In the 1940s, he worked alongside a fellow apprentice foundry worker who was passionate about the game.

"He used to come in [to work] and drive us mad with talk of hockey. I said it was a girl's game. He said, 'You better come down and you'll see it's not'."

He did, and over the next six decades the Burnside resident became a Footscray Hockey Club legend, racking up 968 games. It was the most games played by any member until club president Neil Coster, 60, trumped him by playing his 969th game last Wednesday.

The pair trade tales of the injuries they have sustained over that time.

Coster, of St Albans, says "there were split eyebrows all over the place" until face masks were introduced for goalkeepers, like him, about 15 years ago. But that is far from the worst he's experienced.

"I broke a leg in the first 10 minutes of one game and played the game out, then drove to the doctor's."

Speed, 79, recalls getting four stitches above his eye, and returning a day after getting them out to have the doctor put in another three stitches above his other eye.

"[The doctor] asked, 'Have you been in here before?' I told them the stitches [from the first injury] were still lying on their desk!"

It's part and parcel of a game that Speed describes "as the most skillful field sport, bar none".

Of the hundreds of members who have climbed through the ranks of the club, there is one who rises above all others: Ben Acton.

Not only did Acton represent Australia in field hockey, he also captained the Australian Olympic ice hockey team in 1960. He lives in Queensland now, but often visits his old club.

"[Acton] is 76 years old and you put him on a hockey field and he's still bloody good. He can't move, but by God, he can still move the ball," Coster says.

Acton is a highlight in the proud history of Footscray Hockey Club, which was founded in 1934.

Wall space is at a premium for all the club's premiership pennants dating back to 1936.