It was only persistence and a belief in his ability that enabled Swan Districts onballer David Ogg to achieve his ambition to play AFL football.  His first three years at Swans were, according to David, “a tough slog.” “I always seemed to be close to a league game, but never quite there,” he said.  Initially, the Cloverdale junior was  reluctant to try out in league ranks, happy to play with Amateur side Trinity-Aquinas, and it was only at the prompting of friends who were at Swan Districts that he made the move in 1986. Ogg had already come under notice as a junior, sharing an intrazone lightning carnival fairest and best award with Andy Holmes. 1990 was the breakthrough year for Ogg. With John Todd back as coach, he played in every game of the season, was part of a premiership, and debuted for Western Australia. “I still have the number one guernsey Andrew Jarman wore in that State clash, with whom I swapped jumpers afterwards,” he said.  Ogg was one of WA's best in the game, kicking two goals, and it was this performance that made him a target in the AFL Draft later that year. Ogg was contacted by several clubs prior to the 1990 National Draft, and had high hopes of going to Victoria, but it was Brisbane who grabbed him with their first pick, and number ten overall.  After a mediocre first half of 1991 with the Lions,when he was played off a half back flank, coach Robert Walls put him on the ball, a role much more to his liking, and Ogg began to shine. An elbow injury was a setback, forcing him to the reserves. “It did give me the opportunity to play finals football at the MCG,” he said. “Brisbane became the first non Victorian side to win a premiership  in any grade,” he recalled. Others in the team included Brad Hardie, David Bain, and Alex Ischenko.  Ogg's Brisbane stay was to be shortlived. There was an upheaval in the ownership of the Brisbane club after the 1991 season, with a new heirachy in control, and players contracts were torn up. David was taken by West Coast in that year's draft, and returned to Perth.   The bad luck in Brisbane followed him, and an achilles injury on the first night of training at Subiaco Oval was a tough blow. “It was a hard job trying to break into that 1992 West Coast side, and,training too soon after the injury, and playing before I should have, causing a loss in form, I didn't do myself any favours,” he said. A down to earth and quietly spoken David Ogg spoke candidly about his days in the AFL: “I  felt I didn't get the best out of myself, for varying reasons. It was disappointing to me that it didn't last more than a couple of seasons, I would have liked to have become a hundred game player in what was a tough competition, where off field issues can be just as important influences on a young bloke's career as whatever happens on the ground. The change in ownership of the Bears was unfortunate, as well as my setback at West Coast, but I have no ill feeling to either club in any way. Brisbane gave me my original opportunity, and the Eagles provided me with a second chance. That they won a premiership proved the decisions they made were right for the club.”   As an illustration of the discipline that he saw in his time in the AFL system, Ogg told us of the occasion he and another former Swan Districts player, Shane Strempel, were late for training. “I was living with Shane at the time, and we arrived at training five minutes late. Shane was already in the bad books due to several other “indiscretions,” and the coach wanted blood. My punishment was fifteen laps of the ground, but Shane's was worse. Told to stand in the middle of a twenty metre circle ringed by all the other players on Brisbane's list, he had to box each of them for a minute.” “Shane's a big bloke, and he took care of the first few nicely, but, tiring quickly, he was overcome by sheer fresh numbers, and it got quite ugly. It wasn't pretty for me either, watching this happen to a mate for the crime of being five minutes late. Eventually it got to Brad Hardie's turn, and, to his credit, Brad said: "Rob, you've got to call it off because you'll kill the boy."  The incident was later to become publicised on the ABC “Nightline” programme, where it caused much controversy. Delisted in the June draft, Ogg returned to SwanDistricts, where he played finals in each of the following three seasons, without a flag, before retiring from league ranks in 1995. Not the fastest going around, David Ogg was a hard working, elusive player, at his best as an onballer, who was an exemplary kick with both feet. Delisted by West Coast in the June draft of 1992, and picking up his career with Swan Districts once again, Ogg became an onfield leader with the black and whites over the next three seasons, with the club making the finals in each year with the exception of 1995, without making a grand final. At the age of twenty eight, Ogg had a year away from the game in 1996. “I wanted to walk away from the game fit and healthy, and playing reasonably well, not going too long,” he said.  In 1997 and 8, David spent two years with Harvey Bulls in the Peel Association, where he won the fairest and best award in a year the club made the finals.  Retiring from football, David was persuaded back as coach of Swan Athletic Amateurs for the 1999 and 2000 seasons.  Of his opponents, he remembered St Kilda's Nicky Winmar as a bloody hard assignment. “I had the job of tagging him one day, ”he recalled. “ He ran all day, and I tried to keep up with him, and thought I'd done OK, until I saw his stats, with twenty four kicks and a few goals, I'd run my arse off through the middle with him, but he'd just kept going, and picked up possessions around the boundary.” Team mates who got top marks from David were Leon Baker: “the way he'd get the ball and break away from the middle on either his left or right”,  and Phil Narkle: “the closest I've seen to magic, no one could catch him.” Of coach John Todd, Ogg said he was a tough coach, who demanded honesty and respect from his charges.  “He commanded respect, but also gave it if he considered it was deserved,” he said. “But he could be ruthless at times. I saw a lot of Toddy's methods of firing up a side performing below par, including the infamous three quarter time incident at the WACA ground, when he physically attacked one of the players he considered weren't pulling their weight, with the result that the side improved in the final quarter to win the game.”   Describing himself as a “passionate sportsman”, David Ogg was a track and field contestant in his younger days, as well as a competitive swimmer at high school. During pre season training for the 1995 football season, he won the State Decathlon Championship. Whilst not in the competitive sphere these days, he continues a strict fitness regime, and is a good golfer, playing on a handicap of seven. “It's a burning ambition of mine to play professional golf,” he said. Wife Sally-anne does her utmost to persuade him to allocate some time for travel, while a son and daughter take up whatever time he has left with sports coaching.  David Ogg played 91 games for Swan Districts, kicking 111 goals, with a State game, and nine with the Brisbane Bears. His perseverance is a lesson for young players, showing that belief in your own ability will eventually get results. Although things went against him in the highest echelon of the game, he achieved an ambition to play there, and was a premiership player for Swan Districts.