IT was six years ago, but Stacy Fiske can clearly recall the game in which Ryan Semmel exploded onto the Heathcote District league scene just like it was yesterday.

It was round four of 2012 when Fiske’s Huntly took on White Hills at Scott Street.

Semmel had joined the Hawks from the Shepparton Swans in the Goulburn Valley league that season with big wraps and it was that day at White Hills when Fiske got the first glimpse of just what all the hype was about.

“The first time we played White Hills in that 2012 season we were down at three quarter-time and I remember there being two instances where he kicked a couple of 50-55 metre goals from the boundary and you could just see that this was a bloke who was a cut above,” Fiske recalled this week after Semmel won his third Cheatley Medal on Wednesday night.

“I remember the White Hills coach at the time commenting on his ability to turn the game off his own boot from the midfield.”

Fiske’s opposing coach that day was the Demons’ Jason Stevens, who can still vividly recall being helpless to curtail Semmel.

“Yep, I still remember that day… he kicked three goals from the boundary line in front of the home coaches box and they were some of the best goals I’ve seen,” Stevens said.

“He’d pick the ball up off the pack and from a tight angle just made the most of his opportunities. He was sensational that day, no doubt about that.

“We had plans for him around the stoppages, but it didn’t matter who we played on him, we just couldn’t stop him.

“He’s one of the best players I’ve seen in my time coaching, particularly around the stoppages with his ability to burst away.

“That power he has to get away from the stoppages is second-to-none.”

In a shoot-out in which 37 goals were kicked, the Hawks prevailed 20.8 (128) to 17.19 (121) , with Semmel finishing with five goals.

Semmel created Heathcote District league history on Wednesday night when he became the first player to win three Cheatley Medals.

As well as his win on Wednesday night in which he polled 19 votes, Semmel also won the Cheatley in 2013 and 2016.

“It’s not something you think much about, but I guess when I do finish up in the league this is something that I can leave behind,” Semmel said on Thursday.

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Semmel has spent six seasons playing with the Hawks in two stints – 2012-13 and from 2015 onwards.

In between he had one season at Rye in the Nepean league where he finished third in the league medal, despite only playing eight games.

Three league medals in his six seasons with the Hawks speaks to the consistent level of elite output from Semmel – and he very nearly could have also had a fourth medal.

Semmel also finished runner-up by one vote to North Bendigo’s Jarrod Findlay last year.

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Semmel – an electrician by trade – knows the Calder Highway like the back of his hand given all six years he has played with Huntly he has been living and working in Melbourne.

“For me the travel has never been a chore. I’ve always had a good group to go up with, but there’s no way I would have been able to do it by myself for this long,” Semmel said.

“It’s a great group I come up with and a great club to be part of and the goal of trying to win a flag for Huntly has always been there as well to keep the motivation up.”

The closest Semmel has come to winning the flag he so desperately craves with the Hawks was in the first of his Cheatley seasons in 2013.

Only two years after the Hawks had collected what had been their 10^th wooden spoon in a row they played off against Lockington-Bamawm United in the 2013 grand final at Elmore.

The Hawks were an emerging side coming back from a decade in the wilderness; the Cats a finals-hardened unit and proved too good that day, winning by  58 points after dominating the second half.

It was the third flag of the Cats’ premiership four-peat between 2011 and 2014, while the Hawks haven’t had another opportunity on the grand final stage since, with their past two campaigns thwarted by North Bendigo in the preliminary final.

Semmel’s footballing CV is stacked with individual accolades of brilliance, but what he craves most is still absent, with a senior premiership at any of the clubs he has played at so far eluding him.

“As the years go by you realise that they become harder and harder to win,” Semmel said.

“I didn’t want to go to a side that was a shoe-in to win one or was coming off the back of winning a flag. I really wanted to go somewhere to help build towards something that would have some real meaning behind it and that was one of the big appeals of Huntly.”

Semmel has played 101 matches for the Hawks, meaning he averages a Cheatley Medal every 33.6 games.

In those 101 matches Semmel has figured among the Hawks’ best players in 64 games and kicked 190 goals playing as a combination of explosive midfielder and forward dynamo.

And it all started when Semmel was at trade school with Daniel Sladden – the son of former Hawks’ president Ian Sladden.

“He had been on our radar the year before we got him when he was doing trade school with Daniel,” Fiske said.

“He had a year with the Shepparton Swans and was looking for something new with a bit of a country feel and, like any recruiting, because we had that connection through a friendship it opened the door for us.

“Midfielders who kick goals are so valuable and he has been doing that for a long time now, but he can also play just as a forward… I remember him kicking seven goals for us in the qualifying final against North Bendigo a couple of years ago.”

Semmel’s seven-goal bag in the 2016 qualifying final was one of the catalysts for the Hawks defeating North Bendigo by nine points – just a week after Huntly had copped a 124-point shellacking from the Bulldogs in round 18.

The Hawks’ capacity to rebound from a horror loss will be put to the test again on Sunday when they must regroup from a 129-point qualifying final thrashing from Leitchville-Gunbower last week for the first semi-final against Colbinabbin at Elmore.

“The group is still really positive and we all believe we can still get the job done,” Semmel said.

“We’ve moved on from what happened last week. We can’t change that result and we’ll go out against Colbinabbin on Sunday still with a lot of belief in our ability.”

Fiske says the accolade of a third Cheatley Medal is testament to the hard work and dedication Semmel puts in to continue to improve his game – even at the age of 31.

“He’s an absolute freak of a footballer, but it hasn’t happened by accident,” said Fiske, who coached the Hawks from 2011 to 2014, and like Semmel is still chasing that elusive Huntly premiership.

“People see him train on a Tuesday and Thursday, but I know the effort he puts in on the off nights is just enormous… you’ve got to remember he’s 31 and still winning league medals.

“He’s an absolute animal when it comes to his training and his preparation is meticulous. He has barely missed any games because he’s just a perfectionist off the field.

“It’s fairly unheard of to have Melbourne-based players coming down the highway for six seasons like he has and that just shows the character of the bloke.

“He would have clubs left right and centre knocking on his door every year saying come here because they know the quality of player he is, but it comes back to the things the opposition doesn’t see and that’s all the work he puts in for the club off the field.

“He’s always at our major functions and just a great clubman, which a lot of people outside the club probably don’t know about him.”

While he is the only player with three, Semmel is one of five multiple winners of the Cheatley Medal with Colbinabbin’s Ben Johnston (2008-09) and Phil Morgan (1986-1990), North Bendigo’s Josh Gitsham (2011-12) and Stanhope’s Robert Harrison (1984-85).

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