by Nick Brown
‘NO one individual is bigger than the club’ – that is the motto Noble Park coach Mick Fogarty has drummed into his players during his four years at the helm.
Following his side’s Round 16 loss to Balwyn, Fogarty shocked the club – and wider EFL community – by announcing his resignation.
Just five games later, he is ready to leads the Bulls into the 2013 Division 1 ‘Choose Tap’ Grand Final, with the chance of ending his illustrious career with a premiership.
It would be the fairytale ending every player and coach dreams of.
This is where Fogarty practices what he preaches.
‘It’s not about me,’ the dual-premiership coach made clear.
‘After this, I move on and others come into the club. Yeah if it happens it’ll be great, but it’s not about me, it’s about the club.’
To see whether or not his players listen to the great communicator, you only have to go as far as vice-captain Stewart Kemperman.
When asked if the side had lifted in the second half of the season due to Fogarty’s resignation and if they would dedicate the premiership win to him, his response showed the impact Fogarty has had an on them.
‘Ever since he walked through the doors of the club four years ago, the one thing he reminds us of is that we are nothing without the club and that the club is the biggest thing,’ Kemperman said of his coach.
‘He talks about the great times he has had at the club and reminds us not to take the club for granted. He says others would be jealous of what we have and we have it because of the hard work of so many people and not because of luck of fortune.’
Even though Fogarty’s philosophy has resonated throughout the club, it would be almost impossible for the Bulls to not want to send their coach out with a fitting send off.
Whether it be spoken out loud on Saturday or not, it will be in the back of every player’s mind. And Kemperman agrees.
‘The place won’t be the same without him and he’ll be missed, so we’d definitely love to send him off by winning it,’ he said.
‘If we do win, it would be a fairytale finish for him and people would probably say we did it for Mick. If it happens, it happens, but it’ll only be a part of it, not driven by it.’
Philosophies and thoughts of a fairytale ending aside, Noble Park has a massive task ahead of it to get its hands on the premiership cup. And that’s overcoming the premiership favorite Balwyn.
Noble Park was etched into that same premiership cup under Fogarty’s watch in 2010 and 2011, but the highly respected coach believes that will count for little come Grand Final day.
‘People say that you’ve been there before and have finals experience, but it doesn’t really matter all that much once you get out there,’ Fogarty admitted.
‘It might help in the build-up to the match and with nerves and those types of things, but after that it’s soon forgotten once the game starts.
‘The stakes are high and both sides will be red-hot and won’t be holding back.’
The Bulls haven’t been able to beat Balwyn this season, though what better occasion to do so.
‘Balwyn is a worthy opponent and has had the wood over us. But we hadn’t been able to beat Vermont all season but we beat them to get into the Grand Final, so hopefully we can now beat Balwyn,’ Fogarty said.
‘The beauty of this group is they have such great self-belief. We’ll be heading into the game with plenty of self-belief.’
Only time will tell whether unselfish philosophies, self-belief and the chance to send a club champion off in style will be enough for Noble Park to win its third premiership in four years.
