By Nick Creely
Sean Roach is the engine of the Officer Senior Football Club.
When the lion-hearted ruckman crosses the white line on the football field each Saturday, he drags his teammates along, inspires them and brings out the best of those around him through sheer will.
It’s going to be part of his legacy when he does eventually hang up the boots.
The 35-year-old is a journeyman of suburban football – who with all the severe injuries and self-doubt – will never give up until his football club is in a position to once again be a powerhouse.
“I love the competiveness, I love every single contest – every step forward is a challenge, and I love that I’m out there and able to play,” he told the Gazette with a big grin.
“I’m heavier than I’ve ever been, and that goes against the fact that I’m playing the best footy of my career, but it’s my competiveness and ability to want to drive and drag my teammates along that’s keeping me going.
“I love the brutality of it, and jumping in and being able to feel like every contest means something.”
Roach – who is now playing arguably the finest football of his career in the last two seasons – started his career like every football crazed kid, with the desire to be noticed, and eventually drafted.
He was just 17 when he first played senior football with Vermont in 2001 under ex-Melbourne footballer Andrew Lamprill, and was listed for TAC Cup outfit Oakleigh Chargers. But as he so candidly recalls, things didn’t pan out as expected.
“I had a successful junior career, and I thought, this will be easy, I’ll go to the Oakleigh Chargers and then I’ll get drafted, and I’ll play 200 games, and that’ll be it,” he said.
“When that never happens, you start panicking and you don’t know what to do yourself – I never even gave myself the opportunities, I was a hot-headed young fella, and made some poor decisions, on and off-field.
“I was arrogant, and I couldn’t be told, I always knew better than anyone else. It’s not a great recipe for success, and I didn’t have the ability to back it up.”
His time at Vermont came to an abrupt end after falling out of favour in the seniors, and sought a fresh start in order to pursuit a premiership – something that still eludes him to this day.
“The biggest thing for me was being dropped for a couple of premierships, I never got the chance to play in one,” he said.
“That’s a rare stat, I’m one of only a handful of blokes to play a certain amount of senior games without a flag, and that still grates me today that I’ve never found one.
“I decided at 21, when I was overweight, I didn’t want to do the training – David Banfield, a fantastic coach, was playing me in the twos, and recruited a few big blokes, and I thought I’d had it.
“I thought I’d go and play under Steve Parsons, an ex-Richmond footballer, at Ringwood, which started well enough – I got 10 games in, and blew my knee out, it was a bad one, ACL, PCL, medial and broken leg.
“It was a long journey back, almost 18 months on the sidelines.
“I had an invite to go down to Port Melbourne and have a run around. I think I only lasted a couple of sessions, before they told me not to bother coming back.”
His return to Ringwood under Parsons yielded some strong results, with the help of his father Steve helping him overcome some of his early adulthood immaturity.
“I was probably noticeably less agile, but started to play some really good football at centre half back, just running in straight lines, and as I got fitter and stronger, opposition started playing on me, and not me on them,” he said.
“Steve was a great mentor for me, and by that time, Dad (Steve) had got involved – Dad’s an ex-league footballer, and I always looked up to him as the pedestal of what you want to achieve.”
But injuries – an all too common theme in his career – took its toll when he made his way to Knox in 2008 in order for another fresh challenge.
Roach blew his knee out in his first game, missing another 12 months of football, returning to the field at 26 and just not enjoying his football.
But that insatiable thirst to compete kept him focused as he weighed up just how important the game was in the scheme of things.
Roach made his way to another local club, and found a home, and more importantly, rekindled a love for the game.
“A good mate of mine got me down to Mooroolbark, and that’s where my love of football came back again,” he said.
“I think I played about 90 games – just the mateship, the journey, it was important to me, and I learned a lot down there.
“I had some horrific injuries, I think I had a detached retina, broken hip and got the worst case of OP.
“But in between, I was either a bit part player, and when I was fully fit, I found myself at centre half forward with one of the most potent full forwards that competition has ever seen, and the two of us made a devastating duo.
“I had a great relationship with the coach, Brett Fisher, who went on and coached a flag at Wandin, and he also coached around the traps.
“Eventually, Dad came along again and was assistant to Brett, which was good, and obviously the relationship with my old man has been really important to me throughout football – that’s the one thing we have in common.
“I didn’t quite crack the ton (at Mooroolbark), but my time was excellent, I’m still best mates with a lot of guys down there, and how we never won a flag, I’ll never know.”
But in his last season at the club, Roach once again found himself at the crossroads after going through a personal battle.
“I don’t speak a lot about it now, but I probably had a little battle at the time with depression just due to personal issues, and I was finding my way out of it and playing terrible football in my last season,” he said.
“I was boxing at the time, and had a few club bouts, and couldn’t get any drive with sport anymore – not being able to do the things I used to be able to do was frustrating.
“But by the end I was probably playing in the ruck, and it was probably the only way I could get a game.”
It’s where Roach’s latest journey to Officer comes in – and despite initially believing he would play a couple of years of footy and slowly dwindle out of the game – that love, passionate and will to win came to the fore. He wanted to be part of a shifting culture at Starling Road.
“I got a call from my cousin Ben Johnson, who said ‘you’re getting old now, about to turn 30, and you said you wanted to play together eventually’,” he said.
“I had a few family members down here at the time, and thinking in my head, it’s a drop in standard, I’ll play a couple of years, make some money, and hopefully leave the club in a better state then when I arrived.
“I think it was 2015 when I joined ROC under Brad Jones, and the blokes were fantastic – I was right to one part, the standard was a big drop off when I came here, just the way the players went about it with the intensity.
“I realised quickly that the standard didn’t drop off; the side just wasn’t where it needed to be – the club was full of fantastic people, and still is, but it wasn’t at the level for a football side to be successful.
“A few rounds in, we weren’t getting a kick; the side’s getting pumped, and thought we were in trouble.
“I had a few good games, but the year was pretty poor, it was a really, really rough initiation. It did nothing to rekindle the love for football, and thought that was it.”
Considering giving the game away, Roach was talked into playing on one more season, freeing himself from the clutches of his own intense nature.
“The one person that talked me into going on was my girlfriend Courtney, who happened to be a netballer at the club at the time – we were thinking of going overseas, but she convinced me,” he said.
“Something sort of clicked; I always thought with football that if you’re not at 100 per cent intensity all the time, you’ll never get the best out of yourself.
“I knew I was going overseas, so I dropped the intensity back, and it increased my performance – I found myself taking my marks, and generally just enjoying life a bit more, and not being so intense all the time.
“I’m still yet to put my finger on it, but I played the first six games that year, and then headed overseas, but they were six of the best I’ve put together.”
Roach headed overseas for the rest of 2016 – without the thought of stepping forward onto a football field nearing his mid-30s.
“I enjoyed my time away, and I probably didn’t think I’d ever get back to it,” he said.
“I reckon I was in Prague when I got a phone call from Nick McLennan (current Officer president), who said ‘big fella, we’re looking forward to having you back’, and I wasn’t thinking about football at all.
“I remember the conversation, and I came off the phone, and could barely believe it– I reckon I was tipping the scales at about 128 kilos at that stage, so I was huge.
“But I think just the fact that someone reached out, was enough to know that’s what I wanted to do.”
With current coach Doug Koop jumping on board as senior coach in 2017, Roach said he could feel the shift in the club.
“Doug implemented a pretty gruelling program, and my body didn’t agree with it, I think I blew my calf out in the first session,” he said.
“I really liked how Doug communicated with everyone, there’s an intensity to him I really love, Billy as well. That’s where the standards probably started, with Doug.”
But only weeks before the opening round – desperate to step on the field again with a refreshed attitude – the injury curse struck once more.
“The thing that frustrated me was that my body didn’t allow me to do what I wanted to do – in a pre-season session, instead of handballing to Nick (McLennan), I decided to burn right past him, and something went crack,” he said.
“I still remember the sound before the pain, and my hamstring ripped off the bone, and detached off the knee tendon, it sounded like a gunshot.
“The disappointing thing with that happening was that I really wanted to play again, and I know Doug had big plans for me, and I’d built up a good relationship with him.
“I made a decision, and spoke to the physio the next day and he told me the extent of the injury – it was bad, and he went to book me for surgery, and told me I’d be off work for eight weeks. I knew I couldn’t do it.
“I spoke to Doug, and said ‘I’ve done this injury, can I line up this week?’ and a couple of weeks later, I found myself at full back with no right hamstring, and the pain had sort of subsided, and found myself hobbling around the field.
“It was painful, but I looked into it, and it was possible to build the muscles up around the legs, so I developed a gruelling gym routine which I still need to keep up with today, and built a lot of bulk in my legs and core, and was able to stabilise it.
“I suppose, I’ve got no hamstring in that part of the leg, there’s a big gap there and it feels weird, but I was able to get past that.
“Three weeks later, I took a mark against Pakenham, broke my ankle, and just strapped that up for the rest of the season as well.”
His rise since has been nothing short of extraordinary since being forced into the ruck ahead of the 2018 season. He’s also gone on to become the director of football at the club.
Roach was named ruckman in the ‘Team of the Year’ after a stellar season, and in 2019 – in the inaugural season of AFL Outer East – the lion-hearted big man continues to will himself to every contest.
While he won’t put a limit on just how much longer he has on the football field, that lure of the ultimate success still dangles.
“It’d burn me (to not win a flag), but my old man never played in one, Doug never played in one, and I speak to blokes that have, and I know I’ve still got the chance. I haven’t given up yet,” he said.
“That’s probably the pinnacle of success, but I will always be happy knowing that the club is in a better way than when I walked in.
“Through all of it, you realise it’s not about you, it’s about the people around you – it’s about getting everyone together going in the right direction, and that’s one of the hardest things to do.
“I don’t look at it on a personal level, sure I’d love to win a flag, but I want these guys to win a flag – I love the fact that there’s a group of kids here that weren’t here when I got here, and they will win a premiership, and several.
“I’m just hoping I can hold on.”
