How Duck pays the bills
01 July 2006 Herald-Sun
Mike Sheahan
WHEN Nick Daffy left Mt Gambier for Melbourne late in 1991, his future was based on nothing more substantial than a spot on the Richmond list and the optimism of youth.
He had no place to stay in the big city, no job outside of football.
He has often told mates he wondered where he was headed in a Mini Minor struggling to climb the West Gate Bridge on that drive to Melbourne.
Fifteen years on, the player nicknamed ``Duck'' is one of the outstanding examples of how a young man can turn a football career into a bridge to the business world, to success and financial security.
Not simply because he was a good footballer, more because he was a good player who also was a good listener, a young man with ambition and drive and an early realisation footballers can be finished before they're 30.
Daffy, 33, is one of three partners in After Dark management, which owns four cafe/club/lounge/bars in Melbourne. He also is a senior partner and driving force in a separate group of former and current footballers who own the Waterside Hotel in the CBD, freehold and all.
His business partners are former teammates Wayne Campbell, Brendon and Michael Gale, and Stuart Wigney, current players Nick Riewoldt, Nathan Brown, Matthew Richardson, Chris Tarrant and Dean Solomon, and Essendon premiership player Sean Wellman.
The Waterside, reportedly purchased for $3.4million a couple of years ago, will be valued in the order of $7million when current renovations are completed.
The old wharfie landmark now is the place where the corporates gather on weekdays and the young and socially mobile like to be seen at night.
Daffy has equity in the Blue Room, Lounge Room (Docklands), Waterside, Water Rat and the latest Docklands venture, The Fix, in which his partners are Tarrant and comedian Dave Hughes.
Richmond premiership player Peter Welsh, a club director during much of Daffy's time at Punt Rd Oval, alerted him to the need to use his football earnings and contacts.
``He sat myself and Wayne Campbell down a few years ago and said, `Get into commercial property as quick as you can','' Daffy said.
Daffy already had shown himself to be a self-starter, buying into a run-down pizza shop in Clarendon St, South Melbourne, a shop that became the Blue Room.
That was in 1998, when he was 25 and just six years into his career. He risked his house to take a part in the $300,000 enterprise. It was, he says, a ``fairly big risk''.
He had been a signwriter for four years then a full-time footballer for two, but he and teammate Campbell had plans and dreams, and both were aspiring developers.
``What helped me was I hung in the right group, I had a couple of good role models. I had Wayne and Brendon Gale, who were heading down the right track,'' Daffy said.
``Peter Welsh, too. He was a bit of a lad, but he had a business instinct ... yeah, a bit like myself. One thing he said was when you come out football, you have a thicker skin than a lot of other people and a lot more energy, and you're ready to take a risk because you're used to taking risks.''
Daffy is the ideas man, the one who sees the opportunities, plans the design and development, and then markets the finished product.
It all started when he became friends with Jimmy Derzekoz, who ran a sandwich bar opposite the Blue Room.
``At the time, all we did was train and play and go to coffee shops and restaurants, so I thought this would be a great thing to get involved in,'' Daffy said.
``Jimmy, myself and Vic Stroumos bought the Blue Room. Now we've got four places.''
Daffy is happy involving footballers in his ventures, so long as they come with the right motives.
``I always wanted to be involved with people who wanted to learn a bit about business rather than just piggy-back them,'' he said. ``If you get the right mix and everyone's got their own roles, it can work.''
Tarrant, for example, is expected to be the front man at functions for groups such as Collingwood corporates.
``Chris has been wanting to get into something for a couple of years and Paul Connors (his manager) is out there seeking opportunities for his players.''
Daffy says he learned many of his business principles from football.
``I used to watch the (Robert) Harveys and the (Matthew) Knights.
``I found out Harvey trained harder than anyone else, so I did the same thing. I always made sure I trained harder than anyone at Richmond.
``In business, I learned to just ask, ask, ask.
``There's a lot of down time in football, a lot of time to gather information, to learn.''
Daffy played 165 games for Richmond and one for Sydney from 1992-2002. He won Richmond's best-and-fairest in 1998.
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