By DAVID NAGEL
IF MATTHEW Wade the policeman comes across a criminal in Swan Hill with a record as long as his… the bloke is in for one hell of a long stay behind bars.
Wade, Tooradin’s champion footballer of the last three and a half years, played his last game for the Seagulls on Saturday, before heading north to take up an 18-month contract as a First Constable with Swan Hill Police.
And he takes with him a rap sheet that will stand the test of time.
The gut-busting runner first rose to prominence at Nar Nar Goon, captaining the club to its drought-breaking premiership win of 2010, and won dual best-and-fairest awards along the way. In 2011 he moved to Sandringham in the VFL, where he played alongside his premiership team-mate at the Goon, Brett Dore, and also with Berwick’s current-day skipper Madi Andrews.
And then it was off to Tooradin, first as an assistant-coach to Tom Hallinan in 2012, where Wade has been captain, a three-time best-and-fairest winner, an interleague and VCFL representative and was last year named captain of the Casey Cardinia Football League Team of the Year.
Still in his mid-twenties, he capped off the first half of his career by starring in the Defence All-Stars versus Emergency Services match at the Adelaide Oval on Anzac Day, in the curtain-raiser to the Port Adelaide-Hawthorn clash.
The star on-baller, one of only a handful of the most respected players in the league, will continue to play the game he loves, giving the Swan Hill Swans, in the Central Murray Football League, the ultimate boost to its premiership hopes.
He leaves with some terrific memories to reflect on.
“It’s all happened pretty quickly to be honest, so I haven’t too much time to reflect, but it is a bit sad to be leaving Tooradin to head north,” he said.
“I remember Tommy Hallinan approached me after I finished at Sandringham, I came down and had a meeting and straight away I knew it was for me, a great club, with passionate people, and it just felt right.
“It’s a good country club, like Nar Nar Goon, but just in a bit higher league, and I warmed to it straight away.”
Wade said his first year with the Seagulls, when they rode a magic-carpet ride to a preliminary final, was a real highlight of his football to date.
“That was my first year at the club and it was a great year, we had a couple of new faces and it was just an exciting time at the club,” he said.
“We had a dream run, we were underdogs in every game but just kept winning time after time… it was an unbelievable run.
“We beat some of the bigger clubs that year, Beaconsfield, Berwick and Pakenham, but there were just a couple at the top (Cranbourne and Narre Warren) that were a bit good for us… but it was an amazing year.”
Wade said he is leaving the club in very good hands, with an amazing amount of quality young footballers coming through.
“It is great, but from a selfish point of view I’m leaving behind all these guys that are just coming along nicely,” he said.
“In a couple of years, once they get a bit tighter, a bit more mature, the switch will be flicked and they’ll have a lot of good times together.
“It’s all up to them now, to just stick together, to get behind Lachie (coach Lachie Gillespie) and continue what they’ve started.”
But it will all be done without one of the champions of the game… all the best Wadey!
