Brodie Filo reflects on his career in the Ovens and Murray and around Australia

ST: How happy are you with your own form at Wangaratta Rovers right now?

BF: It could be better. I'm a bit like a rollercoaster at the moment; I play well one week and then I'm a bit quieter the next. The offensive stuff is fine but Sam Murray wants more of a defensive game from me. When we play our best footy, it's when our midfielders are defending so that's been one of my goals this season.

ST: At 33, you're one of the oldest players in the side so where do you feel you fit in these days?

BF: Sam and Boydy (Tom Boyd) want my leadership around because I've played a fair bit of footy and it's good to give the younger boys a bit of guidance where I can. I've always been fairly opinionated, as people know, and I've got a pretty good relationship with all the young boys. There's times when we're serious and times when we can have fun and I hope some of that leadership stuff has helped a few boys.

ST: For you, is football a results business or an entertainment business?

BF: It depends what competition you're playing in. The higher you go, you want the results. The Ovens and Murray is a very highly-regarded league so it's hard to mix having fun and getting results at the same time. It does get very serious and there are a lot of long meetings - years ago, there was none of that - but now we do the revisions and the GPS data, which is good for feedback. The game's evolving every year and it's hard to keep up with all the rule changes and different plays.

ST: How do you find those team meetings?

BF: I'm glad to not go to meetings. Footy's pretty simple; it doesn't change too much.

ST: Take us back to the start, growing up in Castlemaine?

BF: I played there until I was 14 or 15 and my Dad coached in Bendigo at Eaglehawk so I was lucky enough to play in a senior premiership with him there in my first year, 2007. I played about 150 games at Eaglehawk and I'd call that my home club.

ST: How big an influence was your Dad, bearing in mind his footballing profile around Bendigo?

BF: I always had a footy in my hand when I was younger. Dad played 500-plus games in Bendigo so I'd play my junior footy and then go to watch him. He's been a pretty big figure in my career and he's pretty cruisy like me. We're both naturally gifted so there's been a lot of banter about who's better. Being around so much footy when I was younger and getting some of Dad's ability was a good head-start, I suppose.

ST: It was a pretty sporty family by all accounts...

BF: I've got four younger brothers, one of whom plays at Port Adelaide, Kane Farrell. My parents split up when I was young and Dad's got three boys on his side: Isaiah, Noah and Aidan. I lived with my Mum most of the time, with Kane, and he was on the end of a few sporting beatings over the years, playing with me and all my friends but now he's played nearly 60 AFL games. He learned how to play sport pretty early, from myself and my friends, which is pretty funny looking at it now. There used to be a few tears but now he's got the wood on all of us.

ST: You played TAC Cup with the Bendigo Pioneers; how was that?

BF: It was not too bad. I didn't play bottom age, I played when I was 18. It was a different experience. It's always tough in the Bendigo region because the region's so big; you're playing with kids from Mildura and Swan Hill - but I enjoyed it. I probably didn't take the opportunity that I should, I was a bit of a loose child. I just loved playing footy, I didn't put in too many extras.

ST: When you say 'loose'...

BF: Sport didn't really faze me too much. I loved playing it but I didn't get out of it as much as I could. I just enjoyed being with all my mates and that sort of stuff. I probably grew up too early. A lot of my mates were 17 or 18 when I was 15, playing under-18s, so I probably grew up a little bit earlier than I should have, if that makes sense. Winning senior premierships with the boys when you're 16 or 17, you sort of miss out on being a kid. I went straight from one season in U18s, when I was 16, to seniors.

ST: Is it true you played with Dustin Martin?

BF: Yeah, I used to knock around with him a little bit. I played a lot of junior footy against him because he's from Campbells Creek, which is in the same suburb as Castlemaine. When I was at Eaglehawk, he played at Castlemaine, and we played Pioneers together. I lived with his brother in WA; I went that way, playing state league, and he'd just got drafted to Richmond.

ST: Did he stand out from an early age?

BF: He was always a super talent from U12s. He was that bigger hybrid you see now, a bigger midfielder, so powerful, he could kick either side of his body. He used to spend hours down at the Castlemaine oval, kicking goals.

ST: How did you end up playing in the WAFL?

BF: I got recruited from playing in the Vic Country game. Peel Thunder liked recruiting country footy players and I was only just 19 then so they thought it was a good opportunity to give me a go and it was pretty fun. I was still in those loose years, didn't realise how much effort you had to put in to play state league, which is pretty much five days a week.

ST: What advice would you give now to the younger Brodie?

BF: I've seen it all now and I think I'd probably go and play SANFL. It's the best set-up for kids to go from what was the TAC Cup, if you want to play state level.

ST: Could you have played at that level for longer?

BF: I think so. Footy's never been my drama, it's just the want to actually do it. I got a bit complacent - it's easy to play country footy and be a bit of a larrikin, I guess.

ST: If I asked your coaches from over the years what you were like to work with, what would they say?

BF: Definitely a character. I've had some really good coaches over the years who have understood me as a person because I'm pretty hard work at times! I'm hard to manage but easy at the same time. What you see is what you get with me. There will always be people who hate you for being a bit different. At the moment, Buddy Franklin's getting booed but he's actually got a personality. A lot of the AFL players are like robots, you don't get much out of them. Nothing against blokes like Trent Cotchin but they're pretty straight down the line and you know what they're going to say every time. Blokes like Martin and De Goey, you love watching them because they're a different character. Everyone likes the bad boys and I don't mind being one of those different characters.

ST: When and where have you felt happiest in your career?

BF: I think probably right now. We're in contract talks at the moment and I'm really happy with my job here. I love being up in Darwin as well and even when I was at Raiders, I was really enjoying that there because I was working for 'Crezza' and we were playing some good footy. That's when I was playing my best footy, those couple of years were good, but at the moment I'm pretty relaxed. I can enjoy my footy. I do understand I've got to play well every week but there's not that expectation of going out and having to get 40 every week. My role here is to try to be a leader and help out the younger ones and play some good footy as well.

ST: How do you reflect now on those two-and-a-half years with Raiders?

BF: I loved it. It was a bit of a disappointment that 'Crezza' left that year. We lost about 20 players and we had a new coach that hadn't coached before, so it was a tough one, and I was working away so my heart wasn't in it at all after that. I was working six hours up the east coast, getting home Friday, playing Saturday and then going back Monday. It's sad that it ended the way it did because I really enjoyed my time at Raiders.

ST: What made you and 'Crezza' such a good fit?

BF: I don't know, we're both pretty funny guys. We used to joke that much. I've only known him for five or six years but it feels like I've known him for 20. He's a really good fella and he's helped me out not just with on-field stuff but off-field stuff, he's just unreal, the stuff he's done for me.

ST: Why do you think everything clicked for you and the team in 2018?

BF: We didn't have that many superstar players, like you see now. There was probably a handful of blokes that were outstanding like Jydon and Matty Neagle, but the difference between our best and our worst player wasn't that much. We all believed in each other and blokes that had roles did their roles. We were stiff in that second semi-final, losing to Albury by two points and we were burnt out after that. We were winning at about the 34-minute mark, they get a free-kick and their young ruckman goes back and slots one and then the siren goes. It was hard losing that final because you're then playing someone who's won the previous week so their tails are up and we were a little bit deflated. It was a bit shattering but that was a good season, probably the most fun I've had, 2018, a good group of boys who had fun on the field and were all together off it.

ST: You lost the prelim to Wangaratta on Sunday and then it was off to the Morris Medal count the following night. What's your version of what happened?

BF: I got the heads-up I was going to be close to the top three or four. The year before, I came second but I had a way better year (in 2018) and I missed four games the year before with a broken jaw so I knew I was in for a good chance. Getting carried away with Mad Monday and then going to the medal that night, I'd had a few too many drinks and it wasn't a great way to finish the season. I knew how important it was to the league, it was a big achievement if I actually won. I knew there was going to be media after media and I probably just drunk myself into... I got a bit nervous or whatever. But I definitely take full responsibility for what I did. I'm not going to say it was anyone else's fault, it was a misjudgement by me.

ST: Is it a difficult one to look back on now?

BF: Not really. It was there for a couple weeks, and I probably even went into the next season... I didn't really care but it was probably more embarrassing for my partner at the time and my family. My friends thought it was funny: 'You're drunk and you've stuffed up again, what's new?' What should have been one of my greatest footy moments, I turned it into the worst but I think I've learnt from that.

ST: You've touched on it already but you left Raiders halfway through the following season and returned to Eaglehawk - how did that play out?

BF: I just wasn't enjoying footy and if I wasn't going to do it 100 percent, I felt I was wasting the boys' time. I wasn't happy and I ended up moving back to Castlemaine so it was an easy fit to go back to Eaglehawk. I was happy just to sit the rest of the year out but we came to an agreement at Raiders that they'd let me play the remainder of the season out at Eaglehawk.

ST: What's it like when there's so much interest in what you're doing, or not doing?

BF: It's crazy but you've got to take the good with the bad. If you think of all the negatives all the time, it can get a bit heavy on you, mentally, because it's draining. But I just think about all the good things that get written about you. We're sitting here now so it's obviously not a bad thing. People are very quick to shoot you down but it doesn't really faze me any more. I know the people who still respect me. There's always going to be people that want to cut you down and say 'he's too old, he's not playing good' and all that stuff but I might get best-on a couple of weeks later and the same people are like 'jeez, how good was he?' Maybe 10 years ago, I would have bought into it more and thought 'why is Tom from down the street saying this about me?' but now I just look at it and say 'I actually don't even know who they are' and I've got their attention anyway. Why are they talking about me? I must be doing something right.

ST: Nightcliff has been one of the real constants of your career, what is it you enjoy so much about playing up there?

BF: It's been a massive change from when I first got there, in 2015, to the last couple of years. I've been there long enough to have seen our development. In the first year I was there, we finished fifth and we slowly crept out way up. We finished first, second or third for a couple of years and couldn't get into the grand final, couldn't get a chance, just kept failing and losing finals. Luckily we ended up going on the three-peat and we broke the drought of 55 years. The last one, we were down by four or five goals at the 20-minute mark and we ended up drawing. They had the two five-minute overtimes and we won the OT by seven points. It was unreal. When you win flags, you look at it and realise how many people it takes. It's not just the 22 blokes, it takes 80-100 people to win one.

ST: Can you give us a flavour of the football culture in the Top End?

BF: They live, breathe and die footy up there. From U10s all the way up, the boys and girls play all the way through and women's footy is starting to get relatively strong up there. They're getting a lot of recruits who go up there now and they've even got reserves now in the girls section. It's a very sporty town, Darwin, and I've played a couple of games on the Tiwi Islands as well. The experience over there is unreal, something you couldn't imagine unless you actually do it. You get treated like you're an AFL player, the kids are running around wanting your autograph.

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ST: Why did you come back to the O and M?

BF: I didn't really want to leave in the first place. I didn't enjoy the last bit at Raiders but I'm really close with 'Crezza' and he hit me up about coming back. I said I'd give it a couple of years to cool down, I didn't want to do it straight away but I was always going to play under him again. It was good to come back at the right time, at Rovers and in my career. I've still got a few good years left in me, footy-wise, so hopefully we can get some success here.

ST: What motivates you these days?

BF: The highs and lows of footy. After we beat Yarrawonga here, it was so good in the rooms but last week, losing (to North Albury), you could hear a pin drop. My drive each week is playing with a lot of young boys. I remember being one of them back in the day and you think you're going to play forever.

ST: Can this team really win the flag?

BF: One hundred percent. Anyone in that top five, if they play their best footy, is going to be hard to beat. I don't think there's one outstanding team at the moment.

ST: Will you be here next year?

BF: I think so. We're in contract talks at the moment but I'm 99 percent sure I'll be playing here again.

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