One of Mooroolbark’s favourite sons in Scott Dimitriou passed a significant milestone this Saturday.
When he runs out onto Heights Reserve today Dimitriou will add the 300-game milestone to an almighty resume.
Amongst his achievements at the Mustangs include captaining Mooroolbark to the 2009 Division 3 Senior Premiership. Dimitriou recently said that the past couple of days had seen him reflect on his senior career to date.
“I went down to the club (Thursday) night, the senior coach, the reserves coach and the president all talked about it,” Dimitriou said.
“You look at it and you’re pretty proud, it’s a pretty big achievement. The phone calls and the texts have started and whatnot, it’s times like this where you look back and you are pretty proud of the rollercoaster and the journey that you’ve had.”
He’ll become the fourth player in Mooroolbark’s history to pass the 300-game milestone, joining club greats Geoff Darcy, Doug Brumby and Neil Wells.
However despite joining this club Dimitriou hasn’t thought about the games he’s played consistently.
“You probably don’t really think of the games and the milestones as it’s ticking along. I wanted to retire a couple of years ago but I kept putting my hand up to play.
“When my wife Lauren said ‘you got to get to 300, you’re that close now’ it was in the back of my mind and they all wanted me to keep playing!”
Starting his senior career against Doncaster East back in 2002, Dimitriou has seen the similarities between then and now at Heights Reserve.
“I was playing with the older guys of the club Kane Noonan’s dad who’s the skipper now, who was our coach and he was coming to the end of his career. Ryan Mullett was there, John Fitzgerald, these older guys where I was just starting out.
“And I look at the boys that are starting out now like Rhys Crossley, Jackson Gilbee, Jye Peacock and one of my favourites at Mooroolbark in Cayden Maki.
“All these boys that are coming through now as really good footy players, and they’re 19-21 years of age, they’ve got a very big future at the footy club for years to come.
“I look back at myself, I was probably a bit younger than them and you look at me now and I’ve played 300 games over 21 years and have loved every minute of it.”
There’s been many achievements for Dimitriou over his career, however none can topple his two premierships.
“Captained a senior premiership in 2009 and captained a reserves premiership in 2018. 22 seasons and you’ve only had success twice you look back at it and go jeez it’s tough to do.
“They’re two of the best moments of my footy career.”
Dimitriou also highlighted the many friendships that he had made with many of his teammates throughout his career.
“I’m best mates with Matt Polkinghorne, I would never have met him if it wasn’t for footy. He came along and played his first game in 2004, he’s gonna pull the boots on with me (today) which is fantastic.
“There’s a fair few boys coming out of retirement that are gonna have a kick. It’s the friendships that you make at a footy club, I can walk in that door in the next 30-40 years and still know some people through relationships that you’ve played footy with.”
With the milestone this weekend Dimitriou added that it will see the end of his senior footy career at Heights Reserve.
“My body is telling me no more, when you’re struggling to pick up the young fella during the week it becomes a bit of a toll so 300’s enough and I think I’ll finish right there.
“The boys have got a fair few under 19s coming through next year and there’s seven or eight of them that have put their hand up to play two games.
“Once they come through they’ll take up the 2’s and seniors positions, they won’t need old timers like me filling in the positions!”
And there are many people that Dimitriou wanted to thank ahead of his milestone game.
“First people you need to thank are your family. Mum and Dad made so many sacrifices over the years, taking me to basketball and footy training, taking me to games.
“You look back on it and the sacrifices they made to get you to all these places at different times was huge. They’re fantastic for me and can’t thank them enough.
“My uncle who played at East Ringwood, he was the one that made me love the game of footy, he was a senior player at East Ringwood.
“Then also my wife has been a big part of my career over the last 10-12 years, a former media manager of the EFNL…
“Growing up with twin brothers and sisters as well when I was younger, Daniel and Rachel are three years younger than me and they’ve both been fantastic for my career as well.
“Daniel is my brother but he’s also my best mate, we used to play basketball, cricket and footy against each other every day of the week…we had plenty of test matches, grand finals against each other in the backyard.
“Rachel was also awesome for my career as well, she’s a big supporter and used to come every week. Without them I wouldn’t get to this point