It was one of Liverpool’s greats Bill Shankly (1913-81) who told us: “Some people believe football is a matter of life and death… I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.”
Paul Zimmermann lives far away from the forces of the old England first division, and as a first-year president of the Mount Compass Football Club he doesn’t see it that way.
“The sun always comes up the next morning,” he responds, which at the time was heartening considering it was raining on a miserable Thursday training night. The players didn’t notice it though, they never do when it’s finals time, and especially for a club that hasn’t won an A-grade flag for 36 years.
The local Bulldogs went into this year’s Great Southern Football League finals series as minor premiers, and they’re a chance again.
After almost 100 hard-earned A-grade games, years of nurturing kids, running boundary lines and every other job that comes along, nobody here wants a premiership more than Paul, but he believes it is not everything in life.
“A premiership would mean a lot, but I wouldn’t say it meant the world because we are a small family club and we are used to confronting huge challenges,” Paul said. “We’re used to having to punch above our weight to be competitive in a very strong football league.
“Every now and then a dog has his day and we just hope to have one. It’s been a while, but the great thing is that we have still got guys hanging around this club who played in that 1980 premiership side.
“We have sons of players from that 1980 team, Shaun and Greg Maxfield (sons of Peter), and Craig Merritt is the nephew of Jeff, another premiership player.”
It was only a few years ago that the Mount Compass Football Club faced some challenges; it is not uncommon when good club people leave simultaneously for various reasons. Today, things are running a little smoother thanks to an influx of younger business people who have also taken on other responsibilities including coaching.
The club also placed itself at serious risk of surviving long-term had it not been able to field colts teams this season, but club vice-president Perrin Hicks, who has an amazingly positive outlook on football and life in general, somehow mustered 18 kids. Now, as their coach with Jimmy Batzavalis as his assistant, these kids are thriving and having a ball in more ways than one.
In fact, the whole club has turned around, also largely through Peter Galbraith as the senior coach, who works extremely well with the experienced players and the young blokes. He played in the club’s grand final in 1990 when, of course, they lost.
According to Paul, the club has reaped reward for enforcing a no-trouble maker policy. “We’re about making our weakest link stronger,” he says. “We’re tight knit. If you’ve got the right people it’s not too hard running a club. We don’t have an excess of numbers so the ones we have we really work on to bring them up to be good footballers.
“A special club is the people. It’s not fixtures and fittings. It’s the warmth that people generate. We have a lot of people in this town and surrounding areas who have been so supportive for so many years. The farmers have been good, quality people like the McHugh, Connor and Endersby families.”
If you drove through Mount Compass days before last year’s grand final you would have seen the signs along the road encouraging the players, and after they lost to Encounter Bay by four goals the emotion poured through social media. The disappointment of not winning an A-grade flag for 36 years is never easy to digest, but Mount Compass is still hurting deep inside for another reason.
There are those within the club struggling to move on following a tragic car accident on Australia Day, 2010, which claimed the lives of three of it senior colts players – Brock Grivell, Jake McMillan and Matt Solly. They may well have been playing in this A-grade finals series.
Each year the Mount Compass and Myponga clubs play a senior colts game for a memorial shield in honour of these three lads, and use the occasion to talk about road safety and being responsible. “We talk about looking after mates and your mates’ mates,” Paul said.
“It is pretty much a situation where we don’t have to talk about the accident because we know everyone is still thinking about it. Having said that, as parents, coaches and caring people we are concerned about the young people in the club when they reach their driving and adult years.
“We look after our young players as best we can… we hope they grow up to be responsible people, and hopefully along the way have a bit of fun as we teach them how to play football, how to be in a team environment, and how to win and lose. Success as a club isn’t just about a premiership.
“We also teach our young players how to be humble, and we get our fair share of being humble at Mount Compass. We’ve also learnt a lot about life.”
Bill Shankly, you were so wrong.
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