LIAM DURKIN
FOOTBALL
By LIAM DURKIN THE memories are all that’s left. Members of the Devon-Welshpool-Won Wron-Woodside Football-Netball Club’s 2003 senior premiership gathered recently to celebrate their 20-year reunion. Just as DWWWW had welcomed players from across Gippsland when it was formed in the mid-1990s, those who were there in 2003 came from across the state, and even the country, for the reunion at Woodside Recreation Reserve on Saturday, June 17. While holding a reunion in Woodside might have technically been out of place given DWWWW’s home ground is in Alberton West, it was perhaps fitting for a team known as the Allies. The Allies brought together the four clubs mentioned in its acronym in 1996, which in turn was a follow-up to the merger between Devon and Welshpool (who had merged in 1994) and Won Wron and Woodside, who did likewise some years earlier. By 2002, the Allies had already won two Alberton Football-Netball League flags, and added a third when they defeated Fish Creek by eight points to take the 2003 title. Current Woodside District Football-Netball Club president Ash Walpole was listed in the best for the Allies on Grand Final day, and has vivid memories of a packed crowd in attendance at the Foster Showgrounds. “It was 10-deep the whole ground, there was an incredible crowd there. Not sure if it was a record crowd but there was a massive crowd,” he recalled. “Fish Creek had won the last three premierships, and they hadn’t lost a game for the year, so they were probably just ripe to be beaten on that day. “It was just a perfect day for us, being a blustery sort of day, the ball was on the ground a lot, it didn’t suit their blokes. “It’s only a memory now, 20 years on, we are all retired now, it’s nice to have something like a premiership to have a reason to come back together.” Walpole had played in the Allies flags of 1998 and 1999, but with a runner-up finish in 2000, and consecutive early-finals exits over the next two seasons, it appeared time was running out to add a third flag to the collection. The Allies secured favourite son Anthony ‘Macca’ Banik to come back and coach in 2002, as the club set about having one last tilt in any such premiership window. Banik had coached Sale in the major Gippsland League for two seasons from 2000 to 2001, following his AFL days with Richmond after he was taken at number one in the 1989 AFL draft. The Allies appointment completed a full circle for Banik, as it had been for Won Wron-Woodside where he made his senior debut as a mere 14-year-old. As 2003 unfolded, an Allies flag looked a genuine possibility after the team strung nine consecutive wins together during the home-and-away season, prompting headlines such as ‘DWWWW Do What Winners Want Whenever’. However, as good as the Allies might have been, the Kangaroos appeared just that little bit better. Fish Creek defeated DWWWW by 59 points during the season, and again by 20 points in the second semi-final. Victory to the Kangaroos in the second-semi meant they went straight to the big dance. Yet, as is often the case at country level, Banik believed his side benefitted from playing uninterrupted football during the finals series. “We’d been one of the stronger teams of the comp that year, but we went to Fish Creek and got beaten by 10 goals,” he said. “We came away thinking ‘okay, how are we going to turn this around?’ I think we proved it in the second semi-final when we played them at Yarram, we were 20 points up at three quarter time and ended up going down by 20 points in the end, but we knew we were there abouts. “I think the extra footy that we played actually helped us. I think Fish Creek would be testament to the same thing, they only played one game in 21 days, and we were actually footy-hardened.” The Allies easily accounted for Dalyston in the preliminary final to set up a decider between the two best teams of the 2003 season. DWWWW ran out on Grand Final day through a banner reading ‘DWWWW for Kiwi 2003’, in tribute to club stalwart Jeff Kee who was battling illness. With no AFL finals in Melbourne on the day, people turned out in droves to witness the fight for Alberton football supremacy. Those in attendance saw two great sides do battle, at a time when the AFNL was generally regarded as the best league in Gippsland outside the major league. By 2003, the AFNL had established itself as a strong 12-team competition, following a major expansion in 1996 after the Bass Valley-Wonthaggi league wound up. Given the reputation of the old Bass Valley league, known colloquially as ‘Bash Valley’, one could draw accurate parallels as to the type of football being played. Banik ran with the underdog theme during Grand Final week, and while his side might have lost to Fish Creek in all matches leading up to the big day, the Allies won when it mattered most. “The day itself with the weather, the wind, was conducive to contested football, and we were ready to go. They were probably a little bit flat, and we had a few guys that were pretty hungry for a premiership,” he said. “It was tight all the way through. Neither side could really take advantage of the wind, we kicked with the wind in the first quarter and I think we kicked 3.6 (24), they were more-or-less the same, it was pretty tight at halftime. We didn’t have an ascendency at three quarter time, and we just defended and hung on in the end, it was just a real slog.” In a game where no less than 10 points separated the sides at any of the breaks, DWWWW were the ones that had their noses in front at the final siren, 13.14 (92) to 12.12 (84). Premiership celebrations went from Saturday night in the Alberton West Recreation Reserve social rooms, and carried through to the following Wednesday. In keeping with tradition, those at the Allies reunion headed to their old stomping ground, The Victoria Hotel in Alberton (The ‘Albo’), following formalities in Woodside. The 2003 flag was Banik’s last senior game of football. He had battled with chronic fatigue during his five years at Richmond from 1990 to 1994, but did win a best-and-fairest for Tigers’ reserves in his final year. From there, he moved to South Australia, playing for West Adelaide in the SANFL, where he won two best-and-fairests before returning to Gippsland to coach Sale. Amazingly, the Allies premiership meant his senior football career was bookended with the same club 16 years apart – retiring at age 30 after debuting at 14. It also added to the four junior flags he’d won at the ‘three W’s’ – Won Wron-Woodside. As the Allies were enjoying a sea of euphoria in 2003, it is unlikely anyone could have foreseen what was to unravel just four years later. What followed was a complex story of ownership and changing demographics. While those gathered at the reunion had a premiership to remember – there was no premiership cup to be seen. That’s because the 2003 premiership cup, along with all those won by the Allies, are still stored at Alberton West. DWWWW backed up their premiership by playing finals again in 2004, and made it to consecutive preliminary finals over the next two years. However, in a dramatic situation, the mostly Won Wron-Woodside section of DWWWW, tired of travelling to places such as Philip Island in what had become an even bigger AFNL by 2007, advocated for a move out of Alberton and into the North Gippsland Football-Netball League. Another section of the club relented, and in an extraordinary move, part of the Allies broke away to form the Woodside that currently competes in the NGFNL (as Woodside and District Wildcats). In essence, the club that had originally been formed by merging two clubs – demerged. When asked about the split, Banik, who was president of DWWWW in 2007, and became the inaugural president of Woodside District the following year, said it was an unfortunate episode. “I took over a senior role at the club (DWWWW), went from coaching to being vice president and president, (and) saw a vision for the club to look at opportunities in other leagues and move north (to the NGFNL),” he said. “Unfortunately as a whole we didn’t move as a group, and the Allies stayed as an entity in the Alberton footy league, and Woodside was more-or-less reborn, and we went to North Gippy, and here we are some 15 years later going along quite nicely.” Given the population of the Yarram region, to have the Allies and Wildcats both trying to field senior, reserve and junior football and netball teams, as well as Yarram FNC themselves, meant between three clubs in such a small area, there was always a high possibility one was eventually going to fall over. Unfortunately for the Allies, they were the club to do so. DWWWW went into recess in 2014, before making a brief comeback, only to go back into recess again in 2018. While they haven’t officially folded, the Allies haven’t put a team on the park since, and in all likelihood, probably never will again. As an organisation taking in four clubs and a catchment of around 50 kilometres across two municipalities, DWWWW faced some unique challenges, including the use of multiple facilities. The club, which became known as the ‘four wheel drives’, had two presidents from its first season in 1997 until the premiership year of 2003, one representing the Devon-Welshpool component, and the other, Won Wron-Woodside. Banik, often in the hot seat, said there was a host of challenges to work through. “It was always hard. I was coach of the club and we had a president from one side and a president from the other side. I always felt torn in between,” he said. “To look back, I’ll be very honest, it probably wasn’t a harmonious amalgamation initially, because both entities were looking after themselves and both entities were going backwards as far as facilities. “Alberton West was going backwards, there was no money, you couldn’t sustain two football grounds, Woodside was going backwards, we needed improvements here, we as an Alberton West entity needed improvements out there as well. “Financially, people, resources … it was going to come to a head at some stage, it was just at my time, and I, along with a lot of others, thought it was best to go north, and it didn’t happen as a whole, which is unfortunate. “But, is there vindication in the idea that we go to North Gippsland? Maybe, maybe not. “Woodside is going along nicely for the moment, but football in general is a changing environment. “I’ve been out of the system for five years. I’m in Queensland now, this is not my environment, who knows what the future is going forward, but the main thing is the kids of the area have got things to do, they have places to play football and netball. “I know people are very passionate about their regions and their history, sometimes you have to put that aside for the betterment of the actual game.” Like the Judgement of King Solomon, there is still some conjecture over whether or not premierships won by DWWWW can be counted as ‘Woodside’ flags. Regardless of viewpoint, if the reunion was anything to go by, 2003 was every bit a Woodside premiership – only three players from the team were not in attendance. Photos of all DWWWW premierships take pride of place on the wall at Woodside Recreation Reserve, as does the honour board detailing the club’s history. Walpole was hopeful the Woodside of today gave the Allies the chance to live on in some form. “There is always a bit of Allies in Woodside because of the connection there, the 10 years that Woodside was part of that club,” he said. “(I’ve) still got a reason to celebrate the three premierships that I played at the Allies, so it’s good times. The boys are still here and we are all good mates together …. that’s what it’s all about.” With 2003 the last time any team carrying the name Woodside won a senior premiership, and with the Wildcats currently second on the NGFNL ladder, both Walpole and Banik said they would love nothing more than to see a Woodside flag this season. “Hopefully in 10 year’s time we can have a 30 year Allies and a 10-year Woodside (premiership reunion),” Walpole said. “They can forget about us and move on,” Banik said laughing. “Would love it, would be a great thing.”
