Oakleigh Youth Club

It is easy for us to think that the Oakleigh of 2005 is a very different place from the Oakleigh of the early 1960’s when the Oakleigh Youth Club Football Club (OYCFC) was formed. However, the issues that surround everyday community life in Oakleigh in the early 1960’s bear an uncanny resemblance to those of 2005. 

According to May Keeley, author of “One Hundred Good Years: a story of Oakleigh Council”, in the immediate years prior to the football club’s founding the local councillors were accused of being greedy and likened to “goats”. Warrigal Rd and Prince’s Highway required improvements (still do) and heated debates about opening swimming pools in Clayton and Oakleigh were in the news, not debates about the closing or heating of. The issue of sculptures in public areas was debated, the lack of not the nature of, and in December 1964 the Oakleigh City Library was under bitter attack by the Mayor “for allowing the librarian too much latitude”! (refer footnote-1)

You could argue little has changed except they have finally got the librarian under control. Due to limited documentation and fewer living memories to draw upon the early days of the club still have a degree of mystery about them. Quite rightly the people involved in the OYCFC in the 1960’s as they are today are more concerned with the immediate whether it be next Saturday or sometimes next season rather than 40 years in the future. Some facts however have emerged that at least provide some pieces of the puzzle as to how this club we now know as the Oakleigh Dragons came into being. 

The OYCFC had its genesis in the South Oakleigh Methodist Football Club. The South Oakleigh Methodist Football Club used Oakleigh Technical School as its base and a number of players also went to school there. They also used another ground south of the church in Mackie road. The Church was itself located nearby on the corner of Mackie and North roads, which made the Oakleigh Technical School oval a convenient location. They played initially in the South Eastern Churches League and entered an under 17 team in the Melbourne Boys Football League in 1963. 

The South Oakleigh Methodists Football Club was undefeated in the 1962 South Eastern Churches League Under 16 competition. As a result they decided to move competitions in the following year to the Melbourne Boys Football League in what was a fairly ambitious move. The Melbourne Boys Football League was essentially the VFL under 17’s or fourths competition and included VFL and VFA clubs such as South Melbourne, Collingwood, St Kilda, Carlton, Richmond, Port Melbourne and Hawthorn among others.

The South Oakleigh Methodists first game in the Melbourne Boys Football League was played at Prahran against Melbourne High School on Saturday 20 April 1964. Amongst the best for South Oakleigh that day were Polglase, Johnson, Farrow and Fairbairn in a final score that saw Oakleigh kick 2 goals 6 behinds to MHS 19.20. (refer footnote-2)

Gordon Mattson, first president of the OYCFC coached the under 17 team and in 1963 Ray Chapman, the first life member and club treasurer for 12 years helped start an under 15’s. Ray Chapman Jnr recalls that his father became involved when neighbour Alf Clark came home one Saturday from the Oakleigh Technical School ground and said to Ray to “ get down there cause they need a hand”. Alf’s son captained South Melbourne at the time and had just seen a struggling South Oakleigh receive another hiding. 

Like most sporting grounds, the Oakleigh Technical school oval had its nuances and given what would have been the quality of opposition in the Melbourne Boys Football League every trick in the book would have been needed to win, or most likely save a game. With game quarters going 25 minutes and no time-on this included deliberately kicking the ball into the nearby tennis courts which required about 2 to 3 minutes wasted time in retrieving the ball because of the high fence enclosing the courts. In those days no penalty free kick was awarded for a deliberate kick out of bounds on the full, which at times gave the South Oakleigh boys some respite.

Looking at some of the match results from 1963 opposing teams didn’t need to learn this trick, Collingwood beat them by 64 points, St Kilda by 39 and Hawthorn by a whopping 24 goals.

Another feature of the Oakleigh Technical School Ground was that the lines were marked using sawdust either from the nearby W D & H O Wills Cigarette Factory where Eric Hall worked or from the carpenters’ workshops of Oakleigh Technical school. On muddy and wet days this would have made the boundary line a bit hard to see late in the game. The Oakleigh Technical School ground seemed to be in some demand, as Emmanuel and Clayton Methodists are also known to have used it on occasions.

Like most volunteer sporting bodies, the critical thing is finding the money to put the team on the paddock every week. The catalyst that saw the South Oakleigh Methodist Football Club effectively annexed to the Oakleigh Youth Club was a debt of 30 pounds for footballs and new jumpers, most likely the green with a gold sash design. Although efforts were made to obtain the funds including Ray Chapman and Gordon Mattson conducting door-to-door raffles, probably without a permit, they were in vain. Doreen Chapman even recalls playing Beatles records as a fundraiser through the Youth club to raise money for the footballers, probably also without a permit!

As the South Oakleigh Methodist Football Club was zoned to VFL club Melbourne, Ray put in a request to the Melbourne Football Club for a set of jumpers to help them out of the predicament. Only two were forthcoming which helped no one really. In 1964 a request was eventually made to Cr. Perryman and Oakleigh City Council agreed to take on the debt in return for the two teams being annexed to the Oakleigh Youth Club that wanted to expand its sporting activities.

1964. South Oakleigh Methodist team with Gordon Mattson in hat & scarf and Eric Hall next to him

The other key event in the formation of the OYCFC was an official meeting on the 4th of
November 1964 between the South Oakleigh Methodist Football Club and the Oakleigh Youth Club where they agreed to join forces to field teams. Given the close proximity of the Oakleigh Technical School to the Oakleigh Youth Club and the likely involvement in Oakleigh Youth Club activities by many of those involved in the South Oakleigh Methodists, then it would appear that a coming together would be a natural course of action. The Oakleigh Youth Club like all youth clubs of the day was interested in expanding its range of activities and football was growing in popularity.

The Oakleigh Youth Club in 1965 agreed to the proposal from the joint meeting and presumably with Oakleigh City Council support for absorbing the 30 pound financial debt the OYCFC was officially formed initially as a sub committee of the Oakleigh Youth Club.

Related

footnote-1
Keeley, May. One Hundred Good Years: A story of Oakleigh Council. Oakleigh & District Historical Publication Series. Oakleigh. 1991. p 169 -183 

footnote-2
Oakleigh and Caulfield Times. Wednesday, April 24, p.11.