Almanac Footy History: ‘Kicking Against the Wind’

 

 

 

Rick Wilkinson with Peter Ashton, Kicking Against the Wind: 150 Years at the Portarlington Football Netball Club, Published by the Club, Portarlington, 2024, ISBN9780646896816. RRP $60.00.

 

 

Portarlington Football Club has just published its history to mark the 150^th anniversary of the founding of the club. It was launched at the Portarlington Golf Club on 7 August 2024. The book was, as they say about many games, ‘a team effort’. Rick Wilson with Peter Ashton are named as authors and Liam Dietering as researcher. I have to declare an interest. My Deakin University colleague, Dr Tony Joel, and I spent some time with some of the club members encouraging them to collect relevant material and search for a local author to take on the task. Later Tony linked them with his undergraduate class on the Australian Football League so that the students could access the material being collected to underpin the history and contribute to that from their own research.

 

The earliest reports of football in Portarlington in the nineteenth century make clear that the club was much more closely associated with Melbourne than with Geelong. In those days it was easier and quicker to catch a boat or ferry across Port Philip Bay than tackle the rutted, pot-holed, muddy or dusty road along the Bellarine Peninsula to the Pivot, as Geelong liked to present itself. Even today the ferry across the bay takes an hour and ten minutes, while driving from Melbourne involves more than double the distance (105 km) and takes half an hour longer.

 

Local teams at Drysdale, Queenscliff and St Leonards presented opposition for matches. The members of the military at the fort in Queenscliff provided an intermittent rival, playing as the Royal Garrison or the Royal Artillery. Later the Portarlington club joined regular leagues in the Peninsula winning premierships and having some seasons when the club barely survived. This is a common phenomenon in rural Victoria. Often after a poor spell, someone or some group would decide to attract quality players from outside the local area, usually paying a premium to do so. Performances would improve, sometimes leagues would be won, then the costs of maintaining that level would appear to be onerous and the payment would cease or reduce, the stars would leave or be attracted elsewhere, and results would deteriorate and the cycle would have to begin again. Occasionally, a generation of talented local youth would stick with the club through to the seniors to incubate home-grown success.

 

Portarlington joined forces with perennial local rival Drysdale in 1935. There was a hiatus during the Second World War and then the club resumed independent life in the Geelong and District Football Association in 1945. In 1947 it went through the season undefeated. That exalted level could not be maintained and there were some lean years subsequently.

 

The book is divided into four quarters, mirroring a football game. It is a nice conceit and allows the author(s) to reflect on some different experiences during each of them. It is impressive how several family names keep popping up over the generations. The club also produced some stars who went on to make significant impact at higher levels. I was lucky to able to sit in on a session with John Hyde who played with Geelong in two premierships in 1951 and 1952 and later played and coached Claremont in the West Australian Football League. He remembered his time at Portarlington with great fondness. John died in 2020.

 

The women who played netball from the early 1960s established close links with the football club, since many families had boys playing football and girls involved with basketball/netball. The women joined the club formally in 2003. Many of the club’s subsequent successes were achieved by the netballers.

 

The current president is Stephen Cogger and Natasha van Kollenburg is the secretary. Much of the hard work in bringing the history to fruition is down to life member, past player, past secretary, president and committee member, Peter Ashton. The recommended retail price of the book is $60, and it can be obtained from the Portarlington P.O. and Staples Cafe in Brown St. It is available from the Club via [email protected] ($60 plus postage).

 

 

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