ROOSTERS have become a near mythical creature in Ballarat football - their three-peat is almost a thing of folklore now.
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Their tale of conquering the near improbable - a country club capturing a Victorian Football League flag hattrick - carries the lesson in sport's dynamic nature. Faster, stronger talent is pushing through. Tactics change. Eras change.
Not that we need the reminder this year in how different the sporting world can get.
Ten years have passed since North Ballarat Roosters' captain Shaune Moloney and coach Gerard FitzGerald held aloft the VFL premiership cup at Docklands.
In this time, the Roosters have essentially become extinct, the league is morphing into a playground along the Australian east coast for AFL clubs to run their 'seconds' and the stadium in which this flag was one is now named branded for a superhero franchise.
Even Carlton this year severed an 18-year investment with Northern Bullants (later known as Northern Blues), who were the Roosters grand final opponent a second season straight.
North Ballarat Roosters were never expected to win their first flag in 2008. It was a win not just for this city, but for country Victoria. The Roosters reinvented themselves twice more to defy the odds. They created a legacy.
On this day, Isaac Smith, recruited from Redan mid-season, claimed a medal and was drafted to Hawthorn later that year before going on to become a three-time AFL premiership player. Orren Stephenson, Cam Richardson and Steve Clifton were also later called up to AFL ranks.
We can back and be proud. But we should also look back and realise our potential.
There is no doubting our grassroots games will be dramatically impacted by the pandemic for a long time. This should not block us from continuing to push our games and our most promising athletes to the highest levels.
Things change. The new structure to state league football next year, with the prospect of regular interstate travel, makes it drastically tougher for good players in western Victoria to compete. Our basketballers have long done so, but they have a home base in Ballarat.
This does not mean we go back, but what can we do to move forward?
Could it be in trying to recruit more creatively, like Joe Carmody at Ballarat Swans?
We can still feel the ripple effects from the Roosters' 2010 VFL premiership.
Livewire forward Bill Driscoll this week committed to another season with Springbank, if possible, as a fly-in-fly-out player from Woolongong. That is a big boost for the Tigers and a coup for Central Highlands Football League.
Inspirational premiership captain Shaune Moloney helped keep country football and netball spirits high this year in co-hosting a "farm fit" video intended for Rokewood-Corindhap, where he now coaches, only for it to go viral nationwide.
There are also the ripple effects from in the wake of the premiership era: a strong band of players pushing into Roosters' ranks who are still in action across the region.
The model was essentially about going to the top and bringing those lessons back into the community. Quality players and their experience to lead our game helps lift the standard at the grassroots.
The Roosters may be gone, but the lesson that era taught us needs to be kept alive.
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