The crucial role volunteers play at local football and netball clubs goes largely unnoticed each season.
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From sorting the team sheets, to running the water, washing the jumpers and cleaning up after each game, their tireless actions help keep clubs afloat.
In essence, they are the heart and soul of clubs.
But as we exit the cancelled 2020 season, football and netball clubs are entering a pivotal time of their existence.
Volunteers are more important now than ever before.
And it's time to showcase and appreciate the hard work completed by our loyal club servants as Liam Nash reports.
Sitting high in the grandstands of Deakin Reserve on an opaque Thursday afternoon, Zane Foott sends a finger towards one particular corner of the ground.
“Jars (Hawthorn’s Jarman Impey) kicked about six goals on me there one day,” he said with an honest laugh.
Foott, one chamber of Shepparton United Football Club's double-barrelled vice-presidency, would be the first to admit he never had a future in the game.
“I worked out two things pretty early when I was young,” he said.
“I was only really playing footy to hang out with my mates and I wasn’t that good of a footballer.”
So, he found another way to play his part.
The crux of Foott’s three years at the “D” has, in some way or another, been about building up Shepparton United.
But as a former regular around Mooroopna Football Club, there was slight trepidation from Foott when the call initially came from across the river.
“Former Shepparton United president Craig Blizzard gave me a call one day, pitched me the idea and said they were looking for some new faces, people who are energetic and excited,” Foott said.
“He gave me a pretext and said, if you don’t like it, you can leave at any point.
“Three years later I’m still here.”
Citing people as the main driver behind his decision to stay, Foott turned the cogs as a general committee member during his first year.
It didn’t take long for him to get the nod towards a more senior role.
Then COVID-19 hit.
“Getting down on a Saturday, although the work doesn’t stop, you get the enjoyment from the under-18s running out in the morning, the seniors in the afternoon and then having a beer in the rooms afterward — we didn’t get that last year,” he said.
“A new committee had just come in; we were starting to find our feet and get some exciting stuff rolling.
“It definitely took the wind out of everyone’s sails.”
Pushing on during the football and netball drought, the Demons explored various avenues to keep the fire burning among the club’s patrons.
Which is exactly where individuals, such as Foott, prove to be so critical.
“That was probably our biggest concern from a committee perspective — how to keep supporters, past players, present players and community members engaged when we’re not even allowed to have a beer together,” he said,
“We as a committee tried to do what we could to keep the club rolling along, with myself going around again as vice-president with Glenn Irvine.
“Glenn Irvine and Matt Chilcott, as senior vice-president and president, they’ve got some really good governance experience and have been heavily involved in football clubs for longer than I’ve been alive — it’s great to be able to learn off these guys.”
Weathering the storm has not been easy.
But after passing through the eye and other side of COVID-19, Foott takes solace in the club that he’s stuck by.
The club he knows the bones of.
The club he calls home.
“It’s a huge business country footy,” Foott said.
“When you go into a football clubroom anywhere around Australia, you find yourself drawn to the boards on the wall.
“Who’s won league medals, who’s been president. It’s a pretty uniting thing.”
The chance for new heroes to etch their name on the Demons’ own boards kicks off this week.
Round one of the Goulburn Valley League returns — and the wait has felt eternal to guys like Foott.
So, with a beer in hand and a finger pointed towards all corners of Deakin Reserve, he'll finally feel at home when the whistle sounds on Friday night.
“Every footy club faces volunteer shortages, there is a lot of work that goes into getting people on the park on a Saturday,” he said.
“If you didn’t have these people willing to give up their time, you wouldn’t have a footy club — it’s as simple as that.
“It’s been a turbulent 12 months and I think there is a whole heap of people who are going to get a massive reward out of what goes on here on Friday and so there should.
“There’s been some monumental efforts by people at not just our club but every club, who should walk around with a huge smile on their face during round one when the ball gets thrown up.”
One of those smiling faces, without a shadow of doubt, will belong to Foott.
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