THE past decade has been an almost constant struggle for the Taylors Lake Football Club. Regular whipping boys on the field in the Horsham District League, the Lakers have battled repeated crises off it, none greater than when their change rooms burnt to the ground in a bushfire in 2002.
But things are looking up. Not only is the Lakers' senior team in the top five, its veteran full-forward Gavin Kelm last weekend became the first player to kick 100 goals in the Victorian Country Football League this season.
For a club that has won just three premierships - one in the senior grade and two in the reserves - since its formation in 1946, these are grand days indeed.
''It's a very exciting time for all of us,'' says Taylors Lake's 23-year-old president Josh Fischer, who has been a committee member since he was 16. ''Only a few years ago we were on the bottom of the ladder and the club wasn't going anywhere. But we're not getting ahead of ourselves. It's 59 years since we last won a senior premiership, so we can't get too carried away just yet.''
Located 15 kilometres east of Horsham, the Taylors Lake footy club was formed by five Wimmera farming families shortly after the end of World War II. Three of the clans - the Fischers, Kelms and Brooksbys - are still heavily involved.
The Lakers originally hosted matches at an oval close to Taylors Lake, which is one of the Wimmera's key water storages. They moved a short distance to a new ground between Dock and Green Lakes in 1952, yet the club kept its original name. Later that year, the Lakers won their only senior premiership when they defeated Jung (a club that folded in 1973) in the Horsham District League decider. Remarkably, Taylors Lake is yet to play in another senior grand final. The club's two reserves premierships, won in 1980 and '88, are its only other reward for many years of on-field toil.
Taylors Lake was struggling to stay afloat even before the bushfire struck. But that particular disaster, which occurred during one of the driest years in the decade-long drought that parched the Wimmera, led many locals to believe the club was doomed.
Two culprits were to blame for the fire. The first was the flower of a native plant known as fairy grass. The grass had colonised the dry bed of Green Lake and its lightweight flowers had formed a carpet along the Western Highway. The second culprit was a tourist bus. ''The bus stopped so people could take photos of the fairy grass and the fire was actually ignited by the exhaust,'' Fischer recalls.
Its change rooms destroyed, Taylors Lake was forced to play all of its 2002 home matches and half of its '03 home games in Horsham. But with the help of government grants and donations from the public and businesses, the Lakers' supporters built a new facility.
Things improved on the field when Kelm returned home after a decorated stint with Horsham Saints in the Wimmera league. Kelm coached Taylors Lake's senior side into the finals in 2003 (it lost the elimination final), yet the Lakers were back near the foot of the table by 2004.
Their playing stocks continued to dwindle during the following years and in 2008, despite being under the guidance of decorated player and coach Paul Brooks, they finished on the bottom of the ladder with only one win. Brooks, who guided Rupanyup to three consecutive Horsham District League flags between 1996 and '98, led the Lakers to four wins in 2009. He then signalled his intention to drag the club much further up the table when he signed six-time Horsham Demons premiership player Luke Carr.
The star recruit was regularly among the Lakers' best performers as they notched 10 victories last year and a place in the top five. The Lakers held an 11-point lead over Noradjuha-Quantong at half-time in the elimination final, but they booted only one goal after the long break and went down by 28 points.
Taylors Lake's supporters began dreaming of an even better season when Gavin Kelm returned to the club after his second stint with Horsham Saints. His talented cousins Tim and Heath also signed up.
A man whose football resume includes a year with the North Ballarat Rebels in the TAC Cup and a couple of reserves games with Essendon and Melbourne, Kelm was expected to deliver big things. He hasn't let his home club down.
The 36-year-old, who estimates he's soon due to play his 350th senior match, started the season quietly as Taylors Lake lost its first two games against Stawell Swifts and Harrow-Balmoral. But since booting 13 goals in the Lakers' big win over Rupanyup in round three, he's been just about unstoppable.
Two weeks ago, Kelm kicked 10 goals as Taylors Lake confirmed its premiership credentials by inflicting Harrow-Balmoral's first loss of the year. That took his tally to 83 goals in 11 games.
He was hoping to add seven or eight goals to his tally when the Lakers hosted Rupanyup at Dock Lake Reserve last weekend. But his dominant teammates helped him bag 17, the extraordinary haul enabling Kelm to reach his century in just 12 games. With six games to go, he has a chance to break the Horsham District League's home-and-away goalkicking record. The record is held by Geoff Parish, who booted 153 goals for now-defunct club Homers in 1992.
Kelm's previous best was 99 goals while playing for Horsham Saints in 2009. As a result, kicking his 100th major was one of the biggest thrills of his career. ''It was a really special moment, because I started out at the footy club when I was 14 and back then I was playing in losing sides all the time,'' Kelm says. ''A lot of the blokes who were in those sides were watching, and to see them so happy, to see the smiles on their faces, meant a lot actually.
''Even when I was lining up for the 100th, I was pretty confident. I ended up kicking 17.2, so I had a really good connection with the ball all day. But the crowd was going pretty crazy. When I was lining up I could hear all the women saying 'shhh, shhh'. I thought, 'Bloody hell, just kick this footy', and it all went to plan.''
To top off a big week, his first child arrived on Monday.
With Kelm and Carr in great form, plenty of Wimmera folk are starting to wonder if Taylors Lake might finally be on course to break its premiership drought.
''Years ago, when we had the drought and fire and all that, we were trying to be happy but it wasn't the best atmosphere,'' Fischer says. ''Now that we're winning, and Kelmy has kicked his hundred, the mood is just fantastic.''
By Adam McNicol
Article first appeared The Sunday Age July 17, 2011
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