Year of Cats, crows Rooster

By Peter Sweeney
JOHN Ladds – simply known as ‘Rooster’ – reckons he’d die a happy man if his beloved Neerim Neerim South wins the Ellinbank and District Football League premiership on Saturday.
The president, and whatever job there is to be done person of the club, Ladds lives over the road from the Neerim cemetery.
“They wouldn’t have far to take me,” Ladds said. “If we win, I could go (pass away) the next day with no regrets.”
Better make that Tuesday. When they were struggling, Neerim Neerim South ended the footy season with a ‘Silly Sunday’. In more recent times, it has extended to include a ‘Mad Monday’.
And one thinks that if the club with postcard picturesque scenery beats Garfield, then the party will extend. (Neerim Neerim South are also in the grand final for the thirds).
There are blank spaces alongside the ‘next home game’ and ‘next social event’ signs on the billboard as you enter the homely Bill Cumming Memorial Oval at Neerim South.
The next home game will be in 2012. The next social event will start on Saturday night. When it ends, is anyone’s guess.
However, Neerim Neerim South don’t have to win at Nar Nar Goon Recreation Reserve on Saturday for ‘Rooster’ Ladds to crow about them.
“I’m proud of our achievements,” Ladds said. “We’re a little town competing against the big boys.
“Sixteen of our top 22 (players) have come through our juniors. When we won back-to-back premierships in 1998 and 1999, 17 and 18 of our top group of players had come through the juniors.
“We like giving the kids a go. We think that’s best in the long run. And, contrary to what some may think, we haven’t got the big money to bring footballers in.
“There is no salary cap, but we will spend no more than $50,000 to $55,000 on payments and incentives for players for the whole year.
“We haven’t got the money other clubs have … and we don’t believe you have to spend up.”
But it’s what Neerim Neerim South has off the field that John Ladds loves. In 1993, the Neerim clubrooms were destroyed by fire. Within a year, they had new ones.
Ladds won’t say so, but others do … he is the leader of the off-field workforce.
A former farmer and now mailman, Ladds only put his hand up for the president’s position when the club couldn’t get a quorum at its annual general meeting two seasons back. But he had one stipulation: Julie Ward had to accept the secretary’s role.
“Julie was my team manager when I was coaching the kids. I told her I would do it (presidency) if she did it (secretary). We work well together,” Ladds said.
“They’re (league bodies) not making it easier to run a footy club. Everybody has to be accredited, registered onto the ground … and volunteers are getting harder to find.
“I thought we would finish third or fourth this year, and then give it a real crack next season.
“We’ve done better than I thought we would. Maybe, it will be the year of the Cat!” Even if it isn’t, one expects there’ll be plenty of noise coming out of the hills this weekend.