By David Nagel
It’s not surprisingly really that the fabric of the Tooradin-Dalmore Football Netball Club refused to be pulled apart on Saturday.
For the last quarter of a century, the cloth of the club has been woven strong through tough times, through tragedy, through the very spirit of the people that call Tooradin home.
At Garfield on the weekend, the very fabric of the club is what will be intrinsically linked forever with the Seagulls first premiership in 25 years.
Since coach Jon Gahan last lifted the cup in 1997, a special material has been weaved on the banks of Westernport Bay.
The first thread was laid bare in 1998 when tough-as-nails 17-year-old midfielder Beau Miller made his senior debut for the club.
Many at Tooradin will tell you…that initial thread of the spirit, determination and mateship of Beau Miller is still the inner-strength that bonds that fabric today.
Beau Shane Miller died just 12 days short of his 35th birthday, after a short battle with aggressive cancer, on 14 July, 2016.
In 1999, a 17-year-old Lachie Gillespie would experience the bitter taste of defeat in the Seagulls most recent visit to the big dance 23 years ago.
Alongside his great mate, the threads of Miller and the affable Gillespie would be intertwined forever and could now be woven.
The journey of the club also helped weave a passage to premiership success on Saturday.
A member of the South West Gippsland Football League from 1954 to 1975, the club spent 26 years in the West Gippsland Football League, before a three-year stint in the ill-fated West Gippsland Latrobe West Division.
It was then that times got tough.
From 2005 to 2018 the Seagulls battled the might of much larger towns like Beaconsfield, Berwick, Cranbourne, Doveton, Narre Warren and Pakenham with very little success.
And things never really looked like changing.
That turbulent journey – well it added to the fabric!
In 2017 the West Gippsland Football Netball Competition (WGFNC) was created and the Seagulls wanted in.
There are many that drove that vision, but the passion of past-president, now vice-president, Derek Genoni, had long been evident, and he would stop at nothing to give the club hope – to bring the sleepy hollow alive!
The Gulls joined the WGFNC in 2019 and played in a preliminary final that year.
All clubs want is hope, and that move invigorated the Seagulls who were soon stopped in their tracks by a worldwide pandemic called Covid.
No football in 2020, 11 games in 2021 – but with a fresh and exciting list the Gulls were raring to go for the 2022 season.
After a 75-point round-one victory over Kilcunda-Bass, the fabric of Tooradin-Dalmore was laid bare.
At a club function, on Saturday 2 April, the club announced its top-25 players from 1995 to 2019.
It was a magnificent occasion, with past players and coaches imploring the Seagulls to grasp the opportunity and to join the greats of 1997.
The spirit of the Tooradin-Dalmore Football Netball Club was on full display that night.
Three players on the list, Julian Suarez (16), Luke McKenna (17) and Adam Galea (22), would become senior premiership players on Saturday, while Michael Hobbs (19) and Adam Splatt (21) would enjoy success in the reserves.
Also on that list was Jon Gahan (10), the coach in ’97, and one of the great and most well-respected people at Tooradin, Greg Bethune…the very essence of the club.
And topping that list, with not a dry eye in the house, was Beau Miller.
It was his great mate Lachie Gillespie, with that interwoven bond, who presented the award to his family.
“I feel very lucky to have had Beau in my life, a great human-being more so than a great footballer, and that’s saying something because he was a bloody good footballer,” Gillespie said on the night.
“To be able to do this is a great honour, for me personally and for my family.
“It’s well deserved, I’m absolutely proud, and all of his mates here are as well…we love you, Beau.”
Just 23 weeks later, Lachie Gillespie stood proud alongside his captain Jordan Kelly hoisting the 2022 premiership cup, with the late Tam Gillespie (brother) and Greg Kelly (father) no doubt in their thoughts.
It’s not surprisingly really that the fabric of the Tooradin-Dalmore Football Netball Club could not be pulled apart.
