NFL: Lalor battles back from the brink to build optimism for future
AS a 10-year-old, Ben Charles represented the future of Lalor Football Club. By 40, he was fighting to ensure the Bloods survival.
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AS a 10-year-old, Ben Charles represented the future of Lalor Football Club.
By 40, he was fighting to ensure the Bloods survival.
Charles would arrive at Sydney Crescent on bitterly cold Sunday mornings as a junior player, enthusiastically pulling on the club’s red and white jumper alongside his close mate Dean Grainger.
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“Grainger is one of the biggest surnames ever involved with the club in its history,” Charles said.
“Myself and Dean have known each other for 30 years and we knew all of the same surnames.
“We knew the ethos and we knew the culture.
“Dean hadn’t been there for quite some time, but the same sort of intentions for Sydney Crescent remained.”
Charles and Grainger were at the forefront of Lalor’s battle to stay afloat this year after an exodus of 35 senior players left the club with a threadbare squad.
Grainger took on the unenviable position of senior coach, while Charles devised a plan to eliminate a debt of more than $30,000 as president.
The pair had grown up watching Lalor contend for Division 1 premierships in the Diamond Valley league.
Now they were tasked with keeping a club which went within three points of a Division 2 premiership in 2015 alive.
“Here is two kids that played under-11s together and now they are going to stabilise the club,” Charles said.
“Without Dean, it wouldn’t have happened. There’s no doubt in my mind that it wouldn’t have happened.”
Grainger and Charles were involved in the halcyon days at Lalor.
The Bloods were the premier team in Melbourne’s north between 1991-93, claiming three consecutive premierships.
They would reach the top of the mountain again in 1998, claiming a Division 1 premiership double.
Lalor has triumphed in three Division 2 grand finals since — 2001, 2004 and 2007 — but off-field issues headlined by dwindling junior numbers resulted in the club having to fight for survival.
“I think if you lose grip of how important your juniors are and the development and new faces, it can quickly unravel,” Charles said.
“Lalor’s issues were bubbling away for about 15 years.”
An eye-opening statistic provided by AFL Victoria highlighted the extent of the issue — there were 150 children registered with Auskick in Lalor, yet none were playing at the club.
“Clubs like Greensborough, Macleod and Eltham have this junior funnel that keeps producing year after year,” Charles said.
“If you don’t have that, especially with the points system now, it becomes even more tricky to establish from the bottom up.”
While his passion was unquestionable, Charles concedes selling the club’s vision to prospective recruits was a gruelling task.
“Recruiting at that stage was really difficult,” he said.
“We lucked out with a couple of players that came from different sources and we pieced together a side that ultimately was going to have a bit of fun.
“There was a critical meeting held with some players at that time to suggest what our next move was.
“The realisation that Division 2 was going to be way beyond us was something we had to come to terms with.”
Lalor swallowed its pride, requesting relegation to Division 3, where it would win twice against Reservoir this year.
Charles remained doubtful the club would enter a senior and reserves team in March, only one month before the start of the NFL campaign.
“It was very, very unlikely, right up until March 1. It was 80-20 or even 90-10 that it was going to fold,” he said.
“I think what would have happened, the suburb would have been left without a football club. “When you think back 25-30 years ago, when I was growing up, there was more junior sides in Lalor than are currently at South Morang.”
Round 1 represented a landmark moment in the club’s rebirth.
The Bloods triumphed by 27 points against Reservoir, the first victory for most of their new-look senior team as Lalor players.
“The scoreboard became secondary to the feeling of community,” Charles said.
“Some of the results that were born from that were a lot of our long-term members said it was one of the most enjoyable years they have had, even though they were involved at the club during the triple premierships of the early 90s.”
Inevitably, questions have been asked about how the Bloods went from within one goal of promotion to Division 1 to the brink of extinction in three years.
Charles credits the dedication of club legend Steve Marshall with achieving a “spike” for two seasons, but remains certain the three-point loss to Whittlesea in the 2015 decider has been a blessing in disguise.
“He did a huge amount of work in a really trying circumstance which maybe saw a bit of a spike in the graph,” Charles said.
“But it wasn’t a true reflection of the whole club and what it needed.”
The Lalor president inherited a $25,000 debt, which ballooned to $32,000 when further council bills were unearthed.
In about one year, the club has improved its bottom line by more than $50,000 and banked more than $20,000 in profit.
“Because the club was in so much debt, we had to trade out of it,” Charles said.
“If you can’t go and buy sausages to put in the Bunnings barbecue to actually make money out of the barbecue, it makes it hard.”
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Charles has family history at the Bloods dating back three generations to his grandpa George Sneddon.
His uncles Keith and Greg also represented Lalor with distinction.
Charles said Maurice Baldasso, another club stalwart, had been another key figure in the Bloods’ revival.
From coming close to closing the doors for the final time, Lalor has reason for optimism.
The Bloods will field an under-19 side in 2019, which Charles hopes will bring new families and future committee members to the club.
A host of senior recruits have been unveiled, headlined by Wallan spearhead Sam Rexhepi and ex-Lalor captain Stephen Wallace, while Gary Cutler has been appointed as senior coach.
The club also has plans to introduce a dynamic skills program for juniors, which it hopes will lead to an influx of new members and consolidate its future.
“When I think where we were nine months ago, it’s almost impossible to fathom how we have got there,” Charles said.
“It’s been a lot of hard work by a lot of good people.”
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