By Tyler Lewis
Rowville has swiftly transformed from a once inauspicious Eastern Football League (EFL) Premier Division club, to the unassuming minor premiers.
In the Hawks final home game of the season on Saturday, the Rowville faithful came in droves as their side looked to cement pole position in the penultimate round of the year.
After a 2021 season that stemmed in just two wins from nine outings, not much – but simultaneously everything – has changed for the Hawks.
Coach Ben Wise is still at the helm and his senior side remains littered with once junior Hawks.
But the now 15 win and two loss Rowville outfit is a force to be reckoned with and as many seek the answer as to how, why and when this renovation happened, Hawks’ president Ben Corfee simply puts it down to time.
“I think it really comes down to the boys were just a year older and have had a taste of senior footy,” he explained.
“There was no big recruiting drive, a couple of guys came back from VFL footy, but yeah… experience and another year is probably the underpinning factor that’s changed the on field results this year.”
That organic growth the Hawks have taken pride in this year still rests at the top of Corfee’s priority list.
“It’s absolutely critical,” he said.
“And you’ll see out there today, probably 20 of the 22 played junior footy together and have come through together.
“They’re young, they’re hungry and it gives us great optimism that they will want to stay because they’re Rowville people through and through.
“I don’t think we will actively go out and recruit some big names, but maybe some quality footballers might go ‘hang on, I might go and see what that’s about and want to play there’.
“But at the end of the day, 90 percent of the team will always be Rowville boys.”
Despite sitting atop of the table and having beaten each of the five sides that look to be competing in the finals, many are still expecting Rowville to stumble.
The Hawks have channelled comparisons to the 2017 Richmond side that no one – barring Richmond supporters – thought could win it all until the Tigers had a seven goal buffer in the dying stages of the grand final.
Corfee can vision that comparison, while also drawing on a much more recent side that everyone also expects to fall.
“It may well be, and that’s fair enough,” he said.
“I can actually really understand it because all the people around the league are so used to the Vermont’s, Noble Park’s, Balwyn’s and Blackburn’s success they shared amongst themselves.
“Obviously South Croydon in there (too), so we’re very much seen as the up and comer, the outsider.
“It’s probably like Collingwood in the AFL at the moment, everyone is expecting them to fall over and stuff, but they keep going.
“Maybe that will happen with us, but we just want to equip ourselves really well in the finals series and whether that means a premiership, or a prelim final, it’ll be what’ll be.”
The Hawks have sewn up top spot, with third-placed Balwyn on the road this weekend.
