BEHIND THE SCENES: Our day at the Brocklesby-Burrumbuttock Football Netball Club

It's hard to find a more succinct way to articulate the dynamic of Brocklesby-Burrumbuttock than the club's own simple slogan.

With the penultimate home-and-away round of 2022 in full swing, the Saints are preparing to play finals in all four grades of football while five of the club's eight netball sides are also set to feature in the season finale.

But it wasn't always this way.

Brocklesby and Burrumbuttock, separated by 13 kilometres and plenty of strong feeling, had proud histories behind their independent identities but were staring down the barrel of a bleak future, if indeed they had one at all, until the 2006 merger which revolutionised football and netball in this part of the Riverina.

Change was necessary but there was scepticism in some quarters.

"There's no doubt some people thought it wasa case of rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic when the two clubs got together," Saints co-president John Heagney said.

"There was a pretty serious rivalry between Brock and Burrum but we came to a realisation there were too many small clubs in one district.

"We approached Burrumbuttock to have a yarn to them, see where they were at, but the thing to remember is you're taking the community with you, you're not just making a decision for yourself.

"We'd just had an exodus of players and Burrum didn't know whether we had much to offer but we spoke at their committee meeting about what we thought we could do together.

"Peter Chisnall was the publican at the time and he was all for it.

"He got it over the line at the Burrum end, whereas Brock was at the stage where if nobody took us, we'd have disappeared into the dust. If we couldn't arrange a satisfactory merger, we'd have ceased to exist.

"Burrum, deep down, knew the same, so it was just a matter of coming to a mutual consensus and a way to go about it."

John Ervin, a man with no alliance to either club, was appointed as the merged identity's first president with Steve Koschitzke among those on the steering committee.

Three years later, Koschitzke replaced Ervin as president, a role he would hold for more than a decade.

"I was more or less born into the club," Koschitzke, whose parents were heavily involved at Brocklesby, said.

"From the day I could walk, I was involved too.

"I played all my football here but we struggled and I only ever played a couple of finals games.

"That was part of the reason we merged with Burrum, to strengthen the club.

"We did lose some people because of it.

"Some have come around, others we haven't seen, but it's the best thing we ever did.

"There's a lot of old families who still come every Saturday and enjoy being here and it's just great watching all the kids running around.

"You come here on a Thursday night and if you don't get here early, you can't get a car park because there's that many people.

"You look out on the oval and there's Auskickers, under-14s and under-17s, so there could be 100 people running around."

And it's been an influx of quality, not just quantity, borne out by Brock-Burrum's record as one of the most successful club of the last decade.

Under Koschitzke's presidency they won four senior premierships and two in reserves, after a thirds flag in 2011 had triggered the start of a golden era.

"I never got to play in a grand final so I take an immense amount of pride in that," Koschitzke said.

"But I'm just one cog in a machine that runs a footy club.

"We had a fantastic committee the whole time I was president, each one played their role and even our supporters enjoyed the success as much as the players.

"Because both clubs had been so starved of success, I still remember the day after we won the 2013 premiership; the supporters and the committee were enjoying themselves every bit as much as the players."

Much of the committee which guided the Saints back then is still going strong now, including long-serving secretary Noel Livermore.

Now in his 11^th season of overseeing the club's paperwork, Livermore's passion for the club is unmistakeable as he re-lives the journey from cellar-dwellers to becoming a Hume league powerhouse.

"When you start out, you don't even dream about it but we had some good young kids coming through and a bit of senior talent," Livermore said.

"Glen Eddy was one of the first coaches after the amalgamation and he did a great job, then Darryn McKimmie moved out to a little farm.

"That, for us, was like winning the lottery, just his football brain and the human being he is.

"When he speaks, people listen, and there's not many people in life who have that gift."

"Darryn said 'we're going to have a no dickhead policy' and it was very much about recruiting good people," Koschitzke recalled.

"We didn't just recruit someone because they were a good footballer, they had to be the right for the club.

"There were players we spoke to and afterwards, we said 'no, we might just pass on that one.'

"There's never been any trouble at our functions because everyone gets along so well.

"They're all mates and they're all good people, the footballers and netballers.

"I think that plays a big part in who we are as a club.

"We've got a terrific club full of fantastic people."

One of those people is Koschitzke's daughter, Rachel, who combines her role as the Saints netball president with coaching duties for the under-17s and the A-grade captaincy.

"I joined the committee when I was 20, started out as junior co-ordinator and then got into secretary, vice-president and now president," Koschitzke said.

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"Coming from a family where Dad was president of the football club for 13 years, he modelled to me that volunteers make a club and you really do value those jobs.

"I love coaching, it's my favourite role at the club.

"Myself and Bec Livermore, my co-coach and vice-president, have a beautiful bunch of girls who are very positive and love to come to training.

"We love developing those girls to hopefully lead into them playing senior grades later on and supporting our club the whole way through.

"It's been great to have quite a few of our juniors bench for us in A-grade this year and they've come on and really situated themselves nicely into the team.

"It's amazing to see and I feel very fortunate to be playing alongside Jemima Dunstan, who I coached in under-17s.

"It's very rewarding, being a player and a coach; seeing that happen is probably the best part about playing country netball."

Two games have just finished and I find junior netball co-ordinator Fiona Schulz sweeping the courts.

Whether it's fielding questions from parents, making sure players have had equal game time or checking in on their mental health, Schulz is central to the operation.

"I love it," she smiled.

"I'm all about the kids having fun, so it's fantastic we've had so many juniors this year.

"It is a big responsibility but I've got a passion for this age group.

"The juniors are our future stars and we want to make sure they stay at Brock-Burrum. Sometimes, when they hit under-17s, they can get poached and we don't want that to happen so we want to ensure their time with the Saints is memorable.

"What I love is that we've got so many volunteers.

"The parents come up on a Saturday and everyone pitches in.

"The last match went down to the wire and we had all our juniors encouraging the other team.

"That's what I love about the Saints, it's one big family."

But finding the next generation of footballers may not be so easy.

'The big challenge I see for the AFL is junior football," Heagney said.

"We are not getting the juniors out into the leagues or juniors playing sport in schools and that's a huge challenge for the AFL to get those programs back up and running.

"From the parents we talk to, soccer is the game all the kids want to play at the moment.

"The school teachers are happy because it's a non-contact sport so they don't have to deal with cranky parents who have little kids hurt, so that will be our biggest challenge.

"I know COVID has kept a lot of the clinics out of the schools but we need to get feet back on the ground and promoting football because that will filter through to clubs like ours."

"We're probably going to struggle for under-14s next year," Koschitzke concurred.

"But this is the first year I can remember that we've actually had reasonable numbers in the under-17s, so it ebbs and flows.

"If our kids can bring their mates out with them, hopefully we can keep going but it is getting tough.

"Worst case scenario, you'd maybe look at another merger.

"We haven't talked about that officially but we're always thinking about how we're going to be sustainable.

"If it came to it one day and we had to merge to keep going, we'd do it, but it's hard enough at the moment maintaining two grounds and keeping two communities happy.

"I think we are but it would be that bit harder with three."

Burrumbuttock's outdated facilities need some TLC for a start.

"Financially we've been pretty good and we put $80,000 into Brocklesby," treasurer of 35 years Lyle Burns said.

"The weather hasn't been that flash but the kids come in here and it's quite pleasant.

"It's a different story with Burrum, though, worst facilities in the league.

"We really need to revamp the whole lot there so we're trying to get grants to make sure we keep up with the rest of the league.

"It's really good here but Burrumbuttock is lagging behind when it comes to facilities.

"After the game, everyone will come back in here but at Burrum it's pretty cold so they don't hang around."

Burns played for Burrumbuttock until he was 40 and never envisaged his successors achieving what they have in the red, white and black.

"At Burrum, we used to get beat every week so you've got to pinch yourself sometimes at what we've done and how successful the club's been since we merged," Burns said.

"It didn't start off too well but we got good people involved, we built it and now the other clubs look up at us instead of us looking up to them."

Taki Griparis, co-president with Heagney, will be pivotal to the next chapter here whatever title is against his name.

"I don't think I'm president material but I'm not real good at saying no," he laughed.

"I've been involved with the club for close to 20 years and never wanted the top job but I'm happy to help around.

"Blokes like Steve, Noel and Lyle are the lifeblood of the place and I just love it here. It's like a second family.

"But all of the committee are getting older, so it's finding the right people who want to continue on, to ensure we can keep giving the kids something to do on a Saturday."

For two towns, wearing three colours, that's one thing worth fighting for.

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