Joel and Luke Adams
THE Adams name is one synonymous with the Daylesford Football Club.
And it will be celebrated once again tomorrow when brothers Luke and Joel run out side-by-side for their 250th senior matches.
The pair started playing junior football with the club, and has been there through its journey from the Ballarat Football League to its new home in the Central Highlands.
Joel, a rugged midfield/defender, has played his entire career with Daylesford, sharing both the club’s 2007 and 2009 senior premierships with his older brother, who has spent brief periods away with other teams over the journey.
Luke, a former Daylesford coach, had a stint at the North Ballarat Roosters, as well as a successful couple of years with Bendigo league side Castlemaine, which netted him a premiership and a league best and fairest award.
The 36-year-old also had a year with Daylesford’s arch-rival Hepburn – a move he’d rather keep quiet – and played the majority of 2011 with Anglesea in the Bellarine league due to personal reasons.
However, with his son debuting in the Bulldogs’ under-12s this season, the classy midfielder is travelling back to play with the club he calls home.
“I’ve pretty much played the whole lot at Daylesford and I want to be known as a Daylesford player,” Luke, a dual Central Highlands league best and fairest, said.
“I love the culture and mates I’ve made over the journey there. To play juniors with guys and still be playing really good senior football with them now, I’ve just loved it.
“I love the effort we are putting into juniors now. I’m playing with kids I didn’t think I’d ever be running on the ground with.
“I played footy with some of their dads when I first started, now I’m playing with their sons.”
Joel, 34, echoed many of his brother’s thoughts, saying the premierships and the chance to play alongside AFL draftee Josh Cowan had been highlights of his career.
“Come footy season we eat, live and breathe football at Daylesford,” Joel, who has two younger brothers playing in the Daylesford reserves, said.
The pair will have a big role to play tomorrow when the Bulldogs welcome a full-of-confidence Clunes side, which is backing up from its narrow one-point loss to Beaufort at the weekend.
Daylesford will also be out to avenge a last-start defeat, which came at the hands of Creswick.
PREDICTION: Daylesford to mark the milestones with a 35-point win.
