Hopping into the 200 club

A HOPPER of more than twenty years, Troy Mellington will mark a major footy milestone at the Rokewood Recreation Reserve this weekend.

Along the backline in the reserves, Mellington will play his 200th game with Rokewood-Corindhap Football Netball Club.

“I’m excited,” he said. “It’s good to be able to play at a club for so long.

“We’re playing Creswick at home, so it will be good to play my 200th game at home. I think Creswick is about even with us, so it should be a good, hard game.”

Mellington joined the Hoppers aged 11 and played over 130 junior games before stepping up into the reserves as a senior.

“I played forward all in juniors, and when I went up to seniors, I started playing back,” he said.

Now in his 30s, and with two children of his own, Mellington said he continues to enjoy the club’s feel and atmosphere, which has always been family focused.

“When you live around the town, this is just what you do, you play footy and netball for Rokewood,” he said.

“My wife, Jess, has played netball there all her life, too. She’s nearly played 200 games too.”

Having been a key part of the club for decades, Mellington said he’s reflected on Rokewood-Corindhap FNC’s past, and how they’re tracking into the future.

“Coming out of the Lexton Plains Football League, we were a very good side, and going into Central Highlands, we were down for quite a long time,” he said.

“But in the last four years, since the year before COVID, we’ve been able to recruit better coaches, and the players have started to come.

“It’s exciting to play with the Hoppers now, having played through the tough times, and now hopefully the better times ahead of us. Hopefully in five or six years’ time, my kids will be playing in juniors too.”