At 23, Harley Smith will be the youngest club president in the Western Region Football League when he leads Braybrook Bombers into their 140th anniversary season in 2014.
The homegrown product is perfect for the job, as he understands how precious a commodity the club is to the local area and footy in the west.
“I’m a Braybrook kid and I love the club,” he told the Weekly.
“We have a lot of history in this club.”
The Bombers have been like a second family for Smith since he started as a player in the under-10s.
Even when he moved to West Footscray in his teenage years — because Braybrook wasn’t fielding teams in his age groups —Smith would always find a way back to the Brookers. “I was still going back to watch the seniors,” he said.
“I never really left them.”
Smith has earned his promotion to the Bombers’ top job, serving on the committee before eventually taking on the vice-presidency.
When president Paul May shocked the club last month by stepping down for personal reasons, Smith moved into the role.
He aims to just continue with the foundations laid by May and those before him.
“Off the field, we’ve been going exceptionally well financially, and it’s a good spot to be in,” Smith said.
“It’s only going up from here.”
Smith will follow in the footsteps of his father, Neville, who was the Bombers’ president from 2008-11 and is stll on the board.
“He gives me support and I also have the support of the committee,” he said.
At the top of the agenda for Smith will be implementing a junior arm at the club
in 2015.
To unearth the next Ted Whitten (AFL team of the century captain), Brian Wilson (Brownlow Medallist) or Doug Hawkins (Footscray-Western Bulldogs 300-game legend) — all past legends of the Bombers — a return of the juniors is considered a priority.
“That’s something we’re going to try to work on because we don’t have juniors at this point in time,” Smith said.
“We’ll work to that in the next couple of weeks but I don’t think we’ll have juniors in 2014. It’s something I’ll be working on during the year for next year.”
Smith is confident the Bombers can achieve their short-term goal of remaining in the second division of the WRFL.
This season, the second tier will split into two after round 13 to form three divisions.
And under new coach Michael Shepperbottom, the Bombers have no intentions of being relegated.
“Dare I say, it will probably be our strongest side in three to five years,” a confident Smith said.
“Our No. 1 goal is to avoid relegation after round 13.
“If we avoid that we can push to make the finals.”
