By Tyler Lewis
Marc Holt is one of the greatest goal kickers local football has ever seen and his performances certainly haven’t slowed down since moving to Karingal after a storied career at Cranbourne.
In Round 3 2015, the Karingal reserves and senior sides lost to Frankston YCW by a combined 60.41 (401) to 2.4 (16), and in 2019 the Bulls have all three men’s football sides in the grand final on Saturday and won the overall club championship at the MPNFL awards night on Monday.
The reserves and under-19s have been competitive and successful sides in the past two seasons, but the rise of the senior side has a lot to do with the prowess of the youngsters and the right boot of goal-kicking machine Marc Holt.
While the netball and under-19s were playing superbly in 2015, the footy club wanted to build a more “sustainable” future. Bulls president Graham French says the rise was off the back of the youth.
“It probably began back in 2015 when the under-19s played off in a grand final against Mt Eliza,” he said.
“It stems back to then, through development of our kids and then we found ourselves in under-19 and reserves grand finals last year and where we are now with senior as well this year.
“It definitely is not something that happens overnight, playing our kids through the seniors in 2016 and 17 when we were languishing down the bottom of the ladder.
“You can’t put a premiership side overnight and it doesn’t create sustainability, we don’t want to just win a flag and be at the bottom the following year.
“With the restructure of the league and we were able to come down to division two we were able to launch off that, including netball as well – there has been key people who have got it aligned.
“It’s definitely not something that happens overnight – it’s something we have been working on for a few years.
“It has been a lot of hard work but the culmination is we now have seven teams across the club with netball, football and women’s football in the grand finals.”
Although Holt has been slamming them through the big sticks at will, French believes his work around the club is just as valuable and his signature is one the club has needed for a long time.
“It began the end of 2018, we had quite a few conversations with Marc and, I have to say, I hadn’t met Marc before that and when I met him he wasn’t what I expected,” he said.
“It was something we identified straight away, was a key forward, they are a bit like ruckman – they don’t grow on trees and are hard to find, (but) they also have to be the right fit for the club.
“He is a lovely fella and very much a club person.
“He had been at Cranbourne for 20-plus years ever since he was nine, so he was hesitant because he is such a loyal person.
“It was a long process but once he was committed, he was red and white.
“He is a lovely fella, he has been great for the group – he puts his heart and soul into it.
“There is no point trying to drag someone in and kick a bag of goals who just takes their envelope and off they go never to be seen again.
“He had a few lean patches there but we backed in him and he appreciated the support – he cops it pretty hard from the opposition supporters over the fence but we couldn’t be happier.”
Holt has booted 20 majors in the past two weeks, including a bag of 11 and nine in do-or-die matches for the Bulls, and French is extremely grateful for his presence in the red and white, hoping Holt has another bag in him at Frankston Park on Saturday.
“It is about sustainability and we could never find the right person – once we did things (it) seemed to fall into the right place.
“He is a great fit for our group, what we needed – we are lucky and 20.1 he has kicked in a couple of finals is unbelievable.
“He is a big game player and hopefully he can help us get the job done on the weekend.”
