Ringing the bell
Collegians’ David McKenzie speaks to Cameron Palmer
Like all good community clubs in the Perth Football League, the Collegians Football Club has a focus on turning growing boys into good men. It is a philosophy that has been vital to Collegians especially, given the origins of the club linked back to the high percentage of students and young men that have started at the club.
The philosophy of focusing on making great men as a first priority dates back to the golden period of Collegians success in the late 1970’s, when player, coach and President David McKenzie ensured that this was a key focus.
“When I was a colt the guys who were senior players than were very welcoming and there was no distinction between the kids and the older guys and that was something that I really pushed when I went through when I was coaching and President,” McKenzie said.
“I think Amateur football from that perspective plays a significant role in taking young boys and turning them into young men.”
During this late 1970’s and into 1980’s period, McKenzie had a heavy involvement in the club. He remained a player, had begun to coach the Colts side and also took a stint as President. His stint as President was notable in bringing together Old Scotch and Collegians to create a club blessed with talent and high quality individuals.
“We believed there would be many benefits in us amalgamating and that proved to be correct,” McKenzie said.
“The 70s was certainly a very fruitful period, we won many Grand Finals in those times.”
Backing up these strong principles and fundamentals off-field, Collegians enjoyed a run of success with five league premierships between 1969 and 1979 across the B Grade, C Grade and D Grade competitions. The highlight of these five premierships was the back to back flags won in 1978 and 1979, when Collegians won the C Grade flag in 1978 and backed up with the B Grade flag in 1979.
As premierships can have a tendency to do, a tradition was born for Collegians following premiership wins during this era, the act of ringing the bell.
With each premiership win brought the celebration that all premiership winning clubs savour. When the celebration would wrap up for Collegians in the early hours of Sunday morning, a group of players would visit a nearby disused church. This church may have been on the verge of collapse but had one important working feature, a bell.
“In my era when we won those back to back flags, it was a really special occasion and we really embraced the fact that we were lucky enough to win back to back and there was a local church that had a very large bell tower and it became a bit of a thing to scale the bell tower at 3am and ring it,” McKenzie said.
“It probably woke everyone from Fremantle to Perth up, but we thought it was great fun, to go and ring the bell became a bit of a thing.”
The lesson of Collegians, a club built on good fundamentals and good traditions, can still have their own quirky traditions.
Keep an ear for that bell after Collegians next premiership.
