How a grassroots push saved Gordon Football Club

In partnership with Toyota.

Just how do you measure success in country footy?

It's a question Gordon Football Netball Club president Kellee Frazer often ponders, having ridden the Central Highlands League rollercoaster for almost two decades now.

She became heavily involved with the club in 2010, when it was on the brink of devastation. Success equalled survival in those early years for Frazer.

Then the needle started to move, and the metrics shifted to developing juniors, being able to field an under-18s team and ultimately, challenging for a drought-breaking premiership.

"It's been a real build where we've had to build everything, change the culture, change the branding," Frazer said.

"We've worked really hard, there's been a lot on governance and it's been a lot of work.

"There were talks of us either folding or merging. The AFL had to come in and help us set up a strategic plan - a few people at the time said if the club's going to survive, we need locals to get back involved."

A key initial step was significantly increasing the club's junior base.

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"One of the things in our strategic plan identified Auskick, the way to develop your club is getting [players] in young," Frazer said.

"[Frazer's husband Adam] started an Auskick program and I helped him with that. We got it up and re-running, and along with that we got NetSetGo running."

From there the club began turning a corner.

Gordon went from not being able to field an under-18s team in 2017, to winning a premiership in that season two years later.

That set the platform for 2022, where the club attained the ultimate success - a top-grade premiership to banish 34 years in the wilderness.

Frazer's son Ben, who'd been a part of the under-18s triumph three years earlier, played in the premiership.

"It was huge, people were standing in the oval in tears," Frazer said.

"We had some young players that had played with us all through their juniors and they were great players and they'd been offered big money and stuff to go to other clubs. They said 'No, we'll stay with Gordon', so it was really good to see that reward for those people that had just stood by us.

"It's a community, and to drive through the community and see all the balloons up, it was amazing, it was one of the best days ever."

Frazer was secretary at the time, a position she held the following season when Gordon went back-to-back.

Last year, she took over as president and was also named the Toyota AFL National volunteer of the year.

She is also a part of the AFL's Lead Your Way program this year, which aims to increase female leadership within the sport across Australia.

And Frazer hopes more success is on the horizon.

'We've still got lots of goals, we need a new oval, our rooms are falling down," Frazer said.

"We're working on it at the moment. You're always working on your next strategic plan. Every year we try to put money away in a term deposit so we've got money for some of the upgrades.

"It's about trying to sustain and build your club. It's so many aspects, it's governance, it's players, it's juniors, it's financial, it's success."

To find out more, head to Toyota's Good for Footy webpage.