Mooroopna captain Ben Hicks on Cats’ culture, weight of leadership and his unflashy approach

That calibre of leader is seen in a pilot, a boss and most certainly, can be found at Mooroopna Football Netball Club.

Ben Hicks is an unassuming man who lets his football do the talking at the Cats.

Hicks is captain of one of the oldest and most historic football clubs in country Victoria and takes that responsibility in his stride.

Growing up playing his football down The Road at Congupna, after a slew of junior premierships, Hicks made the move to Mooroopna in Goulburn Valley League for the 2016 season to test himself at senior level.

The transfer was also due to Hicks’ family connection at the Cats; his grandfather, Paddy, played more than 100 games in navy blue hoops and won a best-and-fairest in 1961.

Nearly a decade on from the move and Hicks has fast become a favourite son of the club and is in his second season of captaincy, having played 137 games with 37 goals to boot.

The trusty defender also made his representative debut this year, donning the GVL interleague guernsey for its clash against Ovens and Murray.

Hicks said his early years at Mooroopna and his strong leadership group around him had helped build the 29-year-old into the leader he is now.

“It is a big honour to be captain of the club,” Hicks said.

“We had a breakfast at the start of last year with all the former captains and that was pretty special to see some of those legends.

“(Leadership) is something I have worked on along the journey.

“Those first couple of years at Mooroopna, when we were a bit younger and it was a bit tougher, you had to stand up as one of the older players.

“Coming through the leadership group, then being vice-captain and eventually captain, those years have really built me to where I am now.”

To say Hicks’ opening few seasons at the Cattery were tough would be an understatement.

Mooroopna won a total of four games in his first three seasons, including years with no or one victory.

But throughout the dour years, Mooroopna’s culture and following remained strong, something that Hicks puts down to the love for the town and the emblem.

“The support base here is enormous and you do have that pride for Mooroopna and you are doing it for your town and for your jumper,” he said.

“It helps that we are a one-team town.

“Making finals for the first time here, I think it was 2022, we actually played Echuca in the last round, they were undefeated and we had to win to make finals and we beat them by a goal.

“The next week was our first final in however many years and we won that, so that was pretty special for us as a team.

“It just goes to show all the work we did in those early years and it’s not fun when you are losing games and losing every week.

“But to see the people who have been watching us for those years when we were losing to finally see us play finals and some of the players that had been there the whole time and had probably never played finals, to finally have that was really good to see.”

In that must-win round 18 match in 2022, against an Echuca side destined to win a three-peat of flags, Hicks refused to give an inch to the Murray Bombers.

His resilience and reliability earned him a spot in the best in arguably the Cats’ most important fixture in just shy of a decade.

Hicks views himself as a role player out on the field, keeping Mooroopna’s defence in tact.

With a focus on bringing his teammates into the game, Hicks says he tries “not to do too many flashy things”.

For the second year running, the Cats lost a number of key players during the off-season and were predicted by some to plummet.

But alongside the likes of experienced heads Kai Madgwick, Rory Huggard and Dom Gugliotti, Hicks and his colony of Cats have remained more than competitive and have snatched three victories while pushing top sides such as Rochester, Shepparton and Echuca to the brink.

Mooroopna coach John Lamont is equally responsible for the Cats’ ability to remain competitive year-upon-year and was the man to see Hicks’ potential as a leader while he rose through the ranks.

Lamont said Hicks had earned the respect of his players through his efforts on the field.

“(Hicks) served a bit of an apprenticeship under Matt Deane for a few years and that was a good role model for him,” Lamont said.

“He is a tremendously steady and reliable player as well, so because of that he is respected.

“Not that leadership is about being liked, but he is respected and well-liked because of how he goes about it.”

The partnership between the effervescent and outgoing Lamont and the composed and hard-working Hicks fits together like a lock and key according to the coach.

“We get along well,” he said.

“I huff and puff and carry on around the place, so we are sort of a bit Zig and Zag I reckon.

“I am louder and more boisterous personality-wise, he is the quiet unassuming type, so I think it works well as a bit of yin and yang between the coach and the captain.

“We have the same objective; to get the best out of the people around us, but we go about it in slightly different ways with our different personalities.”

Hicks agrees that they work well together as the pair leans on its respective strengths.

Lamont, known for his unique perspective and original ways to deliver a message, has given the Cats players many memorable one-liners during his time at the helm.

However, Hicks said one three-quarter time address stood out in particular.

“There are too many to remember, someone should write a book on the things he does,” Hicks said.

“One of my favourites is he came to us, at must have been three-quarter time, and he needed something.

“We might have been down by a few goals and he just asked us, ‘How do you eat any elephant?’

“Everyone is looking around like, ‘What are you talking about, we are playing footy here’, and he says, ‘One bite at a time’.

“I think it did work, it probably took everyone a bit to figure it out and process it, but it did in the end.

“You come in at the breaks and you are not sure which way it is going to go, but he does know how to rev us up and he has some funny one-liners.”