Article written and published by Frankston Standard Leader. Distributed through Herald Sun on May 6, 2022 - 2:30PM.
VAFA: Bailey Payze joins father Shaun in Old Peninsula’s senior team
Pirates great Shaun Payze has a new teammate in the Old Peninsula VAFA senior team – his 18-year-old son Bailey.
Bailey Payze grew up watching his father, Shaun, play senior football for Old Peninsula.
“He was six days old when he went to his first game,’’ Shaun says.
Payze senior, 42, is in his fourth decade of First XVIII football with the Pirates, making him a golden oldie of the Victorian Amateur Football Association.
And he admits to feeling his age a little when Bailey, 18, joined him in the senior team this season.
In their first match as teammates they played at opposite ends of the ground.
In the second they shared the forward line, but Bailey cannot remember if he called his father “Dad’’ or “Payzey’’ or “Shaun’’.
“Playing together for the first time, we weren’t overly emotional about it on the day (Round 1) but I’m sure it’s something we’ll look back on in a few years and be proud of,’’ Payze senior says.
Running out with “Bails’’ and giving the club its first father-son combination was another achievement for a player who is not only among the oldest senior footballers in the VAFA, but one of the most decorated.
Last year Payze played his 400th senior game.
In 2019 he kicked his 1000th goal for the Pirates.
He captained the club for nine years, won six best and fairests (and ran second in five other counts) and the 2005 league medal, booted a century of goals, topped the club goalkicking 10 times and the competition list on four occasions, and was a VAFA representative.
One thing is missing: a premiership. Payze has played in six losing grand final teams; he would happily swap a few of his personal honours for one flag.
“I can tell you when they were: ’99, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2016,’’ he says.
“Those years stick with me.’’
As does his one and only reserves game, back in his first season, 1998, when he was dropped by senior coach Brett McIlwraith.
They have different views on his axing, with McIlwraith saying it was because of form, but Payze believing it was more to do with the coach wanting to keep his young charge from getting ahead of himself!
They agree to disagree about it.
“It’s a pretty simple thing: for a couple of weeks he hardly got a kick,’’ McIlwraith says. “I’m pretty competitive. I want to win every week. Nothing to do with him getting ahead of himself. I thought he needed to find the footy a bit.’’
McIlwraith had two stints coaching Old Peninsula and he says Payze was a pleasure to coach.
He is not surprised he’s still playing senior football.
“Not at all. He’s always been super-competitive. And he loves the game. I don’t think he’s ever attended a wedding during footy season. He’s attended plenty of wedding receptions, because he would go after footy. But he would never miss a game to go to a wedding.’’
Payze did miss all of 2020 and half of 2021 because of Covid, prompting him to continue with the Pirates.
“If Covid hadn’t hit I don’t think I’d still be playing,’’ he says.
“I love playing obviously and after the way last year finished I thought I’d come back and try to play one proper season before I wrap it up.
“I have asked myself that question a few times – what am I still do playing at 42? – but I’m lucky enough that I still get enough kicks to hold my spot and I have a wife who doesn’t care that I still play.’’
The son of former St Kilda star Travis Payze finished Year 12 at Peninsula Grammar in 1997 and started at the football club with a group of mates in 1998.
The key forward has been there ever since. And as an amateur he has received not a cent to play.
Payze has also served on the committee (this year he’s treasurer).
Payze jokes that Bailey has seen him play “only when I’ve been old and decrepit’’.
But Bailey, a midfielder, says he admires his father’s longevity and ability to play senior football into his 40s.
“To do what he’s done, you have to have talent and you have to work hard,’’ he says.
Old Peninsula president Jamie Rhodes says Shaun Payze is “easily’’ the Pirates’ greatest player.
And he regards Bailey as a tremendous prospect, so promising, in fact, that the Pirates probably won’t keep him for too long.
“He’s super-classy. He’s little, just like Shaun was – Shaun took a little while to grow – and he’s a skinny fella but he’ll grow in the next few years,’’ Rhodes says.
“Play sort of slows down around him. He’s got time.
“We’d love to have him stay on and be like his dad. But I think he’ll go on to a higher level than what we’re playing at the moment.’’
