Everett kicks on

Andrew Mathieson
BACK when goalkeeper Everett Nelson saved his first shot on goal, the baggy shorts that soccer players wore reached the knee and a lucky few were slipped a couple of pounds to play.
Now young fans are happy paying hundreds more for sophisticated replica team uniforms that make those old players cringe.
Except, that is, for this Drysdale pensioner who wears gold chains and rings and all the clobber that wouldn’t look out of place on a Gen Y wannabe.
More than 60 years on from his start in soccer, baggy shorts and all, Everett refuses to grow old gracefully and stick to his vegie patch.
“I played the whole season last year and was never subbed once playing in goals,” he boasts.
“But I’d rather be in goal because it’s easier on the knees these days.”
Opponents still shake their head in amazement at the vivacious 70-year-old’s diving saves, which guided Bellarine Sharks to the 2008 Geelong region’s third-division title.
Turning out at this year’s Australian Masters Games in Geelong, Everett’s age difference on the other competitors was closer to 30 years than 50.
“They didn’t run as fast,” he giggles, “but you have to be a lot smarter because they use their brain a lot more and move the ball around.
“The younger ones put their head down, run and chase the ball.”
Approaching the pointy end of a playing career spanning seven clubs around Geelong, Everett started out at Brintons in 1974. His subsequent 26 seasons for Deakin help set up the university’s soccer club.
He also played hefty stints back home in Northern Ireland, then England, the British Air Force and, occasionally, in Malaysia.
“I was reading how some people in footy have played 400 games, even 500,” Everett ponders.
“I couldn’t work it out it for sure but I figured it was somewhere between 1200 and 1400.”
Everett’s heyday was good enough to include semi-professional levels at Londonderry. The club’s manager even hooked Everett up a trial at English club Everton.
“I didn’t go because I just wasn’t interested,” he nods.
“I was 24 and busy with the air force.”
Celebrating his 30th birthday on a ship to Australia, work with Alcoa would eventually take Everett to Geelong.
Regular trips back to Moygashel – a tiny county village in Northern Ireland – are like reliving a little eight-year-old’s memories.
The mill town once weaved some of the finest linens in the world but poor kids spent the post-war period doing their best weaving on the soccer pitch. “We had to roll any materials into a round thing and you’d have to kick that around,” Everett says.
Back then soccer was the people’s game in Northern Ireland and George Best was king. The Manchester United star of the ‘60s and ‘70s was revered but is still regarded as a flawed genius.
Like Georgie did, Everett struggles to walk the streets back home. Not that it has anything to do with The Troubles between Protestants and Catholics.
“The funny thing is that I’m as well known in the village now than when I lived there,” he smiles.
“There are close to 300 of my relatives who still live there.”