A relaxed and gentle man, Gellibrand client Glen Soulsby loves sport, especially his beloved Geelong Cats in the AFL.
When I met Gellibrand client Glen Soulsby at his share house, I told him that, back in the 1980s, I was a prospective player for Geelong Football Club, training with the Cats. “Which players did you know?” Glen, a lifelong Geelong supporter, asked. I said Barry Stoneham and Spiro Malakellis, and he was eager to ask about other Cats. We could have talked all day.
I also asked Glen, a Gellibrand client for more than two decades, how he thought the Cats would go on Saturday night when they were set to play Brisbane in the 2024 Preliminary Final. He was confident they would win and he added that his favourite current-day Geelong players were Gryan Miers, Jeremy Cameron, and Sam de Koning. He showed me their photos on his phone and, amongst pictures of Geelong Cats, there were also images of Melbourne Storm rugby league players, like the famous Cameron Munster. Glen loves watching many sports, including AFL, NRL, A-League soccer, and cricket, especially the Melbourne Stars in the Big Bash League. He’s a member of several clubs, but his membership of local footy club, Hoppers Crossing is important to him.
“It’s the Grand Final this weekend,” Glen said, a game he was confident the Warriors would win. Glen has been a volunteer water boy at Hopper’s Crossing for decades, which includes running water bottles to players at matches and Thursday night training. I said he must be getting close to a Life Membership and he nodded and smiled.
Glen likes to keep active, playing cricket and lawn bowls, and he’s also partial to some dancing at Gellibrand and other discos. The day I met him, a Wednesday, Glen was set to head to an after-hours event, a disco and meal function in Oakleigh. It was his day off work so he had plenty of energy for the night’s entertainment.
“I work at Mambourin Enterprises on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, packing seeds and show bags, packing boxes and doing laundry,” he said, adding that he had worked there for 33 years. He will have to take some time off though in March next year when he attends a nephew’s wedding.
“I’m flying to Canberra with my brother and sister and we’re staying in an apartment,” he said. Glen has a big family and he loves spending time with them, especially his mother, Joyce. They catch up for lunch at her aged care facility every Wednesday and Sunday.
“She just turned 100 and she got a letter from King Charles,” Glen said, adding that she had lived independently until she was 96.
Glen grew up on a farm near Caramut in Victoria’s Western District and moved to Werribee with his family when he was 16. In 1999, he decided to live independently, which was when he moved into a Gellibrand share house. Glen does most things for himself and he’s a keen cook.
“I love to cook pasta, chicken, chops, and sausages,” he said, adding that preparing food for his housemates was a favourite thing to do. He said he wouldn’t, however, be making food on Saturday night when Geelong played in the Preliminary Final.
“I’m going to my brother’s,” he added with a smile, confident his Cats would book their place in the 2024 Grand Final. It didn’t quite work out that way, but there’s no doubt Glen will keep up his support for Geelong in 2025.
