More than a one team town
Roleystone’s Greg Thatcher speaks to Chris Egan
For the best part of 30 years, when it came to senior football the Roleystone Football Club had been a one team town.
Located on the edge of the Perth metropolitan area up in the hills, Roleystone had always had the feel of visiting a country town to play a game of football. It was an atmosphere and culture that the club has long embraced.
Former Roleystone club President Greg Thatcher has been involved with the club since the early nineties and recognises that atmosphere that has made the club unique.
“Cross Park is at the heart of Roleystone and it’s like a coliseum,” Thatcher said.
“You always get brilliant crowds, it’s got a great culture, it’s been able to capture like the old WAFL days, lots of people come along and every match day has been like a carnival.”
Playing strong to that country town feel, Roleystone for the best part of 20 years had become a one team force. Since the start of 2000 they had played in and won premierships in the now defunct Saturday Football League and West Australian Football Association as well as the Perth Football League.
Indeed in the Perth Football League, Roleystone had become the powerhouse of the one team competition. They played off in four of the five ‘E1 Grade’ Grand Finals between 2014 and 2018.
With Roleystone as a catchment area growing and a strengthening relationship with the juniors, as 2019 approached, a new challenge was presented to the Roleystone Football Club. Could the club that had for so long been a one senior team town, support two?
With a mix of excitement and uncertainty, Roleystone began life as a two senior team club in ‘C4 Grade’ in 2019 and exceeded expectations with their league side winning 13 games to finish the home and away season in third and the reserves side just missing out on a maiden season finals appearance.
Even with the uncertainty of the COVID pandemic in 2020, Roleystone was able to maintain its two senior teams and again played finals footy. As Thatcher reflects on, the club is set-up for both the short term success it is having, but also long term success.
“The future of the club is pretty well self-assured and stable at the moment because there is a lot of young players that have come through from the juniors who live in Roleystone,” Thatcher said.
“They have formed the basis of the club and they have brought with them their parents who pretty much run the club now.”
For the third year in a row, as the Perth Football League enters its centenary season of 1921, Roleystone will field two senior sides.
Roleystone can proudly be recognised as another one of the success stories of recent Perth Football League seasons. An example of a club, using footy as a way to further ingrain itself and grow a proud local community.