Chris Wilkie admits Geelong West would not be around to celebrate its 100th anniversary if not for the joint venture it entered into with the GFNL club Geelong West-St Peter’s in 2016.
The Giants president, who has been with the club for 30 years, save for a couple of seasons at Corio in the 2000s, recalled the then Cheetahs struggles ahead of Saturday’s milestone match against the Belmont Lions.
“If this (joint venture) didn’t come in, or this didn’t come to a head, or come to a vote to the players, we probably would not be here celebrating 100 years, we would not have made it,” Wilkie told K rock Football’s Beyond the Boundary podcast.
“We would have, unfortunately, probably closed the doors. Not due to financials… we could not sell anything to anyone.
“Everyone knows Bakers Oval’s got a lot of tradition. You know, (if) those walls could talk, you would be here for bloody years and years and years.
“But, when you are trying to recruit, and you are not winning, and you are trying to sell something, it is a pretty hard gig to try and get people over the line.”
Wilkie says the first decade of the alliance with the GFNL Giants has not always been smooth sailing.
However, he believes it is continuing to evolve.
“We’re really strict on what’s going to make the club better,” Wilkie said. “I think we turned the corner, probably about six or twelve months ago.
“With the juniors that are coming through now – and I really harp on about our juniors, or the juniors from the club coming through the GDFL, they are getting games into them, they are performing really well.
“It’s going to take time, and being around that block before, from 2016 to now, I understand. It is not going to happen overnight, but it will happen, and I’m confident it will happen.
“I’m confident these kids are going to flourish, nurture, improve, and then move forward and hopefully bring us back up to where we should be.
“And then with those kids coming through, hopefully the next lot of kids are seeing that as well.
“This is our third year with two under-18 teams, and we have got a ‘Thirds’ team which is nearly full of under-18 kids.
“We have got kids there; we have just got to put time and effort into them.”
West will wear a heritage jumper based on a design worn by Geelong West Cricket & Football Club teams during the first half of its existence.
“This one’s more of a tribute back to the (19)30s, 40s, 50s and 60s,” Wilkie said.
The Giants (12th, 0-10), who were well beaten by the unbeaten Werribee Centrals last week, will be boosted by the return of Justin Carey, Daniel Craven, Brayden Mitchell and Riley Seresi-Unsworth for the meeting with the Lions.
They replace Dylan Kollegger (injured), Rilley Ford, Jack Logan, and Alex Papas.
The match will double as former coach Scott Frangos’ 300th and final appearance for the club at junior and senior level across Geelong West-St Peter’s, Geelong West GFNL and the GDFNL Giants.
The Lions welcome back Sean Hogan, Braeden Eddy and Steve Gunther, who replace Lachie Slorach, Jake Steel, and Jake Butler.
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