Cheetahs celebrate 100 years of club history

FROM its beginnings at Bakers Oval to a century of football in Geelong’s west, the Blue West Cheetahs are celebrating 100 years of history this week.

Life member Daryl Craven has witnessed decades of the club’s journey since joining as a 19-year-old in the late 1970s. He went on to play more than 180 senior games and feature in two premierships.

He arrived after what he describes as the club’s “halcyon days” and experienced a period of significant change, with Geelong West moving from the Geelong and District Football League (GDFL) competition into the inaugural Geelong Football League competition in 1978.

The club returned to the GDFL 1986.

Regardless of where the Cheetahs played, Craven said its identity remained the same.

“It was a real blue-collar club,” he said.

“It was just really tight-knit, family oriented. Everyone all got on together well.”

Craven said reaching the 100-year milestone is an achievement shared by only a handful of community clubs.

“It’s just a testament to the club,” he said. “To be amongst that group and to still keep going is huge.”

He said the club’s greatest legacy wasn’t its premierships, but the lasting impact it had on generations of players, volunteers and families.

“The people who started these clubs off probably had no idea how much enjoyment and effect they’d have on people’s lives 100 years down the track,” Craven said.

“Anyone who’s involved with clubs, they’re all the more richer for the experience. No one’s ever any poorer for it.”

The milestone, he said, was even more remarkable given the pressures facing community sport today.

“It was a lot simpler back in those days,” he said. “We’d have a committee of 20 people, because people just wanted to get involved.

“Nowadays, no one’s working nine to five anymore. Mum and dad are both working and they might work on Saturdays.

“It’s difficult for people that are doing all that work now to give up extra time to volunteer and help out.”

Geelong West marked its centenary by wearing commemorative blue-and-yellow Cheetahs guernseys during its clash with Belmont last weekend.

The club’s 100-year celebratory dinner will be held at West Oval in North Geelong on Saturday.