What started as a costume at a dress up party has now become an unofficial role inside the four walls at Fremantle, with Blake Acres taking on the role as the ‘Sheriff’ of the playing group.
As this week's guest of the Old Bull, Young Buck podcast, Acres spoke to David Mundy and Griffin Logue about how he got the nickname and how it’s now tied in with a role he’s taken on behind the scenes.
“The nickname stemmed from about a year ago, ‘Lobby’ (Rory Lobb) had his birthday party with a Western theme,” Acres said.
“I rocked up as The Sheriff and had a great time and it slowly stuck.”
Later that year Acres became the playing group’s fine master after finding the methods used by Andrew Brayshaw and Caleb Serong lacking.
“A few of the younger guys, Caleb and Andy started running a few fines, and it wasn't really taking off,” Acres said.
“I've always enjoyed stuff like this like, pinging the young guys, like if they mess around a bit or are late - you'd fine them and keep it fun around the Club.
“I messaged 'Sebba' and Andy, because one of the punishments was to get coffee for the whole line group, and that's not a punishment, that's something guys do all the time.
“I was like, let's just change it up, and they asked ‘do you want to run it?’
"I said ‘yeah maybe, you sure you want to give me that?’”
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Acres took the role and ran with it, to the point where Mundy reined the Sheriff in.
“I did get pulled aside by the leaders at one stage, it was David saying 'hey man maybe tone it down a bit',” Acres said.
“I was doing full slide shows, I had it all going.”
Mundy said he’s pleased with how the Sheriff is handling the group saying "we’ve got a good balance now, I feel".
“You’ve done very well,” Logue added.
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