Following last week’s Mount Gambier Greyhound Racing Club Annual General Meeting, Dave Green of Millicent has assumed the role of President while Mount Gambier-based Ben Price is now the club’s Vice-President.

For Green, his association with greyhound racing goes back to 2009 and to an involvement in a syndicate that raced a dog called Hawk Power.

“He won only one race – a maiden over 512 metres at Mount Gambier – and that was about it. The syndicate soon folded,” he said.

It wasn’t until a Greyhound Racing SA Marketing television advertising campaign in 2021 focusing on racing at Mount Gambier’s Tara Raceway that Green’s interest in the sport had been rekindled.

“The TV advertisement made it all look pretty good so my wife Keston and I set aside a Sunday afternoon and headed to Mount Gambier with our two girls, Kaia and Hadlie, for a day at the dogs.

“We really enjoyed the day. So much so that we continued to take in Sunday afternoon meetings whenever time allowed. And, of course, the inevitable happened – I also found my interest in greyhound racing intensifying to the extent that I was looking to become further involved.

“We found Tara Raceway to be a really friendly place, whether mixing with trainers, staff or patrons,” he said. “And eventually I obtained my trainer’s licence with my first winner coming in September 2023 with a dog called Paw Some Storm.”

In his younger days, Green, now 46, undertook a five-year painter and decorator apprenticeship. Later, he studied primary school teaching.

Sports-wise, he played more than a 100 League and Seconds games with the Port Adelaide Football Club. He then played country football for Angaston between 2003 and 2006 before accepting a teaching position in 2007 at Millicent’s St Anthonys Catcholic Primary School.

Green’s football and assistant coaching career at the Mid-South East club Hatherleigh ended in 2011. Later he become involved with the Millicent CFS.

Dave Green and Ben Price both joined the Mount Gambier Greyhound Racing Club committee in 2024. And last year, with Green as Vice-President and Price a committee member, they made the quarterly trip to Adelaide to attend the Greyhound Racing SA Members of Company meetings.

“And Dave had been a great help to me last year when we made the trips to Adelaide. I have to say I gained a lot from the MOC meetings and the whole concept should make a lot more sense to me this year,” said Price.

Price, 23, grew up with greyhounds as did his father Tracie, Mount Gambier’s leading trainer on a number of occasions. Now a full-time trainer in his own right, young Price last year trained 14 winners.

Living in Mount Gambier with Jocelyn Patzel, his partner of four years, Price is by far the youngest member of the Mount Gambier committee. And he’s added a breath of fresh air to a committee that for a while now had been crying out for some young blood.