FARRER FILES: BARELLAN TWO BLUES
The Background
Everything old is new again. Like beards being fashionable. Or Barellan playing in the Farrer League. As has been well-documented, the Two Blues are back, given unanimous support from AFL Riverina clubs to return the fold after 21 seasons in the Northern Riverina Football League.
The process began with something of crisis meeting in the middle of last year, when the club struggled to get 18 players to take on Lake Cargelligo, despite having played in the grand final in 2013. “I described it as a merry-go-round,” says president Mark Kenny. “Players were getting on and off, and there was no team … they’d come in and we’d be strong for a year and then they’d go. We couldn’t stop them if they were going somewhere to better their football. The Monday after that Lake Cargelligo game we had a meeting, and something like 40 would-be players attended that meeting.”
An application was formally lodged in August. And, with the blessing of the NRFL, Barellan’s plan came to fruition in mid-November.
“The whole thing about it is to get our juniors back playing for us,” says Kenny. “We’ve got a very good group of juniors coming out of the 17s – the likes of Mitchell Conlan, Jarrod Moala, Luke Savage, Ryley Conlan – and we knew we had to do something this year.
“We were also struggling to retain the good players in the NRFL… the better players get sucked away to presumably play better football.”
The Build-up
Granted approval in mid-November, the club had plenty to do to confirm its list including a coach. After three seasons with Leeton-Whitton in the RFL, Barellan boy Will Overs agreed to return home. “It’s a 120 kilometre round trip to Leeton. That’s what I’ve been doing for the past three years so I’m pretty excited to be playing in my home town.”
Overs says the first priority was to encourage others to return. Kenny was confident that wouldn’t prove too big a hurdle. “When we had that first meeting, about a dozen players from the various leagues around the place turned up. They said they’d come back if we got in, and that was without us spending a cent.” By the time the move to the Farrer League was finalised, Kenny says there wasn’t a lot of opportunity to recruit other players. The club is still working on the formal process of bringing players back to Barellan and is comfortable with where it’s at.
“The ones we’ve approached are coming back,” says Overs. “We definitely don’t take that for granted, and when they come back we need to pay them back with a good club and some good footy. You never know what you’ve got still you start playing, but at the moment we have about 50 blokes. We have our first training next week so that might test them out but if we get 30 or 40 we’ll be happy.”
Kenny says there’s also been an enormous amount to do off the field to ensure the club is ready. “It’s a big step up professionally. It’s not slack in the Northern, not at all, but this is more professional in its approach. We’ve done very well with the fundraising in the off-season and a few more sponsors have stepped up. Our secretary and treasurer, Kim Hillman and Louise Hornery, they’re the hub of the wheel. They’ve done a lot of the work.”
The Barellan Boy
Aged just 25, Overs not only holds the reins as Barellan steps out onto the Farrer League track, he epitomises what the problem was for the Two Blues. “Will’s a junior,” says Kenny. “He’s an example of what’s been going on. He won the league best-and-fairest a couple of times… but he was never going to play senior football for us if we didn’t come back to the Farrer League.”
For his part, the coach is rapt to be playing at home. But that doesn’t mean leaving a young Leeton-Whitton team behind was easy. “It was a hard year to leave because I had a great year. They’re great kids, all really quality kids and I daresay Leeton’s going to be reasonably solid next season.”
Overs says he learnt plenty at the Crows under Damian Lang and David Meline. “I definitely enjoyed myself. Both coaches were different. I learnt a lot last year, probably more about myself as an assistant coach… Dave got pneumonia at one point, so I took a fairly major role in the middle part of the season and I really enjoyed it. It gave me a real taste for it and I knew I wanted to get into coaching. I was just lucky this came up with Barellan going back to the Farrer League.”
Before Leeton-Whitton, Overs had stints at Queensland club Redland in the NEAFL and Tuggeranong in Canberra and has been exposed to some good mentors. “There’s one bit of advice I remember a coach telling us. ‘Playing football is hard… don’t take it for granted. Don’t think it’s easy. But I’m asking you to do things that I want you to do.’ You’ve got to have high expectations [of your players], but understand that footy is a hard game to play and put yourself in the players’ shoes.”
The club wants to ensure Overs has the support he needs, and has hit one hurdle already. “We thought we had an assistant coach, but we got left high and dry,” Kenny explains. “We’ve got a couple of irons in the fire, but we don’t just want a player, we need a leader. We’ll get there”.
The Big Picture:
No-one is underestimating the job ahead for Barellan, least of all the coach. Kenny mentioned the committee is getting used to operating in a more professional league; he says Overs has already made it clear to the players that they also need to step up.
“He’s 100 percent driven. He’s completely fit, trained himself right through the harvest. And at the Christmas Party he spoke very well. He said – we’ve got to get fair dinkum, we’ll commence pre-season training three nights. We’ve got to be very fit.”
The promise of a fierce pre-season doesn’t sound like much of a Christmas present but Overs says his message was well-received, an indication of the players’ enthusiasm to be competitive.
“It’s an exciting time. I’ve been getting round the boys since the news came out and to their credit they have been doing a bit. They’ve been ringing up and asking for programs, and what they can do. It’s a positive feeling around the club. I’ve never been as fit as I am at this time of year.”
Overs also has a clear view of the type of football Barellan wants to be known for. “Tackle hard and, where you can, put some pressure on to force mistakes There’s no doubt that the best form of defence is attack. We’ll have a reasonably strong halfback line… but we’re not going to have any huge forwards, so our brand of footy will be run and bounce, take the game on, and move the football through the corridors. We may not have the firepower of the other teams but we’ll be putting the pressure on and trying to turn them around.”
The Buzz:
On-field, the buzz is around the local boys returning home, in particular rising star Mitch Conlan – one of those who played Under 17s with the Northern Jets last season. He took home the David Oehm medal as the league’s best-and-fairest and won the league goalkicking award. “Mitch, from what I’ve heard he’s fit as a fiddle and apparently can play football. There’s the likes of another six or seven other guys who will really work their guts out. I’m looking forward to getting them into senior footy and learning to compete.”
However, Overs is looking beyond the playing group when it comes to motivation. When asked what he’s most looking forward to this year he says, “The biggest thing is helping out the community that helped me out. So I’m looking forward to repaying the community and the club and hopefully everyone jumps behind us.”
There’s no doubt they will. They already have says Kenny. “The whole town is talking about it. The whole community is looking forward to it. It’s unreal. It is unreal! It’s really heartening the way people have got behind it.
“You know what I’m looking forward to? Winning all grades of football and netball on one day at the Barellan Sports Ground. Netball’s always been very strong in Barellan. I’m confident the netballers will do very well. The footy boys… I’m not expecting them to be world-beaters but don’t be surprised if they just sneak into the finals. That’s what I’m hoping for. They’ve just got to knuckle down, get themselves fit and get behind Will.”
The Big Day:
Barellan will host The Rock-Yerong Creek in the opening round of 2015 and – with the Magpies being very active in the off-season – the Two Blues will learn pretty quickly what it’s going to take to compete in the Farrer League. Overs admits he hasn’t seen much of the competition due to his commitments with the Crows but is under no illusions about the quality of the league. “There’s no doubt about that, that’s what we look forward to. Barellan didn’t come into the Farrer League just for the fun of it… we couldn’t be more excited about the standard we’re going to play. I’m not going to predict any huge wins, but I’m confident we’re gonna be fiercely competitive.”
There should be a huge crowd on hand to witness the return, with Kenny saying almost everyone he’s spoken to is coming to the game. “I’ve had people in Wagga tell me they’re coming to Barellan for the first game.”
Extra pies will be on order for the opening round, but the real secret behind the unqualified support for Barellan’s return might be found elsewhere on the menu. “Home cooking at the kiosk is our specialty!” says Kenny. “We have quite a reputation for the cakes and what have you at the kiosk.”
No wonder the vote was unanimous.
