Weekly Times | HUNTLY has achieved a flawless start to the Heathcote District Football League as it seeks to end a premiership drought stretching back decades.
The Hawks are 4-0, which includes wins against last year’s preliminary finalist Colbinabbin and semi-finalist White Hills, going into a Round 5 bye.
Coach Jamie Hogan said the team has had a great start to the season, but does not want them to get ahead of themselves.
But for him, winning a senior premiership with Huntly would “mean everything”.
Huntly has never won a Heathcote District league flag. It started life in the competition when Provincial Football Club, which was based in Bendigo, joined in the early 1980s and moved venues. It changed its name to Huntly in 1987 to reflect its new hometown.
The original Huntly Football Club’s last premierships are believed to be 1939-40 (Provincial won in the 1960s).
The club recently finished with 10 consecutive wooden spoons between 2002-11, which included nine wins and a draw in total.
Hogan, a club life member, returned to coach last year after 10 years of coaching at Bendigo league club Golden Square’s under-18s and reserves.
Hogan said returning felt like “going home”, but his main reason for taking the senior coaching job was he wanted to win a flag.
Hogan coached Huntly’s under-17s and Golden Square’s under-18s and reserves to four premierships, but lost another six. He also lost four grand finals as a Huntly reserves player so he knows how hard it is to win premierships.
“If we won I would die a very happy man, but we’re a long way away from that,” he said.
There is a strong contingent of ex-Golden Square footballers with the Hawks, including Jaydon Cowling and Jacob Greenwood who returned to their former junior club.
President Sam Walker believed the turning point for the club was then-president Ian Sladden appointing Stacy Fiske as senior coach for the 2012 season.
The Hawks made the elimination final in 2012 and the following year played its first Heathcote District grand final but lost to Lockington Bamawm United.
“It was devastating for the club, but at the same time it was a bit of a celebration that we came off 10 wooden spoons to a two-year turnaround to making the grand final,” Walker said.
Hogan replaced Fiske, but the latter was an assistant coach last year and was made captain this season.
There is more to smile about at the club as it has fielded an under-17 side, coached by senior player Matt Jeffries for the first time since 2013.
The under-17s are using an alignment with another Bendigo league side, Strathfieldsaye, and kicked off with a win.