By David Nagel
It’s hard to put into words…but it almost felt like the Inverloch-Kongwak Football Netball Club was about to burst at the seams in the Kooweerup changerooms on Saturday.
Senior footballers and A Grade netballers intertwined in a circle, while premiership-winning members of the reserves, thirds and C Grade teams fought hard to gain a vantage point.
Five premierships in one day…the singing of the song was going to be unique, very loud and special.
But there were three missing ingredients.
Senior coach Tom Hams was the first missing piece of the puzzle, the last player to leave the pristine surface at Denhams Road and make his way into the mayhem.
Sitting proudly in his hands was the second missing component, a joyous piece of silverware that had been six years in the making.
Hams smiled, walked confidently into the circles’ confines, and celebrated like he’d just kicked the winning penalty in a World Cup final.
The puzzle was complete…well not quite.
The A Grade netball trophy, of the same dimensions as its football counterpart for the first time in WGFNC history, was then carried into the middle and placed beside its sibling.
It may have been the same size, but the emotional trigger that it pulled almost blew the walls off their footings.
“It’s unbelievable,” Hams said, once the raucous rendition was completed.
“To sing the song with the A Grade netballers, and to then look up and see the reserves, thirds, C grade netballers, all with medals around their necks, it’s such a special thing for the town and it shows what a special community Inverloch is.
“It’s reward for effort and it’s going to be a really good night tonight.”
To understand what Saturday meant to Inverloch, you need to wind the clock back a few years.
Then senior coach Ben Soumilas had a vision that this exact scenario would play out on the biggest day of the season.
“It feels surreal, and it’s testament to the culture that he built for so long at the helm of IK and how everyone has bought into that,” said A Grade netball coach Jarrad Walker.
“Even now that he’s not an official part of the club, he’s a supporter watching his kids, but we still carry on the legacy that he’s left.
“I’m really proud of that because I’ve known Ben for a while, he’s a close friend of mine, so I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved over the last few years as a club.
“The feeling of singing the song with the boys in the rooms, with the reserves, thirds and C Grade all around us, it was amazing.
“You very rarely see that, and we might not see that again in my lifetime…so you have to embrace it when it happens.
“Looking around the rooms last night, just the amount of people we tried to fit into the clubrooms was ridiculous…it’s all a bit surreal to be honest.
“It was a real community event, which is great, and what IK is all about.”
Hams was reflective after finally rubber-stamping a period of competitiveness with a second flag in six years.
“It’s special, it’s a special day for the club, with as many cups as we got, but just taking a photo with the guys that were there in 2017 makes you understand how special it is,” he said.
“Some would say we’ve underperformed and not quite had the success that the group deserves, so it means a lot to win this one today.
“It feels like we would have underachieved with the talent we had in the group.
“We added some recruits, we developed juniors from within, and it’s all come together nicely to cap it off with a flag.”
Hams had extra reason to celebrate, sharing the podium with his brother Will in their first season of playing together.
“There’s four years age difference, so we never played together – I shot off to Uni as he came into senior footy – so to have this year together, I can’t explain what it means,” Hams said.
“I couldn’t be any happier, and there were definitely tears in the eyes when the final siren sounded and we found each other on the ground.
“This is what it’s all about, a great club, a great community…one big happy family.”
Walker, who stepped aside after Saturday’s back-to-back A Grade premierships – to travel around Europe – summed up the success of the club succinctly.
“You always want good people in good positions who are driving the club forward,” Walker said.
“I’m a big believer that with culture comes success, not the other way around, so focusing on getting the right people is paramount, and the rest will take care of itself.
“This club is a perfect example of that.
“We have great people…and now we have success.”
