After 58 Years, Port Adelaide's Boot Studder Alfie Trebilclock Hangs Up His Tools
Alfie Trebilcock has been fitting sprigs into football boots at Port Adelaide since 1968. On Saturday night, at 84, he works his final home game.
That is 58 years at one club. Trebilcock has outlasted coaches, captains and entire eras of football, serving as the club's boot studder — the person who fits and adjusts the screw-in studs on players' boots so they grip the ground — through 11 SANFL premierships and the 2004 AFL premiership with the Power. ABC News
The story starts in Broken Hill. Trebilcock was a young butcher who moved to Adelaide in 1961 and followed Port Adelaide because his grandparents barracked for them. He befriended Harry Vincent, the club's runner — the person who delivers messages from coach to players during a game — and Vincent said he would keep an eye out for a position.
What followed was a seven-year apprenticeship under the club's sprigger, who was also a bootmaker. A sprigger fits the metal studs, or sprigs, into the soles of football boots so players keep their footing on wet or hard ground. Trebilcock learned the trade from the ground up.
The timing was not easy. Port Adelaide's Magpies went without an SANFL premiership from 1968 to 1976, Trebilcock's first eight years. Then the flags came: one in 1977, and 10 more during his time, plus the 2004 AFL premiership when the Power beat Brisbane in the Grand Final.
Along the way Trebilcock became close friends with Russel Ebert, who started at the Magpies the same year. Ebert played 392 games, was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996, and remains the only SANFL player to win four Magarey Medals — the league's equivalent of the Brownlow Medal, awarded to the fairest and most brilliant player each season. Ebert, who died in 2021, never wore moulded-sole boots. He used knock-in sprigs to the day he retired.
The AFL recognised Trebilcock's service with the Jack Titus Award in 2013, given for conspicuous service to the game. Port Adelaide made him a Life Member in 1979 and inducted him into the club's Hall of Fame. Port Adelaide Football Club
There is a lighter side to 58 years of boot-studding. Trebilcock once packed two left boots for former Port Adelaide captain Mark Clayton. Port Adelaide Football Club
He is not walking out alone. Fellow volunteer Bob "Bobby" O'Malley is also retiring after 18 years, during which he mixed water barrels, prepared player rehydration bottles and helped set up for training sessions. Port Adelaide has described both men as much-loved servicemen and club legends. Port Adelaide Football Club
Their final home game is Saturday night against Melbourne at Adelaide Oval. After nearly six decades of making sure other people's boots were right, Trebilcock is finally hanging up his own.
