“I played under-10s, 13s and 17s all at Harrow-Balmoral and started playing seniors half way through 2007 and we ended up winning the grand final,” he said.

Close moved to study in Melbourne and joined West Preston-Lakeside in the Northern Football League before finding his way to the Geelong Football League.

“I moved to Geelong for work and played with Leopold in one of the best country leagues in Victoria," he said.

“I had a good season there and found myself on the Victorian Football League list at Geelong for three seasons.”

Close said being treated like an AFL footballer at Geelong’s VFL side provided a huge learning curve for him.

“The facilities were amazing and I was lucky enough to play in an AFL inter-club match with the senior side two years in a row,” he said.

“They needed a few VFL boys to come up and I was a half forward playing against Harry Taylor and Tom Lonergan, which was just amazing. The coaches I had access to were great and I learnt a lot.

“Turning up to training at Skilled Stadium every Monday and Wednesday was a great part of my life.”

Close said he did have aspirations of making it to the AFL, but an untimely injury cost him.

“In 2014 I was having a great pre-season and Geelong did talk to me about potentially getting picked up if I had a good season,” he said. “I had a corky that cost me five weeks, so I didn’t have the best season. I still wanted to make the AFL the next couple of seasons but I didn’t think I would get there, so I wanted to absorb the experience.“

While Close was enjoying his football, he decided during his time in Geelong that he would return back to the family farm at Culla.

“I was doing accounting for four years and it wasn’t something I could see myself doing in the future,” he said. 

“I was always interested in the farm and the community involved around Harrow-Balmoral is luring. I always knew I would come back to Harrow-Balmoral. My brother Anthony is one of the reasons I wanted to come back.”

Close has returned as the assistant coach of the Southern Roos.

“The club is about ordinary people doing extraordinary things,” he said. “For the club to be doing well for so long there has to be great people in the community doing a lot of work.”

Close said he hopes to one day see all the Close brothers – him, Anthony and Michael, currently playing VFL at North Melbourne – back in the Blue and White.

“We have never all played seniors together, but Michael will be back in the Harrow-Balmoral jumper with us again one day,” he said.