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{xtypo_dropcap}T{/xtypo_dropcap}he announcement of Gerard Neesham as coach of Claremont after the end of the 1986 season wasn’t initially received with universal enthusiasm by the older of the Tigers playing list.

Many who had played against him were skeptical of the appointment.

But to one of the younger of the playing group, Mark Brayshaw, the new coach not only saved his football career but laid the foundation for the success he would later enjoy in the sporting and corporate world.

“I was deadset at the crossroads,” he recalls. “The second year blues had turned into the third year blues, and I didn’t feel I had a future in the game. Neesham led me to believe I had something to offer, and it rejuvenated my career. He also taught me plenty of lessons about life and opened my eyes to a different way of living.”

“In my first few years at the club I was still a bit in awe of Graham Moss and his style, but Gerard was like nothing I’d seen as a coach and mentor.” 

Son of Claremont premiership player and star State cricketer Ian Brayshaw, Mark had made his league debut in 1984, when earmarked as part of the young blood to lay the foundation of future premierships. “I always wanted to play for Claremont,” he said. “The letter inviting me to train with the colts side arrived in the mail at the same time as I got my school examination results.  I remember that both seemed just as important to me at that stage of my life.” 

Like his father, Mark had played football at Scotch College, and both were years later named in a shortlist of fifty from which the school’s “all star” football twenty was selected.   

In 1984 Claremont were struggling, and Brayshaw was introduced to league ranks in the latter part of the season, fronting East Perth’s tough man, Arnold Cox. “I was down to play on him but

before the first bounce couldn’t find him,” Mark recalled. “Steve Goulding pointed him out on the wing, and I immediately manned up on him. I remember Bruce Monteath’s advice before my debut:  “go get the ball and have a kick.”

“I was like most young blokes, I suppose..a bit overwhelmed and nervous. I’d played in the Colts all the previous season and literally met a few of the senior players for the first time on the morning of my debut.”

“It was a big thrill, because Brad Reynolds was a hero to many of our younger players, including myself, and I played my first game on a half back flank while he was on the other one. Bluey McKenna and I were good mates in the Colts ; he’s told me in later years that he would have loved to have played at least one game with Brad but he didn’t. I recall thinking that it was very comforting to have him as a teammate not far away for that first game.”

“The pre game atmosphere in the dressing rooms was slightly intimidating for a young bloke, too. Boxing coach Tommy Greenwood and burly ruckman David Court were using the punching bag like a demolition machine.”

“Then came game two, against South Fremantle.” 

“On the morning of the game, Dad told me that fellow radio commentator George Grljusich reckoned that Stephen Michael was cleaning the young blokes up, and I ought to keep an eye out. It would be fair to say that it hadn’t escaped my notice either, and I had the thought of the South ruckman at the forefront of my mind as I prepared for the game. Michael was also a player I had admired as a youngster watching the WAFL matches, so to play against him was a huge thrill. I started on Nicky Winmar and he got away from me with three goals before quarter time. When Brad went onto him he continued the goalfest. He was far too good for me!”

After his form lapse over the following two seasons and the subsequent arrival of Neesham, Brayshaw trained like a demon in the 1987 pre season, beginning to establish himself as a player in the seniors during the pre season Kresta Cup competition  at centre half back, and was looking forward to the season proper. “On the Friday morning before the first game of the 1987 season, I played a social game of tennis, chased a lob, slipped, and smashed into a limestone wall,” he ruefully recalls. “My knee was badly bruised, and I missed eight weeks of footy.”

In the meantime Claremont were dominating, and reclaiming his spot in the side became a tough assignment. When he did return, it was all too often on the bench. When Stephen Goulding was suspended for four weeks for kicking Swan Districts onballer Geoff Passeri, the door opened for Brayshaw to be part of the1987 grand final side, but an appeal from Claremont on behalf of Goulding was upheld, and it’s history that the Tigers beat Subiaco by seventy one points to take the flag. Mark was dropped from the team on Grand Final eve.

The 1988 season saw Mark re establish himself as a leading player in a very good Tigers combination. His ability to play in most positions on the ground, against both small and tall opponents complimented by reliable marking and dependable delivery, soon made him an important player in the side.

But it was the Lions who gained their revenge that year by reversing the previous season’s  grand final result. Brayshaw played at fullback in a Western Australian side that won well over the Victorian Football Association in a curtain raiser to the State of Origin match between WA and Victoria. 

Claremont made amends in 1989 with a sixty seven point grand final walloping of South Fremantle, in an outstanding season for Mark Brayshaw. A virus that caused him to miss the second last game of the season and confined him to a forward pocket in the last, might have cost him a Sandover Medal. Finishing second to South Fremantle’s Craig Edwards, he was also named at centre half back in a State side, although there was no actual interstate game organised, and a five goal haul in the grand final was the cream on the cake.

Drafted to North Melbourne, Brayshaw played thirty two games over what he regarded as three terrific years before returning to the Tigers in time to share in another premiership in 1993. After captaining the club for the 1994 season, he was appointed Business Manager of the newly formed Fremantle Dockers, a move that virtually finished his on field career after a hundred and ten games at Claremont(in which he kicked seventy goals)and thirty two with North.

Brayshaw went on to become a household name in football, spending three years with Fremantle before moving to Port Adelaide in a marketing role for a further three years, and then three seasons as Chief Executive Officer at Richmond.  He is currently a Director of North Melbourne  Football Club, where brother James is President. He is also Chief Executive Officer of ClubLinks, a company involved in golf club and residential community management.

Although father Ian was an outstanding cricketer who once took all ten wickets in a Sheffield Shield match and is considered by many good critics to be one of the best players never to play a Test, and brother James also starred in Shield cricket, scoring just under five thousand runs for South and Western Australia, Mark decided at an early age to concentrate on football mainly because cricket wasn’t his game.

It’s the golf course for Mark Brayshaw these days, and he can be seen at the Royal Melbourne links when his busy work schedule allows. He married Debra twenty one years ago after meeting her at Phillipa O’Connell’s(sister of Claremont and West Coast Eagles players David and Michael O’Connell) twenty first birthday party.

Mark and Debra’s four sons..William, Angus, Hamish, and Andrew..love football, but working with four AFL clubs does present a bit of anguish at home, with each of the boys supporting a different team that Dad has been involved with, so with the Roos, Tigers, Port, and Freo guernseys all clamoring for space in the Brayshaw household, arguments are aplenty in footy season.

Having played on Gary Ablett senior, Paul Vanderhaar, and Nicky Winmar, there are no prizes for guessing Brayshaw’s nomination of best he’s played on, and he went for Wayne Carey as best he played with.   

Mark is a busy man these days, with the pressure, responsibility, trials, and tribulations of a VFL club plus his business involvements. I asked him what he remembers most about his time at Claremont.

“I miss the carry on with my teammates most of all,” he said. “We had a great locker room culture in my time at Claremont and practical jokes were commonplace. For instance, we had about a dozen showers there, but invariably only one would be working. One day I’d had enough of waiting, and the sight of Tony Begovich happily lathering his hairy shampoo- smothered chest set me off. As Warren Ralph looked on from the next cubicle, I walked in and said to Bega: “Neesham wants a chat in the Coach’s room.”  

“It was Friday night after training, selection night, and Bega was a pretty simple bloke and also a bit apprehensive about his spot in the side, so he immediately vacated his shower and marched dripping wet into the coach’s selection meeting. Naturally, and to the amazement of the rest of them, I dived into Bega’s hot shower as soon as he left.”

“Bega interrupted Gerard’s meeting and blurted: “Sticks said you wanted to see me?”

“Neesham laughed, replied in the negative, and it was at about that stage that the penny dropped for Bega”

“I can remember Ralphy telling me that in the long time he’d been at Claremont he’d never seen anyone fall for one of the oldest tricks in the book. Anyway..”

“Tony arrived back with a bucket of ice, which he deposited on yours truly. Nearly twenty five years later I’m still chuckling.” 

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