By RUSSELL BENNETT
“WE were lucky to have a club at all after what we’d been through.”
Those aren’t empty words from St Francis Xavier Old Collegians Football Club president Chris Seuren – they’re reality – and that’s precisely what makes Sunday’s premiership triumph so special.
The X Men claimed the VAFA Club XVIII (2) title with a big win over the Melbourne High School Old Boys, 15.10 (100) to 4.5 (29).
“I was just so massively proud of all the boys,” he said on Monday, still celebrating the group’s achievement from the day before.
“We were lucky to have a club at all after what we’d been through, but we had 25 to 26 very committed blokes who refused to let the club die.”
Seuren reserved special praise for player-coach Trent Pearson, who the Gazette understands wasn’t paid a cent in the 2015 season.
“He’s just been fantastic for us,” Seuren said.
“It was a huge commitment from him – he did a super, super job.”
Seuren said everything fell into place for his side, with strong numbers on the training track after the first month or so of the season.
“We played Albert Park three times and when we played them the second time we won by 10 goals at their ground and that was a huge result for us,” Seuren said, indicating that was one of the side’s key moments of the season.
“I guess we were just fitter than other sides – we were able to over-run them at the end of games.
“They came out hard against us on the weekend – they kicked the first two goals of the second quarter, but then we were five goals up at half-time.”
Seuren praised the likes of Sam Burns, captain Sean Dullard, and Chris Hughes – who are all in their prime footy years.
“From where we were at, now as a group we’ve just come such a long way,” he said.
Seuren said the X Men still had some “massive” improvements to make off-field when it came to the likes of junior club affiliation, and said there were ongoing discussions about which competition they’d be in next year.
“I guess it’s been a matter of surviving year to year up until now,” he said.
“Now we’re talking about five to 10-year strategic plans.
“We’ve got to run the club like a business.”
Sunday’s result marked a seismic shift from where the club had been earlier this year.
Seuren told the Gazette back in April, for example, that he took the presidency on once again because he “just couldn’t let the club die”.
A lack of numbers has forced them out of the VAFA’s Division 3 competition and back down to Club XVIII – right where they started in 2007.
But now, thanks to Seuren, Pearson, the club’s playing group and its diehard members and committee, it’s living strong.
