Tassie Tiger says goodbye to Goulburn Valley as he returns home to continue career

By Rodney Woods

Jul 29, 2021

Farewells are often hard and I'm sure that will be no exception for the readers of McPherson Media Group's publications when they hear yesterday was my last day with the company.

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Across five years of employment, I have written for many of the company's publications, mainly Country News, Seymour Telegraph and most recently for the sports team at The News.

Despite moving from Tasmania's north-west coast, where dairy farming is a prominent industry, my knowledge of the subject and any other industry within the agricultural sector was, you could say, non-existent.

Having covered the impacts of milk price clawbacks and water politics, what I will be most known for is the Man's Best Friend column and the in-house advertising campaign that eventuated in an attempt to find more furry candidates.

This campaign resulted in me reluctantly being referred to as Rodney the Dog Man — a nickname that I have unsuccessfully tried to shake.

Following a four-year stint talking all things, cows, sheep, horses and pigs, I tried my hand at general news, enjoying a short stint down the Hume Fwy at the Telegraph.

While I wasn't there for long, it was an exciting venture to be part of a small community and be the primary writer for its local paper.

While COVID-19 has dominated the news cycle recently, it was the people stories such as when Darren “Jack” Gleeson's decades of Victoria Police service were recognised on Australia Day with him being awarded an Australian Police Medal or when Seymour's Jill Keeffe was recognised for her work in eye care over the past 30 years by being awarded a Vision 2020 Excellence Award that stood out.

For those who know me well, being a sports reporter was always on my agenda and when the opportunity came up I grabbed it with both hands.

But even before I got the job officially, I dabbled in the craft.

As a Collingwood supporter, attending the 2018 AFL grand final was always going to be a highlight, even if the result didn't go the way I would have liked.

I wrote a first-person account of my experience on the day (pictured) for The News' Weekend Life publication and earlier that year I was lucky enough to travel to the Gold Coast and watch a few Commonwealth Games events with the family, which I also shared with readers (pictured).

Some of my highlights since I took on the sports gig early this year have been covering lawn bowls and cricket finals and district football and netball matches.

But two stories that stand out are when I interviewed Steele Sidebottom ahead of his 250th AFL game, for obvious reasons, and recently when I went out to the Shepparton Amateur Pistol Club to talk to Olympian Elise Collier, who was training at the club to avoid Melbourne's lockdown measures.

With sport reporting being a goal of mine for as long as I can remember, it was a tough decision to decide to leave the post and head back home to continue my career.

But having lived through nearly 18 months of lockdowns and having been locked out of my home state for most of that period, I have realised more than ever that you can take the boy out of Tasmania, but you can't take Tasmania out of the boy.