It’s been quite the journey over the last 10 years for Essendon Doutta Stars.
Everyone knows the side has been a staple of the EDFL’s top flight since 2015, however their success hasn’t always been guaranteed.
Despite being one of the proudest and most successful clubs in the EDFL with 20 senior premierships across A-grade and B-grade, their returns haven’t been as fruitful in recent years.
Since winning the Division One flag back in 2015, the side hasn't made finals and have finished ninth on three occasions to narrowly avoid relegation.
However, 2025 has been a year of celebration for the Stars.
The club has been brilliantly led by President Kirk Thompson, and experienced coach Barry Prendergast has guided the side magnificently.
The team is eyeing its first senior men's finals series since 2015 and it’s all on the back of hard work from players and staff, as well as consistent development.
Thompson says the club’s proud history has held it in good stead and hopes it is about to embark on another period of sustained success for the club.
“We’re very lucky to have a very proud history,” Thompson said.
“The club still holds the record of the most A-grade premierships in the Essendon District Football League.
“That’s not lost on us, how important it is to reconnect with that and celebrate that.
“I think it is easily forgotten about these days, people go buying and chasing instant success, whereas we want to make this sustainable and something that rolls on for a while.
“A lot of our core group are only 18-22 years old, so hopefully these guys have got their best footy ahead of them and at that point they can bring the younger guys through with them.
Like any club will tell you, sustaining success at the top level is a reflection of what is happening at a junior level.
Douttas are no different, their junior program continues to build to allow them to compete with the competition’s heavyweights.
The club had to rebuild its under 18 program in recent years and the move has helped fast track the growth of the team’s young superstars.
“Our junior program has become a big focus of ours," Thompson said.
“Obviously we don’t have the talent pool and probably the depth that Aberfeldie, Strathmore, Keilor, or even Pascoe Vale have at their disposal.
“For us it’s all about making the most out of what we have and a priority of ours was to get games into kids.
“You look at our current under 14 and 16 age groups, hopefully those guys can go along for the journey with guys that we have here now.
“I think importantly for the club in order to get anywhere near the top, we had to rebuild our under 18 program.
“When I first got in here that was a massive priority of ours – to get a team back on the park because we didn’t have a side.
“To get two teams three years on is no small feat and that is a credit to the hard work of everyone around the place.
Douttas' rise up the ladder wouldn’t have been possible without Barry Prendergast.
The experienced footy head took over from Paul Barnard halfway through 2022 and has helped provide the stability the club was craving.
Despite winning just five games in both his first two seasons, there has always been steady improvement, with the highlight last year coming in their win against Aberfeldie.
Due to the age and inexperience of the list heading into 2025, the club was unsure how the team would fare, however development was still front of mind.
They were very optimistic when they easily accounted for WFNL premiers Hoppers Crossing in a March practice match and some promising performances in early matches showed they were on the right track.
“Because we are so young it is very hard to predict the growth that you are going to get,” Prendergast said.
“You know that there is going to be a spike at some point, but development is never incremental and you can sometimes just roll along and it takes a while for that spike to occur.
“We thought that game against Hoppers Crossing was a reflection of how our preseason had gone, however we’ve just got to build from there, but it certainly did give us a good starting block.
“When we played Pascoe Vale and you’re playing last year’s runners up, you hold them in fairly high regard, but we certainly walked away really happy with the level of our play.
“It didn’t increase expectations too much but it was like, 'Well that’s the level of play and we can compete at that level'.
“Then we went into Abers, and we were pretty stiff not to win that game in the end.
“Those games we were disappointed not to win because we had ourselves in winning positions, but in terms of the progression of our play and how we wanted to play our footy, we were really happy."
The most impressive part of Douttas' season has been their ability to turn solid players into genuine A-graders and stars of the competition.
Superstars Bailey Ryan, Declan Willmore, and Liam Mercieca have all taken their games to the next level in 2025 and should excite supporters for many years to come.
Ryan is second on the leading goal kickers tally with 55 goals (up from 32 in 2024), while Mercieca is averaging 126 ranking points (96 in 2024), and Willmore 109 (68 in 2024).
“Bailey Ryan came to us with some real improvement areas and things that he needed to get better at,” Prendergast said.
“He put in some really good performances last year and he quickly got targeted by a few blokes who had the physical capability to be able to match him and take him out of the game.
“He’s learnt some running patterns and his ground level game has improved immensely and that’s really come to the fore over the last few weeks.
“There were some things that he did naturally that were taking a long time to coach out of him, but the penny has dropped in a few areas this year and he is reaping the rewards.
“The development of Liam Mercieca as a ruckman this year has been huge.
“He has had a massive influence on our performance as any ruckman does in any team in this competition.
“He is such a powerful individual around the ball and we are still a young and developing team, and that really helps the team.
“He is absorbing more game time in the ruck but he’s adapting to the level and there’s a much better connection between him and the midfielders now.
“Dec Willmore almost had two years out of the game.
“His ability to intercept and mark the ball is pretty elite in the competition and he’s all of a sudden just got a lot of continuity in his football.
“He’s certainly a high intercept possession player, but especially intercept marking, he’d rank really high in that stat.
“He’s pretty versatile, he can play a bit smaller as well because his mobility is very good at ground level."
While there’s still one more match to play before Douttas know if they’ll be playing finals, there’s no doubt that 2025 has been a resounding success.
With continual growth and stability at the top, there’s a good chance Douttas will be adding to their proud history in the near future.
