SOME people would think that football is in the genetic makeup of the Davidson family, with three generations of the family having played the game for Collie.
The late John Davidson was the first President of the then Collie Football Club, and remained in the role for over 10 years.
Mr Davidson was passionately involved with the club for over 50 years in various capacities, having started out playing for the original Mines Rovers Club.
His wife, Bev Davidson was also a committed member of the club, keeping the operational side going off the field.
“I was tied up with the food booths at the club for years, and did things like washing the team jumpers,” Mrs Davidson said.
Mrs Davidson said she also fondly remembers when the new recruits would stay with their family for extended periods of time.
“All the recruits used to live with us, it was a bit of a halfway house, every recruit would stay,” she said.
“It’s been a good life, it seems forever ago now.”
Both John and Bev received life membership for the Collie Football Club, and John was also awarded life membership for the South West League, and received an award for his contribution to WA country football.
Their three sons; Peter, Ross, and Jeff all inherited a love of football, playing the game from age 4.
Peter went on to have a career with Claremont, The West Coast Eagles, and Brisbane, before retiring due to ongoing injuries.
“I went to Perth and played for Claremont and then West Coast and Brisbane,” he said.
“I had my first league game when I was 15 years old in Collie, then when I was 17 or 18 when I first played for Claremont.”
“I was part of the inaugural West Coast Eagles in 1987, I was there for 3 years I was injured nearly all of those 3 years.”
Peter then went on to play for Brisbane, but ended up returning to Perth after ongoing injuries kept him off their field.
On return, Peter played for East Fremantle Football Club with brother Jeff for a year, and won a premiership in 1992.
“After that I was finished, I was injured too much, the last 5 or so years of playing I had quite a few injuries,” he said.
Peter won several awards during his footballing years including; Fairest and Best award in 1985 when he was playing with Claremont, and being selected for the under 18 state all-Australian Teal Cup in 1980 and won Fairest and Best for the match.
Peter said things have changed in the footballing world over the years, with work commitments now dictating many of the players schedules.
“It was better back then through, it was all weekends, but now with the shift work it’s not the same, it used to be huge,” Mr Davidson said
“Everyone had the weekend off in those days, now it has sort of died off a bit because of all of the work commitments.”
Peter’s son Jack Davidson currently plays for the Collie Eagles Colts team and won the Fairfax Media colts best and fairest award for this season.
“We were pretty proud of him, he had a really good year,” Mr Davidson said.
“The colts had a really good year too.”
Mr Davidson wished the Collie Eagles League team the best of luck for the finals and said they have every chance of winning.
“Collie should win, the second semi-final we played a lot better than they (South Bunbury) did, if we tackle hard, we will win.” he said.