Donald is kicking plenty of goals — just not in the seniors

DONALD footy club has its own farm to fund its future. Read more.

FOOTY Donald Pictured: Shane Powell, Bill Anderson and Andy Griffiths.

TAKE a quick glance at the North Central league ladder and you’d be forgiven for assuming the Donald Football Club was a basket case.

After 10 rounds, the Royal Blues’ seniors are winless and rooted to the bottom of the ladder, with the woeful percentage of 39.58.

But take a closer look and you’ll find a club flush with juniors and boasting a steady income stream thanks to the foresight of Donald’s leaders in the mid-1990s.

“There’s a lot of off-field things that defy what’s happening on the ground,” said Danny Forrest, vice-president of the club’s junior arm and principal of Donald Primary School.

“It’s a fairly unique situation.”

Last year, the club made the final repayment on its “footy farm”, a 260ha cropping and sheep property on the outskirts of town.

Donald Football Club

The Royal Blues purchased the first 130ha in 1995 from a local farming family.

Then-president Andy Griffiths said the club decided to sell a house it had originally purchased to house coaches imported from other regions.

“We got to a point where we weren’t really bringing in a coach from somewhere else any more, so we thought we’d capitalise on that investment by getting rid of one asset to buy another,” Griffiths said.

“With the background of the people involved in the club, we were confident we’d be able to make a farm work, and people became very enthusiastic about the idea.”

It’s a move that has paid off in spades — such was the success that Donald bought an adjoining parcel of land in the early 2000s, doubling the size of its property.

“We soon worked out we had one of the more viable farms in the area because of all the voluntary labour,” Griffiths said.

In recent years, with the growing work and family commitments of club members, Donald has opted to lease the property to a local farmer.

“People are just too busy these days,” current Donald president Shane Powell said.

“Farmers would be putting their own crops in and this place would be a bit of an afterthought, so we’re better off leasing it out.

“But it’s amazing the foresight the committee had back in 1995 — there’s no way we’d be able to do something like this now.

“And the club continues to reap the benefits.”

History in the making: 1953 Watchem-Corack premiership player Roger Brennan tosses the coin before a match last week.

Away from the farm, the Royal Blues are in the midst of a junior football population explosion.

When Donald opened its books for junior registration this year, it had 55 players eligible for the club’s under-13 team and another 36 for the under-16 team.

“Obviously that just doesn’t fit,” Forrest said.

“Last year we let the Grade 4 kids train (with the under-13s), which meant we had 40 kids and it was just a nightmare for the coaches.

“And those young kids weren’t even getting a game.

“So we thought we’d better have a go at running our own competition for that age group.”

The result of that brainwave is the Megelec Cup, a Thursday evening competition comprising four clubs, each with 12-14 players.

Forrest said the initiative had been a huge success.

“We’ve noticed a real improvement in the kids’ skills, it’s kept them all interested and the community has got right behind it,” he said.

“We do a training run for half an hour before the games and then the kids get to play a good game of footy each week.”

Greener pastures: Former president Andy Griffiths, farm helper Bill Anderson and current president Shane Powell at Donald’s “footy farm”.

The four teams are named after long-defunct clubs in the region — Jeffcott (1877-1947), Cope Cope (1877-1953), Laen-Litchfield (1877-1953) and Watchem-Corack (1893-1986) — and players wear replica jumpers once donned by those clubs.

The jumpers were donated by local company Megelec Electrical Contractors, headed by former player Matt Godkin.

Forrest said the junior players with a link to one of the four farming districts were automatically assigned to those teams.

“We thought we’d work in the local history, and sometimes we have blokes who played for one of those clubs come and toss the coin or something,” he said.

“The kids seem to really like the concept.”

So healthy are Donald’s junior numbers that the club has helped top up the teams of its North Central rivals in recent seasons.

“For the past three years we’ve taken carloads of kids to Charlton and Wycheproof-Narraport because we’ve had excess players we’ve been able to help out the other clubs so the competition stays a bit more viable,” Forrest said.

“It’s a good problem to have, but it’s hard to give all the kids a fair go.

“That’s why we started the Megelec Cup — we wanted to do something because we didn’t want kids to drop off and stop playing footy.”