Under the Auld Pump: South Warrnambool's Jeremy Mugavin on VFL, VAFA journey

Born: May 26, 1989.

Parents: Leanne and Noel. Siblings: Benjamin, Grace and Jamie.

Education: St Joseph's Primary School Warrnambool before going to Emmanuel College Warrnambool.

Sporting highlight: Playing in the 2006 senior premiership with South Warrnambool and playing with University Blues when they won the flag in 2019 rate highly with me.

Jeremy, you mentioned the premiership win with South Warrnambool in 2006 as one of your sporting highlights. What are your memories of that premiership victory?

We beat Camperdown to win the flag. Bryan Beinke, who was recruited from Adelaide, was our playing coach.

We had a very good side with the likes of Ben Kilday, Robbie Greig playing and I can't forget Stephen 'Shorty' Anderson.

I think Shorty was 36 in that premiership win and was the best on the ground. Shorty was a great Roosters' player for many years. The 2006 senior premiership victory was a massive achievement for the club as we also won the reserves and under 18 flags in that season.

South Warrnambool finished on top of the ladder at the end of the home and away season last Saturday night. It has a week's rest before it starts its finals campaign and among the players is one Jeremy Mugavin. It's 17 years since you last played at the Roosters. Why did you want to come back and play there again?

It's pretty simple really - I started my junior career with South Warrnambool and worked my way through the grades before playing in that 2006 premiership side.

I've played for a few other clubs in that 17-year period but I just wanted to come back home and finish my career where it started in the country.

I had a romantic sort of an idea when I was thinking of coming back we might have another crack at a grand final and who knows that might just happen in a few weeks' time with any luck.

Have you been happy with your form this season?

It hasn't been too bad. I missed 10 consecutive games during the year after I injured my left ankle in round two against Koroit.

I played in round three against Camperdown but injured it again and that's when I had the 10 rounds out. The ankle has been really good over the last few weeks.

What have you thought of the competition after 17 years away?

I think it's pretty good - probably better than I thought it would be when I came back. We played Portland in our last home-and-away game last Saturday and we beat them by 10 goals but it was not a true indication of how the game was played.

Portland has some good young players coming through its ranks. They had a very young side on the field. I think the league is in good shape. It's going to be a very interesting finals series.

I don't think there's much between the top-five sides on any given day. I would love to see South Warrnambool win the flag but it's not going to be easy.

Jeremy, after you played in the 2006 premiership side with South Warrnambool which team did you play with next?

I went and played with the Geelong Falcons in 2007. Garry Hocking was our coach. I played a lot of games in the midfield.

We made the finals but sadly didn't win the flag. One of my teammates at the Falcons in 2007 just happened to be Patrick Dangerfield.

The strange thing was Dangerfield was not a standout player at the Falcons back then. I think he finished in 10th spot in the best and fairest at the Falcons.

Little was anyone to know when he was playing at the Falcons that he would turn out to be a champion at Geelong.

Were you any chance of getting drafted to an AFL club after playing with the Falcons?

I was a slight chance of getting picked up in the rookie draft. Adelaide had shown some interest but nothing came from it.

I ended up going to play with Collingwood's VFL side for the 2008 and 2009 seasons under coach Gavin Brown.

It was an incredible experience to play with Collingwood's VFL side for the two years. We often trained with the Collingwood senior side and took part in scratch matches against the senior players.

The training facilities at the Lexus Centre were elite. I went over and had a year with Williamstown in 2010 with Peter German before joining University Blues in the amateurs for the 2011 season.

I then went to college in America for a semester in 2012. I was studying for a science degree and spent six months there. It was an amazing experience living in America.

I ended up coming home and finished the 2012 season with University Blues. I played with University Blues for the next couple of seasons and was fortunate to be selected to represent the amateurs at state level before switching over to Richmond's VFL side in 2015.

Who was the coach of the Richmond VFL side when you were there?

Tim Clarke was Richmond's VFL coach in 2015. It was another amazing experience to be on Richmond's list.

We often trained with the senior side. I used to look across and Dusty Martin would be taking part in the drills. I learnt a lot about footy in my time with Richmond.

I was selected to represent the amateurs in a tour of Ireland in part of 2015. We played five games in a two--week period in Ireland and that was incredible. I came back and played with University Blues in 2016 where I made the representative side again.

We made the preliminary final in 2017 before having a poor season in 2018 but things turned around in 2019. Heath Jamieson took over as the coach at University Blues and we won the flag. Heath was a very good coach. He had great people skills.

What impact did COVID have on amateur footy in Melbourne?

COVID had a massive impact on amateur footy, like it did with everyone else. We were locked down in 2020 and only played half a season in 2021 before COVID took over again.

Jeremy, just a few weeks ago you played against your brother Benjamin who plays for North Warrnambool, what was that experience like?

It was a bit different. It was the first time that I've played against Benjamin. We're both pretty competitive.

Benjamin played very well and was undoubtedly one of the reasons why North beat us by four points in that game.

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