Club stalwart Peter Mathison, who has been with the Bloods for 37 years and was Fleming's first coach, says the raw-boned youngster had unlocked the chamber of secrets to swing, and was doing magical things with the ball in the under 12s. "He knew exactly what he was doing, he could move the ball both ways. He could bowl three outswingers, an inswinger, and then clean bowl a kid, he was just amazing.

"He was like every other kid at the age and dreamt of playing for Australia, and he achieved his boyhood dream.

"If Flemo's in town and we've got a junior function on, he always tried to get there. It's great that the kids can meet a former Springy South player who has played cricket for Australia, it shows that they can do it to if they really want to."

South's young 'Harry Potter', who left at 15 to play with South Melbourne, went on to to play 20 Test matches after a magical debut against Pakistan where he conjured up a hat-trick. He took 75 career wickets, and also played 88 one-day internationals including Australia's 1999 World Cup victory.

Fleming, who will be special guest at the Bloods' anniversary function later this month, said he had "wonderful memories" of his junior days.

"I remember going down there when I was about 10, Pete Mathison was my first coach and I just about lived at the club. A lot of the attributes that were instilled early with Matho [Mathison] and blokes like Darrell Halliwell and Sandy Patterson really set it up for me later in life. I went to South Melbourne, who were also called the Bloods and wore the same colours, red and white."

Mathison, a life member of the club and the DDCA, also remembers another of the club's favourite sons, Warren Ayres, who played 46 games for Victoria, is the all-time leading run scorer in Premier/District Cricket, and as captain-coach led Dandenong to the 2006-07 premiership.