2012 Annual Report & Year Book - saafl

Kicking into history
While diehard supporters are known for
their patience between premierships,
they don’t usually have to wait 77 years.
WORDS LANCE CAMPBELL
he year was 1935. St Peter’s Old Collegians created SA
T football history by becoming the first old scholars team to
win the major A1 amateur league premiership.
Today’s club legend Gerry Hargrave was still in his wooden
playpen in North Adelaide and Graham Brookman was kicking
the dew off the grass in the under 14s at St Peter’s College. In
their sporting lives since then, Gerry and Graham have played
in, coached or watched thousands of SPOC footy games. When
he worked for Thomas Hardy Wines in the United Kingdom for
six years, Gerry phoned Adelaide every game day for the
SPOC scores. Graham describes his dedication as
“compulsive, a big thing in my life”.
In September 2012, those decades of loyal support were
rewarded in the best possible way. The pair saw SPOC beat
Henley to capture what is now known as the Division 1 flag, and
take home the Sir G. J. Murray Challenge Shield.
History had repeated itself across 77 years. In between, many
stand-alone old scholars clubs, including SPOC, have won
lower grade honours in the SA Amateur Football League. The
league has provided winter Saturday sport since 1911, and this
year around 5000 players donned the boots. But the highest
echelon of the league normally is reserved for the strong
community clubs, as it once was for the all-powerful Adelaide
University side. Old scholars’ clubs would strive and fall short,
sometimes in the ultimate test – as Sacred Heart Old Collegians
did a couple of years ago.
SPOC had bucked that trend once long ago. Now it is twice.
Present day players Tom Botten and Toby Schulz had heard
about the famous 1935 side, not to mention the exploits of the
later generations such as Tom’s father Jamie and uncle Bill,
rated the foremost modern-day SPOC footballer.
31 SA AMATEUR FOOTBALL LEAGUE
Right: SPOC dynasty
members (l-r) Gerry Hargrave
(club legend), Graham
Alexander (club chairman)
holding the 2012 SA Amateur
Football League D1 premiers’
flag, D1 premiership players
Toby Schulz and Tom Botten
holding the Sir G.J. Murray
Shield, Jamie Botten (Tom’s
father and former player) and
Bill Botten (Tom’s uncle and
former player) in front of the
Michael Brookman Pavilion at
the Caterer Oval, St Peter’s
College. Below: SPOC
ruckman Dan Roberts shows
victorious intent in the 2012
game against Henley.
Opposite page: The 1935
premiers (top). SPOC’s Martin
Wilson lines up a winning kick
in the 2012 game against
Henley (bottom).
In 2008, the club was one goal away from dropping to Division
4. Soon after, Tom says, “We decided we wanted to be a group
of guys like the older ones. We wanted to make a dynasty too,
and put SPOC back on the map.”
Many footy clubs are dynastic, and SPOC is right up there.
Gerry’s father L. M. S. Hargrave, known as “Jerry”, was lord
mayor of Adelaide and president of SPOC FC. Gerry’s son
David played. Graham Brookman’s big brother Michael was at
half back in the 1935 premiership side. An artillery sergeant in
World War II, Michael was killed in the Western Desert. The
Michael Brookman Pavilion overlooking SPOC’s Caterer Oval
at St Peter’s College memorialises him. Graham’s son Stephen
is SPOC’s games record holder with 367, and he took his father
to the history-making grand final this year.
Chairman Graham Alexander, regarded as a guiding light in the
premiership triumph, watched his son William play, then
became involved in club administration. Geelong AFL
premiership captain Tom Harley probably was too young to
remember, but he was there on the boundary while his dad Rick
rucked for SPOC.
Former Norwood and Goodwood Saints coach Trevor Hill took
over last year. The club straightaway surprised all but itself by
taking out the Division 2 title to earn a spot in the big league. By
consensus, Toby Schulz’s arrival from Norwood this year after
25 SANFL games was meant to consolidate SPOC against the
Div 1 powerhouses. That the Club went much further than that
was, according to Gerry Hargrave, “a victory for loyalty as well
as hard work. It was one-third players, one-third administration
and one-third coach. The administration has worked hard at
gathering support around the club. We’ve always had family out
here, fathers and uncles. But the number of parents involved in
the past two years, mothers as well as fathers, has been
extraordinary.”
When SPOC resisted the Henley challenge at the old
Thebarton Oval, now Adelaide Airport Stadium, Jamie Botten
was proud that son Tom, “the third football member of the
family tree”, had achieved what neither he nor brother Bill had
managed – a Division 1 flag. “It was one of the better moments
of my life,” Jamie says. For Bill, a four times all-Australian
amateur, the win demonstrated that the players “were so
professional for a college team. They and the coach had bigger
expectations than the rest of us did.”
The legendary 1935 premiers are in SPOC’s Hall of Fame as a
team in their own right. Gerry Hargrave expects the 2012 side
to join them “pretty quickly”, and Tom Botten already is
conscious of the legacy of 1935. “People talked about what they
did,” he reflects. “Now generations to come will talk about what
we did.” First things first in football though. But for Tom and
Toby and their teammates, it’s best that “the SPOCCOs” do it
again.
Article courtesy of SA LIFE
SA AMATEUR FOOTBALL LEAGUE 32