Something special is happening at Holbrook.
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No club has won more games of Hume league football across all grades this season and work has begun on new club rooms which are going up at a cost of almost $2 million.
But turn away from the scoreboard for a moment. Forget the league ladders. Ignore the architect's drawings. There is something bigger at play here.
Club president David Morton, resplendent in a striking Akubra, begins to explain.
"Four or five years ago, we concentrated on getting games into our locals," Morton said.
"This year, we're seeing the fruits of that labour.
"We know kids are never going to stay in our town, but if they move away to Albury or Wagga and they want to play footy or netball, they'll come back here.
"We've got locals coming back here now and being part of our club. It's paying off to have that sort of attitude.
"Matt Sharp has not only been our coach but he's been part of the club and our community.
"His wife's organising the social events for us and Matt's really adopted the local feel we have.
"He's put the work into the young kids that are coming out of the under-17s, into seniors.
"They live and breathe for him.
"He's got a great understanding of different perspectives and different people.
"We're thrilled that he's coming back next year because he's passionate about the club, not just the result and the team he's coaching.
"From a president's perspective, that's bloody priceless.
"He's the face of the football club; we see it in The Border Mail every week.
"It's crucial that when you pick the fella to do that, he not only wants the success of a football team but he looks to the whole club."
Sharp, who spent three years as understudy to James Saker at Lavington, arrived at Holbrook with a clear focus.
"We've got some boys that love a holiday," he said.
"It's been about getting attitudes to change so they've got to turn up Tuesday, they've got to turn up Thursday and when we turn up, we want to get better.
"We don't just want to sit back and see what happens, we want to do something about it.
"If you miss a week through a holiday, you don't come back into the ones.
"Yes, there's work, health and family and they always come first with me but to be choosing another option before the footy team..." he tailed off but the ramifications are clear.
"I feel like we've been able to set that platform."
Change was resisted in some quarters but Sharp wasn't going to be swayed.
"My strengths are people," he said.
"I love people and I treat everyone different because they're not all the same.
"I feel like I've got that one-on-one relationship with them but at the same time, they know I'll give them a clip if they deserve a clip.
"It's taken with all respect, it's not abused back.
"We move on and we're comfortable with what was spoken about.
"I love the country vibe that Holbrook brings.
"They've got fantastic people and we've got a really good culture.
"It took a few years to build but I feel like we've got there.
"Now, when we try to recruit players, they want to come to Holbrook because of what they've heard."
The respect for Sharp around the club is universal.
"There's a real buzz here," Russell Parker, chairman of the Holbrook Sporting Complex, said.
"The guys that have come into the cub have embraced it and Matt Sharp has a lot to do with that.
"He coaches the club, not a side, and that's been really important.
"We've got a terrific core of junior footballers and netballers, which in turn brings Mum and Dad.
"You don't have to recruit 10 guys, you've only got to recruit a handful and we make sure we recruit good people."
Parker, who also sits on the football club committee, is co-ordinating the building project which will eventually see the Brookers boast new home-and-away changing facilities for football and netball, a function centre with capacity for 200 guests, a canteen and bar.
It's a much-needed upgrade.
"What we've got here is actually pretty dismal," life member Pam Jones admitted.
"We don't have disabled toilets and when you go inside, it's very old, so this work is really significant."
Jones, a member of Holbrook's 2000 premiership-winning side and former netball president, has served on the committee for two decades.
Today she's set up a table next to the canteen and is selling virtual bricks for $100 a time as the fundraising drive starts in earnest.
"We want to raise $100,000 but if we can raise $60,000, we'll be pretty excited," Jones said.
"When I first started here, we didn't have proper lights or seating so it's been a lot of hard work with different committees over the years. It makes you proud.
"My father-in-law was a life member of the footy club and so is my husband.
"We live and breathe the green and gold."
Just a few yards away, 89-year-old Colin Black is taking his seat next to the boundary.
"I've just been hit for $100 for one of those bricks," he said.
"But it's all going to a good purpose so I don't mind supporting the club.
"I've seen better days but I've had a wonderful life at this club.
"I used to do all the running and marking of the ground when I was about 12.
"I had a bucket and went around doing it by hand. It took a fair while."
Black, a committee member for 65 years, still shows up every Saturday.
"Old habits die hard," he shrugged.
"I had a lot of enjoyment out of playing football and it was nice winning premierships.
"I was involved in a few, across various grades and it's the top of the tree, I suppose.
"You like to be involved but it's nice to win. These boys will give it a shake this season."
That's a view shared by Bert Haynes, one of the club's great ex-players.
The man who played more than 300 games for the Brookers before spending 10 years as president is better-qualified than most to critique the class of 2021.
"It's the most depth I've seen at the Holbrook footy club for many a year," Haynes said.
"Winning's better than losing, everyone gets excited and we're looking forward to the finals.
"This is the longest run in the history of the club between premierships, 17 years, so it's about time we won one."
Progress is everywhere, with Holbrook's netballers playing on new courts for the first time this year.
"We played on asphalt until 2020," president Kristie Preston explained.
"We've come a long way and our committee has raised a lot of money for the infrastucture.
"It's nice to be able to provide opposition teams with the facilities they deserve and for our girls to have somewhere to shower and hang out together after the game.
"They deserve a playing surface that's up to scratch."
The Brookers have responded in kind to the events of the last 18 months.
"COVID impacted our philosophy as much as anything," Preston said.
"We've always had very strict rules around attendance and training but our focus now is more about community and our girls' mental health.
"We've changed a few of our policies so that girls who are away at uni can come back on weekends and play just to be part of netball.
"This club is a great snapshot of the community.
"Some people are really competitive and others just love to be around people.
"We cater for everyone."
It's an ethos which sits nicely with A-grade shooter Kelly Boers, who's playing alongside her sister, Jodie Ross-Smith, for the first time this season.
Boers, 36, spent two seasons in the Ovens & Murray with North Albury before returning home.
"It was very different; the competitiveness, the style of netball and the way we trained," she said.
"But it was a very good learning curve. I wanted a challenge and I certainly got that.
"That was pre-kids. Becoming a Mum, it was challenging at first and I did play, on and off, with kids in prams.
"It's quite special to still be playing now and to have my eldest playing under-11s.
"I'm pretty competitive and so is she.
BEHIND THE SCENES - IN CASE YOU MISSED THEM:
"I love watching as a parent but I try to take a step back because I'm not her coach.
"You try to be positive and give guidance where you need to but what I say and what a coach says, it can be interpreted two totally different ways."
Parental promptings are rarely an option for Parker, who's more likely to be umpiring or working in the canteen when his children are playing. Today he's just finished operating the scoreboard for the reserves.
"Holbrook's unique in the sense that we've always punched above our weight with facilities," Parker said.
"That was mainly due to some really forward-thinking individuals many years ago who developed the sporting complex to oversee the whole area.
"The old building was built in the 1980s, through volunteers like we are now, and the plaque on the building had my father's name on it.
"He was part of the committee that organised to have that building done and here we are, nearly 40 years down the track.
"We're moving onto bigger and better things."
"It's crucial for a town like Holbrook that we provide this for the kids," Morton added.
"We feel that's more important than looking after the senior footballers; they're big enough to look after themselves."
Speaking of which, 21 mud-splattered figures in green and gold are striding off the ground. Holbrook has completed another clean sweep, winning in all four grades.
Premierships may not be won in August but it's another brick in the wall.
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