NSW/ACT Club of the Week: Marist
Boasting AFL alumni such as former Sydney Swans co-captain Craig Bolton and current GWS GIANTS co-captain Phil Davis, Marist Australian Football Club will celebrate its rich 40-year history in 2013.
The club was established in 1973 when Under-12 and Under-13 sides were entered in to the local AFL Canberra competition.
With a club motto of ‘Promoting and Developing Australian Football in the Marist and ACT Communities’, the club is managed and run by parents – all volunteers – is self funded and now participates in the AFL Canberra Junior League and the AFL Canberra Senior League.
President Maria Hicks said she is proud of the growth and development of the club as they celebrate their 40th anniversary.
“It just started off with a bunch of parents who were interested, who wanted to get AFL going into the school and over the years it just got more parents on board and continued to grow,” Hicks said.
“We’re in a Rugby Union school so we started off very small and over the years we’ve been able to build AFL into the school so that in 2013 we now have 217 boys playing and we field nine teams in the junior league and one team in the Rising Stars.
“I know that when the club started the boys had to wear rugby jumpers, we didn’t have our own oval and we did struggle to get the recognition and support from the school.
“40 years on that’s just not the case anymore we’re equal in terms of the support we get from the school, we’re definitely equal to the other sports – the boys have their own jumpers and we have our own brand if you like.”
The Under-10s and Under-11s play modified non-contact rules and play on a smaller ground. No scores are kept and there are no points or ladders, just a round robin season amongst the southern clubs and a separate northern clubs competition.
The Under-12s through to Under-16 teams participate in a full competition with full rules, scores, results, ladders and play for competition premierships in the AFL Canberra Junior League.
The Marist First XVIII participates in the Under-18 competition that is managed separately by the AFL Canberra Senior League.
“I said to our first 18 boys at the beginning of the year that I look for the qualities of passion, commitment and integrity when you play and that’s what I want to see in the boys when they play,” Hicks said.
“I think you’ve got to have a bit of passion about the game, you’ve got to have commitment but you’ve got to have integrity, you’ve got to play with the rules, you’ve got to play within the spirit of the game.
“That’s what I’d like to see at the club, not only to maintain participation and keep participation numbers up but also to nurture excellence and also to get some of our players into the AFL.
“They’re the three things I ask of the boys and that’s what I think I’m getting so I’m proud of the boys.”
Marist is committed to promoting Australian Football and to the personal development of all their players with the club awarded the Prime Minister’s Trophy for ACT Junior Club of the Year in 1990, 2001 and in 2008.
“I like to feel that we like to try in a way give back to our communities because we realise how fortunate our boys are in playing footy and getting the opportunities they get,” Hicks said.
“We ensure all our coaches are accredited and we provide opportunities for them to improve their accreditation from a level one to a level two or if someone starts the beginning of the season unaccredited that they get their accreditation throughout the season.
“We actively encourage our boys to umpire, we have strong representation from the club as umpires and normally we provide in excess of 20 to 25 boys a year and we also have a lot of Old Boys who continue to umpire so we have a strong commitment to supporting umpiring.
“The other thing is we’ve got a very vibrant committee, we’re not just reliant on a few people but we have a fairly good support base of people on the committee who are all very willing to get involved for which we’re very lucky because I know a lot of clubs do struggle for volunteers.”
Craig Bolton, now Deputy General Manager at AFL NSW/ACT, said he was proud to have been a Marist footballer.
“Marist have always been a great footy club,” he said.
“They are one of the few schools in NSW or the ACT that have managed to have teams competing in the community competitions.
“I look back very fondly on my time playing football for Marist.”
