Few people have a football story that spans all three chapters of the Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong Football Club quite like Tommy Carroll.

A premiership player and captain-coach for Ganmain, a player and coach for Grong Grong-Matong. And when the two clubs came together in 1982, the coach who led the Under 19s to a premiership in GGGM’s very first year, becoming the first premiership coach in the history of the newly formed Lions.

Tommy went on to coach the Under 19s for four years, winning three premierships and finishing runners-up by one point in the other, while helping bring together the first generation of young footballers who simply knew themselves as GGGM players.

And then there was his playing career.

Tommy’s football took him all the way from Ganmain to Carlton in 1961, where in his first VFL season he kicked 54 goals and finished as the league’s leading goalkicker, an achievement later recognised with a retrospective Coleman Medal.

But perhaps one of the greatest reflections of Tommy’s connection to his home club came during those first weeks at Carlton.

For the first five games of the 1961 season, Tommy would play for Carlton on the Saturday, then make the trip home to pull on the Ganmain jumper and play again on the Sunday.

At a time when he was establishing himself at the highest level of the game, Tommy still wanted to come home and play for his local club. That says plenty about the loyalty and connection that has defined his football story.

His Ganmain story had begun years earlier, making his senior debut as a teenager alongside brothers and cousins.

At Presentation Night, Tommy recalled an opposition full back warning the young forward that if he went near the ball, he would “break those skinny legs clean in half.”

Tommy’s response, more than 70 years later:

“I looked around and I had four brothers and four cousins, so I thought I’d be alright.”

From Ganmain to Carlton, Grong Grong-Matong and ultimately GGGM, his contribution to football across our communities is extraordinary.

As Andrew Corbett so perfectly said when presenting the honour:

“Strong country football clubs are not created by one victory, one champion player or one successful season. They are built by people who give something back. Tommy Carroll is certainly one of those people.”