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Before we sit down to talk, Balgownie Rangers club president Steve Buckley suggests we walk out onto the pitch of Judy Masters Oval, home to Australia's oldest continually-running football club.
It might be the off-season but the grass is green, mown, and lush as the Illawarra escarpment looms in the background.
The north-south pitch has a black metal fence with a small clubhouse, dressing shed, and a standalone white brick ticket booth that is no longer used.
"The backdrop is second-to-none. You can travel the world and for me this ground is one of the top ones," Mr Buckley said.
"To think of the players who have run out onto Judy Masters, where they've been, what they've done, and to think you're walking on the same grass and the same area … you can feel it in your bones.
"When you come here on a Saturday afternoon you can feel it more."
Club makes international list
The club was started in 1883 and has recently been formally recognised as Australia's oldest continuously run soccer club.
In fact, Balgownie Rangers sits 10th on the Club of Pioneers list compiled by Sheffield FC, the world's oldest football club.
"Since we've had this news on our social media I've ran into people down here, walking around, and they said they've seen it and they wanted to come and have a look," Mr Buckley said.
"It's a proud moment for a lot of people [to be recognised], there are still a lot of descendants that come to Judy Masters Oval on a Saturday afternoon when the Rangers are playing.
"There's a lot of connection from the very early days."
A club started in a cow paddock
The Balgownie Rangers' home ground started with humble beginnings as a cow paddock.
The land was owned by miner James Cram, Mr Buckley's great, great grandfather, who worked at the Mr Keira and Mt Pleasant coal mines after moving to Australia from England.
"Recognising that recreation was needed, a paddock was set aside where the miners would get down there once a month, or every second Sunday, and have a game of football amongst themselves," Mr Buckley said.
"John Hunter then progressed it to a football club and the first game against a proper club was against Bulli, then Woonona.
"There was already established clubs in Sydney, so the district clubs entered into the Sydney competition and it grew big from there."
In the early 1900s the home ground was then moved to its current spot on Para Street in Balgownie, where it is now named after James 'Judy' Masters, a Balgownie Rangers legend who captained the Australian men's national side from 1923 to 1924.
The key difference between Balgownie and other early Australian football clubs is that the Rangers have never folded.
Producing national representatives
Mr Buckley said something he was most proud of was providing a pathway for junior players to be introduced to the game who progress to the national side.
Balgownie Rangers has produced Australian representatives including Masters, Tom Thompson, Frank Smith, Dave Ward, and numerous others.
Mr Buckley joined the club as a junior and his son Luke is now the club's first grade coach.
Now the club's longevity has been recognised alongside clubs like Wrexham AFC in Wales, established in 1889, and Royal Antwerp FC in Belgium, established in 1894.
For that, a Balgownie Rangers jersey will soon be hung in Sheffield FC's football museum.
"It's a bit surreal, to tell you the truth, to think you can travel to England, go to Sheffield Football Club, walk into the football museum and look on the wall and see a Balgownie Rangers shirt hanging there," Mr Buckley said.
"I think it's a wonderful feeling, and there's going to be a lot of people in Australia that will research it now and it'll be on their bucket list to see that shirt hanging on the wall."
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