THE football career of Kerang’s Bradlee Pay almost ended at the age of 16, when he was faced with the decision between continuing football and chasing his dream of basketball.
After 199 senior games and eight Central Murray premiership medals later, it’s clear Pay made the right decision to continue with the club he’s spent the majority of his life representing.
Now aged 30, Pay will run out for his 200th senior game this weekend when Kerang take on Mallee Eagles in front of a home crowd who will all be cheering on the No.61 jumper.
After playing four years of junior football with Kerang, Pay was brought into the senior side at 15, and needed to be persuaded to keep playing football.
Yet he hit the ground running for Kerang in 2009, which Pay said was thanks to the backing of senior coach at the time, Shaun Filo.
“I almost quit football after my final year of under-15s,” Pay said.
“But at the start of that next year Shaun Filo, who was the coach at the time, and Shane Dibsdale came out to see me and said I should come back to the firsts side.
“Shaun backed me in straight away, and I experienced my first grand final that year.
“We got absolutely belted by Balranald, we were all young kids, and they were grown men.
“That was sort of the start of my career and the start of the run that Kerang have gone on.”
The next year Pay and Kerang would go on to win the 2010 flag against Swan Hill, which Pay said was a standout in his career.
“Especially after a few grand final losses in a row, we got belted the year before and got up over a very good Swan Hill side at the time,” he said.
“I think that could be what started us off on that right path.”
Pay missed out on Kerang’s 2022 grand final win over Cohuna due to injury.
“That was probably the toughest time – especially coming right out of COVID where we had already missed a couple of years,” Pay said.
“I’d snapped my Achilles tendon in the first five minutes of round 16.
“It was probably that feeling of missing out that hit the hardest. Individually I was doing pretty well that year, I’d won the best and fairest, which probably didn’t help that feeling of missing out.”
Throughout his 15-year career with Kerang, there’s not much Pay has missed – winning Kerang’s best and fairest twice, captaining Central Murray in interleague games and various coaching roles.
Pay said those around Kerang Football Netball Club helped one another to strive to be their best.
“At Kerang, there’s definitely a level of professionalism but we still know that footy is supposed to be fun,” he said.
“When we’re on the training track, yes we are doing the right things and ticking the boxes, but we’re always having fun, there’s a lot of banter going around
“Just being clean with the ball and having those footy smarts is really important to me.
“Even through all of my junior football I haven’t been the greatest runner, I’m sure a few of my coaches would tell you that.
“Some blokes get the footy a lot, but I’m just happy to have 10 or 15 touches, especially when you know it’s resulted in eight or 10 goals.”
Now Pay is chasing at least one more flag, even more so now he is playing alongside his younger brother Scott, but Pay said the club had grown to be another family for him.
“Right now I think it means more to me than it would have at the start of my career,” Pay said.
“Looking back now and being a bit older and a little more sentimental, I think that having played my entire career to now at Kerang is a really big achievement.
“A lot of blokes come and go, but I’ve stuck around with Kerang ever since junior footy.”
Kerang coach Troy Coates described Pay as the player his side can rely on to stand up in big moments.
“Brad is unique, he’s got some skills that nobody else has,” he said.
“One of the things that really stands out to me is that he’s the ultimate big game player.
“When the game is on the line, he just delivers every time and he’s done it for a long time now.
“He’s won a best-on-ground in interleague, he’s won best-on-ground in a grand final, there aren’t many accolades he hasn’t got.
“His loyalty is another thing that really stands out.
“It’s very rare to find players who can boast that they are one-team players over a career, obviously he’s been tempted many times over the years, but he sticks true to our club.
“He’s such a smart player to have out there. As a coach, it’s just like having another leader out there on the field.
“Loyalty, leadership and the ability to stand up in big moments sum up Brad to me.”
