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“WEARING MY HEART ON MY SLEEVE”

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By Aaron Kirkby-Rodier

One of the EFL’s best Rennie Gilchrist played his 100th game for the Balwyn Football Club last weekend, something that is rarely achieved at club.

“I started at East Malvern Junior Football Club which was just around the corner from my house.”

“My dad coached me when I was a kid, he was pretty hard on me but he was a great coach.”

Gilchrist’s time with the club would be cut short when he moved to Caulfield Grammar, where football is compulsory on weekends.

“I stayed there until under 14s before having to play footy at Caulfield Grammar.”

It wouldn’t take Gilchrist long before recruiters were taking notice of his talents on the field.

“I was 16 when I got invited down to Sandringham Dragons to try out for the 18s and I didn’t quite have the interest at that stage cricket was my interest.”

With his focus on cricket Gilchrist found it hard to find that spark with football, which found him struggling with motivation to do all the little extras that come with playing at the elite junior level.

“Top age they asked me to come down again and I said why not, cricket hadn’t gone well in the summer.”

“Made the team and played the first few games before having to play school footy, played a few more when we had byes and then played the last few before we lost in first final to Oakleigh.”

After his TAC Cup year with Sandringham, Gilchrist would get the chance to train with Essendon for a month before the rookie draft. He would just miss out on the final list spot.

“After that my interest sparked up in footy and I went down to the Sandringham Zebras for 3 years.”

Gilchrist would play with some familiar names at the Zebras.

“I played with Rod Crowe, Sam Monaghan, Jarrod Plymin, Chris Waller and Shane Tregear there so we had a fairly good group of young guys there.”

After 3 years in the system Gilchrist wanted to enjoy his football and focus on his career outside of the game.

“For one reason or another mainly the politics in the VFL we all decided to leave.”

Gilchrist all of a sudden had a big decision to make and it was between two of the EFL’s heavyweights.

“I was tossing up wether to go to Noble Park with Monnars and Plymin or Balwyn which was closer to home with Crowie.”

“I thought Balwyn was the better fit for me and provided challenges that I really wanted to take on.”

After his first season Gilchrist could have been forgiven for thinking he made the wrong call.

“Noble obviously won the flag in 2010 and ’11 and I thought geez maybe I’ve made the wrong decision here.”

At the end of 2011 Balwyn went through an extremely difficult time when Shaun Bergin passed away after injuries caused during a final. Gilchrist would consider his position at Balwyn.

“After Shaun Bergin passed away there was a quite a few players that were leaving it really hit home to me.”

“I was basically gone I was going to go and play for Caulfield Grammarians my old school team.”

A meeting would help convince Gilchrist that Balwyn was the place for him.

“I had a meeting with Paul Johnson and one of the major sponsors at their house and they basically said we want you to captain the club. It took me by surprise I was only 22 at the time. It was definitely something I wanted to take on but I wasn’t going to do it unless Nutsy (Daniel Donati) was the one who made the call.”

In Gilchrist’s first year as captain, Balwyn would go on to win the 2012 premiership a just reward for the club and their young captain despite a big turnover in the clubs list preseason.

“It went really quickly, for the first half of the year we had to deal with 60% of our list being new. Just getting used to how each other play and all heading in the same direction. Our confidence just grew every week and there was no chance that anything was going to get in our way come grand final day.”

“I probably wear my heart on my sleeve too much at times.”

Balwyn would go back to back in 2013 and Gilchrist would cap it off with the Blue Ribbon Medal as best on ground on grand final day.

“2013 was a good year. We didn’t have too many injuries throughout the year and following on from 2012 we were really confident. We lost one game for the year.”

“I think I was just lucky enough to get on the end of a few that day, Taylor (Gilchrist) lets me know that he was stiff to not win the medal that day. We just had such a good team you could almost cheat a little bit,  you could rely on guys like Crowe or Wright to win a big one on one so you could get on the other side and get on the end of a few.”

Gilchrist has been honoured with many awards throughout his career but is determined to add more silverware to the growing trophy cabinet down at SEN Park.

“Medals are great but they’re something ill look back on at the end of my career but while I’m still playing I am just focused on what’s in front of me.”

Away against Knox last weekend Gilchrist  played his 100th game for the Tigers and it is something he is very proud of.

“Its come around fairly quickly from the time I signed on til now. I remember Alan Murray playing his 100th game in 2012, I thought it was pretty amazing. Balwyn being a pretty unique club in the way that there isn’t a junior program so you don’t really get those lifelong one club players. People playing 100 games for Balwyn is pretty rare, its something that is special to me and its testament to the club from the President down that people want to hang around Balwyn for years to come not just come for a season or two like it was in the early years.”

Rennie Gilchrist has played an unbelievable 100 games for Balwyn in the EFL, for the Tigers faithful they hope the next 100 will bring as much success as the first.

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