Ken Radley's committed to talent on the field and in the classroom

Wife: Andrea.

Children: Megan, Finn and Amon.

Parents: Jeff and Heather.

Siblings: Shirley, Evelyn, Louisa and Jodi.

Education: East Warrnambool Primary School before going to Warrnambool High School and then going Deakin University.

Sporting highlight: The 1990 grand final between Deakin and Russells Creek. I was playing for Deakin. We lost the grand final to Creek by eight points in front of a huge crowd at the Reid Oval. It was at that stage the largest crowd at a Warrnambool and District Football Netball League grand final.

Ken, we'll talk about your footy career in a minute, but firstly I want to talk about you being the only boy among five sisters. What are your memories of those early years of growing up?

I was the fourth born in my family.

There were three sisters before I came along. I often think back and believe my older sisters might have spoilt me when I was growing up.

I was very lucky because I had a great childhood.

Let's go back to that grand final when you played for Deakin in 1990. What are your memories?

The memory l've got is of a huge crowd.

There were people everywhere. It was the first time that the Sharks had made the grand final.

For a few years we had been the whipping boys of the league with the other sides smashing us every week, but we picked up a few former South Warrnambool players for the 1990 season including Robert Peake, Jock O'Connor and Terry Drew.

We defeated South Rovers on a very heavy ground in the preliminary final to get into the grand final.

One of the reasons why there were so many people at that grand final was because there used to be a lot of students at Deakin back in that era and I reckon they all wanted to see the Sharks win their first grand final.

Where did your footy career start?

I was nine years old when I started playing for East Warrnambool in the juniors.

I had a couple of years there before going to Russells Creek for one year and then I moved over to play with Warrnambool's under 18 side which was coached by David Hunt.

I played in the under 18s, reserves and some games in the seniors with Warrnambool. Grant Thomas was the senior coach at Warrnambool with Daryl Salmon helping him out.

I had injured my right ankle but I was struggling before the injury as we had a very good team. Grant was a great motivator while Daryl understood tactics.

I ended up going out to play with Deakin in 1987 because I was studying teaching at the university at that time. Deakin ended up being the club I played for from 1987 to 2001.

It was a wonderful club.

We had some really interesting characters who were involved at the club over those years.

There was a massive change over of players because most of the students would only stay for three years and they would make up the majority of players in the side.

I'll never forget some of the social events which were held after the games.

They were extremely funny but I don't think I can mention too many here. One of the funniest things which occurred was I was the senior coach in 1996 and 1997.

We never won a game in 1996 and only won the one game in 1997.

The lads ended up getting a couple of barrels of beer from the Cally and took them to one of the player's places and the party raged on for three days. A few blokes never went home for the three days.

Did you find it difficult to get you message across to the players in 1996 and 1997 when the senior side only won one game in those two years you coached?

I must admit it did get a bit frustrating.

The biggest problem was we were always changing the side around because players were unavailable for various reasons.

Many of the players who were students would go home for the weekend and then the next week they were unavailable.

It was frustrating to get the message out there to the players but in saying that I'm glad I coached.

Deakin folded in 2014 which was sad but we're hoping to hold a 20-year reunion of the reserves premiership win this year.

The Warrnambool Football Netball Club has turned into a sort of second home for Deakin people on the back of Matt O'Brien and me being involved with the club.

Where did your footy journey go after the Sharks?

I got involved with junior coaching and development with CBC then the Emmanuel Hawks in 2002 before coaching the under 12s at East Warrnambool.

I then went and was coordinating the junior program at Warrnambool before coaching the under 14s which I found very rewarding.

For the last two seasons I've been the president up at the Warrnambool Football Netball Club.

I help to oversee the footy department and work closely with all the sides.

The club is lucky to have Wally Steere who is the football operations manager. He does an awesome job putting lots of hours in to ensure the footy club goes like clockwork.

We've got a great bunch of volunteers like Lara Fleming who has set up a roster for people at the club to put in time to help out with various jobs around the place, whether it be the canteen or just running water for the players.

The footy netball club is like so many other clubs that have been impacted by COVID. It's been tough going but it's just great to see crowds back at the footy and netball.

Away from the footy are you still teaching?

Yes. I'm out teaching at the Merri River School. I've been teaching year 12 for the last four years.

It's a very rewarding job helping people with disabilities prepare for their work life after they finish school.

There's 180 students and the new facility which caters for students in a 40-kilometre radius around Warrnambool is a game-changer for learning.

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