Just ask Tongala’s Tracey Hughes, whose career as a netballer has gone on, and on, and on.
And is likely to keep going on next year – and this weekend could include a third perfect season in a row.
Because she might have racked up an astonishing 500 for the mighty Blues earlier this season, but squeezed in the middle of this remarkable string of games is three seasons at Kyabram, where with regular season and finals appearances Tracey clocked up another 70 matches.
She is within reach of 600 games, and she reckons there is probably still at least one more season in her now 48-year-old legs.
Tracey went straight into the seniors with Tonny – way back in 1994 when most of her current team wasn’t even born – as a 15-year-old and has never looked back.
Through those seasons she has collected four premierships with the Blues and another with Kyabram for good measure.
And as playing coach of the Tonny C-grade, she is the cornerstone of a team which hasn’t lost a game in three seasons and is definitely on the run home to a third perfect year.
Even though she laughed when she suggested a fair bit of her is held together with tape.
“I have been very lucky throughout my career, and never had a serious injury, so that has been a big part of playing this long,” Tracey said.
“The odd rolled ankle, but never anything major, so I have been able to keep playing. I do have the family back issues, not that it stopped me.”
Playing so long her daughters are now also on the court for Tonny, and youngest son Archie is getting involved with AusKick and the mini cricket as well.
When Tracey joined Tongala, it was playing in the Goulburn Valley League and did not have a junior program, so she and a couple of girls went straight into the A-grade, where she played her first 400 games until, as she says, “gravity caught up with me”.
“Although I have four children, we seemed to be able to manage it that they were born in the off-season and I was good to go by the time the next one started,” she said.
“When I had the twins – Hanna and Maya – I played in the 2015 finals 16 weeks pregnant, then had them and was ready for the 2016 season when it started. Our eldest daughter Ella is now playing in the under-15s, which is about where my playing would have started if we had juniors back then.
“I think across those years and the kids I maybe missed half a season in total – no more.”
Tracey said she had worked her way down to C-grade and had also been happy to help out as a coach, and even when she finally retires, if pure coaching isn’t the next stage, it will still be something which involves the club because “it has been such a huge part of my life, and my family’s life”.
As it has been for her extended family. Born a Reid she said her siblings, uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews, nieces, they all end up playing for Tonny – and yes, even Harley, her nephew, although he gave up the navy blue for a West Coast Eagles jumper.
Tracey is “pretty sure” she’s the oldest player going around at Tonny, and if she backs up in 2027, and then does 2028 to be a 50-year-old player, she can guarantee that dubious honour.
But for now, she is focused on getting her and her teammates through another grand final and perfect season and another flag and then she might take a little break and think about her playing future.
Although if her club’s comments are any guide, she will be back on court and chasing a fourth perfect season, because it certainly waxed lyrical when she reached the milestone, reporting the internet was just finding its feet, Friends had just premiered, The Lion King was in cinemas, and Australia was celebrating the Commonwealth Games in Victoria.
It posted a variety of images and said 1994 “was also the year Tracey Hughes pulled on the Tongala Netball Club colours for the very first time. Thirty-two years later, the game has changed, teammates have come and gone, and generations of players have taken the court alongside her. But one thing has remained the same, Tracey's unwavering commitment, passion, and love for the club … we celebrate an incredible milestone: 500 games in the navy blue. Five hundred games of determination, teamwork, friendship, and dedication to the TFNC community. What an extraordinary achievement, Tracey. Congratulations on 500 games, we're so proud to celebrate your remarkable journey”.
And they’re right – it is a remarkable journey and it’s still not finished.
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