By RUSSELL BENNETT
SOMETIMES footy is about more than just wins and losses. It’s often about mateship, togetherness and even family and when all of those combine with a memorable win … that’s something truly worth cherishing.
Saturday’s game between Nilma Darnum and Catani at the Blues’ Taplins Road ground would have been memorable purely from the five-point final margin and the match-winning goal in the dying seconds from full-back Luke Bartlett.
It would have been even more memorable given it marked the senior debut of 20-year-old Jed Jarred, who played his first ever senior game of footy after taking the sport back up this year for the first time since he was 14.
But combine both of those factors with the five Campbell brothers playing their first ever game of footy together, and you have a remarkable day to remember – one that will no doubt become legend over the decades to come at the Nilma Darnum footy club.
“You couldn’t write a better script than that,” said Darnos coach Dean Alger after the game.
Tom (19), AJ (21), Nathan (22), Ben (24) and Robbie (30) are the five Campbell boys who led the senior side out on to the ground, and belted out the song with their mates in the rooms a few hours later.
Four of them had played together before, but never all five.
Not only did Saturday mark Jarred’s senior debut, it marked the same occasion for AJ. Both had been made to earn their spot from the start of the season, despite the Bombers’ injury issues.
The four youngest Campbell boys once lined up together in an under-12s grand final side coached by their old man, but it was a different feeling on Saturday as they had the chance to run out on to the ground with Robbie.
“Any game that finishes like that you’re always going to remember, but that was amazing,” he told the Gazette at his Warragul home the day after the boys’ day to remember.
“We didn’t give up hope of it happening, but it wasn’t likely.
“Four of us had been playing in the ones for the past three weeks.
“AJ had a couple of years off because he was working on Saturdays, but he ended up changing his roster around so he could play this year.
“I was talking to Dean after the game, saying thanks for making it happen.
“He said footy isn’t just about winning and losing – it’s more than that. It’s an emotional game too.
“I told Dean that I didn’t know how much longer I’d be able to keep playing seniors for. I’m 30 now but I’ve been playing seniors since I was 15 or 16.”
Robbie, like his brothers, was just thankful Bartlett’s kick sailed through the big sticks.
“If we had’ve lost after all that it would have been pretty ordinary!” he laughed, before describing the ‘masterstroke’ of Alger to throw him forward.
“Lukey was apparently made for the moment! He’ll tell you now he was born for that stuff,” Robbie said.
“He definitely looked confident when he was taking that shot. I reckon he was waiting for the siren to go before he actually kicked it!”
Footy is about more than wins and losses, but still, getting the win was the most important part of the day for the boys on Saturday, even though the first thing Robbie did when the siren went was head straight for his brothers.
“After the draw against Nar Nar Goon (in Round 10) the stalwarts of the club said it was a great result, but as a playing group we were disgusted in it,” Robbie said.
“We’re not the Darnum of old where a draw might’ve been good enough. We want to win now. We’ve got a great bunch of blokes who, it just so happens, can play footy.”
Bombers footy manager Joel Wishart described perfectly what Saturday meant to the group, which currently sits six points clear in the sixth and last finals position.
“It was a pretty special moment,” he said.
“We’ve had it on the radar for a while, waiting for AJ in particular to come through the twos.
“We’ve had this sort of situation before with other families, but never before with five brothers.
“It’s a bit of a shame it wasn’t at home, but the way they won was the thing.
“I was on the bench and as soon as the siren went Robbie bolted over to see his brothers. That was special. If we didn’t win yesterday we were in trouble (for the season) too. It wasn’t a pretty win, but it was really important.
“The Darnum of old might’ve fallen over late in that game, but not this year. The boys just found a way.”
