Lachie’s Legacy partners with league to hold junior fun day

In honour of their son and brother who died playing the game he loved, the Poulter family launched Lachie’s Legacy. And there is a big event coming up this month.

NOLA Poulter wants to give young people the chance to play football. It was a sport her son, Lachie, loved, and one that brought him into the embrace of the Dunnstown community that he adored.

Lachie Poulter was just 25 years old when he collapsed and died at the end of his Central Highlands league reserves football game in July 2018. In his honour, his family launched Lachie’s Legacy, a foundation that provides sponsorship and equipment to youngsters who want to play.

The foundation has partnered with the Central Highlands league to hold a junior fun day on February 23 at Dunnstown Community Reserve. The idea is to give young footballers and netballers a chance to have a play, and for the local clubs to promote themselves and attract more juniors to their clubs.

“I want everyone to keep playing this bloody wonderful sport,” Nola says, adding that football was about more than just the game itself. “It’s the community that’s around the sport, it’s the community that comes from being involved with the sport.

“The way they’ve (Dunnstown) wrapped their arms around us … they have just embraced us and said ‘we might’ve lost Lachie but we are not losing you guys’.

“It’s not just the physical health, it’s the mental health and the sense of belonging, from any sport.”

Remembered: Lachie Poulter playing for Cairns Saints. Picture: Justin Brierty

Lachie played junior football in his hometown of Buninyong, before following friends out to Dunnstown. Nola says she is amazed at the impact her son had in his short life — he knew everyone, she says, and was a friend to all at the club from old men through to the juniors.

As it turns out, Lachie’s big heart was also a broken one. Nola says Lachie had an undiagnosed condition that caused his death. There was nothing anyone at the ground that day could’ve done, she says — if the condition had been found, he would’ve needed a transplant.

In tribute to the mad Sydney Swans supporter, mourners at his funeral, who numbered in their hundreds, wore red and white beanies.

“Dunnstown people were just his lifeblood, really, and he theirs, so that’s why it’s just become so huge,” she says.

It was a donation from Off The Bench TV show of $500 that helped launch the foundation.

“We instantly said we’ve got to do something good with that $500. And Olivia (Lachie’s sister) and I just looked at each other and said, ‘This is his legacy, this is Lachie’s legacy’.

“And then it just kept growing and growing, and people and strangers have donated, people who love football.”

The foundation has sponsored kids in the local league to help them play football, as well as kids from Access All Abilities in Ballarat. This year, as well as the AAA kids and young Central Highlands footballers, the foundation will also sponsor junior Central Highlands netballers.

The foundation also collects and donates second-hand boots. For 12 months, Lachie worked as a plumber in Cairns and played with the Cairns Saints. The foundation has sent boots to AFL Cape York, as well as to communities such as Canteen Creek, Alice Springs and Darwin. Nola says the foundation welcomes donations of boots (she just asks that they be washed first).

Last year the red and white beanies were again in force for a fundraiser weekend for Lachie’s Legacy, which fell the day prior to the anniversary. Dunnstown hosted Learmonth that day, and both Dunnstown’s seniors and reserves teams won.

“Now it’s about putting money back into the community, so that’s what this family fun day is,” Nola says.

The day will include football and netball clinics, food carts, tug-o-war games and more.