Now, Both has become a key person in maintaining the Homers tennis club, one of the many unsung volunteers throughout the Wimmera doing a tireless amount of work for their beloved sports club.

When he retired from football, Both was looking for a new sport to provide a strong social aspect, a little bit of fitness and something to be taken not too seriously.

"My wife's father is a cricketer, so basically we got the tennis going just so I wouldn't have to play cricket," Both joked.

"That was one of my main reasons initially for getting involved."

The Homers tennis club hadn't been running for quite some time before Both and a handful of footballers jumped on board.

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"I didn't start the club - I just tagged along some footballers from Horsham," Both said. "We hadn't been going for about 10 years."

Now Homers has a sturdy playing base and junior program.

"To start the juniors from scratch, we basically had to round up kids who had never played before," Both said.

"We had two teams last year and this year we've grown to five teams, so it's going well."

For Both, the main drawcard of tennis is not the competition.

"Participation is the key - most sports are struggling for numbers now days - so winning isn't that important," Both said.

"Tennis is good because you can be losing by a lot but you're getting just as many hits as the bloke that is beating you."

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