FAMOUS FIVE PLAYS ON AS TIGERS HERO WAITS

BY their nature, football clubs are fascinating institutions of which to be a part. The teams that represent them even more so. People come and go, but the club and the teams remain. It is similar to any organisation made up of people from a wide variety of backgrounds, but there is no other feeling comparable to the one elicited by being involved with a football club. The impact that individuals have on a club is best reflected by the esteem in which they are held by those with whom they spend the majority of their time. Every club has its larrikins, players with pure talent, guys who have had more than their share of hard luck with injury and, then, the all-round good blokes. At Torquay, Ben Raidme falls into each of the above categories. Raidme played his junior footy at Spring Creek Reserve and won a senior flag with the Tigers in 2006. Identified as a line breaker who could tear opposition teams apart, he went to Grovedale and South Barwon and played with the Geelong VFL team before returning to Torquay for the 2017 season. Seen as the type of player that could propel the Tigers from fifth to a flag in the space of a year, Raidme’s influence was immediate and as a result he was chosen by his peers as captain. But, after enjoying a stellar start to the season, he went down against Modewarre in Round 5 and scans confirmed the 30-yearold had ruptured an ACL for the second time.

In a year the Tigers had identified that premiership success was on the cards, there was hardly time to dwell on the reality that Raidme would not be part of the campaign.

But just as quickly as Torquay had to move on and focus on on- field matters, coach Dom Gleeson and his players were equally swift to ensure their teammate would remain an intrinsic member of the side’s thinking moving forward.

It was in discussing the impact Raidme had had that they established a plan to simultaneously honour his legacy and inspire the playing group in its quest for a flag.

“Leading into the season he really stuck by our trademarks and played as Ben Raidme does,” Gleeson said.

“He was fully committed, unsociable, clean with his skills and probably everything that a lot of us would want to be, so when he went down with the injury we really wanted him to be at the club and remain a focus for our challenge.

“He was never going to leave us but it was just a matter of the playing group wanting to thank him and making people aware of what he achieved at the club.

“But, not only that, they wanted to create an award for the playing group to aspire to be similar to Ben Raidme.”

Torquay, as is the case at many clubs, has a tradition of giving a particular jumper number to its senior captain.

But the No. 5 that the Tigers leader wears holds a far greater level of sentimentality for the Surf Coast club than most other numbers elsewhere.

Roger Boak, the father of Port Adelaide captain Travis, famously wore it in his four premierships for Torquay in the 1980s, and the younger Boak wore it in his only senior game for the Tigers in 2006 just a year after his father died from stomach cancer.

So, when it became apparent Raidme would not take the field again in 2017, it was decided that after each game the jumper would be bestowed upon the player who best embodied the values of the 2005 and 2006 best-and-fairest winner on that day.

That player would then have the honour of wearing the No. 5 guernsey at training for the week before passing it on to a teammate the following match.

Gleeson had the duty of presenting it after the Round 18 win against Barwon Heads and for the first time all year there were two winners: Billy Barnes and Jesse Dawson.

Dawson’s tale had its own twist this week, but for Barnes — who had also earnt the No. 5 earlier in the year — being rewarded with his captain’s jumper was the ultimate badge of honour.

“It’s a great little incentive for the boys to push that little bit extra in Raids’ name with his history and his injuries,” Barnes said.

“Someone like him shouldn’t be missing out and you would trade your place with him any day because of the things he does on and off the field.

“We treat the jumper with a lot of respect and make sure that it is hanging up before the game, and when we come in at halftime it is there as well.

“It’s phenomenal really. There is a lot of respect for him and the Raidme family and it’s a bit of a testament to the type of families at the Torquay Football Club.”

Raidme went to school with Boak and has stayed in touch with the 2005 No. 5 draft pick and said he was hopeful his good friend would one day return to take what he believes is rightly his.

He has recently had a successful knee reconstruction and is confident he will be right to play by the middle of next year. The primary school teacher took time off to travel to Canada for a friend’s wedding and visited New York, where he got engaged to partner Natalie.

It helped take his mind off footy for a time but Raidme maintained a match day role as Torquay midfield coach when he came back.

“I was a bit embarrassed at the start but at the same time it is very humbling and I really appreciate the support that the playing group has given me,” Raidme said.

“It’s disappointing obviously not to be part of it in a playing capacity but I’m really excited for the guys.

“The club has been awesome since I did my knee but I think what the No. 5 represents and typifies is Roger Boak and it is a testament to what he did for the club. I’m just renting it until, hopefully, Trav comes back.

“That would be the best case scenario because he is having a very successful AFL career but it wouldn’t surprise me if he even held hope that he’d be able to fit in some time after his AFL career playing back down here and wearing his dad’s No. 5 again.”

That dream may yet play out in the years ahead, but Torquay’s thinking is clearly in the present.

Tomorrow, the Tigers face fierce rival Geelong Amateur in the second semi-final and as it has been all year, the No. 5 will be there. Dawson will not be due to a suspension, but it could have been far worse.

Initially offered two weeks, he challenged the match review panel’s finding and earnt a three-week ban, before taking the matter to the AFL Victoria appeals board. It reduced his sentence to a week, which means he is free to play in the grand final should Torquay make it.

The No. 5 was with him in spirit at the appeal, and, as Barnes said, “It was clearly a good omen.”

Football clubs: they’re fascinating places.