A quiet confidence exists within the ranks of the Lancaster Football Netball Club that is often off-putting for its opposition - the last two years in particular have seen the club secure successive Kyabram District League senior football titles with a minimum of fuss.
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If dual premiership ruckman Coby O’Neill was to be characterised by KDL football experts it would fit neatly within the unassuming and workmanlike traits associated with the club.
One distinctive characteristic of the wombat, the emblem of the club which has won eight grand finals in the last 43 years (the best strike rate, alongside Nagambie, of any club in the competition), is that it is rarely seen.
O’Neill’s work as a ruckman correlates with the no-nonsense approach to life of the Australian marsupial. He goes about the business of providing the Lancaster ground level players with first use of the ball without the fanfare and celebrated status of his teammates.
Another important part of Lancaster is family, O’Neill is the son of a former president and both his sisters have played netball for the club.
“My family had been at Lancaster for a number of years before I came out. My oldest sister won multiple premierships for Lancaster during her junior years, as well as an A-grade premiership,“ he said.
Both of the soon to turn 28-year-old’s parents, Rod and Kate, played football and netball for Girgarre.
He is quick to point out, from what he is told, he is nothing like his father on the football field.
“From what I’ve heard we are quite different players. Dad was a real tough in and under backman that loved getting into the head of the opposition and causing some trouble on the field,” he said.
“I was always more of a lead up forward and now a tap ruckman.”
Family is also an important part of O’Neill’s professional life. He is part of Berry Street’s Kinship Care team, supporting children that have been placed with grandparents or other family members.
He has been married for two years, to Sonia, who plays netball in the blue and yellow colours.
Friends also played a big part in O’Neill choosing to pursue his football career with the Wombats, despite being a Goulburn Valley league Under 18 representative and seemingly on track for a long career in the Bombers senior ranks.
As a Kyabram junior O’Neill kicked 90 goals in 30 games at Under 16 level (in 2011-12), then another 90 goals in 39 games of Under 18 football in the next two years (including 57 goals in 16 games in 2014).
He started his career at Lancaster in a similar vein, kicking 36 goals in 19 games in 2015, before injury issues restricted him to just 34 senior games in the next four seasons.
Since the COVID impacted season of 2021, however, he has come back better than ever.
He played all 13 games in 2021, then had a 16 game-24 goals 2022 premiership winning season and was runner-up to Zac Cerrone in the 2023 best and fairest count after playing 17 games and kicking 11 goals.
Interestingly he does have one Lancaster best and fairest to his credit, while playing junior netball for the club.
This year he has continued that trajectory, 10 games and half of those among the best half dozen players on the ground.
O’Neill said his coach, Tom Davies, was more than aware of his ability as a forward but with limited ruck options in recent years it had become his lot to fill the role alongside Nick Ryan for much of the last four seasons.
“Tom knows that he can rely on me to go out there and do my best in the ruck each week and provides me with the opportunity down forward when he can,” he said.
“When I first got to Lancaster I would have said I would prefer to play forward, however, now that I have been playing ruck for so long, I do enjoy it.”
O’Neill’s height has meant several seasons of acting as the Wombats swing-man, going back and forward in between stints in the ruck.
He has kicked 57 goals in 80 games with the Wombats in eight and half seasons, a majority of those spent in the ruck.
“With the forward line that we have I haven’t really been needed down there and other players do the ruck work in the forward line,” he said.
This year, for the first 10 weeks anyway, O’Neill has been rucking almost solo as Ryan serves a 10-game suspension issued to him in the 2023 grand final.
Last week another member of that winning team, Ricky Thomson, was back in the line-up and gave some support to O’Neill in the ruck.
“If Nick had been playing, I probably would have still been doing the majority of the ruck work,” he said.
“Him being there may have given me a few more chances to swap out and have a break down forward.
“I don’t think too much will change when he returns. I will still do the ruck work and Nick will swap in to give me a rest.”
In an interesting twist O’Neill is now playing with the coach of his Under 18 Kyabram premiership team, Paul Newman.
“Paul was always a player that I enjoyed watching for Kyabram and then I was lucky enough to be coached by him in my first year of Under 18 football - when we won a premiership,” O’Neill said.
“I also enjoyed watching Paul Burnett play while he was out at Lancaster. I was the waterboy when he coached, so got to see first hand how he played and how tough he was.”
Like many good judges in the Kyabram District League, O’Neill rates Tom McCluskey from Shepparton East as the competition’s premier ruckman.
“He is a very smart and talented ruckman, so it’s good to go one on one with him and I feel we have some good battles when we are against each other,” he said.
Kyabram Free Press and Campaspe Valley News editor