The Saints look to Southern

By Nick Creely

The Saints are marching into Southern.

And with a new identity, and off the back of unwavering momentum after finishing their time in the VAFA with a senior football premiership in Division 4, the Saints are only looking forward as they strive for a sustainable future and an influx of footballers and netballers streaming through the doors of Strathaird Reserve in 2020.

The Narre South Saints – formerly known as St Francis Xavier OC, and better known as the X-Men– will join Southern Football League’s Division 3 ranks next season after formally shifting to the league on 14 October, ending its association with the high school and its iconic name, in a move club president Wayne Delaland said makes perfect sense.

To the Saints, it’s a chance to tap into the growing football and netball haven that is the south-east, and to attract local crowds and sponsors on board.

“We’re very excited about the new changes, and the view is to have senior mens, reserves, a couple of under 19s if we can get there, as well as women’s football and netball too,” Delaland said.

“The league change for us we kind of thought a couple of years ago was a bit of a pipe dream, we’ve felt that maybe the VAFA wasn’t the best fit due to us being in a strong Casey-Cardinia football corridor.

“It’s not to say we didn’t enjoy our time at the ammos, but for us, we wanted to have local football, which means local crowds, and local sponsors, and they probably couldn’t provide that – it’s (the VAFA) a large league encompassing a lot of municipalities.”

Despite looking at numerous options for the club, Delaland said that Southern was the perfect fit, and with the strong relationship forged with the Narre South Lions Junior Football Club last year – one that sees them share facilities and provide a pathway for juniors through to senior football – sets up a strong foundation into the future.

“The opportunity kind of started to come about at the start of this year, and we put some feelers out to see what the requirements were, and what leagues could offer us,” he said.

“That wasn’t just Southern, we looked at Outer East as well, and we spoke to the VAFA outlining our concerns, and with their blessing, they allowed us to move on.

“A lot of this came through with the relationship with the junior club, the Narre South Lions – we certainly haven’t merged or anything as of yet, but if that’s on the cards, it’s certainly something we’d have a look at.

“It’s certainly been huge for both clubs, and certainly beneficial – we’re separate entities, but share the same facilities, so for juniors, they can look up to be senior players at the same venue their entire life, and likewise with St Francis, it’s well-published that we went through a player exodus in 2015, so we want to plan for long-term success.”

After enjoying terrific success in the VAFA’s Division 4 in 2019 – culminating with a grand final win against Albert Park – Delaland said joining Division 3 of Southern in 2020 is about right.

“It’s well published that we had a lot of players from a Southern league background, so they had a better finger on the pulse than I did, but we had a look at some games and with the blessing of the committee and board, they decided we could join Division 3,” he said.

“It’s a bit of a like-for-like considering we had a pretty strong year in the VAFA Division 4, so we felt that’s where we’d fit in – time will clearly tell, and we’re not getting too ahead of ourselves, but we feel like we’ll be more than competitive.”

Delaland and his committee are busy preparing for the 2020 season after formally becoming the Narre South Saints Football Netball Club at the SGM on 24 October, and said that the club was still working through many things, such as the club colours and further expanding its relationship with the junior club.

“The idea was to keep the Saints side of things – we were probably better known as the X-Men in the area, but with the Saints bit we managed to keep that, and we looked at keeping the song too,” he said.

“We’re just working on what’s happening with the junior club, what’s happening with the colours, and hopefully, one day, merge or amalgamate with the juniors, so hopefully we can set up the foundation now for an easy transition that’d be better.

“For us with St Francis, a lot of people would say, ‘well who are you, where are you based?’, and that’s people in the local area, so having the Narre South bit certainly gives us a home and an identity, so hopefully our brand will grow from there.”

From an on-field perspective, the Saints have re-signed its 2019 premiership coach, Scott Mackenzie, as the club looks to make a splash in the new league.

Delaland said with the momentum built from last season, anything’s possible.

“If we can ride some of that momentum, not just from 2019, but from 2018, we felt that we were building towards something strong and got the ultimate reward this year,” he said.

“To have the same leader and leadership group at the top of the club, that just goes to leaps and bounds for us to come back into a successful operation.

“They know how Scott works, they buy into his message, and hopefully we’ll get a few new players who want to be part of the journey too.

“We’ve got a really good culture – we’ve come from a league where money isn’t everything, and I guess that’s applicable to playing groups, and if everyone can feel respected and included, I don’t think we’ll see too many players going out.”

Delaland also added that the Saints are also trying to field an inaugural senior women’s side and netball in 2020.

“We’re looking for women’s football and netball as well, so at a committee level we’ve got a few coordinators to help with that,” he said.

“We want to drive those – we’re currently looking for inaugural coaches, and hope that they bring some good players.

“Like anything it takes a lot of people to build these teams, and it’s no different to men’s teams as well – we’re in the process and find the right people.”