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Home arrow Media Articles arrow League Focus with Adam McNicol arrow Flags no longer a Shore thing
Flags no longer a Shore thing Print E-mail
Geelong FLSOME things have changed little in the Geelong Football League over the past decade.South Barwon has made it to the top and stayed there. Over the next month, the Swans will be aiming to win four consecutive premierships.

St Mary's has also been a perennial finalist, winning flags in 2002 and 2004. Having spent much of the season on top of the ladder, the Saints are expected to prove South Barwon's biggest threat.

But for one of Geelong's proudest clubs, recent times have brought a most unwanted transformation.

North Shore supporters once described any year without a premiership as a disappointment.

The attitude was hardly surprising. Between 1990 and 2000, the Seagulls won eight flags; the last six in a row.

But when the GFL finals begin on Saturday, North Shore will be nowhere to be seen. The senior team didn't even get close. It won its first game only a week ago.

And there is an even more stark statistic that demonstrates the club's fall from grace. For the first time since 1968, neither of its senior, reserves nor under-18 teams will run out in the finals.

What has gone wrong?

Located near the Ford factory and Shell refinery, North Shore began in 1927 as a passionately working-class club.

The early years were tough and in 1949, shortly after winning a premiership, it went into recess. The Seagulls did not take to the field again until 1953.

Eventually, a move to Windsor Park in Norlane, around which the Housing Commission had built thousands of workers' homes, delivered a flow of talented and tough youngsters, for whom football was the highlight of their lives.

"That was a huge boom-time for our club," said current president David Milsome. "We had 30 teams in little league. We were a powerhouse really. There was nothing else but footy on Saturdays. Kids didn't have distractions like basketball and PlayStations."

After North Shore won a breakthrough premiership in 1974, under the leadership of Geelong premiership player Gordon Hynes, there was no looking back.

Hynes coached the senior team to six flags in a 12-year reign. He established such a culture of success that by 2000, when the Seagulls won their sixth consecutive grand final, it seemed infallible.

"It was all down to hard work and discipline," explained Milsome. "You didn't dare miss a training session, because you wouldn't get a game. We had Sunday morning training. If you missed that you didn't get a game. If you were in the seniors you couldn't drink after Wednesday night. If the coach found out you didn't get a game."

But demographic change was already eating into the club's traditional base of support. The number of people working at Ford and neighbouring factories had dwindled.

Traditional North Shore-supporting working-class families were moving up the social ladder and departing for flash new housing estates; places closer to rivals such as South Barwon that would soon reap the benefits.

"You can't blame the kids," said Milsome. "They want to play where their schoolmates are. There are 20 to 30 kids playing for other clubs in Geelong whose fathers played for us."

Initially, North Shore charged on regardless. The Seagulls made the grand final in 2004. Under the guidance of former Sydney defender Wade Chapman, they enjoyed a sizeable lead in the preliminary final a year later, only to be overrun.

Then the trouble started. Just nine wins led to a seventh-placed finish in 2006. Chapman, who came through the North Shore juniors, departed to coach Bellarine league big-spender Drysdale, taking champion onballer Frank Fopiani with him.

Last season, it was down to six wins and 10th on the ladder. In 2008, North Shore has hit rock bottom with a thud.

In the pre-season, it became clear the Seagulls would not be challenging the top teams. They had struggled to find a senior coach, eventually appointing young defender Bernie Lynch in early November.

By that time some rival GFL clubs and a number of cash-laden minor league teams pounced. A trickle of talent heading out the door became a flood.

"We lost 10 players from the seniors and on top of that five or six decided to retire," Milsome said. "It had a massive impact. A few of our seconds players also pulled the pin due to family and work. We basically lost all our depth."

Among the biggest losses were star midfielder Christian Shaw, who left for St Joseph's, while injury-prone ex-Hawthorn and Richmond forward Billy Nicholls (another product of the club's juniors) departed for Corio.

"Once all that happened we drew a line in the sand. We knew it was going to be a tough year."

When this season began, around a dozen youngsters were fast-tracked from North Shore's thinning junior ranks into the senior side.

As a result, the undermanned Seagulls copped some almighty thumpings. In a three-week period starting in round six, Bell Park beat them by 142 points, Newtown & Chilwell by 116 and St Mary's by 144.

Supporters so used to success began deserting the sinking ship.

But all is not lost. Last weekend North Shore showed the first signs of a recovery when its senior team defeated fifth-placed Bell Park in the upset of the season.

The Seagulls celebrated their first win of the year like they had premierships in the past. Yet they know climbing back up the ladder will be tough.

"We're not the strongest financial club in Geelong," said Milsome. "The ex-AFL players who come down this way command big dollars and we probably can't afford that at this stage.

"Our area's a blue-collar working area so we haven't got too many deep-pocket businessmen. We don't have the doctors and lawyers and people who own their own businesses. It's unsustainable to go and buy a flag and leave the club in trouble."

Milsome is pinning his hopes on a youth-led recovery. The fact North Shore's under-16s and under-14s made the finals was evidence, he said, the club had a future. "If you didn't have juniors you'd be almost pulling up stumps. Maybe not pulling up stumps completely, but it would be very, very challenging."

Hard work turned the North Shore Football Club into a giant of the game. It will take plenty more to bring back the glory days.

By Adam McNicol

Article first appeared The Sunday Age, August 24, 2008

 
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