Former AFL ruckman Peter ''Spida'' Everitt. Picture: Michael Dodge. Source: Herald Sun
FEW former footballers surprise you like Peter "Spida" Everitt, the extroverted former ruckman of St Kilda, Hawthorn and Sydney.
An example: Few former footballers are certain they will one day rise at 4am each day to help milk 400 cows in the tiny hamlet of Waihi on the eastern coast of NZ's North Island - indefinitely.
As a player, Everitt chalked up not only 291 games but also a large helping of controversy, some of which ended up before the courts.
The first impression is easy. Here's the fella who went from dreadlocks to peroxide-blond hair to shaved, and in the meantime covered his body with tattoos. Everitt's not unhappy to help it along when he straps on his public persona.
Seeing him speak at various football functions is something else.
He'll begin with the dumb footballer's jokes, reeling off one one-liner after the next, one little anecdote after the other about how players had put their foot in it.
One: "I'm hoping to kick 70 to 80 goals next year, whatever comes first."
Another: Everitt scolds himself about having only two suits, one in which he married three times - "hasn't given me much luck so far" - and the other the one he's wearing.
But the way he closed his speech was what gave the first glimpse of what he was really about.
Everitt often speaks of a young child in a wheelchair who had asked to meet him through a charity wish (him, of all people). He was stunned by the little boy's joy at meeting him.
It touched Everitt, who has four children of his own, as much as it did the young boy.
They met during the week and before the game and, before Everitt ran through the banner, he asked the boy to park his chair near the race.
It was an impulsive move. Everitt picked up the boy before he ran through the banner hearing only the boy's screams of delight as the crowd at the MCG was beginning to roar.
"That's the greatest gift football gives," Everitt said. "But I was the one who had to play a whole game with a ringing ear."
We're now getting close to finding the real Everitt.
TRAVELLING MAN
Everitt impresses those behind the scenes before he even turns up to various speaking gigs.
Getting former footballers to speak for charities - without charging a fee - can be difficult: the former player often has more than one project on the go, some of them lucrative.
Everitt's Adelaide agent Terry Lindblom knows what Everitt will say if he calls up for a favour, for a worthwhile cause: "I'm there."
Everitt also has his little quirks, which include a love of exploring at all hours and being open to last-minute decisions.
For one engagement earlier this year, he lodged with Lindblom and prepared himself for a big day. Everitt has a radio career now and his first appointment was a radio spot in the city for a breakfast show.
He was warned to give himself time, even though Lindblom's Malvern base is close to the city. He looked outside, where dawn was yet to break, said it seemed like a nice day for a morning stroll and decided to walk.
With Everitt, you can forget the demands of the pampered, but that makes sense from somebody who grew up in a country town on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula and has spent much of his time after football filming his family's caravan travels around Australia.
Everitt's children - Caitlyn, 19, Summer, 12, Anais, 11 and Boston, 5 - were an important part of the trip, when he flew by the seat of his pants as he sought to widen the horizons of both his family and his viewers.
"You've got to travel," he said. "Even if it's only 30 or 300km up the road, with a tent. It doesn't have to cost much. There's so much to see."
TRAINING DOWN PERCEPTIONS
Everitt doesn't always get the accolades he deserves for his playing career, because his image can get in the way.
But he was one from the top drawer - a ruckman with the ability to rove and run, and also one who loved to kick a goal.
Everitt won a best-and-fairest award at St Kilda and Hawthorn, and was a three-time All-Australian.
Malcolm Blight, one of his coaches at St Kilda, said it best in his often understated way: "He could certainly play."
But there was always the perception that Everitt was a wild bastard, one who'd embark on long, crazy nights and get himself into mischief. Some of the time, he admits, it was true.
"I had to change a bit," Everitt said.
"I guess I could've done it at St Kilda but I thought a fresh start at Hawthorn was the best move."
We're having coffee at the breakfast table and despite the early hour, Everitt does not show a trace of fatigue.
Early mornings were part of his life for all of his 16-year career.
There is much that was never known about Everitt. For one thing, his attitude to training.
"I loved training," he said. "At least three days a week, I'd be doing extra work at 6am and that gave me a lot of confidence.
"I'd come up against a ruckman on the weekend and I knew that he hadn't done the extra work I had. I did like having a few beers, that was a bit of a release, but I always loved training."
Other sacrifices were made. During his time in the AFL, Everitt swore off meat pies, sausage rolls, chocolate, fried food and fast food. If he had to attend a function, he'd always eat before, so that he could control his diet - there was no way of knowing what they'd serve at the function.
He cracks up as recalls his old ways.
"I'd drive through McDonald's with all the kids, get them all of theirs, but didn't even consider getting anything for myself.
"Now that I've finished, I let myself eat anything - and I haven't put on any weight at all."
NEW ZEALAND
Life after football has been an adventure for Everitt, but what's allowed him, his wife Sheree, and the children that luxury is knowing where their future lies.
As soon as football finished, they had all their belongings shipped to Sheree's family's farm in Waihi, and they are already involved with the family concern when time allows. To Everitt, there's no doubt they will eventually settle on the property.
"Once the adventure's over, once we've had enough, we'll go and live there," he said.
"I love it - milk cows in the morning, the shops still let people have accounts, working with Sheree's brothers, who are about my age.
"Only the other day they called me and said a farmer had left and asked when we were coming back.
"It's a great spot."
GOLD COAST
Everitt is on the Gold Coast now and he's starting to find his way back into the game.
He's been helping out with the state under-16 side, teaching them ruck tricks as well as helping them with their kicking.
Big difference up there, he says - they didn't grow up kicking the football on a daily basis like their counterparts in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.
He's also part of the top-rating breakfast radio show, in tandem with Richard Fowler and Bridge Daley, and he takes it seriously.
How's this? As soon as the lunch finished on Wednesday, he bailed up Blight for an interview, ready with a recording device.
FAMILY
Everitt is the first to admit he was wild when he stepped through the doors at Moorabbin with his ludicrous hairstyle, but there was always another side to him. His first-born, Caitlyn, was only a little one then, and he used to tie a balloon around her so that he could spot her in the crowd.
The old volunteer ladies loved little Caitlyn back then, and they love catching up with her now that she's a young woman at university.
Over the years, Everitt has also been a foster parent and devoted countless hours to charity - blending it in with the occasional slip back to the wild side.
He kept his mystery for a long time, and he reckons that, like former Carlton and Brisbane forward Brendan Fevola, there's a part of him that will always remain just a big kid.
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