2024 Hostplus SANFL Volunteer of the Year Finalist – Shane Ploenges

By JORDAN ROUTLEY

Shane Ploenges can easily be described as the heartbeat of the Nangwarry Football Club, with his commitment and dedication to the mighty Saints seemingly knowing no limits.

A former player and life member of the Mid South East Football League, Ploenges served as a volunteer and sat on the committee in his final few years as a player before hanging up the boots and moving into administration.

This coincided with the Saints’ most successful period in their history, with the club winning four premierships in seven years through the ‘90s.

After two years as vice president, Ploenges took over the presidency in 1998 and has continued in the role to this day while also working as a coach, recruiter and bartender at different times.

“I have always been about giving back and making sure there are opportunities for kids to continue to play footy,” Ploenges said.

“With all small country towns and the limited number of kids that are about these days, to be able to stick it out with low numbers and help keep giving kids a game of footy I think is important.”

As a stalwart of the club over several decades, Ploenges has seen all the ups and downs, with one of his proudest moments the snapping of an eight-year losing streak in 2022.

“To finally break that drought was pretty special and continuing to be a pretty resilient group and come through that and starting to become more competitive again has been pretty good,” he said.

Ploenges was also instrumental in establishing the club’s female football program, with the Saints fielding a senior women’s team in the past two seasons and continuing to grow participation numbers.

“There were some girls that wanted to have a game of footy and to kick that off and hopefully continue to build that and give women some opportunity to play footy as well,” Ploenges said.

By far the biggest challenge the club has faced was the January 2019 arson attack that destroyed the Nangwarry clubrooms and caused $500,000 worth of damage.

Despite the devastation caused by the fires, Ploenges is proud of how the community pulled together to support the club to get back on its feet.

“Council let us use the swimming pool next to the club so during the winter we were using their rooms so we still had somewhere to go after games and the Forestry and Logging Museum let us use one of their rooms for functions,” Ploenges said.

“We had to get insurance and so forth sorted first and we were lucky to get a government grant to go along with that and we had to get plans drawn up for all that.

“We are only a small town, there is no local pub or anything like that so the club is a meeting place, so to get that back up and running and have a facility that is pretty modern is great.”

Shane is one of seven finalists for the 2024 Hostplus SANFL Volunteer of the Year Award, with the winner to be announced at the annual SANFL Community Volunteers Awards Night at Adelaide Oval on Friday, 11 October.