he hoped the desire to represent the league continued so that the 'gun' younger players would have an opportunity to represent the BFNL.

[Later in the Noughties, the inter-league concept received a huge boost under representative coach Jeff 'Joffa' Brennan who took the BFNL to landmark victories over Ballarat and Gippsland as the Blue and Gold rose from the depths to the top half-dozen in country Victoria.]

Following the Flat-Gisborne Round 16 game 13 seasons back, 250 people packed the Kangaroo Flat Sports Club for a testimonial dinner for Ron Wicks.

The Roo legend said while it was a trifle overwhelming it was also a tremendous honour to be recognized by so many people and added he believed the dinner would serve as a reunion with "all my old teammates and friends."

THE Ron Wicks file
August 2001: 300 games.
Debut: versus YCW at Backhaus Oval, 1983.
Age: 17
Premiership: 1996.
Club best and fairests: 1987, 1989, 1993, 1996 and 1998.
Michelsen Medal: 1993.
Inter-league: 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993.
Inter-league premiership: BNFL, Division 1 1989.

BFL 300 Club (as at August, 2001)
Ron Cawthan (Castlemaine), Alan 'Bruiser' Williams (Eaglehawk), Gary Evans (Eaglehawk, Northern United), Neil 'Darby' Monro (Eaglehawk, Kennington), Garry Mountjoy (Golden Square, Northern United), Peter 'Charger' Davey (Golden Square), Peter Moroni (Golden Square), Fred Trewarne (Eaglehawk), Brendan Keane (Eaglehawk, Sandhurst), Ron Wicks (Kang. Flat).

*In 2007 Wicks' former coach Derrick Filo (Castlemaine, Kyneton, Kangaroo Flat, Eaglehawk) joined the BFNL 400 senior game club. Ronnie Wicks finished on 392 games.

Richard's tips for Round 14: Storm by 51, Dragons by 32, Square by 27, Gisborne by 40 and Eaglehawk by 35.
Season tally for 2014: 54.

By Richard Jones