Football
19 September, 2025
Ararat playing for community pride
A premiership is the entire reason you play a sport, according to Ararat co-coach Tom Mills. And if his side wins the Grand Final for the Wimmera Football Netball League this Saturday, their victory will be for not just the players, but also for the people behind the scenes, the committee members, and community supporters.
And if his side wins the Grand Final for the Wimmera Football Netball League this Saturday, their victory will be for not just the players, but also for the people behind the scenes, the committee members, and community supporters.
It might have only been last year that the club tasted premiership success, but that doesn't mean another win would mean any less to the Ararat community.
Ararat president David Hosking said he was incredibly proud of the club's senior footy side.
"And hopefully they are proud of themselves too, because it's their fourth grand final in a row and Grand Finals are incredibly difficult to make, so to make four in a row, it's a big effort," Hosking said.
"It shows they are a good footy team and they are still hungry."
Hosking also spoke about how the players play for each other, week in and week out.
"They are extremely well coached and organised by the two Toms (Mills and Williamson)," the president said.
"They have been playing together now, a large majority of them, for quite a while.
"So what happens is there is a familiarity, a knowledge of each other and a real bond between them all.
"It means they are not only good at their footy, but they are enjoying it."
In a league where it is almost a necessity for clubs to be bolstered by recruits to be competitive, Hosking said his team is full of locals.
"Even players that aren't necessarily Ararat born, live here now," Hosking said.
"Benny Taylor, for example, not that he came from far, coming from Stawell, but he lives and works in Ararat now.
"Pretty much all of them (live locally), one or two work in Ballarat, but they are Ararat boys."
When Ararat won the premiership last season, they did so with 21 one-point players, which means all of those players had either been through the junior ranks with the club or had been with the side long enough to become one-point players.
"This year, most of our players have played juniors with Ararat," Hosking said.
"There are a couple of exceptions, Naish McRoberts, for example, he's from and lives in Ararat, but didn't play juniors with Ararat, he played with Ararat Eagles.
"So even the ones that aren't our juniors are local still."
Because of how closely the players are intertwined with the community, as that they all live and a lot of them work within the town, Hosking said that winning another grand final would be exciting for the town.
"What it means, in community footy, is that everyone gets to share it," he said.
"And this is really true; it really is an effort not just on the field, but off the field.
"The amount of volunteers, those who cook dinner on a Thursday night, or who sell raffle tickets, the trainers.
"Everyone gets to share in it and really have one great big party, which is always fun.
"Not only does a premiership always mean a lot to the club's community, but also the community as a whole.
"And we've been lucky in Ararat, there is us, and the Ararat Eagles last week, they lost the Grand Final, but they still made the Grand Final, and we have too, so there are a couple of good sides going around."