It’ll be Oh-k
Ocean Ridge’s John Hardman speaks to Chris Egan
It is one of the great examples of why every premiership, no matter which grade it is achieved in, is special. Consider the Ocean Ridge ‘H Grade’ and K Grade’ Premiership wins of 1991.
On the surface, winning premierships in two of the lowest grades that the Perth Football League has in a given season may not seem like that momentous of an achievement. But when you consider how close Ocean Ridge was from folding just a few years prior, you realise just how significant a premiership can be in re-establishing a club, its footy community and its identity.
Having formed as Edgewater in 1978 before becoming Ocean Ridge a few years later in the 1980’s, the formative years of the club were spent overcoming great difficulty. As former player, coach and President of Ocean Ridge John Hardman recalls, in the late 1980’s the club was on the brink of collapse.
“The club was in pretty serious trouble, financially and player numbers,” Hardman said.
“Three or four guys came to me and said let’s try and resurrect the club, so between us we decided we would go to the next AGM, I got myself elected President and we put a pretty good committee together.”
Hardman and his committee would begin to turn things around off the field determined not to make the mistakes of their predecessors. Through a hard working approach, they ran fundraisers to turn a negative financial position to a positive one and made a key appointment with their coach which in turn was able to assist in improving their playing stocks.
With a revitalised club off the field and an engaged playing squad on field, within two years of Hardman’s appointment, Ocean Ridge would take all before them in the 1991 season. Both Ocean Ridge teams in ‘H Grade’ and ‘K Grade’ had standout season, progressing to their Grand Finals and tasting premiership success that few could have believed possible three years previous.
Just as every premiership is special, every premiership is also a result of a collective effort. Hardman is quick to acknowledge that the 1991 ‘H Grade’ and ‘K Grade’ premierships were not about any one coach, one President or one player.
“We won those premierships through a tremendous amount of hard work from everybody.” Hardman said.
“I remember running onto the ground after the game and just hugging guys because we did something that nobody thought we could do.”
It truly was one of the great turnaround stories in the 100 year history of the Perth Football League, the Ocean Ridge redemption story of 1991.