It's very eerie..even sinister you could say..the drive up Yea Road towards the bushfire devestated community of Kinglake.

On both sides of the road, blackened tree after blackened tree.The scorched forest punctuated by piles of rubble and tin that were once homes and sheds.

You almost feel excited when you see the occasional chimney still upright.

But it's the silence that gets you.

There are still no animals,no birds here. You hear nothing.

But once you arrive on the outskirts of Kinglake that silence is broken; but not with what you'd expect. You hear it waft through the ruins of the primary school and a razed restaurant alongside the oval ..shouts of "Doggy!!" "Eggy!" "Robbo!";the occasional swearword, and the unmistakeable sound of boot thumping pigskin.

In the middle of all this devestation, the Kinglake Footy Team is training for the upcoming season. THE most important season in the small town's history.

In Kinglake and surrounds, 45 people died and hundreds of homes were destroyed on February 7th. Walk down the main street and there's just a handful of shops left. There is no community hub and precious little cheer left.

That's why the 150 members of the 'Lakers' football club voted unanimously late last month to play this season despite the disaster. That's why every Tuesday and Thursday nights, record numbers are turning up to train.

Players well into their forties are pulling on the boots again.

This community desperately needs a focus, a distraction. And the footy team is it. People desperately need something else to talk about apart from tragedy.

Club President and local cop Cameron Caine admits originally he thought it would be too much of an ask to field a team this season, but the locals' reaction overwhelmed him.

"We're rising from the ashes, I suppose you could say," he said.

"Yeah harness what has happened and turn it into a good. Every single guy out there realises the most important thing is to get the football club up and running for the whole community."

Cameron, who says he must 'get around' to hitting the track himself soon, estimates 70 per cent of the players lost houses and buildings themselves or had family members directly affected.

One of the Lakers' most fanatical supporters, Ross Buchanan, lost two of his kids.
As he joins in handball drills, reserve grade full forward Daryl 'Robbo' Robinson says this is just what he needs after losing his home in the fires.

Daryl says, "At least up here we can run around for two hours, two and half hours and take your mind off of everything."

Absolutely exhausted after a gruelling succession of sprints, bald 19-year-old midfielder "Eggy" Pywell, whose family home is now little more than rubble, is well aware of the responsibility the team has.

"The spirit's really good because it's all we've really got up here, y'know. The footy club's the community at the moment.There's nothing else."

On April 4th, the Lakers will play their first match of the season against Emerald, coincidentally a town damaged in the Ash Wednesday Fires of 1983.

They'll wear a special memorial jumper. They hope former 'Midnight Oil' rocker and current Environment Minister Peter Garrett will sing the national anthem.

They hope to press Victorian Premier John Brumby and his Bushfire Reconstruction Chief Christine Nixon into action to serve in the canteen and sell raffle tickets.

They're confident 3000 people will turn up to watch them play, by far the biggest crowd in the club's history.

But no doubt the most emotional moment will be at game's end when Ross Buchanan, the supporter who lost two kids, leads the Lakers in their club song.

"Doggy", "Eggy", and "Robbo" are the first to admit they're no Judd, Ablett or Cooney, but they're all Kinglake have got at the moment.

And they symbolise this little town's determination to pull itself up, wipe itself down and resume life...as tough as it is .