Tears for a tough Magpie

By Peter Sweeney
GLENN Hamilton is as tough as the stuff he lays for a living. Concrete.
But when it comes to telling your mates “time’s up”, even tough men tear up.
Such happened a fortnight ago, when the Narre Warren skipper told the Magpies before the Cranbourne game that Father Time, and injuries, had caught up with his 33-year-old body.
“The boys seemed to take it well, the warm-up was great and then everything turned to s..t,” the popular Hamilton said. (Cranbourne thrashed the Magpies.)
Serving the last week of a two-match suspension on Saturday, Hamilton was on the sidelines when Narre met Pakenham.
And there’s only one footy match left – this Saturday against Keysborough – before Hamilton becomes a spectator forever.
It will be his 230th senior game. Only Steve Kidd (258) has played more for Narre Warren. And Kidd and Hamilton are the only two people who are life members of both the senior and junior clubs at the Magpies.
The two-time club best and fairest – “the umpires never liked me at league level” – hasn’t lost the urge to get kicks and dish out bumps, but the body is breaking up.
“When you can no longer train hard in the gym with the fellas, go to the pool with them and work out on the track, you lose some passion. Footy’s a team game, you want to be together,” Hamilton said.
“I’ve got arthritis in the feet, it was diagnosed last year. My bones in the left foot are degenerative. My grandma and grandpa had bad feet and mine aren’t working like they should be.”
Last year Hamilton was seriously injured in a footy game, puncturing a lung and breaking three ribs in the qualifying final against Pakenham.
Rushed to Dandenong Hospital, he remembers 10 doctors being around him in emergency as three litres of blood were drained from him.
“There’s been the broken bones, hands and legs. I think it’s my time,” Hamilton said.
“I’ll miss it, but there are always more chapters to a book.”
Asked the highlight of his career, Hamilton replies in bullet-like fashion.
“The 2006 premiership. We were wondering if we were ever going to win one,” he said.
“We lost a qualifying final to Doveton by a point and were seven or eight goals down to Keysborough in the qualifying.
“We beat them, then Pakenham and then Doveton. It was the first of three (flags) in a row, but it was the best. I won’t forget it.”
And it’s odds-on that everyone at Narre Warren will never forget Glenn Hamilton, the ultimate team man.
“I didn’t want to be selfish and not train, but play,” he said in closing.