Club History

In the beginning - 1978

January 1978 saw the formation of the St. Norbert Ex-Students' Association Football Club. The motivators behind forming the club were Michael Devine and Mark George. Together with College Prior the late Father Peter O’Reilly, Rob Bormolini who would go on to be the inaugural player/coach, Michael’s brother Brian who would be the club’s first President and John Devitt Snr, they would be known as the founding fathers of SNESA.

A meeting held at the end of January in the College at which approximately 25 ex students and friends attended set the cooperative pattern which was to make this club the best. At this meeting the decision to form the club was made.  The club was accepted into the W.A. Amateur Football League, and as a first year team commenced in "I' Division.

An executive committee was elected and their task became the planning of the club activities, raising finance, organising of training facilities and all other activities that go to funding a successful club. We were fortunate in obtaining the Queens Park Reserve as our home ground and also the use of the College oval for training purposes.

As a first year club we were very successful, out of 18 home and away games we won 13 and at one stage had notched up 7 straight victories. At the end of the qualifying round we held 3rd spot on the premiership table and were unfortunate to be beaten in the first semi-final.

The club was fortunate to have 30 registered players on which to call in fielding a team. Although our team was perhaps the youngest in the Division and lacked a little in experience, the players offset this by their effort and enthusiasm.

The Club which had been formed at the beginning of the season showed other established clubs how well managed and what a professional body it was and as such the players and the club earned the respect of all clubs and was no doubt the envy of many.

All of this was only possible because of a loyal group of players and supporters, an enthusiastic coach in Rob Bormolini and a dedicated executive committee.

1980-1990

SNESA’s first premiership came in 1980, defeating Kondoola by four goals. Back then, SNESA was a single team club in H Grade of the WAAFL.

The 80s was full with all sorts of stories. Some of the players from then have shared the below:

Rob Bormolini - Founding Father, 1978-79 Captain/Coach, Reserves Coach 2004, Life Member

The 1981 Grand Final brawl

The opposition Forrestfield. No more needs to be said. There I was in the stand with some inebriated SNESA supporters a few rows back who took great pleasure in giving some very friendly banter throughout the game. When the final siren sounded their supporters finally had had enough and attacked our boys. Their players coming off the ground saw this and started to climb the front of the stand to join in. Me seeing this unfold joined in to break up the fighting but ended up being pulled to the ground from behind by my hair by a lovely Forrestfield female who was i say 10 feet tall 90 kilos, if not 5.2 and 45kilos. What happened next is a blur.

Dan Volaric - League Coach 1987-89, Fairest and Best 1980, Secretary 1983, President 1990, 1993, Life Member

Ass-hole of the week

Ass-hole of the week was introduced as a part of the team’s training drills to work on correcting basic errors from the game plan. Essentially, anyone who fucked up (e.g. gave away a stupid 50 meter penalty) would be required to stand in front of the playing group at training, drop their dacks, and bend over. The playing group would then practice their hand ball skills with the aim of hitting their target.

Ankle tapper

Playing against National Bank things always got a bit feisty. Often beaten one on one, Bomber (Rob Bormolini) would try to upset opposition players to put them off their game. During one game, Bomber decided to ankle tap one of their players and trip them over. Next thing Bomber was running and weaving between the trees on the boundary line followed by several National Bank players in pursuit.

Brad Viney - League Captain 1981, 1983, 1986-88, Life Member

Back in the very early 80’s on a clear and still Winter afternoon, two dozen SNESA players, a coach by the name of Hardwick, two poodles - Pistol and Boo (possibly), and a few officials trekked to Muresk Agricultural College, Northam ( yes Northam).  The ‘plucky’ SNESA boys thought that the opposition were just a bunch of youth-aged farmers.  They would get more kicks from their horses than on the Muresk playing track. 

Upon the warm up, the SNESA boys thought that the apprentice farmers appeared a bit bigger than what they were led to believe. Just ask a will-o-wisp Premiership player, Life Member and dashing wingman with no left foot by the name of Andrew (Randy Andy) Volaric, brother of the infamous full flowered Danny Volaric. 

As the game evolved, SNESA boys fell like 9 pins but luckily the tough and talented backline kept SNESA in the game - until Randy Andy got ‘ smacked’ big time.  He went down like an East Perth player in the 60’s and 70’s. 

Was it a fair tackle or just another poor crutching job by the Muresk mobsters?  It was serious - no ambulances up there that day. But a quick thinking SNESA official drove a slightly used Valiant Galant onto the field.  A now not so Randy Andy was scrapped of the deck like a butchered calf.  Andrew, as his Mum prefers, was dumped along the back seat of Red Cross Galant - both back doors still open - and transported off to what we all thought was the knackery.  Unfortunately, any spring in SNESA was sprung at that moment.  A tireless and resilient player was Andrew “Randy’ Volaric who went on the play over 200 games for SNESA and retired to extend his commitment to WA as a extraordinarily hard working public servant  across the Training  portfolio,  God bless SNESA and all that have been involved on and right off the field.

1993 and 1997 Seasons and Premierships

The 1993 Season was being coached by Dominic Daly and our main rivals were Hellenics, who were having a very good year.  In the first half of the season we played them up at their home ground in Mt Hawthorn Les Lillyman Reserve.  This was a pretty brutal day with a large amount of behind the play attention with a few scuffles as we were the first team to actually challenge them that year.  They didn’t like it. We ended up winning that game with no real issues after the game.

On the return game which was played at Queensie things were a lot different.  It started to go south pretty quickly however the umpires did little to control the off ball hits.  By the third quarter the antagonism had started to spill over from the ground off the field to involve spectators at this point just yelling abuse.

Finally Shabby (Kevin Kelly) copped one which resulted in a Hellenics player being sent off.  As he walked off to the change rooms a number of verbal altercations broke out which resulted in him telling the SNESA crowd he was getting his mates to come down and they would “sort us out”.  Some 10 minutes later the last quarter was either just starting or had started when Harleys could be heard coming down Treasure Rd.  They rode up onto the ground and parked them on the playing field.

At this point it went really south and fights broke out between the players, supporters and bikies.

In the meantime a players father who was with Perth CIB at the time made a call and very quickly multiple police vehicles arrived with Police Officers now becoming involved in a brawl that by now had resulted in all the women and children present being escorted into the change rooms for their safety.

The game was called off and as more Police arrived so did more bikies.  However by this stage the Police presence had grown so large that things had been settled down.  One player who had to be escorted to his car and left with a Police escort had attracted the attention of the Bikies who proceeded to follow him around Perth for an hour before finally leaving him be.

This resulted in a Red Card and at the tribunal the following week the Umpire who reported the Hellenics player somehow had lost all memory of the incident at the hearing and consequently the Tribunal were left with no option but to dismiss the report.

So come the finals we played Hellenics in the first semi, again the game got out of hand till finally in the last quarter when SNESA was some 10 points ahead an incident occurred right in front of the Umpire at which point Dominic turned to the Umpire and challenged him to stop the game before they had blood on their hands.  At this point the game was stopped, SNESA were declared winners and went through to the Grand Final.  Hellenics were not happy.

Come the Grand Final which was played in Mt Lawley at Inglewood Ova,  it was against Hellenics.  Due to the violence during the season members of the WAAFL were present along with a Police presence.

Having not won a Premiership for some years the team went in with some level of confidence but also knowing the weight of expectation and hope that was on them.

In the end SNESA came out winners after enduring a tough game which coincidently was where SNESA had won its first Grand Final, at Inglewood Reserve 14.13 (97) to Hellenics 7.8 (51).

The following years saw the passing of baton to the next generation of SNESA players as the older players retired (except for Bomber and the Mulveys) and it was at this point that the likes of Kevin Kelly (Shabby), Michael Kelly (Pickle), Dave Dent and Matt Bianchini, with new and upcoming players starting to emerge from heavy recruiting from the School mid 1990’s.

This led to another tilt at a Premiership in 1997.  Under the guidance of Jack McGillivray (RIP) a very talented and youthful Snesa set out with some level of optimism for the year having been building in the preceding years with a strong Colts side that had now progressed to senior football with then likes of Brad Scully (who would go on to inspire a 4th quarter comeback in the Grand Final), Harjit Dhillon, Che Heely, Adam Jongling, Steve Bonetti and Mark Versaico.

The season was tough as usual however there was a top team in Innaloo who had not lost a game in 2 years.  They were going to be a very formidable team.

As the season progressed Innaloo continued their unbeaten streak while Snesa had managed to finish 2nd behind Innaloo.  In the first semi, SNESA played at their home ground and Innaloo demolished SNESA by over 100 points. While Innaloo’s clear dominance was on display their success was to become their undoing. Finals were played as a top five, and as they progressed through the finals, Innaloo only played 2 games in the preceding 5 weeks leading up to the Grand Final which was played at South Fremantle Oval on 13th September 1997.

In what has become a game of genuine folklore, SNESA was going up against a team with runs on the board and an unbeaten track record 1 game short of 3 years.

The game itself was mostly competitive for three quarters however Innaloo maintained a comfortable lead going into the second half, till mid way through the third quarter where there was a sense a shift was starting to occur.  As Snesa started to claw back the lead off Innaloo, a horrific incident occurred in which Brad Skully received a full blown elbow to the face that dropped him instantly.  The Innaloo player was red carded. Brad was left hunched over with blood streaming from his mouth. His jaw had just been broken in two places.

Brad was taken from the ground and taken straight nearby Fremantle Hospitals Emergency. Not long after the third quarter siren sounded and SNESA moved to its huddle.

As a player there are maybe a handful of times in your career that you get to experience a moment, a moment that stays with you long after retirement, that third quarter address from Jack McGillivray to the team and supporters ignited something within the boys that led to a fourth quarter of highlights that would rival any at an AFL Grand Final.

Jack put it to the boys, “if you are prepared to let your team mate wear that”…..and nothing much more was needed.  SNESA went on to run over the top of Innaloo, halt their 3 years of being undefeated by winning the 97 Grand Final.

After the game a Premiership medal was taken to Fremantle Hospital where someone snuck their way into Emergency to get it to Brad. 

After the 97 Premiership there was another period where there was a changing of the guard, as players left. With no Colts, SNESA again started to struggle to field two teams, relegated to a single team by the early 2000’s. By then, the club had pulled up stumps from Queens Park to pursue a better opportunity at Wyong Reserve with better club facilities. This was the home ground of Sunday League club, Canning Tigers. The club came close to folding until a chance encounter at Queens Park oval one summer’s day.

A group of SNESA players decided to have a social cricket match one Saturday afternoon in late 2001.  While getting things underway it became apparent that more fielders were needed.  Two younger guys were having  at hit in the nets so it was decided that they would make their way over and ask them if they wanted to join.

The ensuing encounter was to forever change the fortunes of SNESA.  The two boys were approached and asked would they like to play, “sure they said, why not” “so what are your names lads”?  “Anthony Lo Presti and Craig Wieman. So during the course of the afternoon it was established they were both from SNC and as pre-season was about to start with dwindling numbers an invitation was made to come down and bring as many of your mates from school as they could muster.

That following year names such as Matt Vaisey, Matt Thomas, David Frawley, Justin Baptist, Chris Millsteed, Ryan Edmunds, James Dean, Dean Nelson began to filter through and so started the next phase of the history of SNESA. Bigger things were to come.

2005-Now

2005 saw the dawn of a new era as St Norberts managed to encourage a number of Ex-Students, many of which were from the class of 2004, to join the club in the hope of a rebuild.

In early 2006, longstanding supporter and St Norbert College teacher, Brother Patrick Doolan passed away suddenly on his family farm in QLD while on holiday. Brother Pat was an integral part of SNESA’s success and support. The club continues to honour his memory today with the annual Brother Pat Memorial Match, with medals awarded for best SNESA player afield in each game.

The club continued to play under the name St Norberts, until it changed its official name to SNESA in 2010. The word SNESA was always synonymous with the club as it stood for St Norberts Ex-Students Association. However, the official name change came as a way to be more inclusive of non-ex students.

In 2010 approximately 13 of the St Norbert College First 18s came across and from there, SNESA began to rise to new heights. Its Colts team in 2011 won the West Coast Eagles Colts Premiership, led by Coaches Antonio Cassisi and Christian Tufilli, captained by Joshua Marangon..

In 2010 also, SNESA established the SNESA Angels part of the WA Amateur Womens Football League. One of very few clubs back then to have a Women’s team. The Angels were successful in their 2011 campaign, winning their premiership under then coach Todd Nash.

In 2012 under new Senior Coach Travis Gowland, SNESA made both the C3 Reserves and League Grand Finals. Unfortunately the Reserves went down by 13 points to Ellenbrook and the League by 7 points to Canning Vale in dramatic fashion. However, 2013 saw SNESA compete in the highest ever grade in its history in C2, before being relegated at the end of 2014 back to C3. 2013 was also the year SNESA moved back to Queens Park following the collapse of the Sunday League and the then WAAFL adopting a policy of no ground sharing between competing WAAFL clubs.

2014-2016 saw little success for SNESA, apart from a preliminary final appearance by the Reserves in 2015. In 2017, SNESA made the C3 Grand final under new Coach David Van Raalte and Captain Mark Colace. Unfortunately, SNESA were not successful against Dianella-Morley and as a result, SNESA competed in C2 the following year, only to be relegated once again.

In 2019, long term Reserves Coach Mark Lupica was given the task of leading the League team. SNESA made the Grand Final once again after a thrilling come from behind victory in the preliminary final against Secret Harbour. SNESA were not successful in their premiership quest, going down to Jandakot.

Since then though, SNESA have been competing in C2 Grade, with the Reserves team making the 2020 Grand Final, with no success. 2020 also saw former Fremantle Docker great Ryan Crowley make 4 appearances in a COVID effected year.

Today SNESA Football Club still competes in C2 Grade. The club today touts over 150 registered players and over 400 members and supporters. The club has built a culture based on fun, football and community. A culture that managed to lure AFLPremiership players Chris Masten and Sharrod Wellingham to join the club in 2022.

Whilst recent years have not gained the appropriate trophy cabinet successes, SNESA’s record history is still ahead of it.