Looking for a game at Lake Tyers

The demise of the Lake Tyers Football Club has left a huge gap in the life of the community and removed a valuable focus for the youth of the area.

Thank you to Les Wilkinson. Archival still images reproduced courtesy of Lake Tyers Aboriginal Trust. Archival video by Richard Darby, reproduced with permission.

TRANSCRIPT

In the ‘30s and the late ‘50s as well Lake Tyres had a very good side, you know, me Uncle played an’ me grand-Uncle. In 1996 was when we affiliated with the Omeo and District Football League. We ‘ad the Seniors an’ the Juniors, we ‘ad the Junior Netball all the way through to the Senior Netball for the girls, we drafted quite a few players from other Clubs around the East Gippie an’ the Omeo League as well…there were Kooris playing in but they wished to play for Lake Tyers. I coached the Juniors in ’96 to the Grand Final. The following year I coached the Seniors to the Grand Final as well. The moral of Lake Tyers lifted through sport, kids were attending school on a regular basis, the health issues at Lake Tyers lifted an’ the Elders had somewhere to go on Saturdays where they could sit there an’ watch the boys and girls play Netball an’ Football. During those two years some of our issues were some of the players we drafted from other areas became angry on the ground. It sort of sounded like as if they wanted to be black versus white. During my coaching of those years I tried to talk to players not to be like that, that it wasn’t a racial issue. The other thing was, there was only probably four to six people running a Football Club, which wasn’t enough numbers to run a Football Club.

Got time…got time…Pass…pass…pass…play on…go…go…go…

When we were asked to leave the Omeo League, the moral of Lake Tyers went backwards. It’s pretty sad, you know when I get up in the morning, or go to work, you know, you see these young players that were playing footy in…some of the Senior players that haven’t played now for five or six years, I mean, they’re walking around with their heads down…um…they’re finding it hard to get out and play Football with other Clubs at the present time. Our kids become bored…there’s nothing to do for ‘em out at Lake Tyers at the moment, so certainly vandalism comes into it…you know, when kids don’t have nothing more to do than break windows or throw stones at street lights. These are sorts of issues that…um…I’d like to see change an’ the only way we can do that is through sport.