In his prime there were not many midfielders in the GFL better than St Joseph’s star Torin Baker. The 2008 Mathieson medallist shared his time between Joeys and VFL side Werribee during his career, playing in three losing grand finals in his career at Dre

TORIN BAKER: I’m employed by AFL Victoria to be the Western Jets coach and also coach of the Maribyrnong Sports Academy. It’s my sixth year as Jets coach and my fourth in a full-time capacity. Other then that, I’ve got two little girls and married. TB: I moved to Geelong with my family when I was 13, 14. I played the majority of my juniors at the club. My first senior game was Round 1 of 1997 and we played Newtown. We just went down. It was really good for me. As a teenager I was heavily involved with the seniors, running water. Dad was president of Joeys during my teenage years. TB: We didn’t win one. I know we came up against the powerful North Shore in ’97 and ‘99, and the other was to South Barwon. We were the underdog, certainly, in the ‘97 one. I was just a 17, 18 year-old. The ‘09 one, I knew things were coming to a close by then (for me). I knew I may not get another opportunity again with St Joseph’s. We had a really good team (in those years), but we just came up short. I remember those North Shore teams would provide so many to the Vic Country side. They were the best country team going around at that stage with what they had. TB: I don’t have a great grand final record. I played in two with Spotswood in my two years there and we won one. The last game I played was a one-point loss. I’m a perennial bridesmaid. TB: Mark Corrigan was the raging hot favourite that year. I suspected that he was going to win. He had a really good year. It turned out myself and Paul Carson shared it. I played with him at Werribee. It was nice to share it on the night with ‘Carso’, who is a really good mate and someone I played footy with early in my career and then later at St Joseph’s. TB: I might have been in front for a period and then I think Carso took over. I’m pretty sure my votes were the last ones read out. I’m pretty sure I polled two to equal. Interestingly, the one I lost, the Maskell Medal (in the Hampden league in 2003), my card was the last one read out. Nick Hider polled in that round and then I didn’t poll. I thought it might be happening again! TB: The best-performed player I’ve coached is James Sicily. Some of the boys that are still early in their career like Cam Rayner and Lachie Fogarty are going to be quality AFL players.