Milestone bit of a surprise for ruckman
WHEN East Geelong coach Jeremy Power was asked to sum up his ruckman and former teammate Ben Bolton in one word, he did not take long to muster a response. “Loyal.” It was a fitting summation of the dual club best-andfairest winner and interleague representative, who lines up for his 200th club game, against Corio today.
But the man himself, whose status as a tough, hardworking and passionate ruckman remains as strong as ever, says he never thought he would last this long.
“If I was asked then where I’d be now, then I probably wouldn’t have thought too much into it, because I was a bit of a scallywag when I first came to club,” Bolton said.
He played at Newtown & Chilwell, Thomson and Geelong West St Peter’s in the space of three years in the transition from under-18 to reserves football.
At the time, East Geelong was another outlet of leisure with friends Tom Scanlan, Craig Ricketts, Josh Fitzgerald and Jake Adams. “All the boys were drinking a fair bit of grog at
the time and Friday nights we’d have a few beers, I’d still rock up and play reserves for the first three or so years,” he said.
Then came his senior football apprenticeship under Adam Skrobalak, the champion ruckman and East Geelong’s last premiership coach.
“When I got my first senior game under ‘Skrobba’, he had that presence about him and when I got a few more senior games into me by the premiership year, I saw that as the turning point,” Bolton said.
“I played about four or five games in the premiership year, so when I saw the guys on the podium I decided to pull my finger out.
“I then played in the two losing ones with ‘Jez’ (Jeremy Power) in 2011 and 2012, so it would be great to stick around with this current young group and keep the premiership dream alive.
“At the moment I’ve only got an under-13 Division 2 flag to my name, I had to take plaster off my arm to get up that day for Newtown, so it’s been a while between drinks.”
East Geelong captain Haydn Marshall also praised the club stalwart.
“If you survey all the guys in our league who have had the privilege to play against ‘Bolts’, they’d say he’s one of the hardest to play against,” Marshall said.
“That’s why this weekend is so important; we need to get him this win over Corio.
“Bolts would still get a look in for the interleague right now. He can be a crash-andbash ruckman or a tap ruckman, so he’d be one of the best talls
I’ve played with.”