When Sean Dempster began his university degree he found himself on the fringe of selection. He constantly felt like he was one bad game away from returning to the reserves. And it was that sense of unease that prompted him to pursue something away from the club to help prepare him for life after football, whenever that time would come.

Seven years on, that time hasn’t come yet. In the meanwhile, the 32-year-old has carved out a decorated career at St Kilda while also completing a biomedical science degree. And he isn’t finished on the academic front, now in the early stages of a Masters in strength and conditioning.

“That’s probably the reason why I started. Footy can be all consuming at times, it’s all you’ve got and when things aren’t going well with football, if you don’t have another outlet it can become all-consuming and it can be a bit too much,” Dempster told saints.com.au.

“When I started uni I was a fringe player and not getting a regular spot and feeling like I always had to perform well on the weekend or I’d lose my spot. So knowing that I had some sort of study behind me if football didn’t work out for me I had another outlet.

“I found that it put me at ease knowing that I can have a fair crack at football and if it doesn’t work I’ve got this other pathway that I can go down. Before that it was just all football and when that wasn’t going well I had nothing else to turn to.

“I’ve found, especially over the last few years, that there’s been great benefit knowing that I’m going to have that (career path) behind me and football will take care of itself.”

When Dempster attends class at Deakin University’s Burwood campus, for sometimes up to ten hours a week, no one looks at him twice, and that’s the way he prefers it. For the duration of his football career he has kept his media appearances to a minimum, electing to let his football talk for him. Perhaps that’s why a player of his ilk, with a premiership medallion and an All Australian guernsey, has such a low profile and is underrated. Although that’s just how Dempster likes it, especially at uni.

“The science courses are more for the nerds and they don’t really pay too much attention to football, which is really good,” Dempster says with a grin.

“And to be honest that’s not me anyway, I don’t walk down the street and get a lot of acknowledgement off people – they don’t really know who I am which is really good. It makes it a bit more comfortable for me.

“The strange thing is because it took me six, seven years to do my course, I started with 18-year-olds and at the time I started I was old, I was already 24 and by the time I finished I was 31 and still at school with 18-year-olds. It was a little bit heartbreaking.”

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Renowned for his meticulous preparation and attention to detail, he is disciplined about each piece of food he puts in his mouth and the lengths he goes to get up to play each week. Dempster mirrors this approach with his study, squeezing his university commitments around a jam-packed football schedule.

“The majority of the days we’re in here 7.30am-4.30pm so that takes up the majority of our day and then we get a half day and a full day off during the week and our weekends are obviously taken up with the game,” Dempster said.

“You have to be super organised, especially if you want to do more than the minimum, which is if you want to do more than one subject each semester.

“When you do two subjects in a semester it can become too much, especially around those periods where there’s an assignment due or a mid-semester exam.

“You’ve got to get all your football done, all your prep for the game, plus then your study for your exam or assignment, plus having to go to all your regular tutes and lectures. It definitely comes down to your time management and how you organise it.”

With football club networks stretching far wider than just the football department, Dempster hasn’t had to look too far for academic inspiration. His current player sponsor, Professor John Lattanzio, is an esteemed academic at Monash University.

Professor Lattanzio is far from your stereotypical football diehard. He works in the School of Mathematical Science and specialises in stellar astrophysics (everything to do with the galaxy) and has been part of the Saints’ player sponsorship program for decades, as well as being a member of St Kilda's bequest program.

Now at the tail end of his 12th season in the AFL, Dempster is well aware football has an expiry date. Whether that’s at the conclusion of this year or not is yet to be determined. But what he does know is he has laid more than sturdy foundations to launch into the next stage of his life.

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