Footy clubs mourn young player after his shock death devastated the community: 'We loved him so much'

Three footy clubs in Victoria are in a state of shock after popular young player Billy Sullivan died on Tuesday.

Described as the 'life of the party', Sullivan played for Melton, Melton South and Darley in the Ballarat Football League, where he built a reputation as a great teammate, hard trainer and tough competitor.

He played mostly for Melton South but transferred to Darley in 2023 and sadly missed out on their premiership win last season after injuring his shoulder.

Melton coach Troy Scoble was full of praise for his late star when the news broke.

'He was just one of the most loveable, likeable people you could ever meet,' Scoble told the Ballarat Courier.

'He was a great teammate, he gave everything at training, everything on the field, and to be honest, he gave absolutely he could off the field too.

'He was one of those, I guess you would say, culture builders. He joined our group, he made such a significant contribution in the such a short amount of time.

'That's in the footy sense, but in the personal sense, I've had a strong relationship with the family for over 15 years, they are all the same, quality people, quality characters and this is going to hit everyone really hard because we loved him so much.'

Melton South - where Sullivan played his junior footy - paid tribute in a heart-wrenching statement.

'It wasn't just on the field that Billy was loved. Off the field, with his infectious smile and cheeky sense of humour, he was always fun to be around,' the statement read.

'People were better for having Billy in their lives.

'Our club was the poorer when Billy decided to leave and it is even poorer today knowing we will not see his smiling face again.

'Billy - you will be missed by all and in the words of our song 'shake down the thunder from the sky' because we have no doubt you are looking over all of us.'

Darley coach Dan Jordan was also full of praise for the player, hailing his toughness and ability to 'show our younger guys how to play'.

'One thing I do remember and I was having a bit of a chuckle about it last night, there was a moment at our season launch when there was a bit of in-house spruiking going on, it was mentioned "at round nine when we have our bye and we're nine-zip" and I'm thinking, "Let's temper the expectations here",' Jordan said. 

'Billy got up and said, "Nah, we'll win the flag this year." I asked, "Why's that, Bill?" His reply was, "Because you've got Sullivan".

'I remembered that last night, he was right, we had him, we won the flag. It's such a shame he wasn't out there on the day.'