Brendan Iezzi
(OTG 2005)
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- Brendan Iezzi
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- Old Trinity Grammarians
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- Brendan Iezzi
At Trinity, I was heavily involved with everything I could do. Things like House sports or House Music, and anything to do with the cocurricular side of things. As a student, I was ok at best, I gave it a fair crack – but I more enjoyed just generally being around everyone at the school. I didn’t have many days off, I was always happy to go to school and loved it. I loved being around the people.
I’m now a plumber – you don’t really put that together with the sort of private school thing, but I’d never change anything about it. I was always pretty handy with anything to with my hands, so it was a seamless transition into that. I worked for my dad for 10 or 12 years, and only recently once I’d finished my footy career, I decided to go out on my own.
My time at Trinity taught me a lot. It was always really big on relationships and just communicating with people. That was the biggest thing, as it’s put me in a good spot, with being a tradesman but also being able to have that common courtesy, respect for people and just general communication.
I played for the Old Trinity Grammarians’ Amateur Football Club for 12 years. My first year out of school I played at Port Melbourne in the VFL, and I was very mediocre there, the pathway wasn’t as seamless as it is now. I didn’t love it there, and all my mates seemed to make their way over to Old Trinity. When they were there, I’d be playing a bit of 2s footy in the VFL, and as soon as the game was finished, I’d get in my car and jump on the freeway to go watch the 19s the same day. From there, I just loved every bit of it, so I pretty much played for Old Trinity from then on.
It’s been a massive part of my life. It’s taken up heaps of my time, and I’ve loved every minute of it. I was lucky enough to be captain for seven years. I was young guy, 18 or 19, when I came in, and I’m leaving at 31. You’ve got your relationships with people who are 18-year-olds straight out of school through to, you know, I’m meeting up with a guy tomorrow, Andrew Ramsden, who’s 43. The relationships you build through those times, they’re probably the biggest things I’ve gotten out of it – they’re lifelong friends. You sort of forget about the age gap once you’re at a footy club, you’re just another person. You all have a goal to hit that ultimate prize, and you all work towards it to hit that goal together.
It was a huge honour to be Captain. I probably got thrown into the deep end a bit in the early days, I probably hadn’t developed enough – as the years went on, I developed into a better captain. It’s not only an honour, but actually a huge task as well. You’re dealing with blokes straight out of school, not knowing what they want to do, through to people in the workforce. Getting a whole bunch of people together and having them all focus on one thing is tricky – it’s a great mix between keeping fit, training, and wanting to win, as well as having a drink and really enjoying yourself outside of it. One of the biggest things for me was when I retired, and having numerous mums actually coming up to me and thanking me for the influence I’ve had on their kids. That’s one of the greater things I’ve had in my career.
As soon as I got into the job there, I did call on the ex-captains and the ex-leaders who had been through the club, and I did talk to them about ways to go about things, but you also learn from making mistakes and getting better. You’ll always make mistakes on the way, but just make sure you learn. There might be a better way to confront someone, or have a word with someone – whether it’s positive or negative, there’ll be different ways to go about it. Also, people are different – you have to adjust to them. Some people might need tough love, some people might need to be carried along a bit. So it’s a real tough mix, but it’s an interesting one when you’ve got so many different types of people at the footy club.
Some of the best advice I’ve gotten is that you get what you put in. It’s been a big thing that I’ve always said at the footy club, and it even goes onto the footy field or into the social scene. If you want to be involved in the club, and you put into the club, you’ll get just as much out of it. You can’t just go along and be another number.