Watsonia prepares for move up to Northern Football League’s Division 2 after years in the wilderness

IT IS not that long ago Watsonia Football Club was on its knees, but it is preparing for Division 2 after winning its first flag in almost three decades.

Watsonia president Allan Hunter. Picture: David Smith

WATSONIA Football Club was on its knees.

It was 2005. An AGM attracted just six people following a winless 2004, the club was $80,000 in debt, owed the Northern Football League $20,000 and it had been 18 years since the club won a flag.

Allan Hunter had been associated with the club since 1993 and stepped up to the presidency, while his wife took on the secretary position.

“We got a basic committee out of the AGM but we didn’t know what we were going to do,” Hunter said.

“I thought, ‘well I live in Watsonia and I can’t see the place having a set of soccer goals on it’. I thought I would have a crack and see what I could do.”

Fast forward 11 years and the club is preparing for a move up to Division 2 after winning its first premiership since 1987.

Slowly but surely, Hunter and his team chipped away at rebuilding the club.

“Once it got in trouble, everyone disappeared,” he said.

“We were found looking at ourselves. We’ve got some good people down there now running the footy club.

“It is all run pretty strict, the money side of it.”

Alan Hunter in the mid-2000s at the Watsonia Football Club.

Sponsors steadily came on board and have remained with the club over the past decade.

However, between 2010 and 2012, the club won just three games. That period included a 27-game losing streak.

But, while Hunter was running the show, he was determined to not let the dark clouds hover over the club for too long.

“If I am going to be involved in the footy club, I want it to be a good one,” he said.

“That was my aim, to try and improve it all the time.”

Watsonia responded in 2013, losing the grand final by a solitary point to Panton Hill but young coach Lochie Dornauf headed elsewhere after just one season. Damien Zanic did likewise in 2014.

That’s when the Saints had their ‘Luke Beveridge’ moment.

Corey McCall was announced as the replacement in his first senior coaching role, having spent five seasons in development positions with TAC Cup clubs Northern Knights and Eastern Ranges.

He came in with a mandate of sustained success, but required the playing group to give him a chance with regular training attendance.

Watsonia celebrate their 2016 grand final win over Epping.

When McCall arrived at AK Lines Reserve, he was shocked to find the club had not signed any of its existing players, with the first contract not inked until about a month before the 2015 season.

Basic training equipment was also lacking.

“There was a little bit of a disconnect between the committee and the players,” McCall said.

“We just needed to create relationships again, relationships between coach and players, players and committee.”

More ownership was handed to the playing group, while an alignment was created with the Mill Park Junior Football Club to allow its juniors to play at Watsonia.

Such has been the remarkable turnaround, Watsonia was recently awarded the Northern Football League Senior Club of the Year award and will compete in Division 2 for the first time since 2010 after winning the Division 3 premiership.

Hunter said McCall had a bright future as a coach.

“He is going to go a long way that boy I think,” the president said.

“He is a great communicator with kids, when he talks and they sit down they all listen.

“He is pretty smart, he knows what he is doing.”