Southern league: Moorabbin Kangaroos rally for two wins

Moorabbin was on the brink of folding two weeks ago but it opened the Southern league season with two wins.

The Moorabbin reserves cheer on the seniors as they run on to the ground.

New coach Mick Rossborough had stepped down and Moorabbin had nine players at training two weeks ago.

A couple of days later it had a crisis meeting to decide if the club would go on playing in the Southern league or dip into recess.

About 45 people attended – and resolved to keep the Kangaroos on the ground.

“Whatever it took. That was the attitude,’’ committee member and 2005 premiership player Muhammad Kiki said.

Players and opponents get around Kangaroos No 29 John Riddock.

The call to arms was met – and on Saturday Moorabbin fielded two teams in Division 4 of the Southern league and had two wins over Dandenong.

Talk about a turnaround.

Former coach Paul Youle has returned to steer the seniors and Kiki is guiding the reserves.

He coached them to victory and then stripped for the seniors, who came home with the wind to win 11.11 (77) to 9.9 (63) at Dandenong Showgrounds.

The scoreboard tells the tale for the Kangaroos.

“The consensus (from the meeting) was we’d stick together and battle to have two teams. We weren’t going to fold,’’ Kiki said.

“We weren’t going into recess. We were going to rally as hard as possible. We’ve spent two weeks on the phone trying to get it all together. No doubt it would have been easier to close the doors.’’

Kiki’s 47-year-old brother Hassan, a prominent past player, came out of retirement to kick five goals in the reserves.

“I rang him with 20 minutes pre-game and said, ‘Look, I need you to play’,’’ he said. “He came.’’

Justin Isaac booted three goals for the seniors, and Josh Gover and Stewart Levy were named best. Kiki said it was “magnificent’’ to sing the song. About 100 people jammed into the changerooms to join in.

Stewart Levy gets out a handball.

The Kangaroos had another reason to play: club newcomer John Riddock, whose mother died last week.

“We decided to rally around that cause for the day … he’s committed to the club, he’s a really good bloke and we wanted to get behind him and the family,’’ Kiki said.

“That was our spirit for the game. It gave us another purpose, other than just playing for the jumper.’’

Kiki said the efforts of Moorabbin great Marg Torpy, Trent Thompson, former president Lenny Gould and Youle deserved to be recognised in keeping the club afloat.