Perth Footy Live Rd 4: C2 Hamersley Carine v Swan Valley

~ A Recap by Sandra Scully ~ 

Saturday’s blustery north westerner picked up the Perth Footy Live tent and sailed it down the coastal corridor to land softly at Carine Open Space for the C2 Hamersley Carine versus Swan Valley match. It would have resembled a scene from Mary Poppins had it not been for Rocket Man’s squat figure left babysitting the equipment. Rather than sugar, our medicine also goes down with a spoonful – or more – of Carlton Draught.

Sponsor plugs aside, Perth Footy Live converged on the Hawks’ home ground to cover the clash between third and fourth placed on the C2 ladder. Both teams came into the match with two wins and one loss a piece. According to Matt Grant, Hawks’ vice president, their club goes alright off field, but as it turns out, they also go alright on field because they fought back from a five-point deficit at half-time to win by 29 points on the Stop Renting Perth scoreboard. 

Matt was our first special guest and he elaborated on the Hawks’ recent challenges trying to retain players while waiting for their clubrooms to be finished. At one point he explained that the teams were getting changed in sea containers. Now, I know tiny houses are trending, but I’m pretty sure tiny clubrooms aren’t, so the club’s recent growth, evidenced by their new Colts team, is testament to the tenacity of their young committee and unwavering loyalty of long-time supporters.

One particularly special supporter of Hamersley Carine, young Darcy Keely, is doing it quite tough having recently been diagnosed with Leukaemia. The heart of the Hawks is beating loudly as they rally around Darcy to organise support in the way of bone marrow drives and fundraisers. Head to the Hawks’ Facebook page or google #doitfordarc if you’d like to contribute.

Before we let Matt go, we had to ask him one very important question, that being, “How often does Marto bend his back?” Like the consummate professional that he is, the vice president wasn’t drawn into shit talking his players and simply explained that Marto is better above his shoulders than below. We do have it on good authority though, that Marto’s partner often complains about the same thing.

Over the afternoon, we were joined by various Hamersley Carine supporters, from Jarvo who refused to elaborate on the club’s off-field antics for fear of exposing his own indiscretions, to the club’s president who tried to pass himself off as “just John”. Just John joined us in the tent with a big ol’ frothy, so clearly he leads another kind of charge at the club. After the match, we even had a more mature Hawks punter offer to take us on a $1 tour of the new clubrooms past his old playing photos. Someone whispered in my ear that the tour would be shorter than a Dockers’ premiership campaign.

The wonderful people of Swan Valley Football Club also spent some time with us in the tent. We managed a few minutes with the president, Brant Johnson. If there’s anything community footy inspires it’s loyalty, and Brant Johnson has been at Swan Valley longer than I’ve had years on this earth. Let’s just take a moment to consider how many hours that’d equate to. For the love of local footy, eh.

Brant spoke about how valuable it has been for Swan Valley to have the likes of David Ellard, Adam Faulkner and Jarrad Blight being mentors to younger players and passing on their knowledge. He gave credit to his wife too for her hard work to build their women’s team, and described her as living and breathing for her footy sisters. David Ellard’s dad, Rick, coaches the women’s team and he gets as much fun out of it as the women do. We also chatted with Dave and he said something that epitomises local footy to me; he learned the love of the game from Swan Valley Football Club. Not from an AFL club or an AFL superstar, but from the boots on the ground at his community club. You simply can’t get higher praise.

While the Perth Footy Live team made it through the broadcast somewhat unscathed, we did miss the easy rapport of our original and best reporting rover, Macca. Apparently Macca had an important social occasion to attend. All I know is that Mrs Macca partied until 3:30am, so I’m guessing no sheep were sheered on Sunday morning.

With Macca on hangover leave, the roaming mic fell into the hands of Ward at three-quarter time who had the unenviable task of making an interview with umpires worth listening to. He was followed by Cam at the end of the match who attempted to get amongst the winning Hawks team but ended up lost at the back of the pack; apparently, the story of his whole footy career. My ego took a huge hit after I had 6-year-old Auskick players humour me for five minutes while I spoke to them about the colour of their boots at half-time. The perplexed eyes of those children will haunt me forever.

Before the day was done, we got to sample the canteen cuisine and the special chicken parmigiana burger. Hamersley Carine nearly scored a doughnut but VP Matt danced the hustle to get the free feed out to us just in time for scoring. And it paid off! The Hawks now sit on top of the free feed ladder, with the creativity of the special ingredient bumping out the Forry Falcons.

It seems to me that the Hawks’ ingenuity is a part of why it’s an exciting time to belong to this club. Despite their past challenges, the ability of these young blokes to hustle under pressure is what keeps the Hamersley Carine Football Club alive. And I’m all for a president who looks like he must start every committee meeting with a round of brews.

Before I sign off, you’ll note that the recap has a new author. I’ve been bestowed with the moniker Sandra Scully by the Perth Footy Live team. Apparently I’m Sandra Sully’s hard drinking cousin. To be fair, it kind of works because I’m usually hanging out in our tent for the Carlton Draughts and not so much the footy reporting. I’m not that keen on the tag, but as I’ve come to discover about the rules of local footy, everyone has to take one for the team.

Next week you’ll find us at Gil Fraser Oval live streaming the A Grade North Fremantle versus Fremantle CBC match at 2:45pm onwards.