Golden years for footy club

By Kath Gannaway
WESBURN Junior Football Club celebrated half a century of promoting Aussie Rules football in the Upper Yarra on the weekend.
Former Bulldog boys came back from as far away as Mt Gambier and Portland for the celebrations, which started with a reunion at the Warburton-Millgrove Sports Club on the Saturday night and continued back at the heartland of the club, the Wesburn oval where today’s crop of youngsters put on a show of modern football skills.
Neal Morris, whose family has been associated with the club for decades, said there was a lot of chatting about old times and generally catching up.
“It was great to look over all the old memorabillia, photos and press clippings, and have a bit of a laugh about the way things were done in those days,” he said.
Mr Morris said one of the great things to come out of the reunion was a renewed interest in the history of the club.
The club was founded by George Dounan and is unusual in that, although it has strong affiliations with Warburton-Millgrove Football Club, it is a stand-alone junior club. Players have played over the years for most the local clubs including Warburton-Millgrove, Powelltown, Woori Yallock and Yarra Junction.
“Many of the people involved in the club had no idea of its history and were interested to learn a bit about where the club came from,” he said.
He said a lot of the memorabillia has now been recorded for the future by club member Robin Fisher who has taken on the job of keeping the history of the club for future generations of Bulldogs.