It takes a village to raise a Giant

By Aiden Box

FOLLOWING a challenging couple of years, the Korumburra-Bena Football Netball Club (KBFNC) has recently committed to rebuilding the strength of their beloved Giants both on and off the field. 

More than 60 people attended the club’s AGM recently, in which a new committee was elected and several of Korumburra-Bena’s born and bred members had their say, ultimately going into bat to save their club.

One such diehard Giant was new president Ken Myors, who made some strong statements in an interview with the Sentinel-Times last week as he explained his vision for the club. 

“It takes a village to raise a child, that’s the club, the club is the child, Korumburra-Bena is the village, we’ve got to have that mentality we’ve all got to get involved in the footy club because if we don’t, we’ll lose it.”

KBFNC has an incredible and rich history and resides in one of the largest and most respected communities in the region, however they faced the proposition of losing it all two weeks ago, but the community refused to give in.

Having committed members roll up their sleeves and help rebuild the club is exactly what is needed at the Giants according to their incoming president.

A KBFNC man by blood himself, Myors has had several generations of his family pass through the many iterations of the club.  

“My three sons all played at the club, my dad’s a life member and one of my sons is a life member, footy has been in my blood for a long time in Korumburra and then in Bena,” he said. 

Myors was also a member of the inaugural KBFNC committee when the amalgamation occurred, and the club’s history is something that deeply motivates the new president. 

“One of the big issues I’ve noticed over the years is that there has been a disjoint between the KBFNC and the community, there hasn’t been a connection there,” he said. 

“So, one of my main aims is to try and get that community involvement back into the club and the club back into the community.

“I don’t have any agenda, my agenda is the club and the town, I want to build the club back up to where it should’ve been, where it was and make it a family club where people want to be, a destination club if you like.” 

Injuries ravaged the Giants senior football side in 2022, and ultimately saw them judged very poorly in a ‘wins and losses’ driven competition. 

However, Myors remained positive on the club’s future, insisting that his Giants will enjoy success of their own provided they commit to his inspired vision, and all take part. 

“Part of my vision for the club is that we have a goal in place and that goal is not 2023, I’m a realist, I understand we won’t be playing finals footy next year, but that goal is 2024, ’25, ’26.”

“Certainly, by then we want to be playing finals footy, if we’re lucky enough to sign a great coach now then we’ll build around that, but if we’re not then we’ll put plans in place to get us through 2023.

“So that by 2024 we’re ready to go with the coach we want in place, the people they want around them in place and with the vision of moving forward.”

Myors also encouraged all current members of the community and the club to get involved and join in what shapes to be one of the great revivals in country footy. 

“It’s not a journey that’s going to take 12 months, it’s not one that’s going to take two years, it might take four or five years, but we’ve all got to be in it together and understand the goal and work towards it,” he said. 

History has proven attempts from many clubs to bypass the building phase of the club through recruiting rarely pays off, and when it does players often leave soon after the success or the club finds itself in debt.

Myors’ philosophy focuses hard on the importance of persistence and commitment to stay the course. 

“You’ve got to lose to learn how to win, you need to develop the hunger and the need to win, otherwise it doesn’t work, people don’t have the passion to win,” he said. 

Myors’ passion is clear and can be seen just by listening to the tone of his voice, he’s committed to this journey with the KBFNC and desperately wants them and their community to taste genuine success again. 

“I’m in it for the long haul, I’m not here just for this year to plug a hole,” he said. 

Any football netball club especially at the grassroots level is and should always be a sanctum for all to come to, enjoy and express themselves within and be a place beloved by its community for generations, as Myors explained. 

“The other driver for me is that I’ve got the next generation of my family coming through now, my grandson Jack has just started Auskick, what I’m hoping for him is that there’ll be a Korumburra-Bena Football Netball Club for him to go and play football at and it’s a successful club where he wants to play football.”

“There’s a whole generation of kids now of past players that are all going to have somewhere to go, football, netball the whole lot, it’s the whole community, it’s the whole football netball club wanting to be a part of the one thing.” 

Myors also spoke on the community the footy netball club represents. 

“The community is a very welcoming place, and it needs to be, and I think new people in the town are more than welcome any time to come down to the footy club and they’ll be made to feel very welcome and we’re always looking for volunteers with expertise in any area,” he said. 

“We did a bit of a study a few years back, it takes about 60-70 people, not including players, to put the sides out on the field for a gameday over the course of each week.

“I think what happened with the club was you had people down there giving 30-40 hours a week of volunteer time to make things happen for the footy club, that’s not sustainable, nobody can do that, but I think that’s what was happening.”

The Giants president gave a word on the sort of players his recruiting group is after for 2023 and beyond. 

“One of our priorities when we’re recruiting is we’re looking to recruit older guys in that late 20s/30s age bracket if we can and use them to nurture and help bring on our younger group,” he said. 

Improvement often doesn’t come without strong planning in place, and Myors touched on his plans to improve the community connection at the KBFNC. 

“We just need community support, I want to put a community liaison officer in place,” he said. 

“I’d love to get them involved in our round table group and the business association so that they’re actually involved in those committees, and they can bring input on what the community wants from the footy club and what the footy club wants from the community and provide that feedback so we can improve.”

Myors finished by explaining how culture ties it all together and encouraged his community to join in on the journey once more.

“Culture’s terribly important because that’s how you develop all the things I’ve been talking about, the club’s got to be somewhere people want to come and be a part of, not apart from,” he said.