Recognising the past will be front and centre at Longwood Football Netball Club this season with the club unveiling a new logo for 2023.
Featuring a Bullant along with the club’s recognisable lettering and the addition of the word Redlegs, Longwood will enter its 135th year full of life.
While some took the new look as a rebranding from the Redlegs to the Bullants, Longwood president Ricki Shiner said that was a misconception.
“The club had been operating without an emblem as such and it has just been the club letterhead — that was how people identified our club,” Shiner said.
“We just thought why not have a bit of acknowledgement of your past histories and that was why we thought, let’s incorporate a Bullant into our logo.
“So it’s not a name change or anything like that, it’s just acknowledging our past.”
Shiner said Longwood was once called the Bullants before returning from a short recess to become the Redlegs.
“It is important because if we don’t acknowledge the past then Longwood was basically born in 1970 not in 1888 like you see across the bottom of the logo,” he said.
“This coming year is going to be 135 years of the club, so we plan on having a large celebration for that and that was sort of another reason for it.”
Acknowledging the past is well and truly the theme for the club heading into its 135th year, with the logo just the initial step.
Connections to the club’s proud history run deep, with senior footballer Kyle Withers and A-grade netball assistant coach Kait Carracher continuing strong family legacies at the club.
“We want to try and get as many of those people who have been here through those formative years and have family connections there (at the celebration),” Shiner said.
“We just wanted to acknowledge the past and the logo was our way of doing it.
“You go to Longwood and come to Redlegs Stadium and that’s the way it will always be.”