By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
ARTICLES written about Jenny Davis refer to her as a Doveton matriarch.
There may be no more apt a description for the 61-year-old grandmother who has resided in the suburb for 30 years.
Jenny, an influential figurehead at the Doveton Eagles footy club, can’t speak highly enough of Doveton and its community.
And in a year where Doveton has again copped its share of bad publicity, the suburb now, more than ever, needs a spokesperson to advocate and defend it.
That person is Jenny.
She made sure her voice was heard at the Doveton community forum, convened in September by Dandenong MP Gabrielle Williams, where the suburb’s future was the main topic of conversation.
The meeting was held after Doveton was listed in July as one of the state’s seven most disadvantaged postcodes in the Dropping off the Edge 2015 report, compiled by Jesuit Social Services and Catholic Social Services Australia.
Then a few weeks later Doveton was also found to be part of just 6 per cent of Victorian postcodes which make up half of the state’s 6506 prison population, according to the Ombudsman’s latest report.
But those reports don’t quote people like Jenny, who speaks of the goodwill of the Doveton community until she’s blue in the face.
When she moved to the area she was a single mum, raising her two now-adult children, Kelly and Paul, after being forced to move because she could no longer afford the rent at her Keysborough home.
She said it’s the best decision she ever made.
“I’ve never looked back, it’s a brilliant area – I love Doveton,” Jenny said.
“If you’ve got a problem, they help you. They’re terrific people.
“They’ll be the first ones on your doorstep.”
At a time when the decline of Doveton’s manufacturing sector has been well documented, good news stories about the suburb are hard to find.
But there’s certainly one to be discovered at the Doveton Eagles Football Club where Jenny has been president for the past three years and which has experienced its fair share of hardship.
The club came back from the brink to win the Southern Football League division 3 grand final in 2013, after it was banished from the league for a series of ugly on and off-field incidents.
Then this year tragedy struck the club when talented 16-year-old player Axl Abson died suddenly from a burst appendix on 6 June.
Axl’s dad had passed away from cancer just over 12 months earlier.
“He was a good kid, a really nice kid,” Jenny said.
“He loved his music, loved his dad.”
Jenny is the godmother at the Eagles, where her son was an influential coach and premiership player, and she’s known for getting things done.
Following Axl’s passing she successfully urged the league to enlist counsellors to help her Doveton players and beyond the footy club she’s been holding talks with Gabrielle Williams to see how she can help with other parts of the community, such as public housing availability.
“I’m a hands-on person. I’m not a business person, I’m a people person,” she said.
“I draw strength from people, and I get some wisdom off some people.
“I listen, I listen to what they say and take it on board.”
