Brothers Ben (left) and Nick Trenfield celebrate Balranald's 2009 premiership. Photo: Leonie DuryeaWHEN a number of Melbourne-based former Assumption College students decided to play in the same country footy team in 2009, they could have chosen a much closer club than Balranald. The distance from Melbourne to Balranald is 440 kilometres, meaning a round-trip of around 10 hours for home games at Greenham Park.
Yet the group included the Giansiracusa brothers, Luke, Josh and Nick. They decided it was worth trying to lure their friends up to their home town in southern New South Wales.
''When we finished school we all wanted to play alongside each other one day,'' explains Nick Trenfield, a former Assumption student who grew up in Mansfield and was among the lads that signed with the Kangaroos in 2009.
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''The standard of footy up there isn't as good as in the Goulburn Valley or Ovens and Murray, which was a big thing because a few of our mates probably wouldn't have got a game in those comps. It worked out perfectly in the end, as they were all guaranteed a game at Balranald. That was a big reason I started going up there.''
Since then, members of the Assumption crew have not only spent a large amount of time in their cars, they've also enjoyed plenty of success on the field, winning the Central Murray league premiership in 2009 and making the finals again last year. While they've come to know just about every inch of the Calder, Loddon Valley and Murray Valley Highways in the past couple of years, quite a few of them are taking to the road again this season.
''I don't know how they do it, to be honest,'' admits Balranald president Jeff Mannix. ''I'll do one trip to Melbourne and I feel buggered after that. But they seem to like it out in the country, and if we didn't have them we probably wouldn't have the numbers to put a reserves side on the field.''
The Balranald footy club has a long history of luring big-name recruits to help it compete with powerful rivals like Swan Hill, Tyntynder and Kerang. In 1989, the Roos won their first major-league flag thanks largely to the efforts of former Richmond stars Mark Lee and Jim Jess. However, the club's penchant for trying to buy premierships almost killed it in 2007. That year, Balranald forked out a huge amount of money to sign a host of well-known players, including former Adelaide Crows forward Balraj Singh and much-travelled Gippslander Lincoln Withers.
The sheer amount of talent in the team enabled the Kangaroos to qualify for the grand final. But they were embarrassed in the big game when Tooleybuc-Manangatang ran all over them in the second half to win by 45 points. Singh, who later boasted in an article in The Age that he was being paid around $2000 per match, was held goalless by a wheat farmer from Manangatang who was playing for nothing.
''Some of the big-name blokes playing in that grand final didn't know some of their teammates' first names,'' Mannix says. ''I reckon that was disgraceful. They were the ones who'd come in and just grab their money. Half of them wouldn't even shower. They'd just take off.''
Not long after the grand final, 20 players headed off chasing money elsewhere. Facing the prospect of their club going to the wall, Balranald's administrators were forced to call a crisis meeting. The resolution was not to stop buying players, rather it was to recruit people with better character.
In 2009, after its bank account was replenished with help from a local businessman, Balranald launched the recruiting drive that netted the mates from Assumption College. Many of them had been playing in high-standard competitions before joining the Kangaroos. Trenfield, for instance, had won a Goulburn Valley league flag with Mansfield and another two in the Ovens and Murray league with Wangaratta Magpies.
The Balranald locals immediately warmed to their latest batch of imports. ''These fellas seem to bounce off their cars,'' Mannix says. ''Sometimes they come back and tell the gatekeepers to clear off for a while and they'll do an hour on the gate. They go over and watch the juniors and they know just about all the people in the town. Just like Jimmy Jess back in 1989, they've really fitted in with the community.''
On the field, the Trenfields, Giansiracusas and their friends also made a big impression. Balranald finished second on the ladder in 2009, and despite a big loss to Kerang in the second semi-final, the Kangaroos recovered to win their way through to the premiership decider.
That grand final could hardly have played out more differently to Balranald's previous effort in 2007. With 12 former Assumption students controlling the game, the Kangaroos won by 56 points, delighting their supporters. ''It was a real shock to a lot of people because everyone wrote us off,'' Trenfield recalls. ''It was definitely up there with one of the best footy wins of my career.''
Balranald cruised through the 2010 home-and-away season, finishing on top of the ladder with 14 wins from 16 games. Yet the Kangaroos crashed out of the race for the flag after losing both their finals.
This year is set to be a bit tougher for the Roos and their hired guns, with a number of opposition sides benefitting from an influx of former AFL players. Ex-Geelong wingman David Spriggs has joined Kerang, three-time Brisbane Lions premiership defender Darryl White is lining up with Nyah Nyah West United, while former Melbourne backman Daniel Ward is trying to haul Lalbert up the ladder.
At the same time, Balranald has lost a dozen members of its 2010 senior team, including the Giansiracusa boys, two of whom have returned to amateur side St Kevin's. Nevertheless, at least two carloads of Melbourne-based lads will trek north. Most have a kick together during the week at Collingwood's training ground, where former Magpie defender and current Mansfield coach Craig Kelly runs sessions for players from various bush clubs.
Yesterday, Nick and Ben Trenfield began their third season with the Kangaroos, travelling five hours to line up against Nyah Nyah West United. ''It is a long way, but once you get a group of us in the car it's surprising how quick it actually goes,'' Nick says. ''The ways we pass the time range from hanging shit on each other to solving all the problems of the world. I really don't mind going up to the country to play footy. Balranald has been very good to us and we've made some great mates up there, so it's been well worth it.'
By Adam McNicol
Article first appeared The Sunday Age, 17 April, 2011
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