Herald Sun | WHEN waterlogged footballers trudge off the boggy, windswept ovals around Warrnambool in the depths of winter, dairy farmer Ann Holloway knows exactly what to do.
ANN HOLLOWAY
Allansford Football Club
As Allansford Football Club's chief jumper washer, she's dealt with more than her fair share of mud-caked guernseys.
"I've learnt a few tricks over the years," the 56-year-old says. "When they're really filthy, I take them down to the dairy and pressure-hose them first. That gets rid of most of it."
It's all part of the practical, no-nonsense attitude that has made Holloway the lifeblood of Allansford for more than 20 years. She signed on for duty in the early 1990s, when her sons were honing their skills in the Cats' junior teams.
"I was involved with the junior committee to start with," Holloway says. "The junior and the senior club ended up amalgamating and I migrated on to the senior committee when the boys got a bit older."
Since then, Holloway has been — quite literally — chief cook and bottle-washer at the club she calls her second home. After stints as treasurer and vice-president, Holloway became Allansford's first female president in 2006, a role she held for six years.
She admits breaking down the barriers in a male-dominated environment was her biggest challenge.
"Winning over the confidence of the players and the club stalwarts was probably the biggest thing," she says. "It was very different for a female to be in those (executive) roles. But our guys don't think anything of it now — I'm part of the furniture."
All four of Holloway's sons, along with her "other son", Shaun Watson, who came to live with the Holloways when he was 14, have pulled on the blue-and-white hoops at Allansford over the years — and all bar one remain heavily involved in country footy.
Eldest son Ben, 36, coached the Cats' reserves team last year after two stints as under-17 coach; 30-year-old Toby has served several seasons as the club's treasurer and has taken on the vice-presidency this year,
while Shaun, now 30, has been secretary and a committee member.
Youngest son Joseph, 26, is president at Lockington Football Club, near Echuca.
Allansford football manager Nathan Adams says Holloway is the "heart and soul" of the Cats.
"She's so versatile — she's done everything," Adams says. "She's so passionate about the club and you just can't do without people like that."
Aside from her more official duties, Holloway has served as the Cats' merchandise co-ordinator, canteen manager and gate attendant and this year holds dual roles as player contract co-ordinator and sponsorship manager. She's also spent "eight or 10" years on the Allansford Recreation Reserve committee, which oversees the Cats' home ground.
And while she's willing to tackle any role that needs doing, she admits the kitchen is "not my favourite place to be".
"I'd much rather be handing out jumpers to the players," she says. "But sometimes you come to the start of the season and ... well, someone has to do it.
"So I've done the kitchen, I've done the canteen,
I've done our Thursday night teas."
Despite her disdain for culinary duties, Holloway still whips up 20-30 litres of soup every week, to help players and supporters thaw out after chilly Thursday night training sessions.
"When I die, if I'm not remembered for anything else, I will be known for my pumpkin soup," she laughs.
"I usually chop up the pumpkin and all the bits
and pieces on Thursday morning while I'm waiting for the cows to come in, and then I cook it while we're having brekkie."
Holloway and husband Mick have been dairy farming for 35 years, since daughter Kelly was born. Ben and Toby work on the farm helping their mother milk their herd of 500 cows, while Mick — who played footy for nearby Nirranda in his prime — looks after farm maintenance and calf rearing.
Holloway admits juggling footy and farm duties is tricky at times, "but I do it because I love it".
"Footy is probably my No. 1 passion outside my family," she says. "We all have a grizzle every now and again but I always think, nobody's twisting your arm.
"When I start whingeing and moaning about the footy club, it will be time to get out."
Despite her long service, Holloway is yet to see Allansford win a senior flag — the Cats last tasted premiership glory in 1987.
"Last year we were up there as favourites, but we had six severe injuries late in the season and we were eliminated in the first week of finals — that was heartbreaking," she says. "I'm never one to make predictions, but I'm very hopeful this year we can go
a bit further."
GLENYS PILKINGTON
Fish Creek Football Club
WHEN Glenys Pilkington first took on an official role at Fish Creek Football Club, Bob Hawke was running the country. She hasn't had a break since.
"I asked them for long service leave about 10 years ago but I didn't get it," Pilkington, 66, says, laughing. "My brother dobbed me in to be treasurer in 1985 — I wasn't even at the meeting.
"I've been treasurer or assistant treasurer since then. I still collect and count all the money, but someone else takes care of putting it all into the computer these days."
About the same time, Pilkington — also president and secretary of the Fish Creek Indoor Bowls Club — first took on the role of gate attendant at the Kangaroos' home games.
Fish Creek, in South Gippsland, is not known for its hospitable weather in the depths of winter and Glenys recalls some particularly cold, blustery days.
"One morning I went down there and the ground was covered in ice," she says.
"They've built a little brick shed there now, but before that there was nothing.
"Back then, my brother stood at the gate one day when it was freezing cold, and he only collected $30 for the whole day. But the start of the season usually isn't too bad — the first few games can sometimes be quite warm."
Pilkington takes up her post at the gate at Terrill Park at 8.15am on game days, collecting entry fees and selling the local footy record, before knocking off at quarter-time of the senior match, about 2.30pm.
"Someone usually comes and relieves me so I can have a bit of lunch," she says. "But I can see the football from the gate, it's quite a good viewing spot."
A couple of years ago, she also took on the responsibility of washing the seniors and reserves jumpers — "but that wasn't much of a job".
"I only did that for one year, and it was probably the wettest, muddiest year we've ever had — and our jumpers are white," she says. "I was pretty happy to hand that role back."
Pilkington was only a girl when Fish Creek won
11 premierships in 13 seasons from 1955-67, when her father was goal umpire and a team selector.
But she's still seen the club have plenty of success, most recently in 2002.
And while she has no plans to retire from the roles she's held for 30 years, she admits a changing of the guard "will have to come soon, I suppose".
"My husband (Bruce) doesn't follow the football, he never has," she says. "He has told me it's time I got out, but I don't know — I've just always gone to the football on Saturdays. Maybe I'll have to go for a more cushy job — maybe something indoors."
KAREN WATSON
Rochester Football Club
KAREN Watson reckons there's "something special" about country footy clubs. She
would know — she's spent her whole life at one. Her late father, Jack Anderson, was president
for many years at Rochester Football Club, between Bendigo and Echuca, "so we grew up in the
football community".
"I remember Dad hosting meetings around at home, and Mum was involved in the ladies' committee as well," Watson, 59, says. "I guess you could say I was born into it."
Husband Bruce also hails from a family involved at Rochester. Even when the newly married couple lived and worked in Melbourne, they would travel home on weekends for Bruce to pull on the boots for the Tigers, where he made his senior debut as a 16-year-old.
The pair returned to Rochester to live in 1981, when Watson joined the ladies' committee as treasurer.
In the 20 years that followed, she served two stints as secretary of the ladies' committee, before taking on the role of treasurer again in 2001.
For the past 15 years, Watson has also been Rochester's kitchen co-ordinator, ordering the food for the canteen and setting up the kitchen on game days.
"We went away on a trip a few years ago and one of the ladies who regularly helped in the kiosk took over my role," Watson says. "When we came back she said, 'Oh, thank goodness. I thought it all just happened —
I thought everything was just there, ready to go.'
"That's the thing, I suppose, those who aren't involved don't realise how many people it takes to run a club and how much work and time goes into it. But
at the end of the day, we do it because we love it."
Her husband played 300 games at Rochester and coached the under-18s for a decade. He has been on the Tigers' committee for longer than most can remember and is currently club secretary.
Son Ashley, 31, has returned to play for Rochester after five seasons on North Melbourne's list, where
he notched up seven AFL games.
"We still carried on at Rochy doing much the same thing, and just went to Melbourne and watched Ashley as much as we could," Watson says. "We never gave
it away just because he wasn't here — it's just something we love doing."
COLLEEN ROGERS
Loddon Valley Football Netball League
THE title "trailblazer" doesn't sit too well with Colleen Rogers. But it's a tag befitting the irrepressible 59-year-old from Marong, who in 2010 became the first female to be elected president of a Victorian football league.
Rogers is in her fifth year at the helm of the Loddon Valley Football Netball League in central Victoria, but her involvement with country footy stretches back to her childhood in the Wimmera.
"I came from a remote rural area the other side of Horsham and my club was Border Districts in what was then the Kowree-Naracoorte league," she says. "My parents were both heavily involved, as we all were in those days, and that's where it all started."
After a few years at Willaura (now Moyston-Willaura) in the Western District, where she played netball and joined the ladies' committee, it was when she arrived in Marong, in 1987, that her love for country footy clubs hit top gear. She joined the netball team as an umpire and coach, before being appointed treasurer of the football-netball club in the mid-'90s.
Rogers also became Marong's club delegate to the Loddon Valley league. She served a second stint as Marong's treasurer in the early 2000s, before taking on the presidency for three seasons. During that time she was asked to join the Loddon Valley league executive.
"I had a couple of years as an executive member, then the other boys asked me if I'd take on the president's job," she says. "I thought they were pulling my leg. I had no aspirations to the role whatsoever."
But AFL Central Vic general manager Paul Hamilton says it's a role Rogers was made for.
"She's very much an ideas person and a real leader," Hamilton says. "On top of that, she's a doer — and that's really important in these sorts of roles."
While her position on the league executive prevents her holding an official role at Marong, Rogers finds other ways to support her home club.
"I still wash the footy jumpers and make the coleslaw and slice the onions," the retired primary school teacher says. "I don't know why I do these things — it's just because I love the game and I love everything about country footy and netball clubs."
It's a love that has permeated through the Rogers family — Colleen's husband, Ted, served many years on Marong's committee, while sons Matt and Brett are committee members and have each played more than 200 games. "It's very much a family affair," she says.