There were a lot of factors drawing Mathew Sutton to the Caroline Springs Football Club during the off-season.
He lives locally and his son dons a Lakers’ jumper in the juniors.
Sutton is also great mates with both the club’s senior football manager, Marc Raak, and off-season recruit, former AFL champion Brian Lake.
Furthermore, there was the chance to help his community club enjoy some breakthrough success in the Western Region Football League.
However, none of those things made it any easier for Sutton to farewell his previous club. He’s a legend at Melton South after being a long-time star in the Ballarat Football League.
Sutton said moving on was an incredibly tough decision.
“Melton South will always be my football club. I spent 12 years there.
“You can never take that away,” he said. “I love the club so much.
“I look at football a little differently, I suppose. You do it for memories, not for money.
“I’ve got great memories at Melton South and still a lot of great friends there.
“But I wasn’t able to play first division football any more. I didn’t think I was up to it.”
Sutton signed with the division 2 Lakers late last year, and his arrival gave the club’s growing premiership credentials another boost.
Lake-Sutton combo
The Lake-Sutton forward combination was talked up as potentially dominant, and it didn’t take the duo long to deliver.
In Caroline Springs’ round one win against Manor Lakes, the pair combined for 18 goals, with Sutton slotting 11.
Sutton was quick to deflect the attention from his own performance, instead highlighting the work of the Lakers’ midfield in setting up the win.
He said it was a great experience to play side-by-side with Lake.
“It’s great for the football club to have someone of Brian’s calibre.
“He’s a three-time AFL premiership player. I feel sorry for the backmen each week who have to play on him.”
Sutton hasn’t finished creating memories in his football career and says being a Caroline Springs local makes even stronger the desire to help the club break through to win its first finals game at senior level.
“We’ve lived in the area for a number of years now,” he says.
“If I did get the opportunity to have some success at the club, it would be nice to say you were a part of it.
“Hopefully, the club does win a finals game this year.
“We finished fifth last year, so we need to be realistic. There’s a big jump.
“We just need to take these steps and see how we go. At the moment we’re heading in the right direction, but there’s a long way to go.”
Caroline Springs will take on North Footscray this week.
