Hugh Wales has left Myrtleford to sign with Point Cook in the Western Region Football League.
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The 31-year-old played 123 senior games for the Saints and had spent the last seven years at McNamara Reserve after testing himself in the VFL.
But for Wales, who's been travelling back from Melbourne to play for Myrtleford, it was time to cut down the commute.
"We've got our first kid due at the start of December and I'll be 32 in January so it's one of those where life gets in the way a bit," Wales said.
"It would be nice if I was mid to late twenties again and flying but I've found somewhere a bit closer to home where I can commit to training full-time and whatever else comes with it.
"Clay Smith is the coach there and I knew him from when I was at Footscray.
"I know three or four boys there and that makes it a lot easier to transition in.
"I spoke to a couple of clubs but Point Cook was always the front-runner.
"I thought 'let's get it done early' and that way it's out of the way."
Wales played 12 games this year for a Saints side which picked up the wooden spoon in the Ovens and Murray.
"I had a stinker of a year this year and that just came down to not being fit enough," he admitted.
"Where we trained, it was pretty challenging this year.
"We were basically finding any space we could, there were five or six of us, parks around Ikon Park.
"We had Tommy Wilson training us, he's a VFL star, and if we didn't have him, us Melbourne boys would have been in all sorts.
"My brother (Elijah) played his 100th game this year and for 91 of those games, he was a traveller.
"I finished on 123 and for 65-70 of those I travelled.
"It's a compound effect; it does take a toll, mentally more so than anything.
"We were all scattered around Melbourne as well so it was pretty hard to all get together and try to find a club to be able to train.
"If I was training at Deer Park, or somewhere close, that's not my footy club, so you find it hard to buy in.
"That was the main thing, not having to travel and life going in a bit of a different direction where footy, probably for the first time in my life, hasn't been the priority."
Wales played for Werribee, Hoppers Crossing and Footscray between 2013 and 2016 but nothing compared to pulling on the Saints jumper.
"Every kid dreams of playing AFL footy but for me, it was playing for Myrtleford," he said.
"That's all I knew growing up.
"I reckon 2020 would have been our year (if it wasn't for COVID), we would have given it a real shake after 2019.
"We kept the list pretty well together and recruited a few, where most other teams didn't recruit that well, so you wonder what could have been.
"This year it was good to see Ash McPherson come through.
"I reckon, when I played my first game in 2009, he was still on the boob.
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"He's only 16 or 17 years old and it's been good to see him really play well and exceed most people's expectations.
"I've been there through it all.
"When we had that 62-game losing streak, that ended in my first year out of under-18s, my first official year of seniors, so I've ridden every wave and every emotion over the last 14 years."
Point Cook, chasing their first Division 1 premiership in the WRFL, reached the grand final last month before losing to Werribee Districts.
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