For many years, local football clubs have attempted to “buy” premierships by bringing in talented players on big contracts. Then, after a few years, players exit the club in search of their next payday. Suddenly, well-established teams are then left struggling to exist, confronted with a disrupted team culture and uprooted finances.

Even when you aren’t the kind of club seen to be trying to buy club success, retaining carefully sought talent can be a challenge. The Laharum Demons Football Netball Club in the Horsham District Football Netball League (HDFNL) are one of many to run the gauntlet in their quest for premiership success, winning the competition back in 2015. But they have struggled on-field ever since, going on to win just seven of their next 60 games between 2019-2023.

Their struggles came off the back of a mass exodus of players. Some moved away from the area, while others got tired of the long commutes from Melbourne and its surrounds to play on weekends. There was soon talk of a merger with fellow struggling HDFNL club Taylors Lake.

Laharum aren’t the only ones to struggle after a small window of success. Many teams have faced this fate across country football. But one club’s unconventional style has proven very successful, withstanding the challenges that come with playing regional football.

The Koroit Saints in the nearby Hampden Football Netball League (HFNL) haven’t gone by the book in their attempt to win premierships. Instead, they’ve excelled by retaining local players, building a strong culture and always looking ahead.

Koroit senior coach Chris McLaren has been a part of the club’s successful era, first as a player and now as a coach. Their reign culminated in Koroit winning seven premierships in just nine seasons, including six consecutive flags from 2014-2019.

McLaren tells upstart that there are specific things that Koroit have done to be successful that others fail to do.

“We’ll be one of the lower paying clubs around. Most of the guys all get the same amount which is a fair bit less than what they would get somewhere else,” he says. “You need guys to essentially choose success over money.”

According to the Herald Sun, every local club in Victoria has a set salary cap ranging from around $30,000 to $100,000, while competitiveness is also maintained by a player point system. It allocates a number of points to individual players to denote their worth, determined by their experience level and movement around different leagues.

For example, a local who has grown up playing for the club will be worth only one or two points, while a player travelling each week from Melbourne who has played high-level football in recent seasons will often be assigned five or six points. Each team is allowed roughly 40 combined player points.

The purpose of the points and salary cap is to restrict teams from acquiring lots of former AFL and state-level footballers, but HDFNL President Rosemary Langley thinks the system still needs some modifications.

“I believe the best process is working on the points system more and having a bigger weight on players that fly in and out,” she says. “Do away with the NT – Vic agreement that sees these players not having to be cleared and commit to their destination club like other players have to.”

Langley also says that bringing players into local clubs on big contracts is what creates the biggest problems.

“It is the ones that show up around clubs for financial gain that do the most damage to a club’s culture,” she says. “I have seen over the years at different clubs that players and members just don’t have a real connection to these players.”

“In our area these things impact clubs, as locals see players not giving back to these communities. And when you say ‘club’ in rural areas you are saying ‘communities’ as one does not exist without the other.”

In the HFNL, McLaren knows there are several teams that have multiple players travelling long distances every week to play. One in particular has players flying in from Sydney and Queensland, as well as another coming from Darwin. He says this can have a negative effect on the future of the team.

“Say they win it [the premiership] this year and three of those guys go ‘I’m not going to travel again, we’re done’,” he says. “That’s when you go downhill because the guys that are missing out for these guys to come in on Saturday and leave, they’re probably not going to be there either.

“You get on a slippery slope. They [the clubs] convince themselves there’s no other option.”

Although these players are causing issues for local clubs, McLaren says coaches also play an important role in contributing to their team’s overall success. He believes that coaches need to place more emphasis on playing the long game and placing the club in a good spot when they move on.

“As a coach I think it’s really important to keep half an eye on the following year. Clubs get coaches in and think ‘I’ll come in and win a premiership in two or three years and that’ll do’. They don’t really care what happens post their tenure,” he says.

The Koroit coach is surprised that more teams don’t reach out to follow his model to success, suggesting that coaches see asking for guidance as a weakness.

“I’ve only had one or two clubs come and reach out and say, ‘can we come and have a chat about how you try to be relevant every year and set your standards?’,” he says.

The Koroit Football Club are one of the very few teams to find the perfect formula in fostering long-term success, while other clubs and coaches have struggled. The right approach for the future of a club remains to be seen, but one thing’s for sure, they’ve made their own blueprint for success.

Article: Connor Burns is a third-year Bachelor of Media and Communications (Journalism) student at La Trobe University. You can follow him on Twitter @connor_burns52.

Photo: Australian rules tackle.jpg by Kerrie_ is available HERE and is used under a Creative Commons Licence. This image has not been modified.