Wicks burning for a premiership hat-trick

“In 2016, the club nearly folded and shut the doors. But eight years later, we’re up three Divisions and have won 2 Senior premierships and a Reserves flag. To see 65 grown men crying was amazing.”

Back-to-back premierships in a promotion-relegation system like the VAFA’s are mighty achievements, and it had eluded the Elsternwick Football Club throughout its storied 118-year history—until 2024.

Out in straight sets in 2022 after being the Division 3 pacesetters all season, the Wicks bounced back to win the Division 3 flag in 2023, rising to Division 2 this season with relatively modest expectations.

“Our first goal was to not get relegated,” says back-to-back premiership coach Peter ‘Hugo’ Higginbotham.

“When you get promoted, your first objective is generally to consolidate yourself in the new Division. Plus, we’d had a fair bit of player movement after the 2023 flag, with five or six retirements.

“And while recruiting gets a bit easier after some success, we’re an amateur club without a school or junior feeder, so for us, it’s all about relationships and enjoyment. We need that balance between having fun and playing some good footy, and we started to achieve that in 2023.

“We’d had a consistent group for a few years, but now we had eight or nine newcomers to settle in. As it happened, they all ended up playing in the Grand Final.”

The opening game of season 2024 pitted the Wicks up against Brunswick, who had finished third in 2023 and were widely expected to set the pace this season.

“We lost that game (by 21 points) but could have won it, and I was happy with how the boys performed. Brunswick has always been around the finals, so I immediately felt we were in the mix. It was a positive start for the club as we knew we would be able to compete.”

And compete they certainly did, in what became an incredible rollercoaster of a Division 2 season that saw Brunswick win 14 of its first 15 games, then hit the wall in the run home to September.

Elsternwick had its own form challenges, losing just one of its first ten matches before star ruck Dylan Jones headed overseas. The Wicks hit a mid-season rough patch that saw them drop four in a row to be at risk of missing the finals.

“Dylan went away, and I thought we’d struggle a bit. He’s the premier ruck in the competition,” says Hugo.

“He was in the Mornington Peninsula League’s Team of the Decade and played for Sandy and Victoria. Everyone wrote us off without him.”

Hugo also decided around this time that 2024 would be his last coaching the Wicks.

“I’d spoken to my wife, and we have a young bloke coming up through the ranks, so I want to spend more time supporting him. I told the players and we went down ‘The Last Dance’ path. Once that news was out, it was very relaxing to know that all we had to focus on now was getting the best out of this year.”

The Wicks responded to win their final four home & away games and finish the regular season in second spot, two-and-a-half games behind Brunswick.

“You’ve got to be getting better later in the season as everyone studies you,” says Hugo.

“We had to be improving as we got to finals, so we focused on what we’re good at. You’re never gonna improve your deficiencies on the eve of the finals.

“We had to play two undersized rucks who stood up. They’re the things that contribute to success. You know what you will get from your Top 10 most weeks. So you need your bottom six or seven players to make valuable contributions. That’s what brings success.

“We had a lot of role players who stood up and did that little bit more. If they win more contests than they lose, that gives our best ball users the chance to kick us a winning score. And if you’re creating more scoring shots, you generally win more games.”

Having fallen to Brunswick twice during the home and away season, the Wicks prepared to face them again in the Second Semi Final. Hugo wrestled with his hardest moment of the entire campaign, dropping his co-captain Richie Mayne.

“We actually dropped six senior players coming into that first final,” Hugo reflects, with some anguish still in his voice.

“I was conscious of putting our best side on the park. It’s not always just the best players. Sometimes, it needs to be the best player for a particular role. But it was really tough. Richie had been there my whole time at Elsternwick, but we had rested a few players in the lead-up to the finals and had a handful coming back from injury.

“Every one of them was a tough call to make, but particularly dropping the co-captain – a guy who has been instrumental in building Elsternwick up to where we are now. We were together in a mid-level Division 4 team when I first arrived.”

The Wicks were held goalless into the breeze in the opening term of the Second Semi before booting five goals with the wind in the second quarter. They held Brunswick to 1.6 with the breeze in the third to ultimately hang on for a 12-point win and a direct route to Grand Final Day.

“Richie called me on the Monday after the Second Semi and we started chatting. I said, ‘Stop – you’re in for the Grand Final.’ The hardest moment of the year ultimately led to our happiest.”

Brunswick bounced back to dominate South Melbourne in the Preliminary Final and set up a rematch with the Wicks.

“It almost felt like there was no expectation on us. Brunswick was the benchmark all year and we’d come up a Division. It had been a long time since we’d been in D2, so there was no pressure on us.

“We always tried to make our pre-games and meetings fun. Let’s enjoy our time together, have a laugh, and play with freedom. My favourite memory of the entire day actually happened before the game. The players had their playlist of songs to play in the rooms and they put on a song that had been a theme for them throughout the year, but they hadn’t played it for a few weeks.

“The instant that song started, smiles started to break out around the room, and they charged out for their warm-up, leaving my Senior Assistant Ollie Gildea and I sitting alone in the rooms listening to this stupid song the boys loved. That relaxed me for some reason.”

As Hugo mentioned earlier, when you’re the pacesetters, everyone studies you, and the Wicks’ coaching staff certainly put plenty of time into Brunswick throughout the season.

“We’d watched a lot of them and knew they were fantastic ball users out in space. So, our biggest focus was to take away their time and space by pressuring the ball carrier. Our guys were amazingly diligent in following that plan all day.

“And that’s where your bottom six or seven players come in. They contribute with tackles, smothers and body pressure.

If we didn’t win the stoppage, they weren’t going to take it away. Our pressure was elite, with so many gang tackles as we closed them down.”

“You’re never gonna win every contest or kick every goal – Grand Finals can change minute by minute and they go for a long time too. So, as the game evolved, while we weren’t always in control, we were in every contest. There was no easy ball for them. Our defenders were amazing. Our midfielders pushed back so hard on the big ground at Latrobe. So the game never got away from us.”

The Wicks created their share of opportunities, but the bigger challenge was converting them in brutal conditions at a windswept LaTrobe University.

“It was a very hard day to kick goals due to that wind,” Hugo explains.

“You could be 35 metres out straight in front, hit it straight, the wind grabs it and rips it out on the full.”

The Wicks failed to make the most of their early chances, kicking 1.5 to 0.1 in the opening term before Brunswick booted 3.1 to 2.3 in the second quarter to draw back within a goal at the half – 3.8 to 3.2.

Elsternwick was in control once again in the third term, but nerves started to jangle as they repeatedly failed to seize their chance to put the game away, booting 1.8 to 0.2, including an incredibly frustrating 8 consecutive behinds in the final 15 minutes of the quarter.

“At one stage, I was thinking we might be kicking ourselves out of it,” concedes Hugo.

“But I’ve evolved a lot as a coach and I try to focus more on the positives than negatives these days. So at three-quarter time, everything had to be positive – my messaging and our energy. So I didn’t go down the path of what not to do.

“I went for the old ‘Now’s the time boys. Look around – you’ll never play in this exact same line-up ever again. So write your own history.

“We’ve trained our game style, so everyone knows what to do. It’s about executing the basics and trying to make sure no-one tries to do too much. Everyone just needs to play their role. Don’t go off-script in this last quarter and try to win the game yourself. Don’t do any more, but just don’t do any less.’

Hugo’s players stuck to the task and, try as they might, Brunswick just couldn’t haul in the 3-goal deficit, kicking 0.6 to 0.1 in an intense final quarter to hand Elsternwick their first back-to-back premierships.

“It was history-making for the club,” says Hugo with a satisfied smile.

“There was an opportunity to do it in the 1950s, but it didn’t happen. In 2016, the club nearly folded and shut the doors. But eight years later, we’re up three Divisions and have won 2 Senior premierships and a Reserves flag. To see 65 grown men crying was amazing.

“It delivered my happiest moment of the year – Richie and I holding up the cup together. That moment will stick with me.

“I’ve been around footy all my life, so I know how hard it is to win. I’ve had this group for so long and have had a personal connection with so many of them for so long. To be able to build this team up and make amazing friendships along the way been great. To be able to do something like that with your friends, you have it to share together for the rest of your life.

“I told the players after the game that when push came to shove, we stood up & won back-to-back flags, which is hard to do in VAFA. Now for every day for the rest of your life, you’re a premiership player.”

Higginbotham hopes that this achievement sets the club on a fresh path.

“We’ve always been a little underwhelming in terms of success. We’d have some but then drop off again, so to have a run of sustained success has been fantastic. We’ve got an 82.5% win ratio since 2020.

“I’ve coached 120 players in that time – only ten players played in both flags. So, we’ve had high turnover, but we’ve created a good environment, and the committee has been fantastic. There’s been a lot of cohesion between players across our different teams and not a lot of ego there.

“Family is the essence of our club. When new players come on board, they get that family vibe. The past players end up like uncles to the current players. We never took ourselves too seriously. The right time will be there to be serious, but not all at the time.

“People want to be around the club, and that’s how we do all our recruiting, via friends of friends and past players’ sons.

“It’s been great to be involved in all of that and I had complete licence to change things from Day 1. The Presidents have been very supportive as I changed everything in the Footy department and got good young coaches around me.”

One of those will take the reins at Elsternwick in 2025 – Hugo’s Senior Assistant, Ollie Gildea, who has been at the club for twelve seasons, originally as a player before moving into coaching after injury ended his playing days and he took over coaching the Reserves. He has been Hugo’s Senior Assistant for both premierships.

“I’ve been there through some average times and some good times,” Ollie reflects. “It’s been amazing to be a part of it from the bottom up.

“We were bottom or second last for the first four or five years I was at the club, and you feel like you’re never going to get out of that hole. We struggled for numbers, so club legends such as Alan Patey and Shane Convery would play eight quarters on a Saturday to keep our teams going. That selflessness and community spirit kept us alive through our worst times.”

Ollie echoes Hugo’s sentiments about the club providing a sense of inclusion and belonging.

“When I first came to Elsternwick, we all went to the pub after my first training session. I was sitting in the corner by myself as I didn’t know anyone yet, and over comes club champion Justin Hunter, who kicked 800-odd goals in his career. He sits down next to me, puts two pints down and immediately makes me feel like I belong. That’s what the club is all about.

“Our one wood is definitely the social side of things and that culture is why I fell in love with it. I was a country boy and spent time at a couple of Southern League clubs, but they didn’t have the same community culture as Elsternwick.

“And we’ve grown that community massively with a new Women’s and Thirds team over the last four or five years. As we’ve grown, we’ve attracted new sponsors that allow us to have new balls and facilities. Our ground used to be a dog park with changerooms the size of a public toilet.”

So the type of coach Ollie wants to be comes as no surprise.

“A relationships coach, first and foremost,” he says.

“No-one is there for any reason other than because you want to be, so you have to empower people to want to be there. Provide an environment where they can improve and enjoy themselves at the same time.”

Ollie has learned plenty from his apprenticeship under Higginbotham.

“Hugo made drastic improvements year-on-year around standards and people management, as well as training and gameday prep, which will be even more relevant now we’re in Division 1 for the first time in 38 years.

“Recruitment-wise, it’s easier to recruit the higher the grade you’re in, and we’ve got four or five coming from the Southern League. Plus, Dylan’s back from overseas. Get the culture right and people want to be a part of it.

“We’ve only had one player retire from the flag side – James Howard, who snapped his achilles early in the game.

“We’re working hard to put an Under 19s team together because we’re the only D1 team without a feeder and to be sustainable at this level and above, you need that pipeline.

“We’ve just signed a new women’s coach – Olivia Powell – who is a fantastic leader and people person. The club is putting heaps of time into further developing that program. That ‘one club’ mentality is a big part of what has led us to success in our Senior Men’s team.

“We want to have a massive crack at it in 2025. Our guys are really excited for the new challenge of taking on new teams.

“We’ve earned the right and expect to put our best foot forward. We will throw everything at every team we play. We’ll put no restrictions or limitations on ourselves because amazing things can happen as we learned in 2024.

“Nothing will be given to us, so we’ll go out and take whatever we can.”