Tara Murray
Werribee co-captain Tom Gribble senses that the best times are still to come at the Victorian Football League club.
Gribble, who joined the club in 2014, will this weekend play his 100th game for the club in a huge milestone.
For the man himself, reaching the milestone is something he will look back on with pride.
“It’s a great feeling,” he said.
“I guess I was lucky enough to find a club for the last nine years, To get to 100 games at the club where we are starting to build something pretty good the last few years.
“It doesn’t feel any different this week, I’ll look back on it fondly when I retire.”
While Gribble is now a Werribee man, it wasn’t always the way.
After coming out of the Geelong Falcons, he headed to Geelong to start his VFL career.
“Coming out of the Geelong Falcons the natural pathway was to go to Geelong,” he said.
“I made the decision to go down to Geelong and have a crack down there and play local football.
“I played four games with Geelong and 12 at local footy and I felt more than capable across both levels, probably above the level of local footy.
“I played well in the VFL games as well and learnt a lot.”
With Geelong having a very experienced line up and the full AFL alignment, Gribble decided after a phone call from Mark Penaluna to make the move to Werribee for the 2014 season as he searched for more opportunity.
He had been at the club ever since.
“It just made sense to come to Werribee.”
Gribble has seen a lot of changes since he arrived at the club. Originally they were in a part alignment with North Melbourne, which saw six to seven AFL listed players playing each week.
The two clubs were then fully aligned, before Werribee became a stand alone club.
Gribble admits it hasn’t always been easy.
“I made my debut in round one…. I played 18 games including two finals. I came in and was handy enough and found my way.
“One of the hardest things is finding your way in the VFL, I haven’t had to go to three, four, five VFL clubs to find my spot.
“The full alignment with North Melbourne challenged my patience to stay at this level, I almost walked away several times.”
Gribble talks about the 2014 and 2019 seasons when the club made semi finals, as some of the highlights. It’s those seasons that drive him as they search for success.
Personally, 2019 was his best year, taking out the JJ Liston Trophy as the best player in the competition. He also won the club best and fairest and he has played every game since 2017.
Gribble will be awarded club life membership for reaching the 100 game milestone.
Despite becoming one of the best players in the VFL competition, Gribble knows his dreams of becoming an AFL player are just about over.
He said both Geelong and Werribee taught him lessons early about the importance of enjoying playing in the VFL.
“I’m very realistic about my AFL chances now, I’m 27,” he said. “I’ve got other things in my life with my career.
“When I came to Werribee you quickly learnt to get down to work and play really good VFL footy. That you need to control the controllables and you weren’t going to get drafted unless you played good footy.
“It didn’t happen, and I’m comfortable with that.”
With his eyes firmly focused on Werribee, Gribble is excited about what is to come. He said the biggest highlight of his career was being named co-captain this season alongside Dom Brew.
“We are upbeat about what we can produce,” he said.
“We have an experienced group and there’s only better things to come from the team.
“We know what is required from our end. We’ve pretty buoyant about what we can do on the field.”
Werribee faces Southport on Saturday night at home.
