Unbeaten sides Gawler Central and South Gawler clash this weekend with two games left before finals
After years of a Barossa Valley dominated competition, Gawler Central and South Gawler have launched to the top of the Barossa, Light & Gawler Football Association and clash this weekend.
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It’s Gawler’s equivalent of a Showdown – Gawler Central versus South Gawler.
Fierce rivals with years of history, most recently the 2014 grand final where the Tigers prevailed over the Lions for their only flag across four years of dominance in the home and away season.
It appears this year that history may repeat, and the strength of the two Gawler clubs has been on show throughout the year, with both sitting unbeaten at the right end of the year.
The growth of the Tigers
Gawler Central president Tom Lane said his club was prepared for the start of the season from the get go.
“The amount of enjoyment you can see our guys are getting, and yes winning helps, but they’re playing for the right reason; the club and not for money,” he said.
“When we first started the season we said as a committee let’s be ready to go, not see what everyone else does.
“When they said we could start, we started that very next day and I think that’s been crucial.”
Central
The Tigers were dealt with a tough early fixture, including an away trip to reigning premier Tanunda.
“Having those early wins, we played the reigning premiers at Tanunda and it’s been found out they’re not that strong this year,” he said.
“To play them first up and give a good account of ourselves was awesome.
“The next game is a huge challenge, its an arch rival, they haven’t lost a game either.”
The focus on locals has been huge for Central, with 13 of its 22 players against Angaston a fortnight earlier coming from its junior ranks over time.
“(Former president) Andrew Pike started this four years ago about getting locals back and playing for the love of the club, we tried to do that and keep that theme going,” he said.
“It shows our depth is so good now.
“We had all these players ready to come back at the end of last season.”
Mr Lane added while Gawler clubs do stick together in some aspects off the field, on the field it’s a different game.
“Being in the position that we’re in, the South, Central and Willaston, unfortunately we don’t have the financial backing the Barossa clubs do for whatever that may be,” he said.
“We class Trinity Old Scholars as a fourth club in this town, we’re all vying for sponsorship.
“Each club looks after themselves individually, we just want to know what we’re all feeling and make sure that Gawler is a strong presence in the football community.
“It was becoming a little bit irrelevant in the community.
“We might have one club dominating one year and the other two near the bottom one year, but this year having two clubs up shows the strength and perseverance of both clubs.
“We all get along well, we all have the football interest of Gawler at heart, but when we play each other, it’s on for young and old, but we want to make sure Gawler is relevant.”
South’s stellar rise
On the other side of Gawler, South Gawler has been building its case as a premiership contender.
The climb to the top three has been thanks to plenty of hard work off the field according to club president Luke Officer.
“Given COVID, if you said to me at the start of the year that South and Central would be facing off in a top-of-the-table clash, both undefeated, with two games to go on the eve of finals, I wouldn’t have thought that would happen,” he said
“The fact we’re now in that position shows, especially from South Gawler’s point of view, the hard work that’s gone into this season off the field to get the team to the position it is on the field in a COVID interrupted year.
“For us, having a season this year was really, really important.
“The players, the culture, the mood, the morale, it’s all very good at the moment and to come up against your fiercest rival in an undefeated situation, it may set the odds for premiership contenders.
“It’s pretty exciting, we hope as many of our members get out, we’ve got a big Ladies’ Day planned.”
Similar to Central, South has had a strong player retention through its junior program, and Mr Officer has been ecstatic with their output this season.
“They’ve been massive,” he said.
“We’ve always prided ourselves on retention of local footballers, particularly having such a successful junior program for the last decade in both numbers and success.
“Retention of locals is everything; no-one saw this crisis coming, no-one foresaw the inability to be able to pay players under the SANFL direction, and no-one foresaw we may not even have a year.
“Recruitment is going to be hugely dented going forward because you can’t sign new contracts when you’d ordinarily be starting them now.
“Our club has always been very, very keen on a fundamental basis have that strong core of contingent of locals for this type of situation.
“If you don’t have good locals, you don’t have a good club. You compliment those locals with recruits every now and then.”
Coming into Saturday’s game against Central, Mr Officer is optimistic.
“I think it’ll be close, closer than some may think,” he said.