Fans of the Katandra Football Netball Club will be hit with a blast from the past this weekend as it debuts its heritage jumper for a clash with traditional rival Tungamah.
The Kats will trade their trademark navy blue for the red and white it sported from 1946 to 1952, as they acknowledge their brief history as part of the Central Goulburn Valley League.
An innovation the club has spent years trying to get off the ground, committee member Ross Opie said it was exciting to pay homage to all those that played a pivotal part in building the club into what it is today.
“It is something we have been talking about for a few years and this year we decided that with the older guys getting thinner on the ground we needed to do something,” Opie said.
“We have been wearing the blue jumper since 1953, with the red and white jumper we will wear on the weekend being the one we wore following the war starting in 1946 to 1952 before swapping to the Benalla and Tungamah League.
“It is so exciting to be able to honour the players that played in that era in this way.”
Opie explained the process behind transforming the committee’s brainchild into a final product fit for the field, and why it chose this clash with Tungamah to debut the design.
“A few of us at the club had a bit of a discussion about it and floated the design to the committee who said go for it, and then from there we got approval from the league and went about getting them made up,” he said.
“Playing our old rivals Tungamah, we have a long of history classic games against them, and thought it would be the perfect week to do it and thankfully everything was smooth sailing in getting it ready for this game.”
For those unfamiliar with the design of the Kats’ old school jumper, Opie gave a detailed description of what it looks like and some of its exciting features.
“It is basically the old South Melbourne jumper, so the white guernsey with the red V and we’ve deliberately kept the design really simple to be able to reflect the way it was back in the 40s and 50s,” he said.
“The only changes we’ve made are that we’ve put a little logo on the front to represent the Katandra Football Netball Club — while on the back we’ve put the emblem usually seen on the front of our normal jumper and a recognition that this jumper represents the time we played in the Central Goulburn Valley League 1946 to 1952.”
To honour the debut of this heritage jumper, the club will have three of its legends in Roy Rowan, Merv Opie and Trevor Batey on deck at Katandra Recreation Reserve for a special presentation pre-game.
Batey said it would be a thrill to see Katandra’s traditional red and white brought back to life.
“It is wonderful (to see the club doing this) and brings back a lot of great memories,” Batey said.
“The Katandra locals used to really love the red and white, and when they did make the change to the blue it did take a bit of getting used to.
“So I am so happy to get the chance to the see the jumper back running around Katandra again, and as long as the boys have a red-hot go I will be very happy.”