Haha youre probably right, I just took a stab at second cousin as a label. But you read it right. My grandfather has this massive book (page count, not like a massive oversized kindy book) detailing the family history and connections through connections through connections. He organised huge reunion type things when I was a kid and he had enough energy to put them together (20 odd years ago now) with a heap of people coming over from Europe/going to Europe for them. I should probably show more interest in the family history now that his innings is coming to a close but I havent been bothered. Admittedly thats pretty shit haha.
jlm picked it.

That's pretty cool and yeah I myself didn't pay much attention to proper labelling until I did the above (turns out we're actually fifth cousins once removed which is crazy). Apparently the tree I got was done in the 1850s by reading through church records in the town they were all born in. Luckily my great, great, great grandfather was on the tree (the last of my branch to be born there) so we were able to make the connection.

Never even close. I was one of those kids that could pick up a sport and be good at it. Without being cocky i was the best player in the dubbo rep side in the early 90s in juniors and had a few chances of playing abroad in junior tournaments but my parents had no money nor desire to let me go, i was told i was actually better at cricket but gave it up when we moved to geelong. Kept playing football eventually traveling to Melbourne to play in my early teens as i was getting serious, then dislocated my knee 3 times and by that stage i had just wanted to play for fun. By 2000 at 15 id given up and didn't play competitvely for 10 years... i was fucking terrible by that stage and was clearly one of the Worst players in one of the worst teams. Haven't kicked a ball in 2 years :(

Never close.

I mean.. I scored a first half hat-trick in a game that was 2-2 at half time as an 18 year old in an U17 comp (due to competition regs.)

Kept a clean sheet against a good team featuring Alistair Edwards when in high school before going on to a long and undistinguished career in amateur football.

Now coaching at State league level.

Suffered delusions of grandeur myself when I was younger thinking the only difference between me and those overpaid ponces was the fact they were full time and trained 5 days a week. If only I could go full time and not have to work I'd be in one of those teams.

That is until our highly ranked amateur team (whilst I was working overseas) were invited to play a professional side for a pre-season warm up (for them, we were mid way through our season) and they pined us 4 blot.

I don't think I touched the ball once. The speed was unbelievable and if the ball went to the player you were near it'd be gone before you could even take a half step towards him.

All in all though a good experience that really showed where I was on the pecking order. If it wasn't for that game I'd probably still be telling everyone I could have made it.

Also played 2nd grade baseball in Sydney and was also asked to sit on the bench for 1st's many times but being young and stupid I used to knock them back until they stopped asking.

Scored a hattrick in a 15-3 loss.

I played a few first grade league games for the Rabbitohs over a decade ago.

As for football, nowhere close really.

such great and interesting stories guys, thanks for sharing! have any of you represented your country at youth level? I played for Czech 17s and 21s, The NPL here is pretty good standard, much similar styles to the Czech youth leagues.

Wow nice work mate. What happened there/when was this?

Haha, that would be a good feeling. Sounds kinda like my one. Although, that 2-2 turned into a 4-2 loss in the end, but we only had 10 players for the whole game, no subs, and a 15 year old girl on the other wing to me.

While not football, I used to play field hockey in the Junior state league for Gawler in S.A when I was in primary school (12/13 Years old). Used to play in the older age divisions above mine as well, was one of the best players in the league. We got to the championship one year and played at the Pines Hockey Stadium. I won the game in the dying minutes from a lovey through pass from a team mate, was actually pretty awesome as the crowd was going nuts in the stands. Didn't really sink in until we were on the way home :lol:

If I had continued on with Field Hockey who knows where I may have gone, but once I was in highschool I guess the things had changed. Like most have said it really comes to the mentality I had at the time, wish I had continued on with it as I think i could have played for Australia.

Football - never good enough.

Film - worked on a screenplay with an award winning director who was always pushing for it to be riskier, edgier, more dangerous... Then just as I handed in the 4th draft "The Hangover" came out and he suddenly wanted to do something like that - which was a long way from where we had been going. So it died. As did my screenwriting career.

Books - publishing deal pending on current (football related biography) project.

Edited by Benjamin: 7/7/2016 10:45:48 AM

I made the Queensland snooker team for under 12's. We played against all the other states and finished second. I lost interest soon after.

Edited by mrmcjewpants: 7/7/2016 02:56:42 PM