Club at the Crossroads – the CAK Culture

Winning isn’t everything.

Collingullie-Ashmont-Kapooka’s first game of the season was a seven-goal loss to MCUE. But it was a performance that inspired hope in the season ahead. As Shane Lenon put his players through their paces last week ahead of the return game against Mangoplah, the talk around the Crossroads Oval was that – despite the score line – round one had shown their youngsters had matured and the window of opportunity hadn’t necessarily closed.

“We lost some key players last year,” says president Scott Lewington. “But we’ve been lucky enough that our juniors in particular have picked up the slack… the young fellas that had had a taste of first grade have now stepped up to be confident first graders and holding their own.”

The short story is Collingullie-AK hasn’t lost a game since, including turning the tables on the Goannas with a 26-point victory last weekend. The bigger picture is that the Demons’ past, present and future are aligned.

Collingullie-AK had appeared in eight Farrer League grand finals in nine years – winning six flags – before being granted entry to the RFL in 2011, where they’ve reached a preliminary final and two grand finals.

“It was something that the club had made a decision on, probably back in 2001 when Shane Lenon first came over from Ganmain,” says Lewington. Trying to get the club to become more professional and look for a long term future.”

Lewington’s predecessor as president was Terry Fuller. “The availability of under 17s was the reason that we wanted to go from the Farrer League up to this league… We’d won three in a row, but it was more because we saw the 17s comp was the future for our kids.” Fuller says the proof is in the performance. “Our success has come over a decade, or 14 years – since Shane Lenon was here. And that’s had a core of guys who played in the juniors, probably from Brad Aiken to Matt Lewington. That’s 36 to 26. And in that age group, there’s probably been a dozen to 15 guys who played through an era together.”

One of the conditions of promotion to the RFL was that the Demons merge their junior and senior clubs. Fuller says they’ve been fortunate to have professional people involved, and Lewington explains a business-like structure of a management committee sitting above the two clubs. The biggest challenge is to continue to create a strong junior base in netball and football. The biggest decision has been to move the juniors from Ashmont Oval to Glenfield Park. “It’s a new growth area there behind South City,” says Lewington. “Ashmont has been good to our club over the years but as happens in Wagga, areas grow and change and we see that [Glenfield] as the new growth area. A new home ground there will hopefully attract new families.”

Family is important at Collingullie. Fuller says the Kennedys are the best example: “Frankie Kennedy, the old man, is a bloody legend here. The Kennedy’s mother – there she is [pointing to her photo on the wall]. She was Vicki Somerville and she was the first female on the committee at Collingullie. That was back in the days when females weren’t on boards. Now the four boys are playing first grade, and the daughter’s playing A-grade netball. That’s what we’re trying to be.” The club is built on a simple premise. “We make it a good place. There’s no tears,” says Lewington. “Everyone in the club – from the president down to the orange peeler – is on an even keel. It’s the old saying that no-one person is bigger than the club. Shane’s been really big on that, and we have as well.” Lenon’s name crops up in every conversation. “He’s probably been the biggest driver,” says Lewington. “When he came back [in 2008], we decided let’s really drive what Shane was keen on originally, and create a culture similar to Ganmain, which has been a very successful club. And we’d like to think we’re building along those lines.”

Lenon is proud to have played a part. “I’ve been very lucky – blessed – to be involved in Ganmain and here. They’re both fantastic clubs and that’s not just because they’ve had a lot of success… This club in particular is a great family club, great culture. Everyone’s treated the same. Without the water boy, the runner, the bloke doing the goals… you don’t have a club. The netballers, the juniors, we’re all in it together, just one big team effort.”