A NORTH Melbourne best and fairest winner and duel premiership player, Craig Sholl grew up spending most of his time playing cricket.
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Born in Manangatang in the state’s north-west, Sholl’s family bought a motel and moved to Horsham when he was 13.
“I played under-16s in Manangatang – there’s an old famous saying that you wouldn’t get a game in the Manangatang thirds,” he said.
“My junior club was the Horsham Tigers and I think we won a flag or two. From there I played one year in the reserves with the Horsham Demons.”
Sholl spent most of his time as a junior athlete playing cricket. He would play juniors in the morning and A Grade in the afternoon.
“I was just cricket mad,” he said. “It was great fun playing both juniors and A Grade. I remember Horsham as a great country town and I have a lot of great mates from there that I still keep in touch with.”
At 17, Sholl played a single year in the reserves for the Horsham Demons, losing in a grand final at Dimboola.
The next day he went to Murtoa to play in front of North Melbourne scouts.
“Somehow after that grand final, the next day I went to Murtoa with a North Melbourne squad,” he said.
“I didn’t actually play that day – there were two blokes that didn’t play, myself and Wayne Schwass.”
Both Schwass and Sholl went onto play more than 200 games for North Melbourne. Sholl’s brother Brad also made it to the AFL, playing 171 games for North Melbourne and Geelong.
“I don’t know what happened because I can’t remember even getting a kick in that grand final,” Sholl said.
“I did manage to win the reserves best and fairest at 17. I was a second-year panel-beater at the time and I had to tell my boss I would be moving to Melbourne to play for North Melbourne the next year. That was never in my sights. I always wanted to play league footy but I never thought I was good enough.”
Sholl went to North Melbourne during a time where the club invested heavily in country football products.
“We got dropped off at a house in Essendon with a few other blokes and you start training,” he said.
“There were 250 people there and they really started to cull them quickly. After a few weeks there were 40 of us left. It started to get serious from there. It was pretty savage then, it was just before the draft.
“I was in Essendon’s zone so as soon as they heard North Melbourne had their eye on me, they whacked me on their list. North paid about $20,000 to Essendon for me to go across. I didn’t know that till later on in my career.
“All of a sudden I was in North’s under-19s and played about 10 reserves games. Two years later I played senior footy.”
Despite coming from country Victoria, Sholl said he enjoyed the switch, helped by the fact he was surrounded by other young players from a similar background.
“I was lucky to see the real bad at the club and then the really good results,” he said.
“When I first walked into the social club people would be throwing memberships away. Then came the country kids – North made a pact they would recruit country kids.
“We had the likes of the older guys like Alistair Clarkson and then in came John Longmire, Wayne Carey, Glenn Archer, Anthony Stevens, and they turned the whole thing around.
“Back in our day the North boys were so close and that’s because there were so many country kids. We were like brothers, lived in each other’s houses and it was like being at a country footy club.”
Sholl made his senior debut for North Melbourne in 1987. He played four games that year, none the next, and four games in 1989 before becoming a regular starter for the side.
“I was told the first year I played senior football I would get four games, regardless of how I played,” he said. “I got a few kicks in a couple of the games but I struggled for a bit. I went missing for a while.
“John Kennedy was my first coach and then Wayne Schimmelbusch coached and he gave me a few games.”
After playing 13 senior games in 1990, Sholl’s breakout season came in 1991 when he won the best and fairest. North Melbourne finished eighth, with the top six sides playing finals.
“The best and fairest was by far up there with the best of things I did,” he said.
“In a side that strong, you do learn to play for the team and not yourself. Along the way you get a couple of little accolades and you just have to grab them.”
When Dennis Pagan took over the coaching role at North Melbourne in 1993, things started to click for the side.
The players started to focus on football as almost a full-time role, giving up their other jobs.
“We had to work at that stage. When Dennis Pagan first got there we all had to have jobs,” Sholl said.
“Half way through Dennis’ career he changed and we didn’t have to work. He wasn’t keen on that but he realised that’s the way football was going.
“We worked with the Australian Institute of Sport and they would pop up and get us to do a swimming session for an hour, or training during the day. That started to happen in 1995 where we would start training in the morning too.
“It wasn't full-time like it is now. We would start training at 10am and would be home by 1pm. Now they get there at 8am and leave at 7pm.”
The results started to flow for North Melbourne, with the side making preliminary finals in 1994 and 1995 but losing to Geelong and Carlton respectively.
The breakthrough premiership win came in 1996.
North finished second on the ladder behind Sydney by just two points, beating Geelong and Brisbane in finals to set up a grand final against Sydney.
In front of more than 93,000 people, North defeated Sydney 19.17 (131) to 13.10 (88) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
“Because we had played in preliminary finals but hadn’t got there so 1996 was by far the best,” Sholl said.
North made the preliminary final again in 1997 before losing to Adelaide in the 1998 grand final.
Sholl played in his second premiership in 1999, in a win against Carlton.
“Then again in 1999, it was a different feeling because you realise how hard they are to get in it and to win one,” he said.
“We lost in 1998 and you would rather not play in one.
“We played Anthony Stevens with a broken leg in 1999. On the Thursday night he needled himself up that much he got through training. He had 10 kicks in the first quarter of the grand final and his leg just snapped.
“The crowds were just huge. In 1999 we were lucky in the last quarter to be up a bit so we could enjoy the game."
Among his teammates, Sholl said Wayne Carey stuck out as the best.
“It was just amazing some of the guys I got to play with. Carey is by far the best. He was an absolute freak and he worked so hard off the track,” he said.
Sholl said Pagan was a tough coach.
“Dennis was a very hard man. He is a genuine person and he could get the best out of people,” he said.
“He coached us in under-19s and then he was lucky enough to get the job in 1993. We just thought that was what you had to put up with to play league footy. His methods just didn’t work at Carlton.”
After his playing career, Sholl and his family moved to Echuca where he continued to play football before hanging up the boots for good.
He now runs a caravan park in Bright and said he had loved returning to the country way of living.
