Matt O’Neil is a Brooker, through and through. He’s seen the highs and lows of the Gembrook Football Netball Club over the journey, having played well over 350 games in its iconic green strip. He spoke to Gazette sports editor, and Gembrook resident, RUSSELL BENNETT about his career in footy over one or two ‘froffies’…
Russell Bennett: When did you first get involved with the footy club, Matty, and how?
Matt O’Neil: We moved to Cockatoo from Brighton the year before Ash Wednesday and I went to the primary school and wanted to play footy somewhere. All the Cockatoo boys played at Gembrook, so that was it. That was my first year, and I never looked back from that. Mum used to take me back in those days – dad was always busy working and supporting the family. Mum would drive my mates and I up to footy training and she was team manager and played a huge role initially in my footy development.
RB: What is it about the club that just makes people gravitate towards it? I know everyone says their club is special, but there’s something about the Brookers that’s different…
MO: You recruit players over the years and try to get them to stick around but I think the guys at Gembrook really do tend to stay – they don’t just play one or two years. They play five, six or seven and it becomes their home club.
In the ‘90s it was a real blokes club – drinking froffies mainly – and probably when Steve Goodie came along he changed the perception of the culture and there was a massive push to be a real family club. If you’re not doing that as a club, you’re not a great choice for guys with families.
RB: You’ve played 370-odd games at Gembrook. It’s been a hell of a ride there…
MO: Well I had one year at Beaconsfield too. After we won the flag (at Gembrook) in 2000 and I was captain of the club I wanted to get away from the club for a little bit because I knew I wanted to get into coaching at Gembrook. I made the choice to go to Beaconsfield where Blacky (Scott Black) was playing. I did the whole pre-season and started playing in the ones but I got a job that took me overseas to Malaysia and I was flying in and out of the country so it didn’t pan out. I’d land back in Melbourne on the Saturday morning and go straight to the game and play and it just couldn’t work at that level of footy.
I decided to head back to Gembrook mid-season and play out the year there. Beaconsfield won the flag, so I probably missed out on one.
RB: Speaking of missing out on flags – there were the three, agonising losing Division 1 grand finals earlier this decade against Woori Yallock and Upwey Tecoma. What was it like being around the club for those?
MO: They did 10 years up there in Division 1, which is a fair effort, and it was a toss of the coin in all those grand finals really.
Trav (Marsham) is a fantastic coach and went on to get those couple of flags at Cora Lynn, which was great for him personally, but I know he would have loved to have at least one of those premierships at Gembrook. We felt like we should have. Probably the 2012 was the one they really deserved to win, and they lost that (to Woori at Healesville). The boys were gutted, and the people around the club were gutted – you could see it in their faces.
I knew it was my last game in 2011 – that second one (losing grand final) – and walking off knowing we were that close two years in a row, I thought maybe that was it for the group. They should have won it again the year after and it was devastating.
RB: Do you think there was a shift in professionalism in the coaching at Gembrook when Trav Marsham came in?
MO: He took it to the next level, without a doubt. It’s good that at local level – even in Division 2 – we can get the video from our games. Trav certainly took that to the next level and would have done the same thing at Cora Lynn, and I’m guessing they were doing the same thing at Narre as well.
RB: You walk into the home rooms at Gembrook even now, and you’ll still see his influence there…
MO: Yeah, that’s all there. Even the bench that we sit on pre-game and at half-time, we built that during one of the years he was there.
He’s left his mark everywhere he’s been and I can’t speak highly enough of him.
RB: What took you to Hampton Park to coach, and what year was that in?
MO: It was 2014 and 2015. I was done – I never planned on coming back to coach again, to be honest. I hadn’t even thought about it, but I didn’t think I would. I was happy to be around the club as a sponsor – that sort of thing – but out of the blue one night I got a call from Mick O’Brien. He asked if I’d be interested in possibly putting my hand up to coach Hampton Park and it probably didn’t take me long to do it. I knew their situation – I knew where they were at and what I was getting into, but I thought it’d be really good to put back into footy and as a coach it’s easy to lead a group that’s full of superstars. Anyone could coach an interleague side with that many stars and they’d do the basics really well. But the test of a good coach would be to change a group and get them playing the way you want and get them competitive.
I rang Shippy (great mate Andrew Shipp) the next day and asked if he’d be interested in coming down as an assistant. He was out injured – he had his knee reconstruction done – and it only took him three or four seconds to respond. He was straight in.
RB: You must’ve learnt so much there from a ripper bunch of people who’re the heart and soul of that club – just like at Gembrook…
MO: I knew what to expect. I remember walking in to the first meet the coach day and I said there’d be ups and downs – and I’d experienced the highs and lows – and I just told them their time would come. Obviously that’s coming now. I was big on the club joining the Southern league (SFNL) purely because they couldn’t compete in the South East league. If they can win that flag this year, it’ll just be great for the club.
But like it is with anyone – the job starts again at finals time.
RB: What do you think of the new AFL Outer East competition that will kick off next year?
MO: I think it’s fantastic for footy, 100 per cent. There’s a lot of talk about how Narre, Beacy and Berwick will just smash all the Yarra Ranges teams but I think there’ll be a few surprises there. I’ve been keeping a close eye on what’s been happening down here and Pakenham has only been getting beaten by six or seven goals by Cranbourne. I don’t know if that’s any real indication, but I’m tipping that Woori and Olinda would be beating them by a bit more than that at this stage.
I think it’ll take a couple of years to fully unfold, but it won’t just be handing the premierships to those southern-based teams.
RB: Over the journey – your playing career – you must have had some pretty special moments from either an individual or team perspective that spring to mind…
MO: I guess they’ll be the premierships – they’re super important to me. I was captain of the 2000 premiership side, and that was great. In 2004 I was the playing coach, and in 2016 I was co-coach with Clarkey (champion ruckman Craig Clarke). There’s been the ones we’ve lost too, but you never re-watch those tapes. You don’t go back to them.
Each of the games we won at Hampton Park are very special to me too, but the first one against Tooradin at home… just seeing the smiles on the faces of the supporters at that club. Blokes were crying, and it was really touching.
RB: And who were the best players you played with?
MO: If I had to choose the two best I played with, it’d be 1: Clarkey (former Frankston captain Craig Clarke), and 2: Shippy (former Fremantle player Andrew Shipp). I’ve had some good ruckmen over the times that I’ve played at Gembrook but obviously Clarkey’s the best ruck I’ve probably ever seen up close at local level. He made me a better footballer just by hitting me the ball all the time. He was a super ruckman.
There were his marks around the ground, his influence on the group, the way he talks to the boys, and then you look at the other side of him as a dad and as a husband – he’s just respected so much throughout the hills.
RB: From Gembrook, to Hampton Park, and back to Gembrook. How did that transpire?
MO: It was the end of 2015 and Smeds (current president Damian Kee) rang me and came down with Clarkey and they convinced me that the club needed me back to help get back on track again. It was a tough decision because I didn’t just want to leave Hampton Park like that. It was hard to talk to Mick (O’Brien) and the guys and say this is what would happen, but in hindsight it was a good decision – we won the (Division 2) flag that year, in 2016. With Clarkey being a playing coach, it just took a lot of pressure off him because the deal was that he just trained and spoke to the group at times but game day was left to me and that worked really well because he could focus on his footy. We weren’t the best team in 2016 – not by a long shot – and that’s how it’s panned out this year too. We just played good footy at the right time and I always had the belief.
Yea beat us by at least 140 points at Cockatoo that year.
About four weeks ago I showed the boys the ladder from 2016 and from 2010 as well – where we just made the finals in Division 1. We got in by half a percent and got all the way through to the grand final.
If we finish fourth – which is what will pan out – we play four weeks of footy and if we get it right Seville will be worried, I think.
The key for us, too, is that we haven’t had our best team on the park once this year. Pauly (Paul Gramc) and Gibbo (Joel Gibson) have had a really big influence and Luke Failla will be back next week. We had six out on the weekend, but it’s all about what happens in the first week of the finals for us.
RB: What sort of an impact have Michael Firrito and Tarkyn Lockyer had on this Gembrook group?
MO: Tarks has been super for the club. Between him and Spud (Firrito) they’re both just great blokes. Tarks has trained quite a few times and he’ll get up there at 5pm and put his gear on and go out with the under-14 girls and have a run around. Then he’ll go and do a bit with the 16s and 18s, and then train with the seniors. For what he puts in around the club, it’s just an honour to have him there and to learn from him.
He’s talking about next year, so if we can keep him next year as well it’ll be fantastic.
When it comes to ‘Spud’ – I’d always had contact with Mick. If he had a bad run of form and got dropped (from the Kangaroos) I’d always flick him a message just to support him, and if I saw him at a function we’d have a beer, but he’s just a genuinely good bloke and he loves the club. He’s there for the right reasons too, where a lot of blokes are at clubs for the money.
Just to see him at training and the way he does things, he talks to every player on the list – there’s no stigma of him being an ex-AFL player at all. That’s what makes him such a good bloke.
RB: And what about yourself as a player, mate? How would you describe yourself? And don’t be too modest either – you did play well over 350 games…
MO: I was just a hard-at-it midfielder who got fed well by a few really good ruckmen. Back in the day you just had to be fit, and I loved to be fit and get to as many contests as I could. We didn’t do many changes on and off the ground in the ‘90s – it wasn’t the in thing – so if you weren’t fit and weren’t able to get to contests, you’d get beaten. I was more of a team player than anything – I didn’t care about the individual awards. I just wanted the club to do well and be there for the right reasons.
In ’91 I started playing seniors, and I went to uni in ’92 and Billy Heppell was the president of the club. He said they’d pay me $100 per game and I was rapt. Every Thursday night when I came back from uni to train – I was living at Churchill at the time – Bill would grab $100 for me and that was my match payment forever at Gembrook. I never asked for a cent more.
RB: What about the most recent flag you won at Gembrook in 2016 as coach? I remember going up there that night and it’s not something I’ll forget in a hurry…
MO: It was a bit surreal after the game. It went to plan on the day – it was a comfortable win and it never really felt like we were going to lose.
I remember walking out of the rooms at Yarra Glen and we had the premiership cup. I’d given it to one of the boys to look after but it was meant to come in my car. Bloody Richo (Shannon Richardson) stole it! (laughs). That’s not how it was supposed to go – I was supposed to bring it back to the club, so it turns out they stopped at the same bottle shop that we did on the way back and Richo left the cup unattended so I stole it back! I don’t think he knew, so the poor bloke probably thought he lost it. But we got it back, and when you walk into the clubrooms that night and it’s packed like it was – you look at the committee people, the people who run the canteen, the kids who have their faces painted and are wearing their dad’s or uncle’s numbers on their backs, and all the wives and partners and Len Ure and all the old boys at the club who’re real legends up there it just gives you a chill. When you sing the song with everyone in there it’s better than being on the ground after the game because they’re what make the club what it is. Those nights, and the days afterwards, go way too quick.
RB: Well you probably knew this was coming, but I’ve had some people who gave me some ammo to use on you mate. How many club best and fairests have you won?
MO: (Laughs) Zero.
RB: And how many have you been runner-up in?
MO: Five, and there’s a league one I came runner-up in as well. There’s always been good players around me. Clarkey nailed me one year – he took a speccy on me and I was probably leading by 20 votes. He took this big hanger up at Gembrook in front of the fire hydrant and kneed me right in the middle of the back and I did my hammy and I was out for about five weeks and he or Blacky won that B&F. In my first year of senior footy I think I was two votes in front of Timmy Ramage coming into the last game and he got three votes in the last game and beat me by one.
When I became a coach I tended to take myself off a fair bit, and I never really cared about that stuff anyway.
RB: And just on Damo Kee, the current club president, in the 2000 grand final you wore his jumper?
MO: He’s one of my best mates and he broke his hip and wasn’t able to play footy at all any more – that was it for him – so I just thought I’d honour him that day by wearing his jumper, number 42. We probably got fined because we didn’t even tell the league about it (laughs). I just asked for his jumper and wore it that day. I probably should have worn his helmet as well!
RB: And on Mad Monday that year you wore a pretty interesting costume…
MO: Yes, it was the spud outfit (laughs). It was a potato bag with some sleeves cut into it, and a pair of undies and that was it for the day. It got a bit itchy, but It was traditional Gembrook attire. We left the Gembrook pub and went to the Clematis pub that day and I said to the publican I’d go out and serve in the bottle shop for an hour in the suit, and people were coming through the bottle shop and just couldn’t believe what I was wearing.
RB: And that famous interleague function, from which you never got invited back to interleague?
MO: This would have been around 1999 and I got invited down to interleague and we played at Shepley Oval in Dandenong. I remember Blacky got dragged and I went on – I started on the bench. I had a really good game off the half-back flank. We got beaten but I got second best on ground that year, and I was having a better year the year after and they picked me as emergency that time. I was pretty dirty on that, so I went in and gave the boys a bit of a spray. I just said to the coaches that they could stick their bloody interleague up their arse (laughs). Looking back it probably wasn’t the best thing I ever did!
RB: Were there any other famous moments over the journey? There had to be one or two…
MO: I used to enjoy playing against Big Monkey (Collingwood premiership player Damien Monkhorst) at Woori Yallock. He’s a legend and what he’s done in the Yarra Valley has been fantastic, but I remember in one final before we played them I was giving Clarkey this big rev-up and Monkey just turned around and looked at me and said ‘I’m going to rip his f*****g head off, Creepa!’. Clarkey then turned around to me and says ‘what are you doing?’. I just said ‘mate, I don’t know but if I was you I’d get myself out of the ruck!’.
There was another time where I got stuck into Monkey as well. You had to be smart and keep your distance! (laughs). I used to like to stir the pot, but it was all in good fun. He’s a great bloke.
RB: And what about the story behind your nickname – ‘Creepa’? How did you get it?
MO: That was from my first under-9s coach. He just said I used to creep around the ground, and it stuck – since the under-9s – for all these years. I’m 44 now, so I’ve had it for 35 years.
RB: We’ve spoken about some of the best players you’ve played with – what about some of the players you’ve played against?
MO: I’d say Jason De Graaf, who played at Warburton and Powelltown. He was a super player, and just so hard at it. I remember one day the footy was in between us and we were both probably 10 metres away from it and just went flat out at it. At the end of our careers we just had a lot of mutual respect for each other, so he’s probably the hardest bloke I played on.
Danny Ryan at Woori Yallock was a super player too, and probably won one of those flags off his own boot. He’s an interleague coach and coached his own flags at Woori in his own right too.
Mick Scott from Olinda is another one – a really good, fair champion up there.
RB: Looking ahead to next year in the new competition – you won’t be coach of the Brookers?
MO: I’m going to step down – I just think the timing is right. I’m not saying I’ll never do it again though – I won’t close the door. I’ll still be involved though in a footy manager’s role or something like that around the club. I love it there.
Applications have opened to find the new coach and I’ll step aside from the selection panel, but I think it’s a really exciting time. If we can get the right coach and the right structure, the under-18s are coming through.
We have to apply to be in the Division 1 competition (second of the three tiers next year), and we’ll do that even though it’s going to be a hard road.
Outside of that, I’ll get back to watching Hampton Park a bit more and just have a few more froffies!
RB: Matty, it’s been an awesome chat with you mate and a little while coming. Thanks for your time.
MO: Cheers Russ.
