Repeating the colts pathway
Carlisle’s Laurie Sutherland speaks to Chris Egan
For the Carlisle Football Club, the formation of their club was seen as a necessary requirement to both grow a local community and offer a batch of talented junior footballers the opportunity to remain playing footy together, progressing towards senior level. The early players for Carlisle came from the powerful junior club that also operated at Carlisle.
Because of those early players and the synergy to the junior club, the early days of Carlisle Football Club were defined by the success of their Colts program.
In terms of Premiership winning eras, Carlisle’s is unique. Few clubs have been able to win multiple ‘A Grade’ premierships, however Carlisle won five ‘A Colts’ premierships between 1963 and 1978. However, despite having this incredible Colts success, they could never convert it to the senior ‘A Grade’ level.
Club Life Member, former player and President Laurie Sutherland, recalls that successful era for the club and the disappointment that the club could not translate that through to senior grade success.
“Colts was the foundation of the football club and the cornerstone that provided players up into the senior side having won those Colts flags,” Sutherland said.
“To come in at this stage thinking this has been a pretty successful club, what’s in store for the next ten years, well it was a totally different story really.”
Instead of seeing the success of the Colts translate to senior success, from outside its control, a number of those young players started new lives in outer suburbs, some progressed to WAFL footy, some moved to country footy and what was left was an aging suburb without the vibrant junior program and Colts that were that foundation.
The club began a steady decline as it was unable to replenish numbers from the local area. From its early glory years, by the mid 2000’s Carlisle was struggling to field two sides and did not have a Colts program.
Under the direction of Sutherland, Carlisle began the process of growing from the ground up just as they had done in their early years. Sutherland knew it was imperative to get a pathway of young footballers from junior football to senior football. As fate would have it, nearby junior club the Victoria Park Raiders were an ideal fit.
“The Victoria Park Junior Football Club goal or aim was exactly what had happened with the foundation of our club was kids finish junior football and wanted to keep them together but had nowhere to go, ultimately they found their way to us,” Sutherland said.
“The satisfaction of helping to facilitate from a club perspective the reintroduction of a Colts side and to see those kids come in was amazing.”
Spurred on by this new group of Colts, Carlisle would return to Premiership winning ways. The Carlisle Colts would claim the inaugural West Coast Eagles Colts premiership in 2009. While it may not have had the aura of an ‘A Grade Colts’ flag, it was a significant win for Carlisle and reward for the effort of Sutherland and his vision for the club.
Led by, a number of these same players Carlisle would end a 30 year senior premiership drought by claiming the ‘C3 Grade’ premiership in 2013. There was more sense of pride from the club, that it had been able to successfully rebuild a Colts program, that could ultimately lead to providing the club senior level success.
Proving that history has a way of repeating, for two different generations of success for the Carlisle Football Club, it started with the Colts program. That Colts success came from making sure junior footballers had a way to keep playing together.
A simple, yet poignant lesson for the power of a different kind of football pathway.