FOR Stacy Fiske it's the "community feel" of the Heathcote District Football Netball League that most endears him to the competition.
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It's a community feel that he has experienced at two clubs - Huntly and Lockington-Bamawm United - during a stint in the competition that encompasses 200 games.
Fiske spent 2011 to 2022 with Huntly and is now in his second season as coach of LBU, with the two clubs he has been associated with locking horns this Saturday in round four at Huntly.
Including inter-league matches, Fiske notched up 200 games involved with the HDFNL last weekend.
"I played a lot of Bendigo footy growing up and it doesn't quite have that same feel as what you get when you have full communities involved and I've realised that even more in particular over the past couple of years since coming out to Lockington," Fiske said this week.
"The whole community gets around the club whether it's on a Saturday or a Thursday night... what happens in the community during the season revolves around the fixture.
"It's nice to not only be able to enjoy playing football, but enjoy the people around the club as well and that's one of the great aspects of country footy."
Before beginning his foray into the HDFNL with Huntly in 2011 Fiske had played senior Bendigo league football with Golden Square and also in the VFL with the Bendigo Bombers.
Fiske had a year off football in 2010 following a nasty head collision injury while playing for the Bombers against Port Melbourne in 2009.
During his 11 years at Huntly Fiske had two stints as senior coach, with his first coinciding with the Hawks' grand final appearance in 2013.
That grand final against LBU in 2013 in what was Fiske's second season at the helm came just two years after the Hawks had claimed a 10th wooden spoon in a row.
Although the Hawks lost to the Cats by 58 points as part of LBU's run of four flags in a row, it was a mighty turnaround in a short period of time for the club and one that Fiske looks back on proudly.
"Getting Huntly out of that wooden spoon territory was a highlight of my coaching," Fiske said.
"Looking back on playing in that 2013 grand final, from both a league and community point of view, to have a team that had been down the bottom for such a long time show that you can turn it around and make that jump is an achievement I look back on with a lot of fondness.
"It was great for that little community to pull itself away from the stigma of 10 wooden spoons in a row and over the following five or so years the club continued to play finals regularly."
Now with the Cats, defender Fiske - a teacher at Maiden Gully Primary School away from footy - is continuing to hunt that first HDFNL flag he has been chasing since joining the competition.
His Cats have made a 1-2 start to the season ahead of Saturday's trip to play the winless Huntly.
