British expat Colin Johnson came to Australia just three years ago, but Aussie rules has firmly replaced soccer as his favoured form of football.
Indeed, his passion for the game surpasses that of most home-grown footy followers – he started a club: the Laurimar Football Club.
Based in Doreen, Laurimar Power fielded two under-9s and one under-11s teams this year, as well as a team in the Victorian Metro Superules League, for over-35s.
Johnson said the idea came soon after he arrived in Australia with his young family and his children took a liking to the game. “We emigrated on a permanent residency visa,” he says. “And in that first year I met a friend who was playing Superules. I ended up going down for a kick, and then my kids got into Auskick straight away, so a few of us got talking about setting up an established side.”
The Superules team, which Johnson is a part of, won four of its eight games. He laughs when asked to assess his first full season of football with the Laurimar club.
“It’s been amazing, I absolutely love it,” he says. “Footy’s it for me now and the thrill of playing and the mateship you develop is great. Even though I’ve only known these blokes for three years I feel like I’ve known them my whole life.
“We won our first game, too. We were just a bunch of lads who’d never played together before, it was brilliant.”
While Johnson is proud of their achievements, he admits the fledgling club still has a lot of work to do even before they establish a senior team.
Of greatest importance are the facilities. The club’s rooms used to be the Mernda land sales office, and Johnson and the committee are at loggerheads with the council over funding. He says he has been left frustrated as the club will not have proper change rooms for next season.
“We are trying to cater for growth in the club,” he says. “We’re expecting to have about six junior teams and two Superules teams next year and we have no showers and no place to get changed.
“We’re driving hard to get the proper infrastructure in place. Seniors is a far more professional environment and we’re a bit hamstrung in developing the club until the council comes to the table.
“We are requesting that they consider putting allowance in their budget to fund the change rooms because it’s not fit for a football club.”
That doesn’t mean there haven’t been smaller victories, though – Johnson says the club has already made a stamp on the community.
“There was nothing like this in the area before we started it up,” he says. “We’ve given people with a common interest a focal point and we’ve got a well-established membership base now.’’
Johnson was also nominated as an Auskick coach of the year, and was able to take some of the kids out on the MCG.
“It was a once in a lifetime opportunity,” he says. “Seeing the boys kick a goal on the G was pretty special.”
