Drouin Football Club: Depleted Drouin decides direction

WHEN you can’t field a reserves team more often than not, and even senior numbers are so bad a club stalwart is making his senior debut in his 40s, you know a club is struggling.

WHEN you can’t field a reserves team more often than not, and even senior numbers are so bad a club stalwart is making his senior debut in his 40s, you know a club is struggling.

Drouin’s scoreline against Sale in Round 2 of the Gippsland League season would have many football followers scratching their heads.

They make all too much sense to playing coach Bobby McCallum.

To halftime, Drouin had kicked one behind to Sale’s 12.5 (77). The final score was 19.13 (127) to 11.6 (72) — meaning Drouin outscored their opponents 11.5 to 7.8 in the second half.

“It’s actually not just that day for us, it continued on,” McCallum said, saying poor player stocks — Drouin has forfeited all but four reserves games — were costing the club.

“Some weeks we’ve been chasing people to play in the seniors ... and that was one of the weeks we had to do it,” McCallum said.

“We’ve been struggling to find a bit of continuity and the Sale game was a perfect example — we get blown out in the first half and all of a sudden were able to turn it on for two quarters and look OK.

“I’d like to say it was a one-off but it continued that way for us.”

As winless Drouin prepares for a rematch against fellow cellar-dweller Sale this weekend, the club is also preparing for a potentially history-defining meeting.

Next Wednesday the football club will vote on whether to pursue a move to the West Gippsland league.

McCallum insists it is not because of the results, but because “we can’t field sides”. He says there is a belief the travel distances are costing them players, and a move to West Gippsland addresses that problem.

While not revealing which way he will vote, McCallum — a Vic Country rep and Gippsland League best-and-fairest winner — says he can see both sides of the argument. “My ego wants to stay in this league and play at the higher level but I certainly don’t want to be going through this patch every year,” he said.

“I can understand sometimes you ring around for a seconds squad but that shouldn’t be the case for the seniors, if that’s going to continue, then it’s obviously not sustainable.”

Drouin president Chris Soumilas said next week’s vote needs only a majority to proceed. The netball club is separate from the football club, but members can join until Tuesday.

“Whatever the eventual decision is we need to have 12-15 people come on board and take a role within the club, whether we stay or go,” he said.