TIGER TOUGH
IT’S a frosty Thursday night, yet Grovedale veteran Paul Waldron is still out on the track despite knowing he is being rested this week.
At 40, the Tigers are keen to take any chance to ease the load on his seasoned body.
“It catches up with you a bit,” he laughs, knowing full well he won’t be playing the game he loves much longer.
Waldron wasn’t playing at all this season until the new year rolled around and the itch just had to be scratched for one more year.
“I can’t see myself getting up for next year,” the veteran defender admits. “Last year I had approached it as my last — I’ve probably done that the last couple of years — but we had a bit of a turnover and plenty of young guys coming into the team, so that was part of the incentive to keep on playing.
“Working with those young guys, their enthusiasm around the place is pretty infectious too, so it’s a good group to be involved with.”
Come the Round 13 clash against St Mary’s at Grovedale’s Burdoo Reserve home ground, Waldron will create history when he goes past South Barwon legend Clinton Wells and becomes the GFL senior games record holder when he runs out for senior game No.326.
That’s 21 years of senior football since his debut in 1997, made up of 269 senior games with the Tigers, plus 54 matches in a three-year stint with Bell Park that included its 2011 premiership. Just don’t ask him how he’s done it.
“I wish I could say there was something I did,” he joked.
“I don’t think I do anything extra or different. I could put it down to genetics — Mum is still playing tennis every week, so there’s obviously something there that keeps the body in good nick.”
Waldron admits the last few years “have got tougher and tougher” on his body with the injuries mounting.
But the multiple Tigers best-and-fairest winner defies his age when fit, and is by no means a liability, even if seven of his teammates from last weekend weren’t born when he made his senior debut.
“Whether it’s physically trying to get up, or mentally knowing you’ve got to chase guys around, but playing in defence you’re on some 19- or 20year-old kid who wants to kick goals and is running to extra contests, so it is a bit of a challenge every week,” Waldron says. “As a defender, you used to sag off in the old days, but now you get caught out pretty quickly by the way the boys use the footy and pinpoint passes.
“With the coaching and VFL guys coming through, it definitely has lifted the professionalism.”
Now into his career twilight, Waldron says his focus is shifting to coaching after the announcement this week that senior coach Simon Riddoch had re-signed until the end of 2019, along with a new deal for star midfielder Nathan Deans.
“I always thought I would (coach),” he said. “I dare say I’ll be involved in some way at the club.”