Andrew Symes to play 150th game for the Katherine Camels

A Katherine Camels premiership winning captain will become the first player in the club’s history to cross a special milestone. Read about his journey with the club.

Katherine Camels premiership winning captain Andrew Symes will become the first player of the Big Rivers Football League club to cross the 150 game milestone.

Symes has been a loyal servant of the club since it joined the competition in 2011, and there’s been plenty of highs to go along with it.

Throughout his tenure the Camels have reached six grand finals and won three, with the latter two in 2019 and 2022 coming under his captaincy.

He is also a two time club best and fairest winner and has captained the Big Rivers interleague team.

On Friday he will become the club’s first player to have played 150 senior games with the side when the top placed Camels take on Eastside.

“The competition down here is such a short season so it’s a great milestone considering how hard it can be to get,” he said.

“Every year is different for us with the amount of players we have coming through, and that means we’re meeting new people and creating new mates as well.

Katherine Camels premiership captain Andrew Symes will become the club's first player to crack the 150 game milestone.

“Getting around all the families and people that come through the club just makes it a vibrant place and keeps me coming back.

“Captaining the club to those premierships was a real highlight, and then it’s just playing with a bunch of good people.”

The 33-year-old has stepped back from the captaincy after his lengthy five year stint, but is still someone his club mates turn to as a leader.

And though he has thought about hanging up the boots since his side’s most recent premiership the love for the sport keeps bringing him back.

“I think every year since the 2022 grand final I’ve thought about hanging the boots up, but then you sort of get itchy feet,” Symes said.

“We will start doing pre-season for a bit of fun and then when we realise our bodies are still moving all right we’re into the first game and we follow on from there.

“I just love playing the game, it’s physical and we like playing it that way, and then there’s the club culture that keeps bringing me back.”

Katherine Camels premiership captain Andrew Symes will become the club's first player to crack the 150 game milestone.

Symes credited the likes of other long timers for the club such as Daniel Fisher and Tom Watkins as well as president Tim Delaney for playing big roles in the club’s development.

And a healthy influx of players stepping up into leadership roles such as Dylan Wareham, Toby Taylor, Tristan Warner and Josh Carlin have put pushed the side to the top spot after nine rounds of the 2024 season.

“We’ve got a great group of local players at the moment and haven’t had to go digging for too many from Darwin, which shows the club’s strength,” Symes said.

“We’ve got a strong side with a lot of young players, and there’s some great leadership as well, meaning I can step back a bit from what I did as captain while others step up.

“Eastside can be pretty unpredictable, they can bring talented individual players and are playing in memorial so will probably bring out their best side.

“We’re expecting a nice, hard game against them, against a tough side.”