FROM TINY TOWN TO BIG STAGE
EVERY time Geelong forward Jeremy Cameron kicks a goal, his home town of Dartmoor is keeping score.
Home to just under 300 people, Dartmoor rests 45km from Mount Gambier and more than 400km west of Melbourne.
The town is renowned for its timber, with the industry keeping it alive for more than 150 years.
The main street is just like any small town, with a general store, post office and school, but two things make Dartmoor unique.
The first is the tree carving statues and sculptures relating to World War I and the second is the running goal tally of town hero Cameron on a scoreboard at the front of the primary school where the Cats star had his first taste of football.
He honed his talents at Heywood and District Secondary College before playing for the then North Ballarat Rebels – a 3½-hour drive away.
The inspiration for the goal tally came through Cameron’s grandfather when he was first drafted to the AFL with the Giants in 2012.
“His grandfather paid for it for us,” Dartmoor Primary principal Gill Bull said.
When Cameron moved to Geelong at the end of 2020, the sign was changed with the help of the 209gamer.
“It went to a signmaker in Mount Gambier and Jeremy paid for it all and it came back looking like this,” Bull said. “It was very good of him.”
Bull said Cameron’s journey had inspired local students to reach their own goals and dreams.
“It’s amazing and great to show that to the kids you can achieve anything,” she said.
When Cameron started playing sport at primary school, PE teacher
Michael Greenham spotted a special talent.
“Jeremy was always fantastic at any sport we tried and I think one of the features of his play was game sense, in terms of sharing the ball with teammates,” Greenham said.
“He had a sense of using his teammates but understanding not everyone had the skill he did.”
It didn’t take long for Cameron to excel at footy and golf.
“He started at golf as a youngster and played that until he was 14 off a single handicap,” Greenham said.
“He was a practice fiend, whether it was golf or footy, you’d see him at the oval as a kid, just kicking the ball through the goals himself.
“Or if it was golf, he was practising by himself after school.”
Greenham said a lot of Cameron’s talent was natural, with a little bit of nurturing along the way.
“When we were doing Auskick, he had an exceptional leap, so I got him to leap off both feet to practise something else and challenge him as a youngster,” he said.
“We’d also make him kick rightfooted during a game because he dominated with his left foot, of course.”
Cameron made his senior debut for Dartmoor in 2010, the same year he joined the Rebels.
“He played one game of ressies (reserves) and that was that, he was in seniors,” Dartmoor Football Club’s Thomas McKinnon said.
“He only played the rest of the year at Dartmoor and was picked up from there.”
Despite Cameron not living locally, he doesn’t forget his roots.
Close friend and Dartmoor General Store manager Brooke Ropitini said what you saw on and off the field with Cameron was exactly the person he was away from the sport.
“He’s done this town proud,” she said.
“When you flick him a message and send him a snap, you always get a reply back.”
The Cameron family, based in Mount Gambier, has travelled to Melbourne to cheer him on.
Mum Kelly and Cameron’s father Leon are going to the grand final, while others will watch the game in Melbourne with relatives.
And his parents are now avid Cat fans.
“We’ve changed, like my husband was Collingwood and I’m Carlton,” Kelly said.
She would also have loved Cameron’s late grandmothers to have seen him play a grand final for the Cats.
“His (Leon’s) mum and my mum were both Geelong (fans),” she said. “I wish they were alive to see him play.”
And Kelly declared her son’s troublesome hamstring would be good to get through one more game.