As the club looks ahead to its 150th season in 2024, the Tigers committee took a moment to reflect on the significance of its 149th after earning recognition as Community Club of the Year at national and state levels.
The club’s efforts to get back up after the floods and the endless efforts of its army of volunteers were a source of inspiration in the community amid its rebuild and across the nation, earning plaudits from all corners.
The Tigers received the AFL National Community Club of the Year in August before club president Justin Cleary accepted the AFL Victoria version in October.
The Shout A Membership initiative allowed displaced or disconnected community members free access to Rochester games and saw hundreds of memberships bought for Rochy residents throughout the 2023 season.
“That’s what we set out to do, engage the entire community, not just the club supporters but the broader community,” Cleary said.
“I think that’s yielded our success, why we were recognised, because we did reach out and give everyone a place to get together and deal with what they had to deal with.
“Around 700 people bought memberships on behalf of someone else, but a lot of them were also multiple purchases or family donations. It was a significant amount of people.”
With “90 per cent” of the club committee displaced as well as a significant portion of players, Rochester started season 2023 on Saturday, April 8, against Kyabram, a landmark moment in what had been a challenging six months heading into the campaign, including a sizeable clean up.
“Our facilities weren’t too bad, the ground was a bit of a mess, fences were a mess, netball courts were a mess,” Cleary said.
“We have a great board of trustees here that look after the reserve, so it was a community effort facilitated through them to get everything cleaned up and into shape.
“Looking back at some of the footage from preseason, though, I didn’t realise how bad the ground was.
“The facilities came together pretty quick.”
The senior football side would go on to win four games for the season, but the win-loss didn’t capture the whole story for the playing group, according to player Adam McPhee, who painted a picture of players’ experiences on the footy field and netball courts.
“It just brought us together,” he said.
“Us as a playing group, we’re either real old or real young, but we all gel together, and it just brought us closer together.
“We didn’t win many games, but it was a good vibe around the club. It just felt like nothing had really happened.
“When we were playing, we just forgot about all of it.”
For David Ward, it was initially challenging to get things under way.
But the beacon RFNC became for the local community made it all worth it.
“We were exhausted after the floods, and it felt like a bit of a chore at the start,” Ward said.
“Once we got together, we realised it was a commitment that could be good for the community.
“Probably for us it became an unexpected bonus, I think we felt as a committee that we were doing some good.”
Scott Chapman was a volunteer displaced by the floods and said helping out at the club allowed him to take his mind off the event.
“I would have been in not a good spot if I wasn’t here,” Chapman said.
“I try to keep myself as busy as I can over here. I do the scoreboard on the weekends, and I enjoy it up there.
“Last year, I got a position to help out on training nights, taking all the gear out and bringing it back. That was a good thing for me.
“With what I do on Tuesday and Thursday night, I get a better interaction with my players. There’s some terrific people in the club.
“If I didn’t have this to come to, I would have been in trouble.”
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