Wimmera: Brad Hartigan qualified for league life membership with 300th match

Twelve-time premiership player Brad Hartigan is still going strong in the Wimmera league. Read about his latest accolade.

Brad Hartigan has added another honour to an already bulging country football resume with his 300th senior match in the Wimmera league.

The star midfielder qualified for league life membership on Saturday when he hit the major milestone made up of 292 matches for Horsham Demons and eight appearances for the Wimmera interleague team.

Later this season Hartigan will become the first Demons player to play 300 senior matches for the club, which has strong claims to being one of the most successful in the state in the past two decades.

Horsham Demons favourite son Brad Hartigan is chaired off after his 300th match in the Wimmera league. Picture: Lauren McKinnon

The Demons have won an unprecedented 13 flags since 2003 and Hartigan has played in 12 of them.

“I definitely count myself lucky,” he said.

“I came along at the right time.

“But we definitely had our challenges with some of the grand finals we played in, we weren’t always expected to win.

“There were also years when we weren’t favourites during the season.

“But for some reason we were able to play well at the right time.”

The 36-year-old was best-on-ground in the 2010 win and coached a grand final in 2014 when he co-coached alongside Jordan Burke following the bombshell decision to dump Stuart Farr after he had coached the club to seven flags and had played in another two.

Horsham Demons player Brad Hartigan launches himself for a mark in his 300th match in the Wimmera league. Picture: Lauren McKinnon

Hartigan played in his first flag aged 16 and has won the club’s best and fairest once.

He missed the 2007 flag when he was playing for North Ballarat’s now defunct VFL team.

Hartigan needs to play in one more premiership to equal the record of 13 held by the late John Crisp, who played in 12 flags for Omeo and one for Wy Yung in the 1960s and 1970s.

Hartigan has no retirement plans yet.

“The body is still feeling well and I feel as though I’m still contributing,” he said.

“Touch wood I haven’t had any major injuries in my career.”

Horsham Demons and Ararat players form a guard of honour as Brad Hartigan runs onto the ground for his 300th match in the Wimmera league. Picture: Eliza McAnulty

The only other time Hartigan hasn’t played for the Demons was when he was playing for the Ballarat Rebels in the statewide under-18s competition.

He rated Farr, goalkicking machine David Johns, Terry Arnel and Damien Skurrie among the best players he has played alongside for the Demons, who have made an uncharacteristic slow start to 2023.

After playing finals last year, the Demons are winless after four rounds with a 68-point loss to ladder leader Ararat on Saturday.