Jeff Trott had an unusual initiation to league football in 1974. He was selected to play one game for East Fremantle in 1974 at the age of eighteen but never got on the ground. East won the flag that year, and he was included in the squad to play in the Carnival of Premiers in South Australia at the end of the season. Not expecting to play, Jeff and his best mate Tony Buhagiar got into a bit of mischief and John Todd fined them for each misdemeanor. Having been fined about $300, and having earned only $250 for the year’s match payments, he had a dilemma, as he was relying on the earnings to live on while at Teachers College. “I went to Toddy and told him my problems, and asked if I challenged Laurie Elliott, our Phys Ed man,(also Herb Elliott’s brother) to a race over four hundred metres and beat him, would he drop my fine?  He agreed, and at training that morning, I wised up a few of the boys to give me some help. Toddy called us all in, and while he was explaining what was about to happen, I took off. Toddy just yelled to Laurie to catch me and beat me, but I’d got away to a good head start. As I came around the bend with about fifty metres to go, and Laurie closing in fast, Ron Bentley, Tony Micale, and a few others tackled Laurie to the ground, and I fell over the line.”“Toddy wiped out my fines, and gave me a game against the Tasmanians. I managed to get a few kicks. And I got a game first up at the start of the 75 season.” His first full WANFL game was against West Perth in round one of 1975.   “I was eighteen and nervous as buggery,” he recalled. “Playing in a back pocket on the legend, Billy Dempsey, in about his fifteenth season of league football. The ball came down to Dempsey, I was behind him all set for the spoil when he leant back and grabbed me by the goollies, which had the effect of lessening my efficiency somewhat. He took the mark, drilled it, and I went up to him and said: “hey, I’m the backman, I’m supposed to do that to you,”which elicited a wry smile from the champ. “Well that’s your first lesson, boy,” he said.Never part of a league premiership, Trott got as close to the action that season as he could without actually playing.“With our reserves not in the finals, Toddy picked a squad of twenty seven,” he said. “I was in the squad, and instead of forwarding the final twenty players in position to the league on the Thursday night, he presented twenty seven names, which incurred a fine. On the big day, he sent the whole of the twenty seven out onto the ground for the warm up. I knew I wasn’t in the side, but I had just turned nineteen and got carried away in the atmosphere, kicking balls into the crowd. I was that pumped, I reckon one spiral punt went over the top of the three tier grandstand.” East Fremantle defeated Perth by twenty two points.    Jeff  Trott was born to play in the blue and white.Starting life at Woodside Hospital, just a couple of Ray Sorrell dropkicks away from East Fremantle Oval, he was the son of Jack Trott, who played seventy games at centre half back for Old Easts and nephew of an East Fremantle great, Don Gabrielson. Transfers as a teacher restricted his career, but he made his mark at the club in eighty five games, during which he was used in a variety of positions. A strong mark overhead and a good reader of the play, Trott became a regular over the following two seasons.It was in 1975 that Trott got his wish to play at centre half forward.“Toddy was coaching the State side in Melbourne, and Neil Ferguson was stand-in coach,” he said. “I asked Neil to give me a go in attack and he agreed. I had five goals on the board when I noticed Claremont coach Mal Brown giving Tractor Reynolds some last minute info and sending him galloping toward me. I had a fair inkling of the gist of the conversation and was ready for the mixer I got. I asked Mal about that years later, and he commented: “The sod never hit you hard enough.” Transferred to Le Grange Mission in 1977, he played at Broome, his performances for Broome Towns gaining him selection in the club’s Hall of Fame. “I must have upset someone in the Education Department,” Jeff said. “I didn’t think I could get sent much farther North but I was wrong. I then got two years at Wyndham.” Trott coached at Wyndham before returning to East Fremantle in 1980 to reclaim his league spot. He recalled a hectic Foundation Day Derby that year with East a few points in front and Ray Bauskis streaming out for the mark. “The instruction book would tell you to spoil, but for whatever reason I went for the mark and ended up with a speccie, which brought the house down. But I could just as easily have been the villain in hindsight.”  A broken leg at the start of the 1981 season wrecked his league career, and he went to Willeton in 1983 under the coaching of former South Fremantle player Peter Dougan, taking over the reigns himself for the following four years. The side made a grand final in 1985 but lost to Kalamunda.In 1987, Trott was transferred to Busselton, where he played four games but the knee had other intentions.   Nicknamed “Stroodle” by Tony Buhagiar, Jeff attempted to explain the reasoning for it. “I was six foot and seven stone, so they called me stroodle, a cross between a string and a noodle,” he said. “But it’s also a cross between a stretch and a doodle. Take your pick.”Buhagiar had another gripe with Trott.“ I’m a year younger than Budge, but managed to beat him by one vote in the under twelve’s fairest and best. A few months ago, I stayed at Budgie’s, and on the Sunday morning we went to visit Don and Phyl. Unbeknown to us, it was the day before his 90th birthday, and he was pretty chuffed to see us. Budgie asked Don if he still had the fairest and best voting slips from 1966---as he wanted to check the signatures on the voting slips, because he reckoned it was rigged. The coach was my uncle, the team manager was my Dad, and he was sure that my mum Rhoda and Aunty Phyl took turns with the other voting slip.”“Don broke up.”Jeff Trott was also a talented baseballer with East Fremantle Baseball Club, representing Western Australia in under seventeen competition. “At the pre-season training session, Toddy announced training dates, and Graeme Wood and myself both said we couldn’t make some because of baseball and cricket. “It’s your choice,” Toddy said. “But you can’t do both.” Woody said seeya later and I stayed. Graeme went on to play for Australia.” These days Jeff Trott has found life after teaching, and works in real estate in Busselton. The Trott dynasty at East Fremantle ends at two, with Jeff and Sue producing three girls, Kellie, Gemma, and Dani, all State League netballers. He is captain of the Busselton Golf Club Scroungers and loves a game, but his talents have diversified to writing music. With his good mate Glen Young playing a mean guitar, Jeff has become a closet lyricist and the pair are in demand at football shows as entertainers, doing parodies of the current issues of the game. They have performed at Sandover Medal counts, WAFL grand finals, and Eagles shows.Three rival South Fremantle players head Trott’s “hardest to beat.”: Basil Campbell, Joe McKay and Stephen Michael. No surprises with best he played with, Brian Peake and Buhagiar. Jeff Trott loves the game of football and is one of it’s characters. In an interrupted career he was a valuable member of the East Fremantle side over eight seasons, notable for his marking and versatility.