The story happened out in South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula region. A team on a season-long losing streak was receiving its weekly belting, when its opponent was found to have too many on the field at the start of the fourth quarter.

Lovers of obscure AFL rules know the penalty: the offending team’s points get wiped to zero. They went from 100 in front to half-a-dozen goals behind, which they fell just short of reining in by full-time. That was how the losing streak ended.

Such is the charm of the game in the regions, as city folk might say. “The things I remember most about country footy was, the ability to park your car – or mum and dad parking the car – close to the fence,” Dal Santo says. “The idea that you can park your car up against the fence, sit on the bonnet and have your beer and pie, and beep your horn after goals – I’ve always thought that was awesome.”

The former St Kilda and North Melbourne player has been getting in touch with his rural roots to promote Fox Footy’s Rural Round concept this week. But at the urging of his cousin and a few mates, Dal Santo also ran out for a couple of games with the Hepburn Burras in the Central Highlands FL, and reacquainted himself with flooded change rooms and the smell of deep heat.

Country strong: Fox Footy's Nick Dal Santo.

His memory of growing up in Bendigo borders on the bucolic: “We didn’t live on farms, but there was a lot of space. I loved golf as a kid, and I was able to hit a full-swing nine-iron in the backyard.

“At school, recess and lunch, you’d have a kick of the footy. Then after school, you go to your mate’s house and everyone lives on an acre, so you continue playing.”

Out the other side of a 322-game career, he can appreciate the difference in his football upbringing. "Sometimes, now that I live in Melbourne and have young boys, that’s not easily accessible."