FOOTBALL

MID GIPPSLAND

BY BLAKE METCALF-HOLT

 

AFTER 50 years’ service, Thorpdale Football-Netball Club co-president Keith Pickering still hasn’t learnt to say ‘no’.

Pickering was honoured with enshrinement into the Mid Gippsland Football-Netball League Hall of Fame at the league’s season launch.

The 344-game clubman and past Barry McKenzie Award (for outstanding service and commitment to their club) recipient, has served virtually every role at Thorpdale FNC from committee level to maintenance duties across the club.

Pickering said his biggest “downfall is I can’t say no”.

“(It was) an honour to be amongst Charlie Cauchi, Rod Lucas, Peter Rennie, and David Balfour, these blokes on the Hall of Fame,” he said.

“There’s not that many, and it’s not that easy to get into and I was very, very surprised. I can’t thank the league enough, the league’s been fantastic to me.”

During his 50-year involvement with the Blues, Pickering has been president for nine years, vice president for 10, social club president for three, umpired reserves matches for more than 20 years, and completed every single other job you can think of that needs doing.

A Thorpdale FNC life member and MGFNL delegate for 12 years are others of key note for Pickering.

Initially venturing to the club in 1974 for his final year of thirds (under 17s competition at the time), Pickering was immediately infatuated by the people and the environment.

“Once I played, I was hooked. The next year I trained every night, I drove home from work every night of the year and never got a seconds game, not one. So that made me very determined that I was going to make it sooner or later,” he said.

Eventually, success would come for Pickering on the field, as he played in Thorpdale’s 1985 reserves premiership and was runner-up in the league best-and-fairest.

Over the course of time, once his kids began to grow and football began to take hold of them also, it only made Pickering want to be involved more.

“I was president of Central Gippsland (Junior Football League) for two years, I was vice president for Mirboo North Cats (Junior Football Club) for two years as well, and I probably umpired up to three games a weekend for the Cats when (my kids) were playing,” he said.

“It was just one of those things, it was my outlet doing things in sport.”

With the Blues’ board sensing that a new phase needed to occur at the club, Pickering convinced his son Ray to return to Thorpdale as senior coach in 2018.

Pickering has had all four of his children play at the club in both football and netball, with his son Shannon regularly in the senior team over the last decade.

Thorpdale entered a new era last weekend, with Daniel Taylor at the helm, after Ray Pickering exited after seven years as coach, moving to Catani, while Jason Carpinteri and Pickering remain as dual presidents.