International aide

“The year I got my six subjects, they changed it to nine. And the year I got nine, they made it a full degree, so they kept moving the goalposts.

“We had a young family, I was commuting, studying, working, I look back now and wonder how I did it. It was pure perseverance.”

It took Mr Raicevic 11 years to obtain his law degree before landing a job at the Geelong firm now known as Coulter Roache, where he held the Geelong Football Club portfolio.

Three years later he became “disillusioned” with the law and took up lecturing at The Gordon while running a side practice from home.

He was approached by the football club’s then general manager, the late Terry Hogan, to take on the role of assistant general manager — a job that was enthusiastically endorsed by his Cats-mad wife.

It was a period of great change as the VFL started talks of a transition to AFL and Mr Raicevic, unknowingly, assisted in the making of two club legends.

“I actually signed Gary Ablett’s first contract, I didn’t recruit him, but my signature is on his first contract,” he said.

“I also went up to Jerilderie and sat around the laminex table at Billy Brownless’s parents place. He was going to go to England and play cricket and I was asked to go and convince him not to play cricket but come down and join us, which he did.”

But when the ball sport became big business, Mr Raicevic stepped down from the role.

“I was there for three years . . . I used to say federal politics is kindergarten stuff compared to what goes on in football clubs,” he said.

A stint as a car salesman, and return to the law, followed but the fit still did not feel right.

“I felt the law was going down the American path and people were suing, suing, suing, for all sorts of things,” he said.

“I found a lot of Geelong lawyers weren’t prepared to mediate or conciliate. All they wanted to do was litigate.”

He then became a private investigator for the equivalent of WorkSafe and TAC, investigating potentially dodgy claims.

“My job was to revisit the scene of an accident, reinterview the witnesses, take photos, take measurements, investigate the claim and then provide advice as to whether I thought the claim had merit,” he said.