Growing up, Tom Waters had never heard of Lancefield let alone the local football club and the Riddell District Football League.
Having had success on the footy field growing up, Waters’ football career took a different direction when he met his now wife..
“She lived in Lancefield,” Waters recalls. “Her brother played at Lancefield and that is how it started.
“I’d always wanted to play country football.”
The decision would lead to the beginning of a long career in the Macedon Ranges.
On Saturday, he played his 300th senior game, which also happened to be his last.
“Since I was 14, footy has been a twelve month a year activity for me,” he said. “My whole life has always worked around footy.
“I am looking forward to not having to organise things around footy for once. To spend some more time with the kids will be good, they miss out on a lot of time with me with all the hours I put into footy.”
Waters started playing at the Bulleen Templestowe Bullants in the Yarra Junior Football League before playing seniors and TAC Cup.
He won his first best and fairest in under-10s and his first premiership in under-17s.
Waters first foray into senior football was in 2005.
“I was playing at Oakleigh [in the TAC Cup] at the time,” he said. “I wasn’t going to get a game this week so I called the coach at Bulleen Templestowe who I had only met once and said I was available.
“He put me straight into the seniors. I got to the game about two hours before the start and met all my teammates for the very first time.
“I went out and played a full game in the ruck without swapping and knew only about three names of teammates.”
Waters made an instant impact at Lancefield.
It took a while to get used to the league, with the skill level not at the level where he had been playing beforehand.
Waters said it was about going in and winning the ball yourself.
He won the league’s best and fairiest, the Bowen Medal, in 2008 before winning it again in 2010.
Waters doesn’t remember the first of those award nights.
“My first Bowen night is a bit of a blur, we weren’t in finals and it was unlimited spirits all night so we had a few,” he said. “I just thought I had been invited for team of the year and thought nothing about Bowen. I do remember with three rounds of votes to go I couldn’t lose and Trav Smith standing on his chair yelling for me to go on stage now.
“I then spent the next few minutes while they finished the vote count trying to drink a whole jug of water as fast as I could.”
Waters was also part of the premiership team in 2009 when they knocked off favourites Romsey, which included Gary Moorcroft.
“It was a fairly hot day and I remember during the third quarter their ruckman was starting to cramp up,” Waters said.
“I just ran past him and yelled “I’m just starting to warm up”. I knew from that point on we weren’t going to lose.”
From the Tigers, Waters made the move to Gisborne in the Bendigo Football League in 2011 to test his game at a higher level.
The Bulldogs had a couple of near misses, but Waters cemented his spot as one of the premier rucks in the state earning call ups for the Victoria Country side twice.
“As personal honours go, that is the top one for me,” he said. ‘Having Peter Knights present my jumper and say I’m the number one ruck that year. There’s no higher honour.”
Waters returned to the RDFL in 2016, joining Macedon.
He said they were confident of getting a flag which they did in 2017.
“When the siren went and the ball was in my hands I threw it up in the air to celebrate, he said. “I wish now I had thrown it under my jumper and kept it.”
Waters later returned to Lancefield as captain-coach in 2020 to help his old club get back on its feet.
He said the club has come so far in the past five years and it was only the beginning.
Waters admits that he will miss playing.
He doesn’t think he’ll be lost to the sport forever.
“I’ll have a year off and do nothing,” he said. “One day I’ll probably get back into coaching.”
