Bracknell's Josh 'Dutchy' Holland to play 450th senior football game

The fifth-placed Redlegs, who have all but cemented an NTFA premier finals spot, host Bridgenorth on Saturday in round 18.

Holland described it as a team effort when you have a family.

"My wife and kids pretty much give up every Saturday for me to go and play footy when there's so many other things we could be doing as a family together," the father-of-two said.

"I guess that's becoming more and more important these days as the kids are getting a little bit older."

READ MORE: Game notes: Looking at how Sharks overcame reigning premiers

The 40-year-old confirmed this season would be his last.

"I wouldn't have thought I'd get here probably seven or eight years ago because I pretty much retired back in 2017," he said.

"But there's always that little itch that keeps scratching away. I definitely won't play after this year. That will definitely be it for me."

Osteitis pubis threatened his career in 2017 but he found a way to manage it.

"I always looked after myself pretty well. I still kept training and whatnot but your body is just limited," he said.

"I never wanted to stop really but I spoke to a few people that have had it and you can play through it. You've just got to change the way you play a bit and how you train."

Holland, who joined Bracknell in 2021 and helped the Redlegs win the premiership that year, has enjoyed an illustrious career across numerous clubs.

Born in Southport, Queensland and raised in Latrobe on the North-West Coast, Holland has played in eight senior flags.

He said enjoying team success was the highlight of his career, especially his first premiership with Wesley Vale in 2008.

"That was a bit of a breakthrough for the footy club and for me, I've never tasted it before. I'd played in a few losing ones before that," he said.

One moment that still sits firmly in the minds of Tassie sport-lovers is Holland's snap goal from the boundary in the Northern Bombers' 2015 grand final win against Glenorchy.

"I was in the right spot at the right time and snapped it but I just remember all the boys getting around me at that point," he said.

"And that was pretty much the nail in the coffin for Glenorchy. It was a really good feeling."

Holland won the Darrel Baldock Medal for best on ground on a day in which North were underdogs.

"We went in without our key ruckman and a really good coach Zane Littlejohn made some pretty crazy moves, I thought at the time, but it all paid off and it was good to win when you're not meant to," he said.

Bracknell coach Corry Goodluck spoke of Holland's strengths as a player.

"He's just a ball of muscle, he's so fit and keeps in such good nick and he's just a damaging onballer," he said. c

"If other teams have a dominant ruckman he just knows how to play around that and shark other teams and to be able to get it to fall into his hands."

Goodluck said Holland, who had previously coached at East Devonport, kept him sane during his first year of coaching in 2021.

"Leading into that year we won the grand final, things were tough," Goodluck said.

"We weren't going as well as I thought we should have been going with the calibre of players we had and I started getting a bit of frustrated with myself and started questioning my coaching ability and if I was the right man for the job.

"And Josh would always pull me aside and tell me that everything was going be okay - that this is going to happen and we're going to be able to do this."

Saturday's senior match at Bracknell starts at 2pm.

Career milestones:

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: