‘The most important thing about this year is community’: Shepparton United Football Netball Club returns to its past in celebrating 75th anniversary

It’s a new-look approach off the fields and courts as well, though, with the club due to mark its 75th anniversary campaign in a big way.

As pre-season rolls around all over the region and teams assemble to look towards the future, United will honour its past with a raft of celebratory events throughout the year planned.

In addition, the club will restore its original logo to commemorate its lengthy club history for the 2025 season, and this weekend brings about United’s official season launch event.

Initially known as City United under inaugural coach Pat Dalton (a former Collingwood player), but having always donned the iconic Demons colours, the club hit the ground running in the GVL with a hat-trick of senior flags under legendary coach Kevin Kenna from 1954-56.

Over history, the footballers have done a lot of their best work in bunches, also rattling off consecutive flags in 1987-89 as well as 2010-11 as part of what has since become 12 senior premierships.

The Demons’ A-grade contingent, meanwhile, has achieved the ultimate prize on four occasions since the competition’s inception in 1981, its most recent success arriving in 2014 as Shinea Sali takes the reins in search of another finals berth.

Nobody is capable of offering a greater glimpse into United’s history than its oldest surviving member — Max Osborn, the man who has seen it all since the Shepparton East-SPC merger in 1949, who has been bestowed a rightful status for 2025.

“Max is our number one ticket holder in reflection of the history of this club,” incoming Demons president Kevin Hicks said.

“He’s aged well, like the club, as he’s got good memories and he’s sound-minded.

“We’ll have a function this year to celebrate every decade of the club. Garry Osborn has captured a lot of history on his lens, and he was a strong administrator behind a lot of our juniors and thirds in the 80s.

“The Osborns all have strong involvements in the history of the club. Most of our supporters have two or three generations who are involved with the club, and our kids have brought us back.”

These family-oriented sentiments were echoed by co-vice president Ric Sofra, himself the bearer of a storied United name.

“I’ve been involved in this place since I was six, and the most important thing about this year is community,” Sofra said.

“I have four boys here at the club and the big thing is it’s not a ‘footy club’ anymore, it’s a family club.

“We have things like netball and women’s football making up big parts of it now as well.”

The familial connections which adorn the club’s lineage are illustrious, of course.

There will always be juniors who earn the chance to go on and carve their own imprints out over a long stretch as well — and sure enough, the Demons’ seniors will be led by one of their finest tenured talents.

It’s an occasion which carries plenty of meaning in its own right for newly installed co-coach Jesse Cucinotta, donning the iconic top on a full-time basis after multiple years in the VFL system as well.

“After the on-field struggles we’ve had the last few years, it’s been reinvigorating for players to reconnect with the past,” Cucinotta said.

“With guys like Fraser Hicks and Aaron Britten coming back over the last year or two, and now Kade Chalcraft returning this year, we’re reaching back into what it means to be a club.

“We loved our time as juniors there, and all throughout our time playing elsewhere, we sort of had our pact that we would come back.”

He would take time to reflect on his own journey through the ranks, as anyone who’s come this far would be wont to do.

He had no trouble, however, recognising in the same breath that taking charge at United — especially during a time like this one — embodies significance bigger than himself.

“The 75th year is that extra cherry on top to get people motivated,” Cucinotta said.

“You don’t reflect on it enough because you’re in a ‘go, go, go’ mindset during pre-season, but it is an awesome privilege at this club I was playing for when I was 12.

“To be on this side of it now coaching is a special thing, and doing it with a bunch of my best mates is something I love.

“There’s been a lot of people coming through the club who have made impacts big and small, so it’s about bringing connections back not just to United, but to country sport.

“Closing the gap this year is a clear focus for us, and we’re pushing for finals after bringing in some high-end talent.

“Our best is good enough to match and compete with top teams, but our drop-off is what cost us a lot of games we were in. We’re seeing steps in the right direction, and I believe we do have the talent.”

Succeeding Max in the family’s United lineage is Garry, whose three sons would also go on to don the Demons garb.

As part of the only three-generation set to have been awarded life membership alongside Max and grandfather Fred, Garry has taken a wealth of responsibility in archiving United’s history.

As such, he understands the gravity of what 75 years means better than most.

“It’s hard to imagine that 75 years ago when the club first formed, Dad had the opportunity as a 14-year-old to contribute,” Garry said.

“They had very little back in those days, but the camaraderie was unbelievable. The original rooms doubled as change and social rooms.

“We had some great leaders in Harry Luck, Alan McCluskey, Kevin Kenna and co. So many people and their families have shown the commitment and dedication required to get the club to where we are today.

“We can now allow the young ones coming through the opportunity to be involved, just like Max was given in 1950.”

Then, we naturally come over to the man at the centre of it all from day one.

A man who receives the club’s greatest annual honour this year, now aged 88, whose association with these colours was born out of the same working-class origins as the club itself.

“It’s a good thing we got to 75 years and I’m glad we can still be part of it,” Max said.

“My father was a trainer at SPC and United and I started off there running the boundary then got into the under-17s.

“Being a young bloke, all the old guys would talk to me around the club and as you get older, you get better and better at things.

“I was on the committee after my playing days and it all went on from there with volunteering and everything. Everyone needs volunteers to keep the club going.

“I nearly won a premiership coaching the under-17s, and then playing in the 1962 premiership side was a big moment for me getting picked in that team under John Brady.”

An ever-reliable club figure, Max would enrich himself through the litany of well-known personalities to give their time at United over the years.

To that end, he’s had three quarters of a century worth of gratitude to bestow upon those who made the venture so successful in its early going.

“They put a lot of time into us to try and get something out of it; that’s why we were a successful club through all those years,” Max said.

“Coaches like Brady and Kevin Kenna were influential in getting me where I got to. He was good to me, and they were all real good blokes.

“It’s a good thing we got to 75 years, and I’m glad I can still be part of it; I enjoyed running the can shop on match days.

“Garry still does a bit around the club as well, and I’m at the footy most times.”

Of course, the seniors have been in the doldrums for consecutive seasons coming out of the pandemic.

In a year of heritage, honour and history, though, comes a ray of optimism from the man who has seen every kick, mark, goal, heartbreak and ecstasy this team has ever endured.

“I think we’re in for a good year. We’ve been down for a couple of years, but we’re looking on the brighter side of things at the moment,” Max said.

“We’ve got the launch coming up, and then we’ll go from there and see how the year pans out.

“There’s a lot of good people around the club, and if I get a job to do, I make sure it’s done right from the start.

“You set an example for people when you’re a bit older.”