 |
|
Former
AFL star Micky Martyn (at Garden Island) has traded in his
footy boots for a career with his family’s engineering company.
|
Any
Aussie Rules football fan will tell you big Micky Martyn used
to play with iron-willed determination and that famous
steely glint in his eye.
Retired just last season after more than 300 first-grade games
with North Melbourne and Carlton, Mick Martyn is putting those
metallic on-field qualities to good use at Garden Island, Sydney,
in a new career.
Now he’s working on the Navy’s frigate upgrade with his family’s
company, Able Industries Engineering Pty Ltd, a long-standing
sub-contractor to ADI Limited.
Mick joined Able when he was 17 and continued to work in the business
during his football career.
Victorian based Able Engineering has around 200 employees engaged
in a variety of metal fabrication projects including among several
items, the new cabinets needed for the upgraded radar units on
the FFGs.
“They are being made at our plant at Kingsville,” Mick told Navy
News.
Since finishing his football career Mick, 34, has been able to
devote more time to the family business assisting his brother
Steve, the managing director, as the manager of Able’s computerised
numeric control division.
He has been visiting Garden Island to familiarise himself with
the services ADI requires for the frigate upgrade and other maritime
contracts.
Other projects the Martyn family company has been extensively
involved with include the Australian build of the FFGs in the
1980s, the Minehunter ships, Anzac frigates and one of Australia’s
most popular … and frightening … leisure rides, the Lethal Weapon
Roller Coaster at the Gold Coast’s Movie World.
Mick said he began playing AFL at 15 and played his first first-grade
game with the Kangaroos in 1988 at the age of 18.
“I played fullback,” he explained.
Mick is the player dubbed the “gorilla” by leading coach Denis
Pagan.
“I suppose it was because I am six foot three and a half inches
tall and weigh 102 kilos,” he said..”
