Richard Milne to play 350th game for St Peter’s Old Collegians in the Adelaide Footy League
St Peter’s Old Collegians veteran Richard Milne will line up for his 350th game this Saturday and his nickname “Factor” has stuck with him almost the whole way through.
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Nicknames bestowed on players at a footy club are often the opposite of complimentary.
But not in the case of Richard “Factor” Milne.
The St Peter’s Old Collegians big man will run out for his 350th game in the blue and white this Saturday with that nickname, which has well and truly stuck since his second year at the club back in 1995.
SPOC trailed Seaton Ramblers by five goals coming into fourth quarter of the A2 grand final that year but Milne was yet to get on the park.
“(Coach) John Paynter actually played himself – he had only played about three or four games all year – but he played himself on the wing all day and I hadn’t even got on the ground with about eight minutes to go,” Milne, 42, says.
“But then he did a hamstring, so on I came and I was pretty fresh.
“With probably two or three minutes to go I snapped a goal from the boundary from about 45m out and I got the name “The Factor” from the boys.
“There’s a lot worse nicknames to be called than that. It’s stuck forever now.”
Milne says that premiership win was sweet, with the Ramblers “having their T-shirts printed up already”, along with an A1 flag the following season.
Following that success so early in his SPOC career, the centre half-forward turned ruckman didn’t win another until a B grade flag in 2009.
His time in between was not uneventful however.
In 1997 he followed Wayne Stringer, who coached the ‘96 SPOC flag, out to Glenelg to have a crack at SANFL footy but did his ACL in the reserves in just the second match of the season.
Milne is also a leader at SPOC, captaining the club in 2005 and holding a role on the club’s executive committee for 14 years from 2004-2018.
He has racked up 205 A grade games but Milne’s 350th this Saturday will come in the C grade at home against Adelaide University.
As for retirement, the veteran isn’t calling it quits just yet and hopes to get in at least a few more games from here.
“I just enjoy playing with the boys really, it’s pretty simple.”
patrick.keam@news.com.au