By ADEM SARICAOGLU
EIGHTEEN months ago the Keilor Park Football Club nearly folded, but the Devils are flying high now.
Keilor Park’s revival has been one of the best stories to come out of the Essendon District Football League in 2013.
Its seniors, led by coach Rob McCluskey, embarked on what has been a long-awaited finals campaign in the first full year of the league’s newly-formed Division Two competition.
But it was the club’s remarkable success within its junior ranks that have really sparked a renewed swagger down at Keilor Park Reserve.
Fielding just two junior sides in 2013, Keilor Park claimed the Division Five under-10 premiership while three of its young stars turned heads with their individual brilliance.
Jak Donnison claimed the best-and-fairest award for the under-12 Division Five competition while in the triumphant under-10 team, Josh Misiti and Bailey Wyka went one and two in their division’s vote count.
Club vice-president Anthony Wilkinson couldn’t be any prouder of the turnaround his club has enjoyed over the past year and a half.
“It’s been unbelievable,” Wilkinson said.
“Last year I think was the toughest year the club’s ever faced on and off the field, having to fold up two of the junior teams and starting with only seven senior players.
“The senior coaching staff, and Rob McCluskey in particular, has done a magnificent job in trying to reinvent the culture down there about one club, about trying to bring the juniors and the seniors together, and that’s really echoed right throughout.”
Grand final day proved to be one of the biggest days in the club’s recent history, with a large number of past and present senior players coming along to cheer the under-10s home against Maribyrnong Park.
“It was just phenomenal, everybody came out of the wood work to support the kids and it was probably one of the most rewarding moments I can remember,” Wilkinson said.
“To see the joy on everybody’s faces, not just the kids but everybody at the club, we really needed it, and really it was just the icing on the cake.”
The Devils hope to build on their success of 2013 with an under-14 team next winter, and Wilkinson is confident they will generate the numbers to do so.
“We’ve got 15 kids already next year going up with age, so we’re confident we’re going to field 10s, 12s and 14s,” he said.
