Craig Anderson, one of suburban football’s most decorated players, retires at age 38

CRAIG Anderson has retired after a long career that took in a rookie listing at Collingwood and Eastern league medals at Noble Park.

Craig Anderson will be remembered as one of the great suburban footballers. Picture: Andrew Tauber.

THEY gave him an armchair ride off the ground.

It was one of the few times in his long career that anyone could say Craig Anderson had been a passenger.

A few weeks shy of his 39th birthday, affable “Ando’’ farewelled suburban football last Saturday, playing for Pascoe Vale against West Coburg in the Essendon District league.

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He joined the Vales two years ago but hamstring and quad problems kept him to 20 games.

Pleasingly for him, he was named in the best in his final outing alongside his pal and former AFL player Daniel Harris, who also bowed out.

Craig Anderson gets away a handball for Pascoe Vale.

In fact, Anderson made the list of best in his last four matches; he went out with form on his side.

“Yeah, the body finally told me it’d had enough,’’ he was saying last night. “It was time to hang them up.’’

Owing to his injuries, the Essendon District league never saw sustained excellence from Anderson. He described his time with the Panthers as “a little bit frustrating but enjoyable all the same’’.

Noble Park did see his best, and in the strong Eastern competition he was among the best players for more than a decade, his running relentless and his disposal neat through the midfield. To those qualities he added courage and consistency.

Anderson won two Division 1 best and fairests, three club championships and two premierships with Noble, and was a respected captain, setting the example more by deed than word.

The northern suburbs boy ended up in the south-east because his wife, Belinda, is cousins with former Noble Park star Benn Logan. He had met Belinda through a teammate when he was playing at Williamstown in the VFL. Football introduced him to many people and places. “It’s funny how it all works out,’’ he said.

Craig Anderson winning the ball for Noble Park.

Anderson was an Alphington junior and progressed to the Northern Knights, where he played in a TAC Cup premiership under the great Keith Burns and alongside Lance Whitnall, Andrew Eccles, Jim Plunkett and Nick Stevens.

He joined Essendon as a supplementary list player in 1998. Bomber Thompson was his coach.

Anderson remembers playing in the reserve grade final against the Western Bulldogs and coming fourth in the best and fairest. But he cannot remember the reason the Bombers were ruled out of the rookie draft that year.

Craig Anderson the Magpie hopeful in 1999.

Collingwood swooped and put him on its rookie list for 1999. Soft-tissue injuries troubled him and he didn’t do enough to stick around when Mick Malthouse took over as coach.

“I did my hammy three times. Mick came in and cleaned everyone out, myself included,’’ he said.

“Glad I made it that far I suppose. But it would have been nice to play a game. Anyways, wasn’t to be.’’

Anderson spent the following four seasons at Williamstown, had two years at Epping and then crossed to Noble Park in 2006. He stayed for 11 years, gaining selection in four Eastern teams of the year.

“I had a great time at the Bulls. I’m actually sitting in the study now looking at some of the memorabilia,’’ he said. “Lots of good memories. They got me through some tough times. I’ll be forever grateful for that.’’

Anderson said he had always tried to get the best out of himself. “Hard work. I like to think I trained harder than most people, during the pre-season anyway. I got by on that hard work. I based my game on outrunning my opponent.’’

Anderson said he always held up Vermont trio Bernard Dinneen, Ryan Mullet and Kris Bardon as his most formidable opponents and that Noble Park’s Kyle Martin was the best player he had played with.

“He’s one of a kind, ‘Marto’,’’ he said.

Quite a few football people said the same about Craig Anderson.

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