David Teague is the talk of Katandra and he hasn’t forgotten his roots

David Teague, the man behind Carlton’s resurgence, is a senior coach in waiting and there’s one story that perfectly sums up the humble country boy.

David Teague was busy looking after one of his young children in the playground when he saw Katandra Football Club president Corey Wilson hurry past.

He was back home for a past players’ reunion at his old football club thanks to an opening in his schedule as Carlton’s assistant coach.

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But his plans for an afternoon of beers behind the glass soon changed after he asked Wilson how he was travelling.

“I was getting the reserves ready and we were short, we’re always short,” Wilson explains.

“I said to Dave, ‘I’m trying to find a couple of players’.

“Straight away he said, ‘I’ve bought my gear’. I was like, do you really want to play reserves and he just said: ‘Yeah, I’ll play’.

“He then went out and would have got 40 possessions at centre-half back but we still lost the game by over 100 points.

“He actually had a ball out there because there were two other family members playing down back with him so it was a bit of a laugh.”

Carlton interim coach David Teague at training. Picture: AAP

For those who have had anything to do with Carlton’s caretaker coach, that story sums David Teague up to a “T”.

There’s no ego. He’s friendly, generous and a country boy at heart.

That was the second game he played for the Kats last year and continued a pattern of him returning to his roots at every opportunity to pull on the boots.

Understandably Teague, 38, is the talk of the town as his profile continues to grow by the week given his heroics in the coaches’ box since taking over from Brendon Bolton.

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LOCAL HERO

Katandra is a tight-knit dairy farming community, a 20-minute drive north of Shepparton.

The 2016 Census had the population at 400 but that number seemed a bit on the generous side, according to locals.

The drought has knocked around the area and where there were once 50 farms on lush green fields, there would be lucky to be a handful now who are keeping their head above water.

There’s no pub in town so everyone gravitates to the football club which now plays in the Murray League after breaking away from the Picola and District League after it decided to sever its AFL affiliation two years ago.

The Kats have struggled in the stronger league — they’ve won just three games this year — but are a healthy district club fielding four footy sides and eight netball teams every Saturday.

Teague celebrates his first AFL win in Round 12. Picture: Michael Klein

They’ve benefited greatly from the building of a new community centre at the ground complete with a function room which caters for 250 guests.

It’s the place to be every Thursday night during footy season and Wilson now finds himself required to give a Teague coaching update to the crowd.

He tries to limit the number of mentions of Chris Judd given the infamous “training wheels” gaffe understandably had the locals up in arms.

“It’s certainly a buzz for our town,” Wilson says.

“On Thursday nights we’ll get 120 odd people here for tea and a lot of the conversation is about Carlton and about Dave.

“I get on the microphone and give updates on the latest news on Dave, just what’s been in the media and crack a few jokes about it.

“When you’ve got a local bloke who is in the spotlight, I mean he’s on TV every night now, everyone watches and listens to see what’s happening.

“We’re all curious to see how the next few weeks evolve.”

He then adds: “I’m a Collingwood man but I’m probably the only one in the family that hasn’t gone fully into Carlton mode.”

It’s a big family too with the best way to sum up the Teague family tree in Katandra … they’re everywhere.

David Teague at his old primary school in 2005.

TEAGUE CLAN

David’s father Geoff, uncle Kevin and cousin Wes all played more than 300 games for the footy club while his younger brother Gregor chalked up well over 200 games and won two flags.

His oldest sister, Jacinta, still plays netball for the Kats while the youngest in the family, Stephanie, is a former league best-and-fairest winner.

Maree and Geoff, who once ran a large dairy farm, still live in the area but are currently overseas on a holiday which according to Wilson would be frustrating the matriarch of the family.

“It would be killing his mum being overseas,” Wilson said.

“They snuck down to watch him coach his first game, she’s his No.1 fan but they’ll be home soon because there’s another family wedding coming up.”

Wilson is part of the Teague clan having married a cousin and even the most famous footballer to come out of Katandra, former Melbourne hard man Rod Grinter, is part of the web.

His mother, Jessie, married a Teague which makes him a second cousin.

“It’s certainly a well known name around Katandra,” Grinter says.

He was at the past players’ function last year when David pulled on the boots and the pair played together in a premiership back in 1998.

David Teague coaching the Northen Bullants in the VFL in 2009.

Grinter, who played 134 games for Melbourne, had gone to Tasmania after his career finished in 1995 before returning to his old football club for the second half of the ’98 season.

“He (David) was 17 and I was 34,” Grinter explains.

“I played the last 14 games of that year with my old team and won 13 of them including the premiership.

“It was fantastic going back. All I wanted to do when I was growing up was to play with Katandra, to play in the firsts with Katandra and I did as a 15-year-old before going down to Melbourne.

“Then to do it at 34 and win a flag, that was awesome.”

Legend has it that Grinter was David’s “protector” but the Demons strongman doesn’t recall having to settle too many scores.

“I kept an eye on him, there might have been a couple of incidents but nothing crazy,” he said.

“David was with the Murray Bushrangers (in the TAC Cup), he was sort of in and out of that team and when he didn’t get a game he played with his local club.

“He was tough, hard at it, skilful, could read the play well and play anywhere. The knock on him was his pace but he got a chance with the Kangaroos and did well there.”

David Teague flies for a mark as a Blue.

Teague playing for the Kangaroos in 2002.

COACHING JOURNEY

Teague wasn’t drafted straight out of the Bushrangers so went to Corowa-Rutherglen where he won a premiership before North picked him up in the 2000 rookie draft.

He played 33 games with the Kangaroos before moving to Carlton with coach Denis Pagan where he won the John Nicholls Medal in his first season.

After 50 games from 2004 to 2007, Teague began his coaching journey by becoming playing-coach of Carlton’s VFL affiliate team, the Northern Bullants.

He then spent time as an assistant coach at West Coast, St Kilda and Adelaide before returning to the Blues in 2018.

“I was talking to his Dad last year and he said Dave was going for his Level 4 coaching certificate and that he wanted to be an AFL coach,” Grinter said.

“He said he just needs some exposure because no-one knows who he is and then all of a sudden he’s got the exposure.

“The thing is he’s got that good nature about him, not a tosser, just a good honest hardworking country boy.

“He’s played at the elite level, won a best and fairest and done a fair apprenticeship.

“He’s certainly making it hard for them not to give him the gig. I mean he could well be the next Alistair Clarkson.”

Originally published as David Teague is the talk of Katandra and he hasn’t forgotten his roots