He’s a good sport: Ivan ‘Moose’ Delac a man for all seasons
Is there a busier sporting volunteer in Melbourne than Ivan Delac? He’s the president of an amateur football club and the president of a local cricket club. And he loves it.
Vic Amateur
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Ivan “Moose’’ Delac wears two sporting hats, one in summer, one in winter, both making him a man for all seasons.
When Delac, 36, became president of Omega Cricket Club in April, he had no need to ask about the task ahead of him.
He was, and still is, the president of Glen Eira Gryphons Amateur Football Club.
He’s led the Gryphons for eight years, taking over at a time when the club was being described to him as a “sinking ship’’.
As a past player, he saw the challenge of coming in and rebuilding Glen Eira from top to bottom, on and off the ground. Two senior premierships later, and with money in the bank and an increase in the number of teams, the Gryphons are brick-solid in amateur football.
Delac had been vice-president of Omega. Even with his football commitments, he felt obliged to step up as president of a club where he was First XI premiership captain.
“It was my turn,’’ he said.
“I’d resisted doing it a long time because of football, but now it’s my turn to do my bit.
“Next year is our 50-year anniversary so it’s coming up to an exciting time to take over. We’ll announce our team of the 50 years and all our teams of the 50 years. I really want to help the cricket club evolve, because I’m probably more connected to Omega than I am to Glen Eira.’’
Delac admitted he’d been complaining about the direction of the cricket club and ultimately had to put up or shut up.
“Because of my football experience, I haven’t wasted any time figuring out where the pens and the pencils are,’’ he said. “I know exactly what I need to do. I understand you’ve got to hit the phones and get in front of people.’’
He has a things-to-do list at Omega, including building the juniors and getting the club back to the top division in the South East Cricket Association, the Longmuir Shield.
Ahead of 2020-21 it’s committed to a fifth senior team, which it hasn’t had for 10 years.
But the club is in far better shape than Glen Eira was when he took over as president at the age of 27.
“It was almost stuffed,’’ Delac said.
His best mate and club captain Julius Waras Carstensen had told him Glen Eira was close to folding.
He asked Delac if he wanted to be on the committee. He said no.
“Good,’’ Waras Carstensen said. “Because we don’t need you on the committee. We need you to be president. We need you to grab this by scruff of the neck and give it a shake’’.
“I’d been a past player when I was in my early 20s. I only played across two seasons. Cricket was more my sport. But I had some affection for the place,’’ Delac said.
“The club was in debt. The playing list was gone. They’d played in a grand final in 2011 and didn’t get the success they wanted. Things were going downhill quickly. I thought that would be a challenge.
“If the club was going great, had plenty of money, had all the sponsors they needed, I wouldn’t have had an interest in just keeping the wheels turning. I thought, ‘They’re in trouble, but this could be fun, this could be exciting’. I wanted to dedicate myself to a worthy cause and get things right. I was probably part of the problem, being a social player, in and out, not committing to training. There were many people like me who weren’t committed to their footy or the footy club.’’
In Delac’s first year in charge, Glen Eira went 0-36 in Division 1. That is, it lost every game in the seniors and reserves, by an average margin of 100 points.
In the years since Glen Eira has gone from two to six senior teams, including two women’s sides, merged with fellow VAFA club Monash Gryphons and established an alignment with McKinnon Secondary College that helps feed the Under 19s.
Senior premierships came in 2016 and 2018. The Under 19s also won the flag in 2018 and the women were premiers last year.
“It’s been a massive turnaround,’’ Delac said.
As for serving as president of two clubs, he agreed it would be time-consuming (it helps that he’s an unmarried man with no children but he does have a partner).
He spends on average eight to 10 hours per week on football club business. Delac hasn’t completed a cricket season as president but he pointed out that the off-season was the busiest time, reviewing the season that was, recruiting players, reappointing or appointing coaches and captains, and lining up sponsors. All that has been done for Omega.
“The second the footy season closes, that back-end of September, October, November, that’s a solid eight to 10 weeks of work,’’ he said.
“It was the same with cricket this year. As soon as the season finished, that back-end of March until May was hectic, really hectic.’’
As he was beavering away on Omega matters, he was steering the Gryphons through the start of the pandemic. The football season ultimately never got started.
Delac has fingers crossed that cricket will get away. He will be chuffed if Omega is in Longmuir Shield when it raises the bat for its 50th year. For that to happen, it must win the 2020-21 Woolnough Shield.
For the half-century celebration, Delac will oversee a 300-guest event at the MCC dining room. He imagines it will take him 20 hours a week in the two months leading up to it.
Delac will be happy to wear that hat when the time comes.