Robert & Faye Rice, became involved with the Kardinya Football Club in 1986 when their son Christopher joined to play Freeball (known today as Auskick), after hearing about it at the local Kardinya primary school.
The family lived in Kardinya and the club was still very young as from memory was only established in 1979/1980.
At the time the Freeball (Auskick) coach / coordinator was Phil Farmer. Phil coached the Freeball program at the club with his son Trent involved. The club had camps and carnivals, where the boys would go to learn and play football. They would attend carnival days and skills programs – Robert & Faye still have some of the certificates and flags from those days. During this time Phil encouraged Robert to get involved in helping him coach.
In 1987 Robet & Faye’s other son Steven joined Freeball, so Robert decided to get his coaching accreditation, so he could help coach the boys and their team mates.
In 1988 Robert took over from Phil to become the Freeball coach / coordinator, as Phil started to coach the older boys in the club. Faye was helping out in the canteen and started to get involved on registration days etc.
In 1989 the Robert went out to seek for the first time club major sponsorship to keep the club going financially. The club had some small sponsorships in Marmion Fish World that helped with the scoreboard and some other local donations but never a major club sponsorship. The main push was for the Freeballer’s to have a uniform as the freeball players never had jumpers like the older boys. Robert wanted our boys to look professional like some other clubs and that the boys could play in Kardinya jumpers when they played other clubs.
Robert worked for Bonlac Foods and convinced one of their suppliers Tom Piper to became the major club sponsorship, which provided jumpers to all the freeball program and new club jumpers for all age groups. The money also went towards new signage and equipment for the club – and also of course all the tomato sauce the club needed for the canteen.
Robert also organised the meat packs and sausages from a local supermarket called Little Bucks in Brentwood as he was a manager at night. He would prepare and cut up all the meat for the meat packs etc. They supplied all the meat packs for the quiz nights / wind ups and sausages game days for years. We believe this is now a Farmer Jacks.
Faye had joined the junior committee helping with registrations, canteen and windups.
During this time the club had started to show success in some of the older age groups with Kardinya winning the South Fremantle Junior Premierships in u12’s 1986 and u14s in 1988. We believe these were the clubs first premierships in the South Fremantle district. These flags can be seen in the background of some old photos we have.
In 1988 and 1989 the freeball program also had success winning what were called pennants at the carnival days. Carnival days where they would play all clubs across the East and South Fremantle Area in a knockout type series. 1988 was played at Fremantle oval where Phil coached and Robert helped, the next one was played at Brentwood. The boys won outright winners going undefeated against the other clubs across the area in 1988 and 1989.
In 1990 after Robert coached the freeball program for two years, he then followed Phil footsteps to coach the older boys in u10’s. At this stage our older son Christopher was top age u10’s and our younger son Steven played up in the same team so that Robert could coach both boys. This year the carnival day was player at Willagee and again Kardinya went undefeated to win the carnival day for u10’s.
Faye was still helping in the junior committee – canteen, registration days, raffles and windups. Faye even had to coach a game day for the u10’s as Robert was sick.
In 1991 Robert continued to coach the u10’s with our younger son Steven. This year from memory things started to change and carnival days were no longer done and the boys just played other clubs at each other’s ovals.
In 1992 he continued to coach the boys now u10’s – during this time Kardinya was re-zoned to the East Fremantle zone away from the South Fremantle zone, playing many different new clubs that they had never played before.
Robert and Faye had a daughter Rebecca Rice, and Rebecca joined the freeball program being the only girl at the club at the time the age 6. Rebecca from memory may be the first girl to play at the Kardinya Football Club as it was as struggle to have permission for her to play. Rebecca only played a few years at the club as she was a very talented Netball player and eventually moved across to the Netball team.
In 1993 Robert took an assistant coach position in the u13’s side with Christopher. The team ended up finishing third this year.
In 1994 Robert took over as head coach of the u14’s side – at this stage he had coached most of these boys through Freeball now into junior football. This year Robert coached the side to the clubs first junior premiership since 1988 and won the flag. The season was a tough season against some very good sides. The boys went into the grand final against a team they had never beaten in the past two years and were not expecting to win – but after a hard-fought day they came away winning in a very low scoring game.
Faye took on the role as club treasurer after many years on the committee – she continued to help with the canteen, registration days and windups.
In 1995 Robert coached the u15’s side but had to leave during the season due to work commitments, but stayed on as an assistant coach when he could make it.
In 1996 due to work commitments Robert had started his own business and could no longer coach, but did continue to help out at the club as he was a sign writer he helped re-paint the scoreboard and various other signage at the club.
Faye continued as treasurer at the club and part of the junior committee.
In 1997 & 1998 Faye continued as treasurer at the club and part of the junior committee. As both boys had now left the club Faye handed the role over in 1999. Faye also mentioned the club was moving towards computers which Faye was not confident on so she handed the role over.
Robert and Faye Rice were a big part of the history of the Kardinya Football Club throughout the mid 1980’s and over the 1990’s spanning a total of 13 years. Both were honoured by the club with Life Membership with Robert in 1994 and Faye in 1998.
Robert and Faye, both said they had some great parents around them that helped their journey through the years and made some great friends. As most people know it takes a lot of parents to help run a junior club and a lot of time that is given to the club to help all players enjoy their experience and football journey.
The club is very special to the Rice family being there for so long and helping build the club. They are very proud to see the club of what is has become now. Robert and Faye would encourage all parents to get involved with the club and enjoy their son or daughter’s football journey together as you only do it once, and it builds great memories for the family.
