Russell Bennett sits down for a special, two-part Beer O’Clock with former St Kilda footballer, and one of the Kooweerup sporting scene’s favourite patriarchs – Geoff Miller.
RB: Let’s start at the beginning, Geoff. Where did you grow up?
GM: We grew up in Wendouree West in Ballarat, in the ghetto as we called it, just the same as Mick Malthouse. It was a tough, housing commission sort of area. You shouldn’t pigeonhole things, but being a commission it was a low socio-economic area with a lot of tough guys. Most of the families did it hard, there was no money, but you made the most of what you had. My parents were fantastic – five kids lived in a 10-square commission home but we never wanted for anything and never missed out. It was a really good grounding, but it was tough.
How old were you when you first started playing footy? Were you just a little fella?
Yeah, Wendouree West – where Mick started. I started in under-12s. They then disbanded and we all went to Wendouree, Mick went to North Ballarat. I had some ins and outs. I played for a couple of years and then stopped playing because I was too small, so I played soccer.
Who got you first involved in footy mate?
My dad. We had a recreation reserve behind our house with Little Aths, so we had that, footy and cricket. That’s all we did. Sport provided that way of staying off the streets and my parents promoted it.
Did you get your sporting ability from your old man?
Dad was handy – he wasn’t great. He was a good footballer but he retired young because of bad knees. He played in Adelaide, where he’s from, and I think he trained with Port Adelaide but didn’t play with them. His family was Port Adelaide through and through. If they ever got beaten it was because somebody poisoned their food or something!
It wasn’t until I started playing senior footy that I realised I was ok at it. Cricket was my game. I just loved playing with my mates and having a good time.
Who were your footy heroes back then?
Oh mate – from a young age it was (Kevin) Cowboy Neale, who I later got to know.
He was a big favourite, as was Stewie (Stuart) Trott and Ross Smith, Trevor Barker was brilliant and fortunately I got to play and train with him. Carl Ditterich early on was another. He was just a behemoth – even when he went to Melbourne I loved him. I couldn’t help it.
So the way it all panned out with St Kilda would have been a fairytale for you…
Absolutely. I was 19 and had a year in the reserves for Wendouree – just on the wing playing around – and in the last two games they put me at centre-half forward and I did ok. The next year the club got a new coach and he asked me where I played, and I said centre-half forward in the seniors! That’s how my senior career started.
In 1982 we were on the bottom and in 1983 Howard Lockett – Plugger’s old man – came across to be our president and got the club going again. He brought a few players with him and we won the flag. I kicked 80-odd goals for the year and had a good finals series. I kicked nine in a prelim and that day Stewie Trott was there and John Beveridge. They got hold of me from that and then a week after the grand final they came around to my place.
So what happened next?
My mum was beside herself! She loved Stewie Trott! They came to the house and we just spoke about footy. I had a good set of hands and I don’t want to pump myself up but I could run the 100 in even time. They picked that up. I wasn’t a big person – I was quite slight – so I didn’t think I’d be the type but they said I was so I started training two weeks later.
So that was literally a dream come true. What was the over-riding feeling mate?
It really was a surprise – especially at my age. I was 23 and when they recruited me they thought I was 17 or 18!
The Ballarat blokes knew how old I was but the Melbourne people didn’t. You had two training squads – a Ballarat one, and a Melbourne one. We did most of pre-season training in Ballarat under Graeme Gellie who went on to coach St Kilda. After pre-season we trained full time in Melbourne.
It was great – I was training with Trevor Barker and the Wendouree West boys – the Cunningham brothers and Robbie Muir.
This is clearly before the days of the draft. Where did St Kilda’s zone start and finish back then?
It was in and around Ballarat and the surrounding areas.
You spoke then about training with the likes of Trevor Barker and those guys. That must’ve been surreal…
Trevor was my hero, and kids do the same thing now when they get into the system – they train with their heroes too.
They had other blokes at the club then; Max Crow- what a super player he was; Silvio Foschini, Paul Morwood; just brilliant blokes and brilliant players, and there I was training with them!
You played seven reserves games at St Kilda. Talk me through the highs and lows of your time there…
The highest high was getting to meet everybody and getting accepted. It’s a club that my father loved. One of the greatest moments for me there was when we played on Queen’s Birthday so we had to train on Saturday. Mum and dad packed the picnic basket and took me to training. They were in the stands while I was training with Trevor Barker. Nobody knew but he was a late withdrawal and he wasn’t kicking so he’d handball it off to me every time. My dad thought this was huge, saying – ‘that’s my boy!’
Trevor asked who that was in the stand and I said it was my dad. He asked him to come down and Silvio Foschini took him to see all the boys. That was my favourite moment – just the look on my dad’s face.
Playing footy wasn’t inconsequential, but I was never that confident. That was a low, because I didn’t rate myself as highly as perhaps I should’ve. Getting injured and being out a fair bit of the year was pretty awful too.
When you get as fit as I did, getting injured early in the year was pretty shitty.
I started off doing the pre-season next year and I was still listed, even after all my injuries. Ainslie rang me and said they could pay me a lot more than what I would have gotten playing in the seconds at St Kilda.
I went up there but when I look back now I kick myself because I should’ve stayed at St Kilda. I should’ve found out if I was good enough or not. That’s one of my biggest regrets in sport – absolutely.
How many years did you play for Ainslie?
I played there for three and made the finals every year. We won a flag in 1987 against the tide. In my first year there I played full-forward, but in my second year Brian Cook – Geelong’s CEO – coached us. We didn’t get on that well. I don’t think he liked the way I went about it because he’d eat footballs for breakfast. I wasn’t casual, but it wasn’t all-encompassing for me.
There were some pretty handy types at Ainslie when you were there, weren’t there?
Yeah absolutely – Shaun Smith played with us and James Hird was in our juniors.
When Smith was 15 or 16 he had a big year when Cook was coach and he was the hub of our side – he was that good. He could get up then too – four or five times per game. He was probably one of the best juniors I’ve seen, if not the best.
When you left Ainslie you wanted to coach. You then went to Ararat, who retired you after five years, so at 32 you went to Cobden and that’s where you met your wife Tania…
I’d just had a marriage break-up so it was a good time for me to move on and to get away from that situation.
I moved to Cobden and coached and got injured there too. Meeting Tania was the start of something special.
Talk me through the timeline with the kids and when they all came along…
Ben was born in 1985, Sam in ’88, and Tim in ’89. Tania and I were together in 1993 and moved to Kooweerup in 1994. Tania got a job at the school and she’s still there. Teisha was born in 1996 and Cody in 1998. Their births were the five greatest moments of my life. They’re all beautifully well-adjusted and they’re all good at what they do. I couldn’t ask for anything more.
Now I’ve got a couple of questions here, and you can blame Ben and Cody for these! Let’s start off with an easy one – what springs to mind when I ask you about Danny Frawley and traveling to and from training in the city with him?
Well as you know Danny is a bit of a character – we had many funny trips to and from training but as my boys should know some of them aren’t repeatable. Let’s just say that one story involves an eight-seater Starwagon and a sunroof.
Plugger only drove a few times but you just didn’t want to get in the car with him in the end because he’d do nothing but play with the radio – he wouldn’t even look at the road! He’d do 140 kilometres per hour because St Kilda bought him a car so he just ran the guts out of it.
The next one is from your youngest, Cody, and it involves yourself, a pub, a main road, and a distinct lack of clothing…
Oh no! I can’t believe he told you about that but, yes, it was on a footy trip. We were at the Murray Bridge pub – it’s a beautiful pub – and we stopped there on the way to Adelaide. We were having a few pots and seeing how far we could throw them into the river. Just before getting back on the bus, the boys pushed me into the toilets and took all my clothes off. The barman leant on the door so I couldn’t get out. The bus with my clothes started moving off and then publican finally let me out. I was running up the road with the bus driver doing the old stop and take off again! He did that about 10 times, and I was the coach! A***holes!
How did you get involved in footy and cricket down at Kooweerup, mate?
I followed Tania to Koowee. I don’t know if she wanted me to follow her, but I did!
The footy club rang me up because Tania got to know people here and asked if I wanted to play for them. We worked out the terms.
Gary ‘Bull’ O’Hehir was the first one to get in touch with me. What great people to be involved with! My first game was against Cora Lynn and I had a good one.
How’d you go in that game?
Yeah, good – it was the first game my boys watched me play footy here. We got them dressed and put on their Cobden jumpers – red and black. We got in through the gate and the under-18s were playing – and I thought oh no, Cora Lynn are black and red! After the game I was walking off and these three little kids came up to my feet and everybody was wondering what was going on. That was one for the ages!
It was great because there’s no way I’d have known then that Ben would come here and play 200 games, and Tim would be a playing-assistant coach.
How does that make you feel, mate? It must be a pretty special feeling …
When Ben played his 200th that was one of my proudest sporting days.
Lately he’s been through a bit, injury-wise, but he’s had a pretty good run. I think Timmy getting here last year revitalised him a bit. It was great that they could play together. My time playing at Koowee was good, but towards the end I’d just had enough. I’d finished. I coached the first and seconds. The seconds is toughest job in any footy club – that’s just crazy.
I’ve been involved ever since I got here in 1994 always doing something to help out.
What’s the best part of Kooweerup for you?
When I came here I was with people who’d been around here all their lives. I loved hearing their stories about what they used to do, and how they won their premierships. That led me into thinking how great it would be to stay here and be like those guys.
And Cody, Tim and Ben have been involved in the club since?
Ever since. Cody started at Pakenham in under-nines because we just wanted to get him playing footy instead of Auskick. Ben moved here when he was 17. Tim is only in his second year here.
Sam has played three games … under various aliases! He’s a great boy too. He was a good footballer and I wish he could have played here as well but cricket is definitely his gig – having played for South Australia and still being there. I’ve had them all play here so far and, hopefully, I’ve got Cody’s long career to look forward, and Ben for another five years at least. I’m not sure how long Tim will be here but hopefully a while.
Teisha has also been involved in the club playing netball until recently.
As well as Sam playing state-level cricket in South Australia, the other boys have all been involved in cricket too haven’t they, mate?
Yeah, Ben has played in a couple of premierships for Koowee – something I didn’t do. I lost some, but never played in one. Timmy was a good cricketer in Ballarat and he played first grade there. He won 10 or 11 premierships in a row!
Were you playing cricket consistently throughout your journey in footy as well?
Yeah, except when I was doing pre-season at the Saints. I had to give it away because pre-season was just too much.
Where did the umpiring thing start?
I wanted to stay involved with the game and thought about it when we lived in Canada in 2006.
I thought I’d umpire just to stay in the game but then I figured that I might as well get paid for it instead of sitting down watching Koowee and drinking too much piss. So I started umpiring, which is a good outlet.
The reception I get as an umpire is good because most people know I used to play so there’s some respect there.
And there’s a link with Tania and your cricket too, isn’t there?
Yeah, I took 5/9 and made 150 on the day I met her!
Ben, Sam, Tim, Teisha and Cody mean the world to you don’t they, Geoff?
Absolutely. You live for your kids and make sure they’ve got the best that you can give them and you encourage them all the time.
And yet, going from the highs you’ve had, you’ve also had more than your fair share of lows haven’t you, mate?
Yeah it’s probably something that would go under the question ‘What don’t people know about you?’ if it was a footy snapshot. I don’t like to talk about it that much as I try to be pretty private. I get treated for chronic bipolar depression, panic disorder and an obsessive personality trait.
Usually once or twice a year I go into a private clinic in Ashburton to recharge. I’m well-medicated and pretty high functioning but sometimes things do get on top and something might happen that will throw you over the edge a bit. I don’t know if people want to know about it or not, but it’s tough. The people who probably don’t understand it are sometimes the people closest to you. I don’t even know if the kids understand it that well. My sister is bipolar and my grandmother was bipolar too. It can be hereditary.
I know that’s not easy for you to talk about mate, but switching it up – let’s get to a few more stories your boys told me about you. This one is from Ben – about the time you had to stop a game at half-time to find your teeth…
Yes, that’s right. I was coaching Ararat. We played the first quarter and, unfortunately, a boy got badly burnt in an accident nearby so we had to wait for a helicopter to land and airlift him out. The helicopter left but the ambulance stayed. We started again and this bloke king-hit me and knocked my teeth out; two up into the roof of my mouth and two others out. The ambulance took me to hospital and at half-time everyone was out on the ground looking for my teeth!
You’re kidding! Did they at least find them?
Nope! They would have been crushed, I got hit that hard.
This one is from Cody again – he says you had a shocking haircut and weighed about 70 kilograms until you were 30! That can’t be right?
Yeah, that’s right too. My haircut wasn’t great – it definitely wasn’t one of my strong suits. Guilty as charged there!
What about the time you had to have a police escort off the ground to your car at Hepburn because you hit someone and the crowd was waiting for you to get off the ground?
No, that’s not right… that was at Dimboola!
There were these smart-arse 16-year-olds and their girlfriends behind the goals who were just giving it to me relentlessly. I got one over the top and ran into an open goal and drilled it right at this kid. It hit him and knocked him clean off his feet. The crowd just went nuts, so I had police protection to get off the ground.
You must’ve been crapping yourself!
No, not really. At the time it was funny – but it was pretty silly, looking back. The cops thought the crowd was going to go ballistic. They were fearful for my safety, but I was fine because I had them and the rest of my players around me! I went in to the social rooms for a beer after the game, and somebody said I’d better get back on the bus instead.
Here’s another one from Ben – he’s stitching you right up here. What about the time you kicked a ball deliberately at an old lady because she was giving you cheek behind the goals?
She wasn’t behind the goals – she was on the side of the ground. She would have been in her 60s and she was really giving it to me. I was coaching Cobden. I actually threw the ball at her and missed and hit the windscreen. She shut up then!
Cody told me to ask you about the time you took a goal umpire’s flags and threw them away. That one needs some explaining!
Yeah, I got a severe reprimand for that one. That was in Canberra and it wasn’t even a bad decision. I was playing pretty well on the backline but the ball just kept going over my head and I was getting sick of it. There was another goal and I just missed it, so I grabbed this poor bloke’s flags and threw them 30 metres over the fence and ran off. I got reported for it. That was one of my better tribunal appearances – they were all laughing their heads off!
I’ve heard you spent more nights at the tribunal and in hospital than you did at training. There must be some truth to that then …
Probably in hospital, yeah. When I was at the tribunal I was usually a witness or I’d been hit. I had a few but I did spend a fair bit of time in hospital. I’ve lost count of the incidents. As the poor kids were growing up they must’ve thought that was my second home. I had a couple of bad illnesses too though – I had viral meningitis a couple of times in my late 20s so I was in there for a while for that.
So you didn’t do your hospital stays by halves, did you?
No, they were all pretty good ones. I broke my nose seven or eight times too – I wasn’t bad on the gab, though, so it was probably my own fault.
There was another one at Hepburn where I got carried off on a door. I might as well tell you about that one too. They put me in the back of a ute and took me to the Daylesford hospital to get my leg stitched up – I’d cut it to the bone.
Wait, go back a second mate – what do you mean carried off on a door?
They had to rip the door off the dressing room because they didn’t have a stretcher. You never wanted to go and play at Hepburn. I went there a couple of years ago to watch Timmy when he was at Carngham-Linton. They got beaten by 40 goals and the crowd was still nuts. The full-forward at quarter-time had a pie and a Mars bar too, even then!
There are a few other stories too Russ, but I’d rather leave some for myself, if you don’t mind?
Not at all, mate. It’s been a pleasure.
