Into the Ammos (the move that saved a club)
It is not drawing too long a bow to suggest that the Williamstown CYMS Football Club’s very existence was secured by the club’s decision to join the Victorian Amateur Football Association in the early 1980’s.
The seeds of this move were sewn as far back as 1976, when the CYMS Football Association (CYMSFA) folded. The competition had experienced declining numbers since the mid-60’s, when even Williamstown CYMS departed for four seasons to play in the Footscray District League (FDL). However, the club struggled in this league, and found itself unable to compete with FDL clubs who were paying money to players. This would be a recurring theme in subsequent years. Williamstown CYMS re-entered the CYMSFA in 1969.
Peter Buckley: “The CYMS comp folded as a result of a fight which occurred between South Melbourne and Kensington at Debney’s Paddock. The police were called and fired a gun, and basically read the riot act. Those two sides were suspended, and we (WCYMS) were elevated into the final four. We were knocked out in the first semi, but the competition itself soon folded as a result of turbulence and falling away in numbers. It was an old comp, but no longer had significant administration. We had to find another competition. At the time, I wanted us to join the Amateurs, but it was felt that the travel would be a disincentive to the players, so we joined the West Suburban League (WSFL).”
Bruce O’Brien: “They welcomed us with open arms. Except for Williamstown United, who were the only club who voted against us joining.” It is instructive that many of the clubs who made up the WSFL (Williamstown United, Newport East, West Newport, Central Altona etc) are no longer in existence.
Initially the club was successful, winning the flag in 1977; but from that point on, the club’s fortunes began to wane.
Buckley: “At the beginning of 1980 there were just total departures, including coach John “Basher” Murphy. Dan Henry was appointed coach. It was a big year, because we opened the current social rooms in April. But early on, it got to the point where the likelihood of fielding one side, let alone two, was looking remote.”
After a mini-recruiting drive, including within the supermarkets of Williamstown, the club rustled up enough numbers to field a side. The team did not win a game.
Buckley: “But we remained alive! And that was desperately important. However, it was starting to dawn on us that to remain viable we needed money. Because Newport, West Newport and the two Altona teams all paid money. We were relegated to the second division in 1981, and managed to make the preliminary final. But we were in the second division of a very secondary comp.”
Dan Henry made the initial application to join the VAFA at the end of 1982, having swapped roles to become president of the club.
O’Brien: “We were going nowhere, in a competition going nowhere. But there was a lot of angst; people were saying they did not want to be a part of a ‘schoolboy’ competition. The players were quite divided.”
Committee-man Kevin “Porky” Thompson was to become convinced only after a game against Newport East at Digman Reserve in which young centre half-forward Alan “Oopy” Elliott was being subjected to rough treatment.
O’Brien: “That particular game turned opinions. It was a real catalyst.”
The club’s final season in the WSFL was in 1983. Many felt that the comp had become too violent. Indeed, the decision to join the VAFA was vindicated during that final season, after an ugly incident at West Newport in which coach Dennis Twentyman was “questionably” flung into the fence and had his leg broken.
Buckley: “We just did not have the blokes with the bodies to withstand it, and nor could we afford to pay them. We were struggling to pay off the rooms.”
Henry: “The WSFL clubs were trying to compete with the money in the FDL. It just was not something which could be sustained. Culturally, we have always tried to steer away from that.”
So in the end, it was a desire to differentiate the club from others in the Williamstown and Newport area which saw the Williamstown CYMS Football Club decide to enter the VAFA.
Henry: “It was about going somewhere where we would fit the mould better.”
The CY’s were not the only club to depart the WSFL at that time: Werribee Centrals absconded to the GDFL, and Port Colts left for the FDL.
However, gaining admission to the VAFA had not been a mere formality. Kevin Thompson and Dan Henry were the club representatives interviewed at VAFA headquarters as part of the application process. They were only mildly surprised to find that fellow Fearon Reserve tenants Williamstown United were being interviewed also.
Buckley: “By then, it was starting to become competitive to get into the Amateurs. But they said to us that if we could field an Under-19 side in the 1983 season, they would guarantee our inclusion in 1984.”
The initial foray into the VAFA by the 1983 U/19 team was led by coach Tom Zapadlo. Many of the players were recruited from the now defunct Altona North Brooklyn Youth Club (ANBY).
Henry: “We went and had a talk with ANBY, who were about to collapse, and ended up getting a list of players’ names from them.”
That tough first season would be a pointer to the vastly different style of football the CYs would need to play if they were to be successful.
Buckley: “The standard of the competition caught everybody by surprise!”
O’Brien: “The first game was against Fawkner, and our boys got thrashed. The opposition played amateur football, we played western suburbs football, and it just didn’t work.”
Immediately noticeable at pre-season training in early ’84 was the influx of new players. The club had not yet played a match in the VAFA, but already it was looking like the decision to change competitions had breathed new life into the club.
Buckley: “The immediate benefits were that the playing personnel improved, with new players such as Mark Dooley, the playing environment improved, and the standard was superior even though we were only in F Grade to begin with.”
All of a sudden, it was an attractive club again.
Henry: “If we had not made the move, we would not have survived.”
Footnotes
Life Members Peter Buckley, Bruce O’Brien and Dan Henry were interviewed for this piece (on 14, 24 and 29 August 2012 respectively).
Comments
Andrew Gigacz 5 March 2013
Great story, Smokie! We'd love to have more tales of local footy clubs on our pages. Sign on as a community member and tell the footy world your club's story.
Brian Membrey 6 March 2013
Top work! Yes, having been through similar problems, the Amateurs (I won't use the term "ammos" as with respect to the author and the organisation itself, I find the term a little derogative) do offer new and struggling clubs about the only prospect of fielding a single open-age team in an appropriate grade. Most of the surviving metropolitan leagues (Northern, Southern, Essendon, Eastern District, etc. will only admit clubs capable of fielding under-19s, seconds and seniors, thus there is virtually no hope of small or newly-formed clubs establishing open-age teams. Go the V.A.F.A!
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