LIAM DURKIN
FOOTBALL
COMMENT
By LIAM DURKIN
DOES anyone realise the country footy season starts in less than four weeks?
If anyone else is feeling as though there doesn’t seem to be a great deal of excitement surrounding the upcoming season, you are not alone.
I must say, in all my years playing, watching and reporting on local footy, season 2022 takes the unwanted title of being the one carrying the least amount of hype.
Ordinarily at this time of year there is no shortage of discussion surrounding how teams are shaping up, conversations about what is happening at club land and rumours circulating how much such and such is getting paid.
But this year? While I have heard a bit, most of it unsubstantiated, it is nothing compared to previous years.
Granted clubs only talk when they’re recruiting, yet the apparent lack of anticipation for what season 2022 might bring is bewildering to say the least.
Perhaps it is to do with the uncertainty, perhaps it is to do with the mental drain of getting up for a third preseason after the last two led to a grand total of 10 games, or perhaps it is simply a case of the last two years making people realise there is in fact more to life than footy.
The hesitancy is understandable. I think people were prepared to cop not playing in 2020 under the assumption it would only add to the thrill of what was to come the following year. When it happened again it reached a ‘why bother’ stage.
At least in 2020 you knew there was no chance the season would get off the ground. Last year you still had to front up, most of the time with the vaguest amount of optimism you were actually working toward something.
It was like logging on trying to purchase tickets for a major concert you knew you didn’t have much chance of actually getting a ticket to – but you do it anyway just to be sure.
Often you would leave home in the morning with your bag packed ready for training, only to find out hours later you were being plunged into lockdown that night.
I lost count of how many ‘last suppers’ were had.
Clubs more than likely lost count of how many functions, anniversaries and reunions were cancelled, not to mention how much canteen stock was wasted.
Just how many player milestones were denied? I myself worked out I should be on at least 150 games by now.
It is strange how players say milestone matches don’t mean much to them. To play 200 or 300 games for one club is a moment and a person to be celebrated. Just as it is for the local legend who has been on the gate or behind the bar for 50 years.
The trainers, the board members, the support staff, they are all a team themselves, wearing the same colours, fighting with the same passion in devotion for their footy club.
Where else but a football club can such an eclectic group of people come together to share in a common purpose?
Look at a team singing the song following a win. There is a good chance the circle will be linked by players standing arm-in-arm ranging from doctors and lawyers to tradies and truck drivers.
Society says people from those walks of life shouldn’t mix. Football says otherwise.
These are the characters that help make up the fabric of a football club. Clubs are a place where an emphasis on good will, sense of duty and pride in work all merge to help bring hope and moments of sheer joy. And it’s a great deal of fun as well.
Many towns in Gippsland don’t have a lot in terms of physical buildings, but they do have a footy club. These are places that serve a greater purpose than being a general assembly of people. They are hubs for the community, meeting places, places to socialise, laugh and sometimes even cry. You can see that good things come out of football clubs. The club to which I belong and the club to which you belong might be different, but it is equally special and an integral part of your life.
Think of how soulless some towns in Gippsland would be if it wasn’t for the football/netball club. Some of them are ghost towns during the week but become a small metropolis every second Saturday.
Surely this sense of community is too great an ideal to lose on the back of two challenging years.
Looking at the narratives and subplots attached to our local clubs it is surprising then that there is such little excitement, for it would seem there is actually plenty to be excited about.
Could Traralgon be this season’s bolter in the Gippsland League? The Maroons have added former Port Adelaide player Brett Eddy, who will surely complete one of the best forward lines in the competition working alongside Jake Best and Dylan Loprese.
Eddy will be just one of many ex-AFL players running around in Gippsland next season. Warragul to the west has Jed Lamb and Nick Graham, Bairnsdale to the east has Logan Austin all trying to resurrect the fortunes of their respective sides.
In total, seven of the league’s 10 member clubs will have AFL experience on their lists. Such quality will surely make the Gippsland League the highest standard it has been in recent memory.
Morwell already has a succession plan in place with Boyd Bailey set to succeed Denis Knight. The Tigers could surprise a few this season, Morwell’s rivalry matches with Traralgon and Moe always make for compulsive viewing.
And what of the Lions? They were still hanging people the last time Moe won a flag. Will this finally be the year they bury 55 years’ worth of torment? Imagine the outpouring of emotion if it actually happens.
They’ll be a parade and a public holiday.
Season 2022 could be the year we see a number of droughts broken.
Hill End won the hearts of most in 2019, making their first Mid Gippsland grand final since 1982. The Hillmen looked a good chance of winning it last season before being stopped in their tracks, and will surely be eager to go again.
Standing in their way though could be Mirboo North, a team that just seems to come from nowhere and win premierships when they have even the slightest opening. Morwell East could be another, and certainly on paper look to have a list profile that suggests they will be contending.
I’m hearing good things out of Fish Creek. We saw possibly the embodiment of football culture last season when they managed to knock off Yinnar despite having virtually their entire senior team unavailable due to travel restrictions. How much a club means to a small town was surely seen earlier in the day when a call-to-arms was made to successfully field a reserves team.
The Kangaroos had never forfeited a reserves match before, and COVID or no COVID, weren’t prepared to make last season the first.
Yinnar themselves are a proud club, you only have to look at the upkeep of its facility to know that.
Not far from Yinnar, Boolarra and Thorpdale look like they will only get better.
The Demons have been busy on the recruiting front and appear to have assembled a whole new team. The Blues were arguably the most improved Mid Gippy side last season. Their first victory in more than 1000 days made headlines around the state.
You would mark Newborough down as another team set to improve. The Bulldogs should be resurgent under club legend Craig Skinner and with a host of former players returning. If you were writing a story previewing Newborough’s season you would have to borrow from The Blues Brothers – “we’re putting the band back together”.
While the Bulldogs might be on a mission from God, the ‘new six’ that crossed from the Alberton league are on a mission to create history in the MGFNL.
Some other relative new comers to various leagues will be hoping to avoid a case of second year blues.
Yallourn Yallourn North and Trafalgar each slotted in seamlessly to the North Gippsland and Ellinbank league last season.
The Jets had a percentage of 228.80, the Bloods an 8-2 record.
The Bloods are being coached by an ex-Newborough player in Tom Hallinan – as Bob Dylan said “the times they are a-changin'”.
The Jets and Woodside were the top-two teams in North Gippsland last season.
The number of one-point wins Woodside snuck last season was astonishing. Whether or not these results are flipped only adds to the intrigue of what could be coming this season for a team carrying huge sentimental favouritism.
A little further down the road is Yarram.
You can often tell a lot about a town and its people by the way in which the footy club operates. The dairy farming people of Yarram appear to abide by a work-hard, play-hard mentality. Just as they rise early to milk the cows and unwind once the work is done, a similar approach is taken to their footy. No nonsense, just get the job done.
Closer to home, Churchill is another where players and supporters sense of attachment to the football club appears strong – almost tribal. This loyalty has meant the Cougars have usually had a nucleus of quality senior players to keep it among one of the stronger sides in the competition. At Churchill, it seems winning is demanded more than it is expected.
Then there is Glengarry and Traralgon Tyers United. Who will ever forget the Magpies winning the 2013 grand final in extra time? Those in the black and white will be hoping the Glengarry of today are able to channel some of the power from that day in their bid to rise a few places this season.
The Bombers had all teams qualify for finals last season, with their seconds and thirds both finishing inside the top-two. Having similar depth this season will surely bode well in their quest to take out the title.
Sale City has a new coach in Nathan Thomas, as does Heyfield in Kodie Woodland. Rosedale is tipped to be thereabouts, Cowwarr perhaps not so much, but they generally give most sides a run for their money.
Gormandale, surely everyone’s second favourite team, haven’t won a game since 2018. Upon his appointment, I said to incoming coach Chris Potalej he had taken on probably the hardest coaching job in Gippsland. He replied with ‘I know, but there is just something about the place’.
There lies part of the beauty of football. It has a way of drawing you in when every logical part of you says not to. It’s something that unless you are directly involved you can never completely understand.
Back to the Gippsland League, interest will surround Maffra under new coach Anthony Robbins. Grand finals are like Christmas at the Eagles, they come around every year.
The Eagles biggest rival, Sale, are always a tough team to beat, especially at home. The rivalry has only intensified since former Maffra player Jack Johnstone took the coaching job.
Sale is home to possibly the greatest Collingwood player of all time in Scott Pendlebury. Drouin is home to possibly the greatest player of all time – Ablett Senior.
Heading south, Leongatha is a club that just does great things. Wonthaggi looks to be on the verge of doing great things.
The Parrots have played in the last five grand finals. The Power came from nowhere to make their most recent grand final.
If you wanted to see true emotion you should have seen the 2014 preliminary final. Wonthaggi came from 45 points down at three quarter time and won. The ground was flooded with people, strangers were hugging players out on the ground, grown men were crying. It was absolute pandemonium.
Those who thought football wasn’t a matter of life and death didn’t think to tell the Wonthaggi players in the last quarter. They played as if their lives depended on the result.
Some years later I wrote a feature story on the match. Speaking to Power coach Rob Railton and asking how they managed to pull it off he simply said “the scoreboard never dictates effort”.
Those words have stayed with me ever since. How much that can be applied to not just football but life.
In my travels recently I was required to be in Kilcunda by 9.30am on a Saturday.
Driving from Traralgon, I headed through Leongatha and past the football ground, momentarily casting an eye over the oval, curious but for no real reason as to whether or not the Parrots were training. They weren’t on this occasion.
A little while later I was in Wonthaggi. With time on my side I thought I would make a slight detour and go check out the footy ground.
An empty footy ground carries a slightly haunting feel. It is just you and your thoughts, out there in the open theatre, engaging the senses, trying to become familiar with the surroundings before the audience arrives to see the performance. The ground looks and feels bigger, it doesn’t feel ready to be used at that point in time, but just add a ball, some players, mark the lines and it will be instantly transformed.
You remember the atmosphere of football. The sight of cars lined around the oval, the sound of dramatic silence intermitted by loud cries of ‘ball!’, the aroma of embers emanating from an open fire to break up the winter chill.
Standing in the centre, you visualise laying a saving tackle, winning a crucial one-on-one or kicking a sealing goal.
I couldn’t do any of this though, as when I drove in the Power were training. They were taking part in what looked like a drill involving moving the ball from end-to-end. The talls were deep, the smalls around the stoppage, and other players, presumably those in rehab, on the top deck of the old social rooms on exercise bikes.
If you were a Wonthaggi supporter you would have been pleased to see such commitment at 8.30am on a Saturday.
I doubt they saw me, I didn’t hang around for long, but I was there long enough to leave thinking “they’re practicing well … they look like they’re going to be tough to play against”.
The byplay has begun. The conversations are sure to follow. The on-field action isn’t far away.
Bring on season 2022. There is plenty to get excited about.
