SFNL: Cranbourne’s Glenn Osborne reflects on his career ahead of his 200th match
Cranbourne’s lion-hearted warrior will raise the bat for 200 senior games this Saturday. He walked us through how it all started and how it didn’t exactly go to plan.
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Ahead of his 200th match, Cranbourne warrior Glenn Osborne can still recall the welcome to senior footy moment his debut delivered.
At the Eagles’ then home venue Casey Fields, the bushy-tailed teenager arrived at his maiden shot in the 2pm slot and was greeted with a 20-goal torching at the hands of Pakenham.
Walking off the ground that day, he wondered if that result was the norm and unsure if he had actually got his hands on the Sherrin.
“That was pretty tough, I thought: ‘what is going on here?’,” he said.
“I started forward, when you come up from the under-18s they often put you forward, you don’t get a lot of game time, it might’ve been about half a game in the end from memory.
“I couldn’t even tell you if I got a kick or not, I am not too sure.”
Osborne, 32, didn’t stay in the senior side long after that, he was made to force his way back in over the course of the next 18 months.
He eventually did by the end of the following season and has remained an integral part of the side since.
Amid a plethora of injuries, Osborne has gone on to play in three premierships (2011, 2016 and 2022) as well as a further four grand finals.
After shoulder, hamstring, ankle and knee setbacks – all each plural – Osborne laughs off why he keeps returning.
“I don’t actually know,” he joked.
“I think once you cop a few injuries you really get a determination to keep coming back.
“Once you nut out the recovery process, it just gives you a bit more drive, more reason to get back to it.
“I don’t know why I have done it so many times but I guess it just gives you that goal, that aim, to get back to football.”
With seven grand final appearances across 199 matches, Osborne currently averages a crack at the ultimate prize every 28 games.
Even with that big stage experience, he still expects to feel the same pre-game jitters against St Paul’s McKinnon this Saturday as he did Pakenham 16 seasons ago.
“I was actually thinking about this the other day; I still get just as nervous as I did ten years ago,” he said.
“I don’t think you ever get over those nerves, it means you still care, still want to perform as well as you can.
“There’s a little more nerves in grand final week but every game there is still nerves before.”
As for whether he will be in Eagles’ threads in 2024, Osborne says it remains “a year-by-year basis”.
The Eagles sit in second position on the Southern league Division 1 ladder intent on going back-to-back.
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