The money game

These days, football clubs are really small businesses, requiring strong financial management in order to survive. From Hepburn to Ouyen, to Swifts Creek, fundraising is an essential part of all footy clubs.

Acknowledgements to Laurince Pedretti, Kate Commins, Derry Monaghan, Ray Gallagher and Tom Greenaway. Archival video and still images reproduced with kind permission of Swifts Creek FNC, Ouyen United FC and Laurince Pedretti.

TRANSCRIPT

[YELL]

[FAINT WHISTLE]

[CHATTER]

[LOUD WHISTLE]

[CHATTER]

BILL PEDRETTI: If you’re going to win premierships, you’ve got to run The Forty Club like a business. And you’ve got to work hard at it. We used to have a lot of fun, but we never won many games.

[HORN BLOWING]

So we turned it around. And that’s why in the last 20 years we’ve won premierships. In the ‘80s, the cash was $2,000. That was big money. And we could rise up with— we took raffles and dinner dances and things like that. And then in the ‘90s when we were just struggling, we realized we had no money. We have to do something better. And that’s when we first started wrestling the Harley Davidsons. Four of the committee rang up together and all put in, and we brought a motorbike. And from then on, it was just full steam ahead.

[MOTOR RUNNING]

KATE COMMINS: I see our biggest challenge as being fundraising, because we have a pretty clear idea of what we are going to get from a go at the Canteen and the bar. And that’s enough to cover our expenses. But it’s not enough to do anything with new buildings. It’s not enough to repair our fairly basic amenities. We can’t send players on trips and things like that. We cannot afford to pay our player’s memberships. We have to ask them to pay, that sort of thing. I’ve really got to watch all the costs.

[CHATTER]

DERRY MONAGHAN: They certainly all pick [INAUDIBLE] stumps. And not for a while they haven’t, but we did that at [INAUDIBLE] just to try and get a couple of extra players each year. And the local boys here cut wood to source money for the football trip.

[CHATTER]

The main source of income is the Vic Grain Bunkers. We have the contract to empty them the [INAUDIBLE] Bunkers. And when we get enough trucks, we can make a lot of money. And that’s how we source the money to run the club. Now it’s one in, all in, and from me, down to the players.

[CHATTER]

KATE COMMINS: Really, the things that keep small country towns going are your pub, your football team, and your primary school. Well, all of those things are kind of in part of our football club. And I think that most people are prepared to come and be part of it, put in that extra bit, do those few extra jobs. Or we might well lose it.

[CROWD CHEERING]

MAN: Everyone on our committee are very successful businessmen in the town in their own right. And they all got kids playing. And that’s where this all stems from. And I think nearly every country footy club would be the same.