By Peter Gunders | www.abc.net.au
The other Suns
When you start an Australian Rules football club in the middle of Queensland you need to "wear a number of hats" according to Chinchilla Suns secretary Helen Gent. After all, not every club secretary takes home the uniforms after a game to wash them. "On Sunday the washing line is beautiful and red!" She laughs.
Helen and her husband were heavily involved in a footy club when they lived in Brisbane, so when they moved to the Darling Downs town of Chinchilla, wanted to share the love of the game with the community.
The passion didn't fade, "even when we got to the stage where three weeks before our first game we had no home ground, we didn't have our jerseys, and we didn't have enough players!" Helen explains. "My husband and I sat in the car and said 'even if there's one person turning up to training, we'll keep going'. And it's paid off."
"There's a lot of people in town that love the sport. And a lot of people who love sport in general who just want to give it a try.
"We had one 17-year-old who came along in his Gold Coast jersey to the first training session and said 'I want to thank you, I've watched this game for years and never been able to play it.'" Helen says.
The decision was made early on for the team to adopt the 'Suns' name.
"It goes hand in hand with who we are in Chinchilla. We need the sun for the harvest. We need it for our crops and cattle. It's a nice warm part of the country."
"We contacted the Gold Coast team early on to make sure we could use a similar playing strip and we got their full approval."
Helen admits to hearing references to "aerial ballet" in the small town, "but I just invite them to a game to watch a game from the sidelines. I'm quite confident when they see the game a lot of those tags fall by the wayside."
Even though they're a brand new team, Helen sees a number of rivalries developing. "I think the local derby with Dalby is always going to be something quite special. They're just down the road, and that's usually where you find your biggest competition."
They Suns lost to the Dalby Swans in round one, but Helen admits to "having a bit of a tear" watching her boys play for the first time. "We had a couple of guys who had never seen the game before, and they strapped on the boots for round one."
"One of our players used to play rugby union, and when he took a mark the first thing he did was tuck the ball under his arm," she laughs, "but that's ok, it's all a learning process and there's a place for everyone in the team and in the club.
Helen says the hopes for the team aren't about a certain number of wins by the end of season, rather incremental improvements. "This team has a big heart. On the scoreboard it doesn't look fantastic, but every quarter these guys have played, they've improved."
While she hoped to see a win on the board by round 11, it came early when the Suns beat the Lockyer Valley Demons by 19 points a fortnight ago.
Helen says while they have a good number of locals keen to strap on the boots, if a certain star player from the Gold Coast Suns ever wanted to visit one Saturday afternoon, they'd manage to find a place for him on the field. "Although we might have to bench him to start with because we have one player on the team who is a mad Ablett fan. He actually plays in #9, so if Gary Ablett turned up Jessie would probably mob Gary on the field! So he might have to start on the bench for his own safety!" She laughs.
Last Modified on 17/06/2013 19:44
