A three hour trip with nine players carrying an average age ‘close to 40’ was just the start as a bunch of Geelong cricketers pulled off a country footy miracle for Westerns footy club.
A group of 10 South Barwon cricketers, with an average age of “close to 40” were barely clinging a slender lead, filling in for Westerns Football Club’s reserves side, exactly 700 days after the team had last won a game.
After being smashed by 263 points the week before, the Roos were on track for a miracle win last weekend against undefeated Cavendish when the ball was sent out of bounds as part of a clever tactic to waste time, given there was no time on.
A memorable day in Westerns Football Club colours.
“There was about two-and-a-half minutes to go and one of the guys kicked it and we thought it would go about 60m down the hill but it hit a tree and rebounded straight back over the fence,” Brad Hauenstein said.
“We couldn’t believe our luck.”
Having paid their way into the ground, ran out of legs and almost been brought undone by a tree, this is the tale of how a group of cricketers helped breathe new life into a country footy club and created a bond and a story that will last through the ages.
‘THE GREATEST IDEA’
The tale began as many good ones do, on an end-of-season cricket trip to Queensland, when Sydney Ray told his South Barwon teammates that his footy club, Westerns, is always short of players.
With most of the group involved in Geelong Football League clubs, the cricketers agreed the GFL bye was a perfect time to join the South West District League club for a day.
“At the time it was the greatest idea but leading up to it I reckon there were a few boys panicking about whether they could get through a game of footy,” Hauenstein said.
“It was some old guys who made foolish choices and ended up being happy about it.”
Brad Hauenstein needed plenty of tape.
According to Gavin Jolly, a group chat was quickly created as the Swans turned Roos and began bantering about who would gather the most disposals.
Adam Hawke, who played for the Westerns reserves on the day and is also the club’s football director, said the influx of players was perfect timing ahead of a clash with Cavendish.
“Going to Cavendish is always our longest road trip and we struggle to get players up there but we were lucky enough with Syd that he had these mates who have talked about playing a game of footy together,” he said.
“We said ‘righto, just let us know who they are and we will get them registered’.”
Westerns reserves last won a game in June, 2021, forfeited 10 matches in 2022 and had gotten nowhere near a win this year.
After losing 204 points to nil to Dartmoor in round 5, the Roos backed that up with a 263-point loss to Coleraine the week after.
The club’s senior side is yet to win in 2023 and got over the line just once in 2022.
Even with some new faces, the odds were long heading into Saturday – Cavendish was undefeated so far in the season.
Jolly said the Swans set themselves a buffer of 10 goals and a loss with a margin below that would be considered a win.
“A couple of guys went down there (earlier) and they got flogged by the second-bottom team by about 10 goals so that is why we went down there with no expectations,” he said.
“I don’t know how the bloody hell it happened”
PAY YOUR WAY
The cricketers were no money-grabbing mercenaries.
In fact, when the cars rolled in after the three hour trip from Geelong, the visitors had to fork out to get through the gate.
“We had to pay the $7 entry fee,” Jolly said.
“I think the guy on the gate was a little bit suss on us.
“It was an interesting little greeting.”
Brad Hauenstein is a champion at South Barwon. Picture: Peter Ristevski
Hauenstein, a legendary cricketer with South Barwon, last played footy for GFL club Grovedale “about eight or nine years ago” and left that game with a “collarbone through the back of my throat”.
It’s fair to say he wasn’t too confident about the odds of getting a win.
“We were playing against the top of the ladder (team) and our percentage was four (per cent) before the game and had kicked (seven) goals for the season,” he said.
“I looked at our teammates and thought, ‘we are probably not going to win this’.
“You should have seen how much tape we put on our bodies and the amount of Deep Heat we used.”
Even with the nine South Barwon ring-ins plus Sydney Ray, Westerns was short.
The Roos had four other players and had to call on two opposition players who didn’t make the final side for Cavendish just to get on the park.
Gavin Jolly has curated South Barwon’s cricket wickets. Picture: Stephen Harman
But the Roos, mostly wearing mismatched socks and shorts with the blue and white jumpers, started brightly and thanks to a handy breeze led by nine points at quarter-time.
“Surprisingly to us we got the jump on them a little bit and were a couple of goals up early and I think that while everybody was fit and hadn’t blown up yet that we made hay while the sun shined,” Jolly said.
Fitness was a concern for Hawke too, who was only filling in himself as he closes in on his 50th birthday.
“It was always in the back of our minds how our fitness was going to run out for us because there were quite a few guys who hadn’t trained,” he said.
“As the game panned out, we got that lead and then they had the wind in the second quarter but even in the third quarter we stayed in front.”
At 48 years old, Hauenstein moved himself up the field from the forward line as the game progressed and found plenty of the ball as he led a plan to slow the game down and grimly hold on to the dwindling lead.
HOLDING ON
Clinging to a 13-point lead at the final change, thanks largely to Cavendish kicking 2.10 to that point, the plan was firmly set.
The Roos decided to waste time and chip the ball around, and with no time on, if the ball was sent a long way out of bounds and into a neighbouring paddock, that would help too.
One of those kicks ricocheted off a tree and back into play, taking no time off the clock.
“We basically used the boundary line as our friend and kicked the ball over the fence a few times,” Hauenstein said.
“There were a couple that were on the boundary line and the guys may have hooked the ball a little bit.”
Westerns didn’t manage to score in the final term as an inaccurate Cavendish edged closer to the lead.
Westerns wears Kangaroos colours. Picture Yuri Kouzmin
With less than a minute to play and the lead down to just two points, the ball was deep in the Cavendish forward line.
Hauenstein had pinged his quad only moments before.
“Everyone was gassed, we didn’t really have a bench and any chance we could run time off the clock we took,” Jolly said.
“We were just trying to hang on and there was a boundary throw in and our runner came out and said there was 10 seconds to go.
“Their ruckman sort of pushed our ruck out of the way, grabbed the ball and I think our guys, including me, just sort of smothered it and then the siren went and it was like one of those old air raid sirens and we were pretty happy to hear that.”
Jolly’s heroic smother was perhaps a little less graceful to Hauenstein’s eyes.
“They grabbed the ball out of the ruck and kicked it into Gav Jolly’s guts,” he laughed.
“The ball fell on the ground and the siren went and we just went berserk.”
GIVING BACK
Without any real knowledge of the team song, the jubilant faces turned confused as Westerns tried to sing loud after the famous win.
The ring-in Roos enjoyed a beer and plenty of laughs and continued building a strong bond.
“You feel really good about yourself because you helped out and there were a couple of blokes in that team who have played about 100 games and might have only seen one win,” Jolly said.
“It was a really satisfying feeling.
“We were getting hugs and handshakes by all these random people and we had no idea who they were but they were just happy to see us in the club colours.
“I think our average age was close to 40 so everyone thinks you are done (with playing) and we might not be able to move for two weeks, but there are some memories that will last a lifetime.”
All smiles for the Westerns.
Hauenstein said he was keen to attend the Westerns’ Mad Monday and presentation night, while some chatter was already bubbling about returning for another game.
Hawke said his club had begun planning a bus trip to Geelong to support a South Barwon function in the summer.
“I was thinking this is a dumb choice and I didn’t want to get myself injured but in the end it was more about the day and going along with the boys and helping out a footy club that was struggling a little bit,” Hauenstein said.
While Westerns continues the fight for numbers each week, Hawke and his club have picked up a lifelong connection with a cricket club three hours away.
“It was just a really good feeling for everyone that is working hard to keep (Westerns) going,” Hawke said.
“To get that win was just a real relief.
“Our sporting clubs in the little communities are often a social hub so any time you can help out a footy club, the experience and mateship you get is just amazing.
“These guys were sitting there watching the senior game and we were talking to them and you would have thought you had known them for a long time.”
And it will be a long time that the footballers at Westerns and the cricketers at South Barwon tell the story of the day the Swans lifted the Roos.