Romsey dedicates RDFL premiership win to former assistant coach Phil Littlewood
HEADS bowed, Romsey’s players linked arms and formed a circle near one of the 50m lines on Sunday. It was a stange sight for a team that had just won a premiership. But there was a reason.
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HEADS bowed, Romsey’s players linked arms and formed a circle near one of the 50m lines on Sunday.
Moments earlier they had been jumping on one another at Romsey Park, cheering loudly and sculling cans of beer in scenes of joy after taking out the Riddell District Football League premiership.
But this was a solemn moment, a meaningful moment in a season that had a rough start but the ultimate end.
In the middle of the circle was the premiership cup and the premiership flag the Redbacks had just been awarded.
Both had been absent from the circle the group had made in the same spot 162 days earlier ahead of their first game of the season against Broadford when they vowed to win this year’s premiership in honour of a friend and mentor to many, Phil Littlewood.
“This is what he deserves,” Romsey coach Dean Helmers told the group on Sunday, gazing at the premiership cup in the middle of the circle.
“He was a great man, meant a lot to most of us. It’s just a pleasure to be here to fulfil what we said we were going to do for the great, great man.”
The players — some of whom had worn black armbands all season in honour of Littlewood — followed by saying their bit: “This is for you, Phil.”
A well-known and respected figure across the RDFL and Ballarat FL, Littlewood passed away suddenly in February, aged 53.
He joined Romsey as a senior assistant coach in 2011 — helping pilot the Redbacks to their premiership that year — and had been expected to continue his role with the club into 2014 before his passing.
Speaking later, Helmers said it was great the playing group had been able to fulfil the pact they had made before that Round 1 game.
Winning the premiership was one thing.
Doing it in honour of a man respected by all who stood in that circle was another.
“Fortunately enough, we got here and we got to toast his memory,” Helmers said.
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